echoes of redemption

We are under enormous pressure to produce.

There are bills to pay. Deadlines to meet. Ideas that we needed to have yesterday. And the pressure of living like we do can quick encroach on our spiritual lives.

But spirituality isn’t about doing. Or deadlines. Or continual goals.

It’s about living as God designed us to live. About being.

That’s why God’s name in Hebrew is translated, I Am.

He just is.

And when we take the time just to be, not to succumb to the idols of production and progress, we find ourselves understanding God a little more.

Grow. Move forward. But don’t let those become your goals. Allow God to work through silence. Through pauses. Through the spaces in your life.

Jezreel seems like a terrible name for a child.

But it was the name the prophet gave his first born. And every time someone heard it they thought of one of the darkest moments in their history. A time when a king had a man killed to steal his family’s vineyard for himself.

A vineyard.

At it’s best, the family would have sown in it for years. And sowing is not a quick process. They would have carefully selected seed, placed the seed in hot water to cleanse the imperfections off of it, moved it into cooler water to fortify and strengthen it.

Meanwhile, they would have been preparing the ground for the seed. Then, with a quick movement of their hand, they would send the seed out over the ground, followed by a swift kick to move enough dirt over the seed to protect it from the scorching sun and brisk wind.

Jezreel would have made everyone think of this vineyard. But God’s intention wasn’t to discourage them. He was going to redeem this time in their history. He was going to use everything they had been through to take them somewhere they had never been.

Jezreel is actually a good metaphor for God.

Because he is one who carefully selects his children, places them situations that are nothing short of hot water – refining and pulling away imperfections. He then builds them us, strengthening them and adding layers to their character.

Meanwhile he prepares a place for them to live as his children – an image of what he would look like on earth. And when the time is right, he sends them into this place, give them enough protection that they can grow and change the landscape of everything around them.

Because in Hebrew, Jezreel means God sows.

The only thing harder than taking a step of faith is taking the next step of faith – especially if you didn’t see the response you wanted with the first one.

But taking multiple steps of faith is the definition of walking by faith.

One day a man came to Jesus and asked him to heal his son. Jesus responded, Go, your son will live. Easy for us to read, but this man was going to need to take a step of faith. He was going to have to leave the comfort of where he was and walk – all the while trusting Jesus had healed his son.

The challenge was that home was 25 miles away.

Two days by foot.

Step after step, after step of faith. Never knowing for sure his son was healed until he arrived home.

The only thing the man knew for sure was that he had left the comfort and security of where he was for the unknown of everything he dreamed.

How small would our victories be if it only took one step to get there?

How many things do we miss out on life because we’re not willing to take the second step of faith?

The third?

The sixteenth?