When the storms and winds bear down on us, the masks are torn off our faces. Our innermost souls are now bare to God and everyone and we become in touch with a greater reality – the reality that a good life is not about reward or punishment. It is instead about living faithfully, step by step in a murky, often unfair world.
“Perhaps the question James is pressing upon us all is, “Will you turn your attention, turn your desires and your fears and your hurts, but also your joy and your hope and your gratitude, will you practice turning ever more of yourself and your life toward the aliveness of God that lives between us? Such turnings, such prayers, such intercessions really do still have the power to heal.”
Jesus was telling the disciples and us that when we take the last place in line, we enter the world of childlike imagination. From that last and lowly position, we have the perfect vantage point to wonder about things, to have the audacity to ask penetrating questions such as – Is this even the right line to be in?
The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus were the ultimate expression of the truth that God does the work of redemption as a pure and unqualified gift. All that’s left for us to do is try to believe that broken and imperfect lives like ours could be included in that perfect love and then live out of the gratitude that results.
What do we believe in these days? And what do you and I not believe? This is not just a philosophical exercise, and it’s not just for mindless recitation. What we believe and don’t believe will ground us and reshape our lives.