In this world, you get the applause at the end of the speech.
You get the reward at the end of the endeavor.
You get to walk when you graduate.
You get a paycheck when you complete the task.
You have the result after you work, if it turns out well.
You have the peace when you have the good news, the money, the job.
Until then, there is no celebration, there is no incentive, no assumption of victory until the enemy has perished.
Conditional. You get conditional peace, conditional happiness. Temporary. Easily removed.
Because of the cross of Christ, we are invited into an antithetical, counter-cultural, controversial lifestyle.
We celebrate victory before we see it. We believe in the unseen, and rejoice in it.
We count ourselves successful not because of what we bring forth, but because of what Christ brought forth.
We count His victory as ours. His life as ours. His death as ours. His resurrection as ours.
I've heard all this before, but I've struggled in applying it.
I reached an 'Eureka!' moment today.
A brilliant revelation, a realization, that may seem so plain and clear but it is now more real to me than it's ever been: I have arrived.
Exactly where I'm standing is good.
Where I was standing yesterday is also good.
Where I'll stand tomorrow is good.
When things fall through and I just so happen to be standing in the same place, it is good.
When God orchestrates and blesses the desires of my heart, it is good.
The same amount of good. Unconditional good. Constant good.
God is constantly pleased with me wherever I stand, whatever I do.
My very breath is praise to Him. Where I stand, where I sit, and even my thoughts are praise.
My banal routine, my spontaneous deviations, my senses, my words… He loves it. All of it.
He cannot take His eyes away. I captivate Him.
I captivate Him when I'm effective and heard. I captivate Him when my words fall flat on deaf ears.
Even when my endeavors seemingly fail, when I forget, when I lose, when I do things I later regret, when I notice I could have gone about something differently, when I should have demonstrated more eloquence, more grace, more love…
Even so, He is pleased with me.
He sees the thoughts and intentions of my heart.
Better yet, He resides within it.
The Holy Spirit of God, dwelling and ruling from inside this temporary body.
Eureka.
Even if I go from failure to failure, He counts it glory.
He turns my failures into glory.
He makes it so my success in His eyes is unconditional.
Whether I answer my phone or not, or answer every email or not, or my room is military clean or not, or my body is toned and marathon-ready or not, whether I have material things or not, whether I experience temporary blessings or not…
To Him it is all the same in the sense that I cannot disappoint Him. I cannot crucify Him again. I cannot make Him flinch. It is finished. God isn't upstairs shaking His head at me. That was the old body, the enemy of God, and even then, He loved me enough to die for me.
My bad days aren't counted as bad days. My good days aren't counted as any more special than the rest.
Everything, in one lump sum, is covered by the blood of Jesus.
God the Father, the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good Creator of the universe, chose to get as specific as the color of my eyes, the sound of my voice, my height, the things that amuse me, that amaze me… He crafted me so intentionally, and He didn't set me up to fail.
He didn't give me more than I could handle.
Instead, He gave me power and His Spirit to lead and counsel me.
Day and night He leads me.
He is proud of all my journey, my every step toward His throne.
It's not about the arrival, or the achievement, or the recognition, or crossing it off the list, or the applause.
It's not about the culmination of suffering.
It's the peace in the moment right before the resolution clicks. The bliss in closing my eyes in the midst of turmoil, knowing that it really will be okay, that the God who reigns Sovereign is looking directly at me, singing over me.
It's the faith when the situation is far from favorable, when approval seems unrealistic, when warmth is distant, when tomorrow’s provision is unlikely.
It's the knowledge that in the depths of my very soul,
God is saying 'yes' to me and I am saying 'yes' to Him.
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corintians 4:16-18
It’s not by my effort that I am inhaling eternal breaths.
My hope of glory is Christ in me. It is achieved.
He’s already there, my place is prepared.
Wherever I am, I carry His Spirit, my deposit of heaven on earth.
He is pulsing within me, running through me, always with me.
No matter where I am in the journey, in the high or the low, I have His approval.
I have His attention, His presence, His love.
What else could I want?
He withholds no good thing from me.
I have arrived.
