Are we there yet?
Image by Paige K Slighter
Hello September! We are once again at that time of the year, when the summer school holidays are over and it’s ‘back to school’. Be it the first time at nursery, school, college or university, or just moving up a year, it’s all new!
As we gathered our church community last Sunday there was a sense of refocusing and realigning. I was given the opportunity to speak that morning.
The title of my talk was ‘Are we there yet?’ For anyone who has children they will know what those four words mean when going on a journey.
When our kids were little, we had a cassette (yes, I’m that old) called ‘Mister Cow’ that we played over and over again when driving to our holiday destination. Those tunes got stuck in my head!
As they got older, we replaced the car, and the new one had a CD player. On long journeys we played a double disc of Disney greatest hits! We sang along with classic from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Aladdin and The Lion King.
The game changer came when we borrowed my sister’s portable DVD player. Each child had a set of headphones, and they sat very happily watching their favourite movies!
When I asked the question in our church ‘Are we there yet?’ the answer came back, no! That’s because Jesus has not returned as the Bible predicts. We live in this ‘now and not yet’ of God’s Kingdom.
It is both a time of tension and a time of grace. It seems like good and bad live side by side. In the Old Testament, at a time when Israel was divided, the King in Jerusalem died. Simultaneously, God called Isaiah to be His prophet, and he saw this vision…
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.”
The King had just died. Uzziah had been a good King for many years, but after he had become powerful his pride led to his downfall as he abandoned God’s ways. This was not good news for the people of Jerusalem.
At that sad and difficult time, Isaiah had a heavenly vision of another King. He saw God, the Lord Almighty. He was (and is) the true King, whose Kingdom is established and unshakeable.
What was going on around Isaiah was unsettling, and what he saw of God gave him strength, stability and hope.
It can often feel like we live in difficult and uncertain times in our world. But be encouraged, God’s reign is still solid today. We may not be there yet, but God has not given up on you, His church or His world.
Let me encourage you not to focus on what is going on around you, but instead to look to God. Get a vison of Him, His plan and His purpose.
God bless you :)
Gary Bastin - Hope Community Church leader