Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Psalm 139:7-14
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
Author’s Note: What began as a brief two sentence lament of the evils of a violent heart, has turned into a open letter pleading for the mercy of our Father. I have tried to be sensitive in the wake of the murders at Covenant Christian School in Nashville, TN. My heart and spirit aches for the families of those impacted by this horrific crime. Please remember the families of Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all aged nine, and Head of School Katherine Koonce, 60, Cynthia Peak, 61, and Mike Hill, 61 as they grieve this terrible loss, a consequence of abject rejection of the grace and peace of God offered to the perpetrator of this violence.
The weapon Cain used to kill Abel is never mentioned in scripture. Only that he killed him when they were alone in the field. The point of the story is not the weapon, but heart of the murderer that led to a legacy of violence and degradation of the value of human life, culminating in the murder of a child at the hands of Lamech. Contrast that story line against the first commandment given to Adam and Eve in the garden – “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and take dominion over it.”
When we forsake God, we forsake our original design and purpose. We bear the fruit of bitterness. We abort our children. We propagate ethnic cleansing in the name of “population control” and the “greater good.” We refer to the planet as “Mother Earth” as if the planet is master over mankind instead of the other way around.
Our original creation was not only good, it was “very good.” But sin entered the picture and flipped the script. Everything God commanded from the outset was ultimately reversed.
But God…our merciful Father made a way. He set foot on this earth and walked among us (John 1:14). He healed the sick and the lame and the blind and the deaf and the mute. He set free the mind of the torture and released the bonds of the spiritually captive. He loved the children and defended their value in a society that thought of children as little more than a nuisance (Matthew 19:13-15, Mark 10:14).
But Jesus…He dared to speak truth. He dared to reveal Himself for who He was. He dared to declared that He and the Father were one and the same. He dared to say that the religious powers that be had it all wrong. He dared to say that He Himself was God in the flesh. And they crucified Him for it.
But God…wouldn’t be stopped in His relentless pursuit of the redemption of His creation. Not even death could stop Him from creating the greatest comeback in the history of mankind. On the third day, the empty tomb echoed with glorious silence, declaring that Friday was indeed GOOD and that Sunday had arrived.
But Jesus…in the midst of all the pain, and the shock, and the bewilderment, with unexpected euphoria…Jesus arrives on the scene again. Still bearing the scars that He took for you and for me. But walking, breathing, and living again.
And then the Holy Spirit…that sweet wind of life. That fire of spiritual passion that burns within our soul. That light of hope that ignites vision and shows the way to the open door of faith. He is the one that gives us hope to live beyond today. He empowers us to give mercy to the unmerciful, to show love to the unlovable, to forgive the unforgivable.
And ONLY by the power of His Spirit living in us can we know the fruit of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
If you want an answer to the violence that shakes our world on a daily basis, this is it. Love God first. He will give you the power to love people – His special creation in which He instill an infinitesimally small portion of Himself into us as His image bearers. And as we walk in His Spirit we begin to grow into the image of His Son – Jesus. All it takes is to trust Him. All it takes is to believe Him. All it takes is place your life in His hands. All it takes is trust that He knows what He is doing and that He has your best interest at heart. You can’t work your way into His good graces. That defies the logic of heaven and the very definition of grace.