Take courage!

Strengthen the feeble hands,

steady the knees that give way;

say to those with fearful hearts,

'Be strong, do not fear;

your God will come'.

Isaiah 35:3-4a

A bee regathering its strength on a hot day

Towards the beginning of lockdown, I read some thoughts written by a pastor about the pandemic. He recalled advice given by a sports coach: 'Fear no one, but respect everyone', and applied that to COVID-19, aiming to live bravely in face of the virus without being reckless.

That advice rang in my mind the first time I shopped for groceries during lockdown. Now, months later, I've plucked up more courage to go out and do such things. But among many of us, myself included, courage is still needed to face these times. 

Of course, we are not the first to live in a time of uncertainty. It seems courage has always been required. In the Gospel of John, for example, soon before Jesus is arrested and crucified, he tells his disciples, 'In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world' (16:33b). 

Jesus knew the trouble his disciples would face, not only in the short-term when they would feel lost without him, but also in the long-term, after his resurrection and ascension, when they would face persecution. The disciples' uncertainty was unlike ours in many ways, yet they too needed courage to endure their trials.

They would remember Jesus' words, 'Take heart!', encouraging them to faithfully witness to the truth they had learned about him, even though it would cost many of their lives. ('Take heart' means 'Take courage', since 'courage' comes from the Latin word for 'heart'.)

They would remember his words, 'I have overcome the world', reminding them that even though the authorities would use their power to try to crush them, all authority in heaven and on earth ultimately belonged to Jesus (Matt. 28:18).  

Thus, it takes courage to have integrity, to live in accordance with what is in one's heart, especially when other people or forces oppose one. Facing that opposition requires courage. In other words, it takes courage to tell the truth, both with our words and our actions. Perhaps we are courageous only by living truthfully. 

Jesus' word to his disciples -- 'Take heart!' -- applies to all who seek to live truthfully, all who seek to love God with all their courage (Mark 12:30), in a time when fear can tempt us to surrender to death instead.

It takes courage to trust in God's love for us when we are suffering.

It takes courage to love other people when doing so involves swallowing our pride or sacrificing something of ourselves.

It takes courage to live with integrity when it's easier to blur the truth instead.

It takes courage to do what we know is right when we fear the consequences.

It takes courage to carry on when the future looks bleak.

Though it may not seem like it, Jesus is Lord -- even over the coronavirus, even over the leaders of the nations, even over death itself. 

It takes courage to live in faith that this is true.

'Take heart! I have overcome the world.'

Gaps in the resume/CV

I know some people who have recently lost their jobs. I write this blog post with them in mind, along with any others who have transitioned into a new and uncertain chapter. I think most of us understand this uncertainty, whether or not we're unemployed, because of the pandemic affecting us all. My goal is simple: to encourage us. I recognise that everyone's circumstances are different, and that I have been fortunate to have had support from family and friends during the gaps in my employment. Also, while I write from a Christian perspective, I hope people of all faiths or none can find something helpful here. 

When I graduated from university, I expected I would easily find full-time work shortly afterwards. Although I did find part-time work here and there, and I was also busy with internship duties at a church, these were not enough to support myself long-term. That year of looking for full-time work often felt dry, like wandering through a desert. I found certain things helpful in keeping me going: gardening, for instance, and meeting regularly with friends and other folks from church. It helped to spend time with people in a similar situation as mine.

The next gap in my resume occurred after I graduated from seminary, when I lived at home with my parents while looking for work. Although I was thankful for their support and for a period of rest after a season of intense study and work, I also felt that ache of uncertainty and of not being able to support myself right away.

Again something that boosted me was the presence of friends and my church community. During this time, some of us from church had begun meeting every couple of weeks for a meal, and this routine gave me something to look forward to. Eventually this morphed into a weekly Bible study where we learned and prayed together. These gatherings reminded me that there was more to life than my unemployment status.

My most recent season of being in-between jobs was when my wife and I decided to move out of a large city to settle in the countryside near family. It was the right decision for us, but it meant leaving meaningful work and a caring community behind and living with and looking after an elderly family member until we could support ourselves again.

I saw this as an opportunity to establish a rhythm that I had been unable to form in my previous work. This routine morphed, but it involved physical fitness (walking or running), praying, Bible reading and writing--all of which I tried to do regularly. I also resumed my latent desire for gardening. I saw myself as a kind of soldier or athlete training to be fit for God's use, and that chapter as a spiritual boot camp, as well as a retreat to gain a wider perspective on my life.

Job coaches usually advise us to gloss over or explain away the gaps in our CV so we don't look unproductive or questionable in our career development. This is useful advice, but on another level, such gaps have not been empty for me, but rather seasons of opportunity to encounter God more deeply and reconnect with what I consider most important.

These 'gaps' have also prepared me spiritually so that when I started working again, I could better hold onto what Jesus says is our priority, seeking God's kingdom and righteousness, assuring us that when we do this, God provides for our needs (see Matt. 6:25-34).

A year after leaving my meaningful job in the city, when my wife and I were more established again, I looked back on that transition as one of opening myself so that God could begin a new work in me. I also found the gap in St Columba's 'resume'--his self-exile from Ireland--a helpful model for what I had experienced.

St Columba had been a priest in Ireland, founding monastic communities and proclaiming the gospel. However, he became involved in a dispute that some say resulted in a tragic battle in which thousands died. Feeling partly responsible, he exiled himself from his native land, along with twelve of his followers.

They paddled east in a boat on the Irish Sea until they found an island worthy to become their home. The story goes that they settled on this island because there they could no longer see Ireland. However, it is also likely that, like other Celtic pilgrim-saints choosing their destinations, St Columba discerned that this was where God was leading him, the land where he would eventually die and await the day of the resurrection. There they established a monastic community, which would become the base from which St Columba and his monks would enlighten Scotland with the love and truth of Jesus Christ. This, if you don't already know, was the Isle of Iona, and the legacy of St Columba's work there endures even to this day.

Although St Columba's situation is unlike what we are facing today in most ways, it encourages me that even in uncertain times, when we have been released from one responsibility, God is still calling us--like he called St Columba, and like he calls all people--to wholly serve and follow him.

In this season we are in, what new work might God be doing in us for the sake of his kingdom?

Our hidden life in God

Because we moved into our house in winter, many of the plants in our garden were (at least to me) mostly blobs of leaves and branches. But when spring came, patches of colour began emerging, eventually stunning us with beauty: red-orange tulips, bluebells, creamy yellow azaleas. 

Even now, in the middle of summer, we are surprised by flowers emerging where we had not expected them. One bush, which we had considered uprooting because of its blandness, has recently developed clusters of tiny white flowers that emit a vanilla scent. 

This revelation of something that has been hidden resembles what St Paul writes in his letter to the Colossians: 'your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory' (3:3-4).

We are like the summer blossoms: our potential is hidden until Christ appears, when we become fully known.

By 'potential', I'm not referring to talents or charisma. Although such gifts are good, St Paul is describing something deeper than our abilities: he's describing who we are becoming in God. Perhaps another way to say it is that our identity is hidden in God.

We see the connection between life and identity when Jesus calls his disciples to follow him. He invites them to receive eternal life, and this also means a change in their identity. In the case of Peter, James and John, they leave behind their identity as fishermen so they may learn how to gather people into the net of the kingdom of God. Their identity as disciples becomes their life.

We see the connection between identity and hiddenness in the Book of Revelation, which says those who overcome evil are given a new name which only they and God will know (2:17).

The significance of this name is unpacked by Metropolitan Anthony:

This name is not a label we are given and called by in this world. Our true name, our eternal name exactly fits us, our whole being. . . It defines and expresses us perfectly. It is known by God alone and he tells us what it is. No one else can know it because it expresses our unique relationship with our Creator. (Creative Prayer, 1987)

This eternal name hidden in God, therefore, describes our real identity, deeper than any other identity we may have.

I was recently filling out a form asking for various pieces of my identity: my name, date of birth, marital status, ethnicity and nationality, gender, medical history and so on. But what the form failed to realise is that, as a Christ-follower, I have a hidden identity deeper than any of these, which will only be revealed on the day of Christ's appearing.

The Transfiguration of Christ, in which he briefly revealed his divine glory to Peter, James and John

Although our identity in God is our most important identity, it can be easy to forget. Sometimes I would rather define myself another way, something more attractive or tangible. For example, when I studied writing as a form of ministry, I often tended to understand myself more as a writer than as someone who belonged to Christ. After all, wasn't writing the reason I was in seminary? 

Thus, I was surprised when one of my writing professors taught that one of the most important things about writing and ministry is following the leading of the Holy Spirit in every area of our lives, even if God calls us to a different form of ministry than writing!

It has taken me a long time reorienting myself away from primarily identifying myself as a writer, for instance, towards understanding that my identity is hidden deeper than that. Writing, like many kinds of work, is a tool Christ can use in us, but the tool is not as important as the Master who teaches us how to use it. 

This distinction is important because if I define myself primarily by my work, then I may forget why I'm doing that work. I can end up worshipping my work rather than God. However, if I remember that I belong foremost to God, then everything else falls into its proper place.

How do we remind ourselves that we belong to God?

I believe we can learn from the prophet Jonah here. In the midst of running away from God, Jonah was asked the following questions: 'What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?' (1:8). In other words, who are you? 

He could have answered by describing his work: 'I am a prophet', or his family reputation: 'I am son of Amittai', but at this turning point he confesses that his real identity is in God, saying 'I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land' (1:9). After defining himself as one who worships God, Jonah begins returning to God.

Like Jonah, we recall our life in God by worshipping him and prioritising that posture of worship. Our real identity is as worshippers of God.

I have recently written about various ways we worship God, such as obeying his commandments; serving him through our jobs; living righteously; forsaking love of the world; standing before God in the midst of hardship; and especially worshipping with the Church, whose worship joins the ongoing worship that is taking place in heaven.

I believe all these forms of worship can be summed into St Paul's urging us to 'offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--this is your true and proper worship' (Rom. 12:1).

As we offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices, the life of Christ grows in us, transforming us so that on the day of his appearing, we may resemble him (1 Jn. 3:2). Although Christ's life is hidden in us, as we worship God, we begin to display beauty and emit a pleasing aroma to God, even in this life, just as Christ has done (Eph. 5:2).

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, you also will appear with him in glory. (Col. 3:1-4)