The Kindness of God--Colossians 1:9-10
Day 2
We are picking up today, after our respite at home for over a week, and going back up to Duke University for a post-op appointment.
Karen’s doctors want to poke and prod some and see how her incision is healing and check her blood work, to make sure the wounds inside of her aren’t seeping and leaking.
I want them to tell me, to assure me, that the tumor is all gone and that it will never return.
And I know they really can’t say that.
Dr. Zani already told us the GIST could come back.
But when I think about it–anything can happen. To either of us. A new cancer could be surging right now somewhere in either of us.
See how easy it is to slide off the rails and onto a track of worry and anxiety?
It’s exactly the triptych of worry, anxiety, and stress that Satan wants us in–so we’ll take our eyes and hearts off of Christ.
And when we do that, we don’t see God’s goodness in our lives and we certainly don’t define what happens to us as God’s kindness.
God’s kindness in our lives is ubiquitous–we just have to see through His eyes and not ours.
A reader praises the spirituality and the kindness of this group that subscribe to these daily reflections and I think it's a good wrap-up to what was, for many, a stressful week:
“I continue to be awed but the way God answered our prayers for you and Karen. I will continue to lift you guys up in prayer.
It is funny to me how each person in this group interprets your daily message. When I read yesterday's message, I took it to mean that all the people who were working for Trump's campaign were praying together as it was reported by the media. Like you, I don't remember seeing any such reports for the Harris team. Trump's team broke out in a Christian song when he won. That doesn't mean I think that Harris followers do not pray. I do believe that prayer is the only way this country is going to heal. I am so grateful for this group because it is about spirituality. All are welcome. I know you, like me, would never intentionally hurt anyone in this group. It is a testament to the group and the person who responded to your message yesterday (what faith he/she demonstrated). I believe prayer, faith, and acts of kindness can heal this country. We must end divisive conversations and actions that cause a greater separation…
Take care of yourself and Karen, my friend.
In Christ's love.”
I’ve never really defined what these reflections are meant to be–I don’t have a specific purpose in mind, but to explore and study God’s Word–but to say they are about “spirituality” is about as close a definition as there is.
In Living In Wonder: Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age, Rod Dreher describes the essence spirituality and why I reflect and maybe why you subscribe:
“It’s…about the profoundly human need to believe that we live and move and have our being in the presence of God–not just the idea of God, but the God, who is as near to us as the air we breathe, the light we see, and the solid ground on which we walk.”
The idea of God in life is strange to many–tribal, backwards, superstitious, anti-science, all of that stuff–but I can tell those folks who are searching for Him even though they don’t want Him wrapped in old-timey Christianity.
They want to FEEL something more about their lives than what they can just see, hear, smell and touch.
In The Kindness of God: Beholding His Goodness in a Cruel World, Nate Pickowicz, in describing God’s goodness and how His kindness to us exhibits that goodness, reminds me that God is much vaster than my small, cramped brain can comprehend:
“God is one and not the sum of all HIs divine attributes. He is not part love, part justice, part goodness, part omnipotence, part grace, part mercy, and so on. Rather, God is all love. He is all justice. He is all graciousness. He is all mercy. He is all kindness. Said another way, all that is in God is purely and truly God.”
I think that’s the spirituality that we search for in our lives. That’s why we love others, read and interact with His Word, pray, and attend church, and why we try so hard to be like Jesus Christ–even though we know we will fall short every time.
Pickowicz shares the “grand premise” of his study on God’s kindness:
“God is good; we are sinful. Because of this, we are undeserving of His goodness. But because of God’s mercy, He demonstrates lovingkindness to us. Therefore, every kindness we experience is pure grace and ought to be received with gladness and thankfulness.”
I don’t want to drive 3 hours to Duke University and spend a bunch of money for a hotel room for a post-op appointment, but I will and I will gladly because I know God’s kindness when I see it.
We could be driving up for something much, much worse.
In Colossians 1:9-10 that Pickowicz references, Paul and Timothy say a nice prayer for the Colossians after they hear that the Colossians have faith in Jesus Christ:
Colossians 1:9-10 For this reason we also, since the day we heard about it, have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
This is a profound example of believers praying for other believers and underscoring the powerful faith they all have.
But, when I look a little closer, and I’ve written about this before, the verses come with a condition that at times in the past, I’ve not been comfortable with.
Paul and Timothy are praying for other believers so that they WILL “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.”
That’s always been the sticking point for me.
I can toss of prayers left and right (and I have been daily at the conclusion of my daily reflections), but unless I’m praying and interceding for you, for me, with the intention of pleasing the Lord and increasing my knowledge and understanding of God–then I’m just masquerading.
F. B. Meyer writes:
“We all need a quicker insight into God’s will, and this is only acquired through the wisdom and understanding communicated by the Holy Spirit to our spirits. But that understanding is conditioned…by a daily behavior which pleases God and bears fruit in every good work. It is as we slowly climb the ascent of consistent living that the landscape of God’s nature expands around us. As character and knowledge grow, so will our spiritual strength; .
To increase my knowledge of God and His will, my actions and my daily behavior, including my prayers, should bear godly fruit.
I tap into my spirituality and express it the best way I can and share it with you to meld into your spirituality and between us, believers, we shape our faith–we ARE bearing fruit and increasing our knowledge of God.
We can’t do that if we are SILENT about God or if we never consider the lovingkindness of God as something essential and REAL in our lives.
Jason Tsaddiq writes about active, spiritual engagement in An Exegesis of Colossians 1:9-10:
“Often Christians will listen to a sermon or Bible lesson, acknowledge that they need to apologize to God about a particular sin and to stop making “provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof,” and then leave unchanged. It is by the Holy Spirit’s power that a man is convicted and only by His power does that man have the strength to make changes by recognizing that God has made a way of escape; however, a man must hear that way and to hear that way of escape, he must be listening to God’s voice. That listening and then obeying is the answer to living the Christ-filled life, being fruitful as one increases in knowledge of God, being strengthened, and giving thanks.”
Every kindness of this day is through God’s pure grace and kindness to us.
That is the spirituality that is inside all of us that allows us to soar above the snarled and twisted tracks that Satan lays down to ensnare us in uncertainty and fear.
And so off we go today–in lovingkindness and joy–thanks be to God!
Lord, teach us to walk in a manner worthy of You, reflecting Your love, grace, and holiness in all that we do.
Lord, strengthen us with endurance and patience as we work to follow Your path. Let our hearts be continually drawn to You.
Amen.