Month: August 2022
It Could Be Today…
When the barrier of the four minute mile fell, a time that seemed impossible for a human being to reach, there was nothing on that day to indicate: today is the day!
Roger Bannister, who would later become a medical doctor and academic, stepped up to the line on May 6, 1954 before 3,000 people, and some of the most elite runners of his time. He had probably run this race many times in his mind; but due to severe wind, earlier in the day Bannister had withdrawn from the race, only to reenter after the winds died down.
Having endured the emotional turmoil to run or not run, wind and weather, perhaps pressure from coaches and teammates, he ran the race of his life. He overcame the adversity of the day, and entered the day the Lord had prepared for him with a time of 3 minutes 59.4 seconds.
Incredibly, it was due to an apparent failure at the Olympic Games, coming in fourth in his event, when Bannister set his mind to breaking the four minute mile barrier. He could have resigned himself to a fourth place at the Olympic Games, but instead, he used that moment to catapult himself to a greater moment: an impossible moment.
His record of 3 minutes 59.4 seconds, that legendary four minute mile barrier that for so long stood as an insurmountable obstacle, was beat again two weeks later, and then again, and again. When one did the impossible, others found the strength to do it as well.
Dr. Bannister had dropped out due to adverse conditions. What he believed he needed in order to run his race was not present. The best conditions were not there. Better to drop out than fail, or fall short. Yet, when the slightest of opportunities presented itself, he stepped up to the line.
Many of us are facing challenges that we had not expected. We are tried, worn out, and ready to drop out. Yet, Dr. Bannister reminds us that in the face of apparent failure or set back, we can choose to get back in the race, and overcome the impossible, even our own doubt. Paul beautifully inspires us:
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing (II Tim. 4:7-8).
Paul has fought the good fight, in faith; and he reveals as the chapter unfolds, adversity, present in his race, that could have caused him to withdraw. Yet, he stayed in the race, and finished. After the finish line, there is a crown of righteousness, a victors crown. From Paul’s other writings we know he understands that we have received the imputed righteousness of Messiah, here pictured as a first place, victorious crown; but not only for him, no, for all who love His, Yeshua/Jesus, appearing.
Paul faced trial, and personal attacks; still he endured. Paul does not give us his finish time. We do not know how fast or slow he ran; some disagree with me on this point, and that is fine, but if all we can do at times is crawl in the race, we are still in the race … the race that Messiah has already won.
As we read in the psalms, “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it” (Ps. 118:34). This day, the one He has made, could be the day that the impossible becomes, not just possible, but present reality. Paul did not exhort us to wait on the perfect conditions, just be in the race. There is a precious reward just up ahead, Christ Himself.
When we read of Paul’s endurance, written in a deep, dark dungeon, knowing what he had endured for many years, most of us would understand if he said, “I give up Timothy. I tried. I failed. Here I die.” But he did not: “ … my time of departure has come, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith…” He kept believing. He held on.
As the Holy Spirit revealed to me recently: hope takes hold, and faith holds on. I pray that we move past the starting line, get in the lane He has set us in, and keep running – when our muscles spasm, our breath fails, our strength has gone – when everything in us says “stop.” I pray we keep going. As we do, He is faithful to do the impossible on the day He has made, and even when He does not, His grace will keep us in His race. It could be today that the insurmountable obstacle moves, but we will not know until He makes the day.
Be well. Shalom.
Vision of Repair Part 2
Every week when I bless the congregation I lead, and before every prayer I say for someone, I first remind myself of the love I am to have for them, I check it, is it still there regardless of how I am feeling at the moment; but I am also reminding myself of God’s love for them. The rabbis explain that when Aaron blessed Israel with the priestly benediction (Num. 6:24-26), he was to do so with love (Sota 39a).
Aaron was to look out over Israel, with all of their complications, and bless them in אהבת חינם/ahavat chinam, or causeless love. His love for them was not based upon their merit, but God’s grace working in and through him.
As I wrote in a previous post, the rabbis say that the second Temple was destroyed due to baseless hate, שִׂנְאַת חִנָּם/sinat chinam (Yoma 9b). While שִׂנְאַת חִנָּם, is often translated as baseless hate, it has a deeper meaning: hatred of grace. Kindness withheld.
If there is a baseless hatred, or hatred of grace, working in the nature of man, then there should be אהבת חינם/ahavat chinam, a causeless love, or love in grace working in the renewed man: a love and grace that is freely given, not earned. The grace between brethren, how we view others and how we love them, must be in keeping with His grace; as Paul writes:
“Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Eph. 5:1-2).
Certainly, we did not earn this gift of grace, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8); but, once we receive it, we are to walk imitating Him.
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine, wrote that if sinat chinam, baseless hatred, caused the destruction of the second Temple, then to rebuild Israel and the third Temple, ahavat chinam, causeless grace/love, would need to be cultivated among the Jewish people.
We can read Scriptures about grace in love and its application: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord” (Lev. 19:18); “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 19:34)l “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (Jn. 13:34); “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (I Jn. 4:16). And the list can easily be expanded; but until we walk in His causeless love, or a love in grace, as difficult as that sometimes is, we will not capture, cultivate or taste its fruit.
Perhaps the most widely known verse of Scripture is found in John 3:16, and it speaks of the Lord’s love for the world/humanity, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Or, an alternate reading, “For this is how God loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
For God so loved, He gave. This is the supreme example of ahavat chinam, causeless love, or love in grace. The giving of Yeshua/Jesus, the Son of God. From this act of ahavat chinam, causeless love, a love we did not merit or deserve, is born a vision of renewal, repair and celebration: “Then all the survivors will do up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate Tabernacles (Zech. 14:16). Further, “After these things I looked, and behold, a vast multitude that no one could count – from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues – was standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Rev. 7:9; specifically Tabernacles/Sukkot imagery).
Repair, renewal, and rebuilding in the human family requires grace, a grace that in fact has a cause: Him. His giving of causeless, unearned love to us, then flows out into the lives of others as His causeless love through us. If we view others with sinat chinam, a hatred of grace, then they will never merit receiving anything from us, as we will never lower ourselves to them. Yet, if we ourselves, as recipients of His ahavat chinam, causeless love, or love in grace, act as imitators of Him (Eph. 5:1-2), then we will freely give what has been freely given to us: His love, grace, mercy.
The action of ahavat chinam, causeless love, or love in grace, cares, as much as we are able, for the human being before us, made in the image of God. Remember, the love that we are to imitate and example: at times, love is nourishing the body of the unfortunate, or defending the life of those under attack, and in countless other circumstances.
Let us capture His חֲזוֹן/Hazon – vision of renewal, and join in His work of restoration, to His glory, and one day we will celebrate in exuberant praise before the Throne and the Lamb.
Be well. Shalom.
the mountain mensch 