Wednesday, October 4, 2017

UPSIDE down - see life differently



Looking at the clouds from the top side is one of my favorite moments during flight. They are huge, fluffy, endless, and appear solid and strong. Like a huge playground where weightless bouncing is normal and 'hide and seek' takes on a whole new challenge. We imagine we see animals and giant figures but they are not real. What is real is the blanket of pure white that looks solid enough to walk on. But is that real? Is that the truth? The truth is that the moment we step on this blanket the law of gravity will pull us down, down, down through miles of clouds to inevitable disaster.

The law of gravity is hard to avoid, impossible some say. Some have managed for a moment on a trampoline, wind tunnel or parachute, but in the end gravity won. The law of gravity remains in effect until a stronger law overpowers it.  For instance, stepping into a plane changes everything. As the engines roar the law of aerodynamics overpowers the law of gravity and I am free to fly above the clouds. I am not afraid of falling nor do I feel the pull towards the earth when I look at the clouds from the Upside down.

Can the same be true of my life? Is there a law at work that keeps me down and below my true potential? Is my past, my pain, my circumstances holding me back? The law of sin and death is real. When we sin we die, not instantly but since that first garden sin has been at work in our bodies causing us to die one day at a time and eventually law of death will overtake us all. Experiencing that dreadful moment from this side is hard, very hard. We think we will not survive, the sun will never shine again, the birds will never sing again, and yet they do. The very next morning whether we hear them or not, the birds are singing. The truth is that the sun still rises radiantly in the morning, flowers bloom and the birds still sing.  Even when I "walk through the valley of the shadow of death" and that is all that I know, there is another truth at work. God's Word reminds me 2 verses later that “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23:6)

Like the law of aerodynamics, I am reminded of another truth, a stronger truth than death. I will rise above the law of death and live again. Eternally? Yes! But here and now as well, for God "has put eternity in our hearts." (Ecclesiastes 3:11) He has offered us His perspective on our lives, His eternal perspective. When we allow His law of everlasting life, of eternity living in our hearts, to overpower the law of sin and death we can see our circumstance from His perspective, from the UPSIDE down.  "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." Romans 8:2 THANK YOU JESUS!


1 comment:

  1. Eccl. 1:5-8, "5 The sun also rises, and the sun goes down,
    And hastens to the place where it arose.
    6 The wind goes toward the south,
    And turns around to the north;
    The wind whirls about continually,
    And comes again on its circuit.
    7 All the rivers run into the sea,
    Yet the sea is not full;
    To the place from which the rivers come,
    There they return again.
    8 All things are full of labor;
    Man cannot express it.
    The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
    Nor the ear filled with hearing."

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