So our lives are like a thread. There will be colors that we wish weren't in there. There will be knots that just don't seem to get worked out. Pain and suffering will be a part of everyone's experiences, to greater or lesser degrees.
As the New Testament authors wrestled with the realities of suffering--Jesus' suffering and their own experiences of suffering as they followed Jesus--they came to one conclusion: all our experiences of suffering must serve and bless us, either in this life or the next.
When we're in the midst of it, suffering and pain can feel like they rule over us--like a thick blanket we can't get out from underneath. But if Jesus did indeed conquer the grave, he has the last word on his people, not their pain, not their suffering.
And so the invitation rings out throughout the New Testament: tie the thread of your life to the finished work of Jesus Christ.
See, we're going to tie the threads of our lives to something. We'll look to tie the threads of our lives to some sort of 'driver,' some sort of energy or goal to pull us along.
On campus, it's often GPA, our talents, pre-med/pharm/law/whatever. Many of us look to other people or a boyfriend or girlfriend, our work/career paths, the next party, sexual experience, our families, whatever.
But the problem is that none of those have the power to redeem our suffering. None of those can promise to gather up the dis-colored and knotted up parts of the thread and make them whole and beautiful and good. All of those drivers are stuck in the same system that we are.
Only in Jesus Christ are we promised that all shall be well.
Only in Jesus Christ is there power to take all the ugly, broken, painful parts of our lives and make them bless us, serve us, make them to be a part of our beauty and character and goodness and joy. He stands outside of time, outside of the system as Lord over the system, to mend all those who are willing to submit to his offer of grace.
There is one driver that we can tie the threads of our lives to that gather up all our pain and make it part of our beauty--both in this life and/or in the next.
The invitation is to recklessly and repeatedly tie our stories to this Great Story, the conquering of sin and death and pain, and the promised gift that one day, he will make all things new.
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