Ann Voscamp wrote on sarcasm in her blog over the weekend. She included a marvelous picture of a chinese lantern in its autumn glory. You can easily see the brightly coloured seed inside what is a darkening shell that is ready to crack and flake off.
What a beautiful metaphor for the Christian life. When everyone is critical, cynical, condemning, sarcastic, doubting, or dissenting a Christian turns to what is he or she believes to be hope. Christ. Everyone else speaks of the fallen world, but Christians speak of hope.
Christ brings hope. Christ brings joy. By focusing on what is positive in the midst of the critics, cynics, condemners, sarcastic doubters, and dissenters, believers stand tall in their hope, their joy in Christ.
Do we know that cynicism is simplistic? It's obvious. In a fallen world, it isn't that hard to see the cracks.
As the sages and the prophets, the disciples and the revolutionaries before them, Christians point to the dawn of a new Kingdom. We point to the light that breaks through all things that are shattered, all people that are broken, a light that reaches for redemption, to a Blazing God who never sleeps.
We are the brilliant. We don't deny the darkness as we seek the light.
"The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light."
The eyes are always first. The way we see is the way we are saved.
We see Him. We see the great Doctor. He knows our name. He holds the stars in his Hands and His girds underneath. He never lets go. He is Joy. He is Light. He is the Warrior who defeated the dark.
The point is we are free from our own tendency to complain when we know the Father's Heart for us.
Light is a radical in a dark,fallen world.
Joy comes in being thankful to Him. Joy is exhilirating dangerous. It's igniting, contagious, otherworldly. It wins demon wars. It isn't Pollyannish to be thankful. It is revolutionary.
Be a light. Speak of Him. Show some of the that glorious autumn color in your life.
Be thankful and speak of HIM.
What a beautiful metaphor for the Christian life. When everyone is critical, cynical, condemning, sarcastic, doubting, or dissenting a Christian turns to what is he or she believes to be hope. Christ. Everyone else speaks of the fallen world, but Christians speak of hope.
Christ brings hope. Christ brings joy. By focusing on what is positive in the midst of the critics, cynics, condemners, sarcastic doubters, and dissenters, believers stand tall in their hope, their joy in Christ.
Do we know that cynicism is simplistic? It's obvious. In a fallen world, it isn't that hard to see the cracks.
As the sages and the prophets, the disciples and the revolutionaries before them, Christians point to the dawn of a new Kingdom. We point to the light that breaks through all things that are shattered, all people that are broken, a light that reaches for redemption, to a Blazing God who never sleeps.
We are the brilliant. We don't deny the darkness as we seek the light.
"The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light."
The eyes are always first. The way we see is the way we are saved.
We see Him. We see the great Doctor. He knows our name. He holds the stars in his Hands and His girds underneath. He never lets go. He is Joy. He is Light. He is the Warrior who defeated the dark.
The point is we are free from our own tendency to complain when we know the Father's Heart for us.
Light is a radical in a dark,fallen world.
Joy comes in being thankful to Him. Joy is exhilirating dangerous. It's igniting, contagious, otherworldly. It wins demon wars. It isn't Pollyannish to be thankful. It is revolutionary.
Be a light. Speak of Him. Show some of the that glorious autumn color in your life.
Be thankful and speak of HIM.
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