It’s a beautiful mystery that we can simultaneously mourn and celebrate the life of a loved one. And what a relief to experience laughter as we cry through the pain. What we might consider opposing forces or complete opposites often work together in a harmony that cannot otherwise be realized.
How mysterious, indeed lovely, to find peace in the midst of uncertainty. That tension of knowing that the relief will come, but still asking the questions of when and what and where.
Our world is full of such tensions. How do we respect those with whom we vehemently disagree? How do we share truth in love without compromising our values? How do we enter in to the lives of those we do not understand, and perhaps even fear? How do we validate the struggles of others without the use of condescension? How do we make right the wrongs of our generation, and the ones who have gone before us?
It feels big and overwhelming and the heart pleads, “Come, Lord Jesus. Please, come.” But he hasn’t yet and here we are. Sitting in this present tension. And I cannot help but believe that some of the specific issues that we find ourselves wrestling through today were perhaps left out of the Bible on purpose. We’ve been given all we need and now we must apply all that we’ve leaned from Jesus and the gospels and every bit of holy scripture. We must listen and obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit within us.
I wonder if, in our faith, we want to hem a circle of rules and regulations around people in hopes of bringing order and comfort, forgetting that comfort for one group often brings oppression to others. We are told not to judge, but judging feels safe, so judging is what we tend to do.
But, Jesus was love to everyone he encountered. Jesus is love to all of us still. He rescues the lost and reaches out to the marginalized. He reclines with the sinners and heals the lame. We have not been called to fix the broken of this world, we have been called to be a light in the darkness, and love in a way that is noticed, unexpected, different than the love known by this world.
If safety is what we’re looking for here, we will be sorely disappointed. Faith is risky. And, better than any other man, (or woman), who has walked this earth, Jesus demonstrated the paradigm of gracefully living in the tension. In fact, Jesus is full of seemingly contradictory traits. Tim Keller describes:
Jesus is unpredictable yet reliable. Gentle yet powerful. Authoritative yet humble. Human yet divine.
As we live in the tension, the in-between of expectantly waiting, yet not quite there, I pray that we learn to embrace discomfort and to express the beautiful traits of Jesus to our world today.