Thy kingdom come. They will be done. I learned the King James Version of the Lord’s Prayer so long ago that the words flow easily and without conscious thought.
That’s the problem. I don’t think about them.
The idea that God’s will should be done here on earth with exactly the same energy that it is done in heaven is breathtaking.
It repaints our view of the world like a thick, fat winter snow changes the entire landscape. The purity of an untouched blanket of white covering the earth is a refreshing change from the brown, leafless winter. It’s almost as powerful a transformation as spring.
You almost can’t think about the total, lifeless hibernation of winter without conjuring up the mental image of the coming spring. But without the dreary winter, we would quickly take the powerful rebirth of spring for granted.
What we hold on to is the dramatic possibility of the resurrection of the entire earth illustrated each year by nature.
In the same way, we are facing a winter of will and courage in the world. We have faced and survived a biblical category plague with an apocalyptic surge of anarchy frosting on top. It has been easy to be overcome by the magnitude of events.
At every turn unreported horrors lurk behind the steady firehouse of depressing, fear-spreading media and political deceit. Anxiety and depression are taking a mind-numbing toll on adults and children alike.
But we must not look at the current winter of doubt without recalling the spring of hope that God has in store. And we must remember that the transformation begins here and now – on earth as it is in heaven.
Every bit of news from all sides is predicting the desperate end of all we know. Fear is being used on every front to motivate people to action. It is used to inspire contributions and increase website traffic. It is being used as a sledgehammer to pound away normal expectations so that radical change can occur.
But this winter of doubt is only a reminder to focus our attention on the eternal spring that God has promised us.
This season of shaking out false promises and disproving easy solutions is a lesson to us all that only God is faithful in his promises. It is a reminder that the distractions we have been chasing are lies, shifting sands upon which we cannot depend.
But it is also a reminder that the grim predictions are not prophecies but are merely manipulation by people who know less about the future than we do. For they do not take into account the God of love and hope and true justice that we can serve and know right here on this earth.
I’m not saying that easy times are ahead. Even the spring is time for the hard work of plowing and planting. And it’s always winter somewhere.
I’m saying trust in God and renew your hope for he will not let you down. We are to pray and work for God’s will to be done, no matter the political weather we face. Men who live by lies have always tried to silence the truth and stamp out hope.
But they cannot succeed any more than winter can stop God’s coming spring. Anymore than midnight can prevent the coming dawn. Any more than hatred prevents love.
God has a long history of delivering his people from powerful governments – from Egypt and Babylon and Rome and even evil from within. While self rulers assume power, start wars, and repress people, God uses strife to refocus his people upon what is true and good and everlasting.
Temporary pleasures are exposed. Shallow commitments are revealed. Faith, of necessity, deepens. The easy pleasures and distractions of comfort are stripped away and the truth remains.
We have had a hard reminder of what is most important in life. We have seen the freedoms we assumed were guaranteed threatened to the core. We have not had to imagine what life would be without them. We have seen the darkness in men’s hearts with our own eyes.
Now we have the opportunity, with the renewed perspective of a cold, hard winter of liberty, to renew our faith, to practice our prayers, and to discipline our efforts to serve God’s kingdom by doing His will on earth as it is in heaven.
We do not have to wait until heaven to begin. We do not have to wait on an election or a court. No politician or ruler can stand in the way. No law can supersede God’s law. No jail can contain God. No army can defeat Him. No disease can kill Him. No grave can hold Him.
Of His kingdom, there will be no end. Amen.
