CONTRADICTIONS
MERRY MONDAY BY PARRIS BAILEY-!
“As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. (2 Corinthians 6:9, 10 KJV)
It some ways last week was pretty rough. We watched our Women’s Pastor preach at her own Mother’s funeral and I had to say goodbye to my third son who after working alongside side of us for years leave to join his fiancée’. I really cannot compare my pain to my Women’s Pastor, but both of these situations brought a profound measure of joy. Her mother is with the Lord rejoicing and our son after years of being faithful has moved to start a family of his own. The Expositor Bible says that, “Sorrow and joy in Christian experience are not opposites. They are complementary. They spring from the same root. The heart which is made sensitive to sin and suffering by the love of God can by that same sensitiveness enter into the joy of his victory. To know Christ in the fellowship of his sufferings is also to know him in the power of his resurrection. (Phil. 3:10)”
Last night we graduated a few more Marysong girls and while praying before service I remembered Paul’s words-“as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.” It’s a life of contradiction yet Paul was able to turn “all into profit” because he knew he was more than a conqueror through HIm who loves him. Even Jacob had the mindset of, “Let Esau come and take what he may, I will not let you go unless you bless me!” We all have regrets and to the world we all look like we have wasted our lives but yet we possess more than they can imagine.
As we enter more and more deeply into the mind and spirit of Jesus we begin to share His outlook and catch His gift of looking up. It is when we live a life of “looking up” we learn how to face the contradictions in our life and have peace. I saw my Pastor Karen possess a faith that few dare to embrace and I saw the hope in those Marysong girls face that they are learning how to possess the impossible. The Greek implies firm possession, holding fast in possession. Faucet commentary says; “The things both of the present and of the future are, in the truest sense, the believer’s in possession, for he possesses them all in Christ, his lasting possession, though the full fruition of them is reserved for the future eternity. We have nothing we can call our own, yet in Christ all things are ours.”
I don’t know what you might be facing or think you are losing. I pray you can take the very thing that is causing so much pain and turn it into profit by the Holy Spirit. Amen!