What are life’s challenges that get you fired up?
Blog post by Matt McCoy
5 minute read
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What are life’s challenges that get you fired up?
I could list several, but in the interest of brevity, I’ll list just three (not the most important three, mind you, just a sampling):
I care deeply about the environment. For many reasons, stewardship of this Creation is incredibly important to me. One foundational reason is because I believe that heaven is already here on earth, and that at the end of time, heaven and earth will be fully united again. I believe Jesus invites me to care for the earth not only for our benefit now, but to help us prepare to spend eternity with this earth, too.
I care deeply about social justice. The issues that cause us to divide from one another, oppress one another, and harm one another matter a great deal to me. While there are multiple reasons why social justice matters to me, one foundational reason is because the people who disagree with me will be in heaven with me. I believe Jesus invites us to “love our enemies” not only for our benefit now, but to help prepare us to spend eternity with them, too.
I care deeply about Uncommon Friendship. In this life, God often uses people who are invisible, overlooked, or misunderstood to help show me how to walk in the direction Jesus is walking in. I believe Jesus invites us into Uncommon Friendships not only for our benefit now, but to help prepare us to be led by Uncommon Friends for eternity, too.
What are life’s challenges that get you fired up?
Maybe it’s politics, race, sex, the coronavirus, identity, or some other worthy cause. How is that issue influenced by the union of heaven and earth, here and now? Would we respond to life’s challenges differently if we believed that, when we died, heaven and earth were fully unified again, so we will simultaneously stay here and enter heaven?
That’s a big question to sit with, and we’re going to sit with that question for a few months.
Jesus invites to go ahead and start living like we’re in heaven, even though we know we’re not quite there yet. That is a bizarre invitation, no doubt about it. There’s several things that make this bizarre, but in the interest of brevity, I’ll just name two:
While we might think of heaven as far off, the Bible thinks of heaven as near. In our culture, people tend to talk about heaven as a far off place, where we’ll be sitting on clouds, wearing robes and halos, playing harps, and singing to God all the time. Forever. Does that sound as boring to you as it does to me? But when the Bible talks about heaven, so often the focus is on things near. Jesus would tell people that the Kingdom of God has come near (Matt 12:28, Mark 12:34, Luke 17:21) and he told his disciples to do the same (Luke 10:9). Jesus invites us into this Kingdom life now (So many biblical sources here, but Mark 10:14-15 is fun).
In our culture, I think about heaven as a place where all my problems go away, and I know that will happen at the end of all time (Rev 7). But nowadays I’ve noticed that walking in the direction Jesus is walking in doesn’t make all of life’s challenges go away. Perhaps you’ve noticed this, too.
The Bible Project has a great, succinct video on this particular topic, and I’d encourage you to give it a look…
For the next season, we’re going to define the Kingdom of God is the Union of Heaven and Earth {1}, and we’re going to explore how this union tends to show up in the challenging places in life. Our Big Idea for The Growing Season (from now until Advent, which starts the Sunday after Thanksgiving) is:
God reveals his kingdom so we can walk together through life’s challenges.
The bible is full of examples of people who are living in his kingdom, even in the midst of hopeless situations, but we’re going to look at the lives of two women as case studies for us to examine. We’re going to spend the first half of The Growing Season with Hannah (1 Samuel 1-2) and the second half with Abigail (1 Samuel 25).
Before we are introduced to Hannah, there’s a few reasons I’d like to highlight why she’s such a great example for us:
Hannah’s situation is so hopeless ‘her soul became bitter’ (Hey, remember from Ruth last year, how her mother Naomi wanted to changer her name to ‘bitter’? God seems to show up to people feeling bitter.) , and Kingdom living responds with prayer and pouring our hearts out to God.
Uncommon Friendship: The Priest is supposed to represent God to the people, and here’s Hannah representing God to the Priest! Kingdom living means that unexpected people are often leaders.
Elkanah loves Hannah but doesn’t know how to care for her or comfort her well. Ever been gong through a hard time and you didn’t feel like people knew how to comfort you well? Me too! And ever struggled with how to comfort others going through a hard time? Me too! Kingdom living invites us into these spaces, all the time. And, while we're on the subject…
When the story says “Then she went on her way, ate a good meal,” Kingdom living means she didn’t choose to isolate herself, she rejoined her community, her family, and even that woman, Panina, who made her life miserable.
Notice that they ate together as a part of worship! Hey, ever wonder why Spring Church does this?!?!
Hannah’s life reminds us that God answers prayers.
The story of Hannah in 1 Samuel
1 Samuel 1
So there was this guy from Ramathaim-Zopphim, from the hill country of Ephriam, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. And he had two wives: the name of one is Hannah “Grace” and the name of the other is Panina “Jewel.” Panina had children, but Hannah had no children.
Now this man went up from his city at all the appropriate holidays to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of Angel Armies at Shiloh. And there were the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, who were priests of the Lord.
And on the day Elkana made his sacrifice, he gave to Panina his wife and to all her sons their portions of the blessed meat. But to Hannah he gave the best cut of the blessed meat, because he really loved her, even though the Lord had closed her womb.
So that woman bullied and harassed her, just like she always did, because the Lord had closed her womb. That's the way it happened, year after year. Whenever she went up to the house of the Lord, that woman would bully her. So Hannah wept and would not eat.
Then Elkanah said to his wife Hannah, “Why are you weeping? And why aren’t you eating? Why are you heartbroken? I know you don’t have kids, but aren’t I more than enough?”
Then Hannah stood up after eating and drinking in Shiloh, and Eli the Priest was sitting on the seat of honor by the doorpost in the Temple of the Lord. Her soul became bitter, and she prayed and prayed to the Lord while she wept and wept. She swore up and down and she said, “Lord of Angel Armies, if you’ll take a good hard look at my pain, if you’ll quit neglecting me and actually do something about this, and give me a son, I will give him to you completely, unreservedly, and I’ll set him apart for a life of holy discipline.”
And she went on multiplying her prayers before the Lord, and Eli observed her mouth. Because as Hannah was praying in her heart, her lips were moving, but no voice was heard. So Eli figured she was drunk. And Eli said to her, “How long will you keep on being drunk? Sober up and be done with your wine!” But Hannah answered, “No sir! I am a woman with a broken heart, I’ve not drunk a drop of wine or beer. The only thing I’ve poured is my heart to the Lord. Do not take me for a bad woman; my great sorrows and terrible situation is why I’m still here praying.” So Eli answered, “Go in peace. May the God of Israel give you what you have asked of him.” And she replied, “I hope you see the way God blesses me.” Then she went on her way, ate a good meal, and she looked like her joyful self again.
And here’s the big idea, and the stair step of what we’ll learn together, as we explore these stories together:
Footnotes:
{1} I did a deep dive into “Kingdom of God” and was shocked to discover a paucity of definitions from the sources I consulted. Like, almost nobody defined the term “Kingdom of God,” which is especially odd considering how many of these sources are dense theological books that give discreet definitions to all sorts of esoteric terms. Authors uses the term all the time, but don’t pause to define it. I feel like this means something significant, but I’m not sure what. Meanwhile, I like the definition from The Bible Project, so I’m going with that one.
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