A place to pause and reflect
2023 - Coming, ready or not!
Are you ready to go?
Looking back over my new year posts from the last few years, (you can check a couple of pertinent ones out HERE, HERE and HERE) it seems quite plain that these years have been times of preparation, times of cleaning out the old, the unnecessary, the unhelpful, or just plain past their “use by” date. For many of us, we have been doing this in the physical, the emotional and the spiritual. It might be ways of doing church, ways of thinking or seeing, how we do relationship, even how we process life and our circumstances, or simply that jar of Vegemite still at the back of the pantry with “Best Before Sept 2008” on it that we have been dealing with. However, I believe we are at the tail end of this process and now it is time to move.
A couple of months back, as I went through my morning routine, the words “boots on the ground” randomly popped into my mind. With it was the sense that “it’s time”, that it is now. It has become the theme of my latest painting (still in process, but you can see the central portion here), and I have been ruminating on it since: “what does this look like for me, Lord?”
Getting “boots on the ground” was a term associated with the armed forces, but like many such terms, we have widely expanded its use. One dictionary source explains it to mean
“people who are physically present in a place doing the work to achieve something”*
which resonates deeply with what I perceive God is saying in this season. The picture I see is like a board game, where He has put all the pieces and parts into place and set up it all up, and now it is time to start playing for real.
Most of us are well aware of the analogy of the church as an army. More often than not it has had negative connotations. Countless individuals, groups, governments and everyone in between have abused this concept to justify many an atrocity over the centuries. However, here we can focus on the positive side of what it means to be serving in God’s army.
First and foremost, an army has authority to carry out the activities assigned to them. Not more, and not less. That in itself is a bit confronting.
Secondly, an army has tactics. Ours are to look like outrageous, unconditional love and generosity in the face of those we see as our enemies. God continuously invites us to respond in love and generosity no matter how badly we are treated. And, of course, the fruit of the Spirit are always available in unlimited measure, as long as we keep the supply chain clear – get rid of all bitterness, rage, malice, envy, hatred, unforgiveness…these are the disobediences that grieve our Lord the most.
For an army to perform well, we must ruthlessly eliminate self-protection and self-promotion. Both these lead to a continuation of failure, and defeat by the enemy of our souls as he whispers in our ears then steps back and allows us to destroy ourselves and each other by our unhelpful responses to any perceived misdemeanour from another.
We must put our money where our mouth is and trust God both to position us correctly and to be our protection where He places us. We must turn from (repent!) transactional relationship (where I will only support, love, encourage, help you if you do right by me – if you offend or hurt me, I will happily disconnect at least at some level from relationship with you), and turn to covenantal relationship, where I choose (covenant) to respond lovingly no matter what, and will actively pursue relationship with those who offend me. (OUCH!)
Finally, taking a quick dive into Ephesians 6, (one of the most examined passages about the spiritual war we are in), given the repetitive use of the verb, “stand” (four times in some translations), it might be inferred that our main action in the battle is simply to stand firm. We are to stand firstly with the belt of truth firmly buckled around our waist – perhaps holding the rest in! And an important aspect of the truth we need to hold on to, one which the enemy will repeatedly attack, is around our identity in Christ.
When we have a deep understanding and belief about the fact that we can have the fullness of Christ dwelling in us (see Eph 3:14-19), meaning that we have everything that He has at our disposal, the enemy knows we will be unstoppable. If we are not secure in this knowledge, it is a prime weakness that impacts every other area of our lives. If you are struggling to live out of this knowledge, ask Him to show you what is blocking you from agreeing with Him on it and how to deal with it. It may be breaking another agreement you have made, either with an emotion (the idea that the emotion tells you the truth), or some other lie, or it may be someone you need to forgive – or both. It is time to clean out this stuff, so that we can run the race unhindered and light on our feet.
There is so much more coming in the year to come. Have you got your rucksack packed? It’s time to finish with boot camp and it’s time to march out. Get excited, because this is what you have been training for!