Commandment #8 – SPIRITUAL SUFFOCATION – ENDURING THEFT LOSS FROM THE DIVINE BANDIT TO EXHALE THIS WORLD AND INHALE THE NEXT (AND/OR) HOW TO SING HALLELUJAH, THE ANTHEM OF YOUR SOUL, WITH JESUS, FOR JESUS AND TO JESUS
Darrell’s words on the 8th commandment couldn’t be more poignantly relevant.
Last Thursday – Driver side window repaired from smash and grab (but they didn’t grab anything???? – weird!!!)
Last Friday – Letter from a towing company – ’94 Suburban which we sold had been stolen. Its not ours but we were still, kind of sort of but not really, in the title chain so we were sent a letter about the towing company seizing possession of the vehicle.
Sunday Night (just three nights ago) at 10:37 p.m. – Redding Police call us to let us know they’ve located the STOLEN Shasta Haulmark White trailer in front of a home in Redding.
Yesterday, I dropped by Reid’s to finish loading what’s left of the sorted ruins (thanks for sorting through the trash heap Reid and Owen!) back into the trailer.
Our once packed with inventory to launch recreational magic summer camp machine has been reduced to a not road worthy, partially obliterated trash container.
This theft loss, like most, packs at the least a jolting combination punch....
PUNCH 1 - the financial damage – which evokes a particularly challenging pain but also
PUNCH 2 - the loss of certain artifacts that captured near decades old traditions and memories.
The experience brings to mind (mild in comparison though) a few weeks in October many years ago when I had to face on an ongoing basis the strong possibility that Sarah might pass from multiple organ meltdown due to a drug reaction.
Interestingly, the theft loss of the trailer can be directly tied to humanity’s rebellion from God’s commandment and rebellion from His savior who forgives, accepts, and empowers; however, the second theft loss – Sarah’s near loss of life – is less directly tied to humanity’s rebellion and perhaps more directly attached to Paul’s belief that “He (God) has subjected the creation to futility.”
Redding Trailer – Human Theft --
Sarah’s Life – God Theft --
Paul’s writes that God subjects us to the theft of purpose – futility and the theft of life – decay for a very specific reason….. He subjects us to futility and decay IN HOPE THAT WE SHOULD SEEK AFTER HIM!
I think in the gospels Jesus parablelizes (sidenote - parablelizes isn't a word -- just sounded right to me so I wrote it) by saying that He’ll come like a thief in the night.
Whether by evil cranked up meth zombies or by divine heist – both these losses in my life left me seeking Christ and hoping in His promise that He does not leave, does not forsake, and by the power of His word and absolute authority MAKES ALL THINGS NEW.
So, this morning, I’m spinning multiple thoughts --
Spinning Thought 1 - I anticipate another day of multiple updates from Redding PD.
Spinning Thought 2 – I need to continue our first steps of the journey of sorting through the details and logistics of how to properly move forward with the pretty much decimation of all key Shasta inventory.
Spinning Thought 3 - The loss of decades old memories and traditions stirs up impressions I felt when Sarah and I walked through her valley of the shadow of death.
Spinning Thought 4 – All of these reflections draw me to these Switchfoot Lyrics – (especially when Sarah was fighting for life in hospital.)
“Everything fell to pieces
When my eyes met yours
In that hospital gown
And the dreams we once were dreaming
That we held so close
Felt impossible now
And all the plans we held for the future
And all the memories up from the past
The world I once knew
Was in a cardboard box
In the lobby lost and found”
The following chorus (from this Switchfoot Song) captures for me the meaning behind how to endure a theft loss – (whomever the culprit – evildoers….God…..) At the same time the chorus, I believe, suggests how communion with Christ mitigates the impulse to steal when we don’t bank on the person of Christ – our living Hope.
CHORUS:
HALLELUJAH NEVERTHELESS, WAS THE SONG PAIN COULDN’T DESTROY
HALLELUJAH NEVERTHELESS,
YOU’RE MY JOY INVINCIBLE
JOY INVINCIBLE, JOY
God the divine bandit has subjected the creation to futility and decay in HOPE that we would seek after HIM and commune with Christ’s joy invincible anthem from the cross – Hallelujah!
In summary – this entire post I think became a paraphrase of these verses:
Romans 8:20-21 -- For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption (decay) and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
1 Peter 1:3-7 - Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
To STEAL from Switchfoot once more (so ironic) – when I suffer a theft loss and when I hurt others from my own impulse to take credit instead of surrendering to others’ interest before my own, the defining words of praise for both these scenarios and really all circumstances (which echo from Calvary to this moment and to eternity) are as follows:
My Heartbeat, my oxygen,
My banner, my home
My future, my song
YOUR HOPE IS THE ANTHEM OF MY SOUL!!!
Amen!
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