I believe
that a Christian worldview
essentially means
Christians see things and people
differently
than everybody else.
When my children were very young,
they’d entertained themselves one afternoon
by performing acrobatic tricks on a low-hanging branch from the maple tree on our front yard.
They couldn’t wait until their father came home to perform their tricks for him.
When they spied his truck pulling into our driveway, he waved and they ran around the left side of the house and up the long driveway to greet him.
Unfortunately, he didn’t realize they were coming to him from that direction. He hopped out of his truck and walked to the front yard around the right side of the house.
Also, unfortunately, seeing us all in the front yard reminded him that he’d been putting off a nagging task,
the task of trimming back a branch on that front yard tree he saw as a nuisance.
A determined father with a chainsaw can move faster than two excited little children, proven by the fact that by the time our kids and I caught up with their dad on the front lawn, their acrobatic prop was lying on the ground and their father was standing, befuddled, at the tears and tantrums of his children at the sight of an old sawed-off tree limb.
I had a similar experience myself.
As a child, I was a snoop.
Fascinated by the lives of adults, I was endlessly curious about what they kept in their desks and drawers.
When my great-grandmother caught me once reaching for one of a stack of little black journals she kept in an old family desk, she stopped me with a promise.
One day, she explained, when she was gone, the journals would be mine and I could read them to my heart’s content. She showed me that she’d kept one every year for many, many years. I nearly salivated at the thought that one day, I would be able to read them and know what my great-grandmother had written over the nearly 105 years she lived.
Fast forward to her death and her estate, her affairs, handled by my grandfather and his wife, who had waited a long time for their inheritance.
When I asked about the journals I’d been promised
they said they were gone
burned in the backyard fireplace along with all the other worthless papers.
Up in smoke.
My kids got over the loss of the branch and I’ve recovered from the loss of the journals. Some things are irreparable, irretrievable, and when the damage is done – it’s done. We move on.
What is unfathomably sad is when people are cut off like dead branches
when individuals are cast aside as worthless
when potential for redemption goes up in smoke.
Christians have the powerful, sacred responsibility of holding out hope for people that others believe are worthless.
Christians have the mission of seeing what others don’t, can’t, or won’t in other human beings.
Our Father says that every human life is created in His image, has eternal value, was bought with a price, the blood of Jesus Christ, and that what is impossible with man is possible with God.
So, Christians are called to see
past the dirt
or the deception
past the addiction
or the crimes
past the curse words
and the anger
past the facade of decency
and the wealth
past the poverty
and the hunger
past the disease
and the distress
to the soul that can be saved, salvaged, restored, renewed, and redeemed.
Some of the families with whom I work are in terrible, terrible shape. Every week some school worker or clinician or social worker asks me, “Do you see any hope at all for this family? this child? this father? this mother?
It’s not in my earthly job description to say yes
but it is my calling in Christ to believe in the “Yes” of hope for this family, and to always answer “yes,” and to always let my actions live out my belief in the sacred “Yes.”
When I find myself hesitating to affirm the idea of hope for any individual or family, I know it’s time to hit my knees, go to the mat with Christ, and intercede both for them and for my own faith in the power of the work of Christ on the cross for us all.
I have seen lives changed.
I have seen nuisance branches become vital limbs on family trees.
I have seen voices destined for fire snatched from the flames and delivered to bless the next generation.
I will not be the voice that curses an individual or a family with the pronouncement of “No hope.” To do that would be to join forces with the enemy, the destroyer, whose goal it is to keep the world blinded to the hope of Christ.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ so my words can speak life into situations, my beliefs reflect the mind of Christ, my actions are informed by the truth of Scripture
therefore, I will always believe in and speak and act on the “yes” of hope for every human life until we are standing before the only one with the right to speak the eternal “no.”
It’s flippin’ hard, some days, to hold onto that yes
but that’s my calling in Christ.
He holds out that eternal “yes” of hope for me;
I can do no less for any other soul.
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This reminds me of our Aslan’s Song fellowship. The LORD is gracious to us & reminds us, constantly, of the TRUTH of 1Corinthians 1:18-31, which you have so wonderfully shared here. Your writing also brings to mind a VERY special passage that applies in this same way to our lives: 2 Cor 5:16 “So, from now on, we regard NO ONE from a worldly point of view!” THAT’s what the LORD does in our hearts!!! & I just LOVE the way you’ve expressed it here, Lori. THANK you, SOOO MUCH, for sharing what the Spirit of God is doing in your heart!
Thanks for dropping by, Jay! Aslan’s Song fellowship – sounds totally cool!
I needed this today–all week. Probably all next week. I’ll just keep coming back and reading it. Keep coming back and finding my chin lifted and my eyes locked on my Savior. I’m deeply thankful He said yes to me, and grateful now for the chance to say yes to others. Whether I believe it or not. 2 Corinthians 1:20 ESV “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.”
Giving up is easy. It’s holding onto that hope when holding on is like chewing gravel that’s hard. I’ve a lot of experience with that. LOVE that verse. Praying for you!
THANK YOU Lord, and thank you Lori! What a powerful truth and exhortation to us all. To say, “Thanks… I needed that!” is a gross understatement. Amen! Because of His unfailing love, Terry & Patricia
It is hard to hold on sometimes, BearPair. God gives us grace as we need it!
I know God gave you the job you have because He prepared you to see these disfunctional families through His eyes. You walk into the homes with the Hope of Christ in you and you share it with those you serve. Without preaching, you take the Way, the Truth, and the Life with you just because you see the family as God sees them. You go, Girl! I’m so proud of your walk with Christ. MOMMA
Thank you, Momma.
Thanks for the reminder that it’s vital to hold onto hope. That God can do anything. In His timem.
His timing . . . He’s sooooo much more patient than we are, Ellen!
Once again I am blessed by your words….my prayers are with you as you boldly proclaim His Word….stay strong
Thank you, ByeGeorge! I need every one of those prayers!
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