One is horizontal. Maybe chronological is a better word. I bring to mind the way God works with a 24 hour day and how dawn follows midnight. Always. Without Fail. Then in many countries, far from the equator, He works with a 4 season year. Spring. Summer. Autumn. Winter. But then … always … without fail … spring follows winter. What is true in the rhythm of creation is true in the rhythm of the new creation. The 24 and the 4 breathe hope into my life during difficult times.
The other direction is vertical. Deep though the pain may be, deeper still there is a God who is true and real and faithful. Ten years ago – last month – I began my message at the funeral of a young woman, who had a brain tumour accompany her through her entire (almost) life, with these words:
is this hymn that I love…
first line of every verse starts the same way: ‘I cannot tell’
further down – half way through the very same verses
– each time, there comes a
response: ‘But this I know’
words in the hymn are great.
are arranged
on
the page that gets me every time.
coexist…
tell’ & ‘But this I know’ –
the same verse is remarkable
just like with life –
this I know’ always lies deeper and lower
in
the verse & on the page it
is the foundational phrase
just like in life it can be, as well –
way of Reflection this morning I
want to focus
on the deeper and the foundational: the ‘But this I know’ … “
It is the way to live.
May God help me so to do.
About Me
the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
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Thank you Paul.
Sometimes the 'I cannot tell' is so large and hard to understand that it seems to overwhelm me. Then there is only one way to respond, dig deep into the faithfulness of God and to 'be still and know…'
It is good to be reminded of this truth again in the midst of pain.
Thanks…
I've been thinking a bit more on this… It is important to rest our uncertain questions ('I Cannot Tell') on the certain bedrock exclamations about which we are convinced to be true ('But This I Know'). People get into trouble when they do it the other way around. I'm thinking, for example, the way God is described in the different parts of the biblical story. I don't always understand – but that is not where I am going to start…