Having been drenched last Friday after Passion Conference, I started feeling sick- coarse throat, a whole lot of sneezing, runny nose, and until after leading Sunday's last worship service, I started coughing real bad!
I had just returned from a friend's birthday dinner at Eastwood. All throughout dinner time, I was tried to not move much, hoping I wouldn't throw up a perfectly good minestra dei frutti di mare. Now I am feeling a wee bit nauseous, and typing this in bed!
I feel so weak. But I am also excited-- tomorrow, I'm scheduled to lead worship in our staff fellowship in the morning, and the midweek service in the evening. But I am weak! I cling to Christ! I cannot do otherwise. I am leading worship this Sunday- for which I am doubly excited, particularly with how the service is designed to flow and all that's supposed to happen! I am always excited to go to church each Sunday and see how the Lord works His will in lives during worship! I always see that God's will is at all times, good, for He is good. But often, His work is not safe in the worldly sense of the word. He wants to change us, and with change come blessings.
In the wonderful children’s classic, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis reminds us that the divine-human struggle is fraught with danger. In this famous fantasy four siblings – two brothers and two sisters – find their way to a make-believe world called Narnia through a passageway in an attic wardrobe. There they confront difficult moral and ethical conundrums that will test their character, courage and faith. The story takes inspiration from the Gospel themes of betrayal, death, resurrection, and redemption. The character Aslan is Lewis’s representation of Jesus. [1]
At one point, the two sisters, Susan and Lucy, ask Mr. And Mrs. Beaver to describe Aslan. They ask if Aslan is a man. Mr. Beaver replies:
“Aslan a man? Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know ho is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion.”
“Ooh!,” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and make no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver. “If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about being safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”[2]
Our God is good, but not safe. I don’t know if you hear that as good news or not, but many Bible characters discovered in their weakness, it’s the truth. And embedded within this truth lies a blessing that’s beyond our wildest imaginings....
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[1] Stephen Bauman Limping and Blessing, CCNYC
[2] C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, HarperCollins, New York, 1978
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