Malcolm’s Monday Meditation: “Is Jesus (ever) gonna fix it?”

There are extra verses for, “pray, trust, die, rise” etc. I like the song, but I wonder if we fully embrace its message. The way I take is that “after a while” is most likely after I’ve left this life. But I have a sneaking suspicion that I am not the only one who is rather hoping the fix will come somewhat sooner than that!

The song came to mind because of a sermon yesterday. Albert May taught a helpful lesson on patience called, “A word to the impatient”. He based the sermon on Ps 37 which contains such phrases as,

“A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found. But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity.” (Psalms 37:10–11 NIV11)

What “will” happen is in the future (I counted 29 references to things that “will” happen in this Psalm). The question is whether we will wait, trust and hold on to what is right through the troubles in our way. In other words, how patient are we prepared to be?

Albert said something I wrote down, “We need God to fix our hearts, not our problems”. How does God do this? He allows troubles in our way to go on longer than is comfortable. And why does God allow problems to persist? Perhaps one reason is to assist our character-building. We’d all love a fully-mature character, but how is it formed? We know the answer although we hesitate to accept it – through times of trial.

I read an answer on Quora today. The question someone had posted was, “What are some day to day life hacks that armed forces and law enforcement people know but civilians don’t?” The answers were interesting, but my favourite came from Ejaz Asi. I’ll quote from some of his points:

“Discipline in your life, as a person, father, husband, professional, will take you very far and to great places. Hardships and bad seniors or bad times are there not to demean you but to build your character. Those who quit whining about these ‘facts of life’ early survive and thrive better. … ‘There is no such thing as tough. There is trained and untrained.'”

I’ve also been reading a book my friend Tim Dannett gave me. It’s called, “Falling Upward” by Richard Rohr. 
“RichardRohrOFM” by Center for Action and Contemplation – Center for Action and Contemplation, Albuquerque, NM. Licensed under CC0 via Wikimedia Commons.

His point is that failure is the path to maturity. Falling is the path to growth. We know this to be true, but are we willing to allow God to exercise His timing as to when the class is over? Rohr says, “The supposed achievements of the first half of life have to fall apart and show themselves to be wanting in some way, or we will not move further. Why would we? Normally a job, fortune, or reputation has to be lost, a death has to be suffered, a house has to be flooded, or a disease has to be endured.” 

Jacob, Moses, Peter all had this experience. They held on to God, learned from their falling, persevered through the troubled times when God decided to delay the “fix”, or not provide it at all – and grew to be men useful to God in ways they could never have imagined. 

If something similar is going to my experience and yours we’re going to need to change the way we sing the song. Perhaps the lyric should read something more like this:

Troubles in my way,
You’ve got to grow somehow.
(Well don’t you know that my Jesus…..)
Jesus, He’s going to leave it!
Jesus, He’s going to leave it!
Jesus, He’s going to leave it!
Until I’ve grown.

I hope you have a wonderful week.

God bless,

Malcolm