The Foundation of Work
"So much of life is about persevering through pain and discomfort. Keeping going requires grace and grit. Indeed, the more deeply we commit to engaging in God’s mission to the world, the grittier life will become. It will also yield more treasure and beauty than we could have imagined. Pearls are formed when a piece of sand or grit becomes trapped in the shell of an oyster. The grit is an irritant and an inconvenience, but it isn’t spat out; rather it is embraced and transformed. Over time the grit becomes less abrasive and irritating because the oyster slowly coats it in mother-of-pearl. Slowly and surely a beautiful pearl is born.
The pearl formation, like most metaphors for maturity, can be dismissed all too quickly—our feeling brain kicks in and screams, “This is uncomfortable and I don’t like it!” If we are prepared to engage a little longer and allow our thinking brain to take over, the concept begins to lose its sense of threat. The things that become powerful and living in us are the things that we have persevered in, fought for, and embraced. The foolish, ugly, painful parts we submit to Christ and one another slowly and surely become coated in layers of grace. They become not only gifts for ourselves, but also gifts that we get to give away generously and abundantly. We are called to give ourselves away time and again.
When we accept that this is the case, we can stop using sticky plasters for wounds that require surgery. We can exchange false comforts for transformative conversations and disciplines. We can stop living in denial and face reality, confident that with God nothing is too dark, too broken, or too far gone. With God, there is always a way, and he will walk with us down that path. To persevere in our calling is to embrace the fullness of this walk and to keep going." - Fusion Movement (2020)
What a timely word in so many more ways.
Sometimes a simple blog post helps me see a devotional screaming aloud. The answers are already there. It doesn't require man's word being at the center of the narrative. It's not about who penned the story and why, but simply it is about the truth. An undeniable truth that has the capacity to give courage.
In a season where the right answer, the choice to stand up and fight against something so embedded in the hearts of man seems daunting, and if I'm being honest, often, not practical—we must be as Paul said and STAND fixed on the goal pressing forward despite how inconvenient it might make us feel or dare I say uncomfortable to sit it.
With so much being said about the racial injustice we're going to, it's crucial that we start from an understanding that connects us. That unity is stemmed from Love and that love gets to, if we so desire, be the linking force. But do NOT get it twisted. It isn't nor was it intended to be the end result.
If it was about the sand simply being engulfed by the oyster alone, pearls would have no weight.
Now imagine you were told by your doctor that if you don't work out and get your body healthy the sickness in your limbs would consume you and you would likely die.
Sounds intense, I know. But go with me here.
So the next day you arrive at the gym; however instead of working out, you simply pulled up at the gym each day. Sat in your car and listened to a podcast on the gym. Maybe even took a photo and posted about getting to the gym. Perhaps you called friends about the gym but when they invited you inside you expressed content with simply watching videos of workouts and just wanting to listen to what others said about the gym.
It'd be considered ridiculous. But not everyone is this way.
Now let's say it got so bad that you did enter the gym this time. Sure, praise and admiration might come with it—I always think to the first couple of times we post a new gym selfie and the likes that follow.
You get there. Check. Problem solved right?
Well once inside, what happens when you grow afraid of getting injured or what tends to plague us all, we're too afraid to look stupid or like we don't know what we're doing, so we stop. We leave. Or we reduce ourselves to mimicking without focused intention.
Our desire to not be corrected publicly, fuels a holding privately to old, ineffective but "comfortable" habits.
And the thing is just because you've asked a trainer or specialist on how to work out…you still have to act.
Otherwise, you will be knowledgeable without activation and that will end in body failure.
This is how despite the news that is already presented by the doctor on your health, the action doesn't happen.
And let's be real, working out is not an unknown concept. Sure the tools have changed and evolved. Certain machines and routines have adjusted from era to era and yet the concept of working out is the same:
LEARN. STRETCH. WORK. PUSH. STRETCH. REST. REPEAT.
If just attending the gym and agreeing that working out was the goal then where would that leave you?
Yet constantly that finds its way into the hearts of people.
The terminology utilized. When words like "incremental" shift from the well-intended starting line to an adjusted finish line in a race that most people actually aren't interested in having. When phrases like "it takes times" or "I'm just here to learn" cloud the call to action what is left is a timidity that keeps you from getting healthy.
Now that we've exhausted the imagination. I have one more imagination exercise to do.
Replace the gym and working out with racial injustice
Replace the sickness with systematic oppression
The foundation on which the work begins gets to fuel the pursuit towards the destination in which we work together.
LEARN. STRETCH. WORK. PUSH. STRETCH. REST. REPEAT.
Keywords: LEARN - WORK - REPEAT
And here's the thing! We all know that working out isn't always fun. The reality is that the muscles must TEAR. The old matter always must BREAK DOWN before healing can occur and the growth can maturate.
This is where grace comes to be. Because when you and only you do the work can you and only you expect the results on the inside then out for your body.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Until the church leads the way, not just with our ears but with a shift of heart and a hunger to mobilize then and ONLY then can we begin to see the breakthrough we so yearn for.