When Everything is Upside Down
But actually, right side up.
With Jesus up is down and down is up.
Forward is backward, to be exalted is to be humbled, to be richer is to be poorer, to be smarter we don’t prioritize learning, but loving.
I can go on.
To be great, is to be less.
To lead, is to serve.
To be full, is to pour out.
Jesus influenced a world through 12 men, 12 uneducated unassuming men - and a handful of women too.
Paul spread the message of the good news by way of small communities of fellowship that met in homes and the letters he wrote to them, often to correct their thinking and actions, impact millions of lives still today.
Do we expect in our culture today for the unchanging God to do things differently than he has in the past?
It’s true, God is doing a new thing, always working. Yet it seems He does new things in old ways. Faithful ways.
This may be a wrong turn we take as human beings, we pendulum swing to old things in the old ways or new things in new ways and instead we need to settle into the middle, new things in old ways. Ancient ways. Faithful way. God’s way.
God is the same as he has always been and he is working the same way he has always worked. Inconspicuously. Behind the scenes. Working out every detail in a way where it is undeniable it happened other than in a miraculous way. And as I tell the children in Sunday school as they look to me with curious eyes; a miracle is something only God can do.
And isn’t that the rub to our human egos? The human way is to elevate myself. To make sure I receive the recognition and accolades. I am in a Bible study where when we serve in the children’s program we get a sticker on our name tags. I lost my name tag one year and was upset because then the people wouldn’t see my stickers. Pride. Vanity. A small thing revealing a true intention of my heart, a place where refining was needed.
In a culture where we like to be patted on the back, Paul reminds us not to boast, unless we are boasting in the name of the Lord Jesus.
It’s upside down.
To climb a ladder you start at the bottom and move up, tossing whatever (whomever?) might get in your way down to the bottom.
Jesus’ way is to let everyone else climb the ladder before you. To give them a hand when they stumble. To encourage them as they get to the top to keep going. Not to let them step on you, but to get out of their way. To humble ourselves and wait for God to lift us up, in his own miraculous way.
It’s upside down, but it works, and it’s beautiful.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
How has God worked in an upside down way in your life?
What miracles is God performing for you?
What miracles is God wanting to perform in you and through you if you choose humility and get out of your own, and his, way?
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