I am in a part of the world with limited internet accessibility, no cellphone coverages, and a ferry between me and the mainland. And I will be here for the next few days. I am told that the cassowaries are doing well… and to stay 3 metres from any river bank in case the crocodiles decide to make me lunch. And you cannot swim on the beaches because of poisonous jellyfish.
1 To you I lift up my eyes,
O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
2 As the eyes of servants
look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid
to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the LORD our God,
until he has mercy upon us.3 Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us,
for we have had more than enough of contempt.
4 Our soul has had more than its fill
of the scorn of those who are at ease,
of the contempt of the proud.
This is one of the psalms of ascent: traditionally sung when you were going to Jerusalem. And one of the things in this is accepting the scorn and contempt of those who are proud and are at ease. Believers have never been popular. Believers will never be popular. We will not be happy here.
Jesus himself did not get a free ride. He was not proud nor at ease. Instead, he obediently suffered.
7In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; 9and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, 10having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
11About this we have much to say that is hard to explain, since you have become dull in understanding. 12For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; 13for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. 14But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.
Children try to be popular. Grown men and women don’t care. Instead they care about their duty, what they need to do, not what people want them to do. One of the implications here is that we get good at discernment by practice. That righteous living is a skill.
But it is clear that the time for childish things has past. We are no longer at ease. It is not easy.
But, at least so far, I have found that generally anything worthwhile is not easy. It requires effort, practice… from physical training to practicing music to work to raising children to righteous living. And again, in all these things, there is a correct way to proceed: and that is not open to debate.
The beauty of this place glorifies God. The question I have to consider is if my life does.