Much more than principles

"I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live, and also, that they should eat and drink and take pleasure in their toil. This is God's gift to us".  Ecclesiastes 3:12,13.


When was the last time you said or did something that was immensely satisfying?
Something which made you feel that all was well with the world, because you had been able to help feed into an issue in such a way that people had been helped and you had been instrumental in moving things forward, at least a little, to clarity or even a resolution?

That manner of inter-action, I think, is what is touched on in the verse above. Amidst the rightness of reveling in the inherent joys of this life, even when we are often weak or troubled, we engage with others in such a way that something "momentous" happens, not because it is seen to make vast changes to everything, but because it allows us and another, or a few others, to encounter the 'live current' of being part of something larger than ourselves because we are brought together, and that facilitates care, value and meaning that transcends the utilitarian and the mundane. It conveys the reality of loving another.

Christianity isn't about setting-up a set of 'must do' principles on the chalk-board of our inner resolve and then, with great determination, seeking to constantly push these into our will through gritted teeth, telling our wayward desires that we "must" succeed in funneling our entire output through these commandment-like laws. Religion is often very good, in respects to cosmetics, in establishing such schemes, but that leaves our genuine needs and callings untouched, as they are entirely detached by such cruelty - think of the character of Morpheus in the movie, Forbidden Planet;  outwardly appearing so moral and concerned, but inwardly, a monster who's humanity had been incarcerated by his pride.

For things to truly be deep and meaningful for us, for them to resonate with the beauty that conveys the eternity of truth behind our days here, we have to know the God who is totally involved and engaged with us amidst all the joys and futility's of the present - that is key to our being able to really do good; to discovering genuine significance and satisfaction in our being good to each other, but the resource for such things comes from beyond us.

We have to dump our weak and beggarly attempts at 'doing' (resolution-like) for a life and a benevolence far above what we can ask or think, found in the good news of the giving of Jesus Christ.

Paul prays that we might really come to know for ourselves the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:19) - something far beyond mere mental assent to some principal of doing good. This is a love that fills us with the presence and life of God Himself, and it is that life, working through us, that facilitates genuine care and affection, genuine fellowship that brings a taste of what we are meant to be - those who live well.

When Christ is understood as the one who enables us to put away the childish yet deadly notion that we can achieve goodness in ourselves, we can look beyond the ruination of  fallen human will to find a new hope, a new reality that can do what we naturally ruin.

Christ alone, revealed among us as God in human flesh, is the fulfillment of all our shattered realms, and He has come to give us that beauty and delight, here and now.
If we put aside our 'religious' industry, He will grant us a joy the world never achieves.

As we approach Easter, it's worth more than we can imagine to look at Jesus afresh, and see the astonishing life God has given to us exclusively in Him.