I had the good fortune to receive a text message this morning from my longest, dearest, and most faithful friend. Within the text message was a devotion from Pastor Paul Tripp. The timing of the text and devotion were not lost on me. I don’t think I’ve ever shared a devotion, but this one seems to capture the essence of our world. It also asks a very meaningful question. A question we would all be encouraged to ponder and pray about today.
“If you mourn the fallenness of your world rather than curse its difficulties, you know that grace has visited you. Life in this terribly broken world is hard. You are constantly dealing with the frustration of this world not operating the way God intended. You are always facing the unexpected. Almost daily you are required to deal with something you wouldn’t have chosen for your life, but it’s there because of the location where we live.
Life right here, right now is like living in a disheveled house that has begun to fall down on its own foundation. It is still a house, but it doesn’t function as it was meant to. The doors constantly get stuck shut. The plumbing only occasionally works properly. You are never sure what’s going to happen when you plug an appliance in, and it seems that the roof leaks even when it’s not raining. So it is with the world that you and I live in. It really is a broken-down house. Now, there are really only two responses we can have to the brokenness that complicates all of our lives: cursing or mourning.
Let’s be honest. Cursing is the more natural response. We curse the fact that we have to deal with flawed people. We curse the fact that we have to deal with things that don’t work right. We curse the fact that we have to deal with pollution and disease. We curse the fact that promises get broken, relationships shatter, and dreams die. We curse the realities of pain and suffering. We curse the fact that this broken-down world has been assigned to be the address where we live.
It all makes us irritated, impatient, bitter, angry, and discontent. Yes, it’s right not to like these things. It’s natural to find them frustrating, because as Paul says in Romans 8, the whole world groans as it waits for redemption. But cursing is the wrong response. We curse what we have to deal with because it makes our lives harder than we want them to be. Cursing is all about our comfort, our pleasure, our ease. Cursing is fundamentally self-centered.
Mourning is the much better response. Mourning embraces the tragedy of the fall. Mourning acknowledges that the world is not the way God meant it to be. Mourning cries out for God’s redeeming, restoring hand. Mourning acknowledges the suffering of others. Mourning is about something bigger than the fact that life is hard. Mourning grieves what sin has done to the cosmos and longs for the Redeemer to come and make his broken world new again. Mourning, then, is a response that is prompted by grace. This side of eternity in this broken world, cursing is the default language of the kingdom of self, but mourning is the default language of the kingdom of God.
Which language will you speak today?“
Pastor Tripp references Romans 8 in the devotion. I’d also recommend Romans 12. The chapter is only 21 verses. It provides Paul’s guidance on living with and relating to one another in this broken, imperfect world.
My hope for this country and this world springs eternal. The camellia bushes continue to bloom in the front yard and the dogwoods and azaleas are beginning to bud. All signs of renewal. Signs, to me, that this broken world can be a beautiful place.
We need one another. Mercy, grace, forgiveness, humility, empathy, compassion are all words to live by. They may be aspirational words, but I believe they are all words which will bring us all closer together. Learning to understand one another’s differences and accepting those differences is the first step.
Until next time…