Tuesday, February 23, 2016

In recent visits we pointed out that both Joseph and Jonathan exhibited having an intimate relationship with God. This illustrated an important addition to the impact statement we’ve been reflecting on: God wants us to walk, work and worship with divine clarity and a growing relationship with Him while we live in the midst of human ambiguity and ambivalence. Jesus illustrated this most poignantly at the close of His upper room discourse in John 14-16. He shared that the disciples would scatter to their own homes and leave Him all alone to die on the cross. Then He affirms: “Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:31-33). He had an intimate relationship with His father that sustained Him through whatever human ambiguity and ambivalence He faced in life. Even while crying out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:32), He affirmed God as “My God.” That’s where He found strength to carry out His mission. When He gave His disciples the great commission He promised that as they made disciples, baptized them and taught them all He had taught them, He would be with them always, to the very end of the age. Yes, God wants us to walk, work and worship with divine clarity and a growing relationship with Him while we live in the midst of human ambiguity and ambivalence.