How do we interpret the futility (vanity, frustration, imperfection) of our current experience? Yesterday more than a few things seemed futile and vain. The dryer broke again. One of our chickens got very sick. I had an alarming conversation about the tension between practicing restorative grace in relationships and protecting institutional integrity — which is even shaking my job security.

18 For
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to
be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us. 19 For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. [Romans 8:18-21 NIV]

God subjects our world to futility on purpose. He does it to reveal our true identity. It’s so easy for idolatry to creep into our lives. When things are going great — when everything is beautiful, useful, and easy — we begin to identify with these things. Part of our set-apart and divine identity is given over and projected onto this object of our job, our comfort, our convenience, our pleasure, our security. When you give a piece of your holy sovereignty to a thing, it becomes an idol that enslaves you. You tell yourself you can’t live without it. You give it permission to distract you and dictate the course of your life. A false god.

Whether my suffering is mundane or related directly to my convictions from the Gospel — especially those unpopular with my fellow humans and siblings in the church — they serve a redemptive purpose in causing my heart to groan after knowing my Father and long for living in his reality as his child all the more.

You’re right. These things going wrong show how you’re just wasting your time. How nothing in this world really matters. Nothing changes. Everything’s broken. There’s no purpose and meaning. But actually, everything is that way on purpose — THE PURPOSE. It’s all a miserable, painful groan to release from you an explosive cry of realization: none of this is God, and that realization makes you his child!

#thedescent #TheCompass