Lent: Command

The Lent photo prompt for today is "command." We think of that as a verb, like God commands us to do something, or maybe as the command itself; i.e., "I am a jealous God. Do not put sausage links in your nose." But command is also a position or status. Jesus is in command.

In the book of Revelation, St. John of Patmos records a vision of the Lamb on a throne next to the throne of God, surrounded by four living creatures and a host of angels. There's been a lot of silliness written and spoken about this passage, but it's pretty straightforward: Jesus is on the throne at the center of the heavenly court. He is worthy to open the scroll and declare the will of God. Those four famous horsemen ride out when he wants them to.

Today popular preachers see that as Jesus enacting judgment on wicked people in the final days of the earth, but the ancients understood it differently. They saw that changes come, sometimes dramatic changes, but they're changes that come ultimately to advance God's purposes. The wicked may flourish and rule the nations for a while, but in the end it was God who placed them there and it is God who will remove them.

Things are unsettling, and it's okay to be concerned by them.

It's okay to feel the weight of what's going on, and to wonder what kind of future we're leaving to our children.

It's okay to be preoccupied by political corruption and by the cruel spite that guides our president, to be troubled by the news and the rumors that swirl around.

It's okay and it's normal to feel trepidation over a situation that seems to be getting worse and more uncertain all the time.

It's even okay to feel abandoned by people who said they were going to be there for you but then who weren't.

Don't feel bad when these things upset you. That's only normal.

But we walk through darkness and troubled waters holding the hand of a God who knows the way of old. The path is seldom easy and it isn't even always safe, but by faith we know the shore it's going to.


Copyright © 2020 by David Learn. Used with permission.


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