Blog

A Strange Way to Glory

She stood before her husband, staring through the bars of a prison door at a broken shell of a man, nearly unrecognizable after the torture he survived. He slipped her a sliver of paper, with words scribbled hastily, telling his faith in Christ. These words would change her life and the lives of countless others, as she soon confessed Christ, was arrested and went on to lead women in worship of her Savior under cover of the prison outhouse. We only know of her story because of her eventual release and escape to South Korea. This account, taken from Open Doors World Watch List 2017, describes the shocking reality of Christians living in North Korea, number one in the world for extreme persecution of Christians. 

It's a strange way to glory.

I have no context for this. I live quite comfortably. I pray in restaurants with my family before I eat. I invite friends and neighbors into my home for bible study and just this morning I had a conversation on my back deck with my husband about ministry dreams and the spiritual development of my children. The young woman from North Korea has no context for my life either. I did these things without fear of who would hear, what anyone would think, and had not the slightest concern for my safety. I enjoy freedoms Christians around the world have never had. And yet God’s message is for us all:

“Dear friends (the apostle Peter declares), I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” 1 Peter 1:11-12

And what “wages war” against my soul? A desire for justice against those who would do wrong to me? For my hurt feelings? For an act I deem unfair to me or my family? What about wanting things done my way? What about a thirst for something other than my Christ? How have I ignored the persecution he endured for all humanity? How does my American version Jesus reflect the real Jesus Christ of the Bible?

My, my - it's a strange way to glory.

My response to my discomfort (not even close to persecution) often goes unchecked with a hasty response or an action taken I later regret. And this North Korean woman proclaims Christ. Not in her backyard, her home or in a restaurant, but in the crude toilet of a prison, singing praises to her King because she knows this is not her home. She is a stranger here on this earth, born of it, but not belonging to it. 

This is a strange way to glory.

Our comfortable Christianity is slowly slipping away, and the good deeds Peter talks about are hard to display from a heart that doesn’t know how to respond to disagreement, to immorality, to loving people in the face of these things and more.

When you someday face persecution, how will you respond? I pray it will be with good deeds that lead to a strange and victorious glory.

Complete Anticipation

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.”

Genesis 1:2-3

It might seem a strange place to start when speaking of the Spirit, but I figure, might as well start at the beginning. And as it turns out, this is my favorite part. Imagine the Spirit of God, anxious with anticipation. God is about to unleash his best on this formless and dark place: the earth and our very souls. He’s about to proclaim light and breathe on it his limitless creative Spirit that has been there from the beginning of time. And as He breathes new life into these bodies He’s gifted us with, He fills up the empty yearning gaps inside us with none other than His Spirit! “Let there be light!” he says. I’ve got to add the exclamation because I can’t imagine it any other way. I’m trying to picture the sheer pleasure it must have been for the Spirit to witness what He was waiting for – beautiful streaming light in all directions. And I can’t imagine the Spirit any other way than when He takes residence in us. God’s own Spirit living in us, guiding us into truth and wisdom, searching out everything about us, tending to us and ushering us into God’s glorious light.

The Holy Spirit – perhaps the only claim to holiness we can cling to, is God’s gift to us. His Spirit, His light, His perfecting work in us to know Him.

And I’m in love with this fact – God is not far off – He is here, within me, and I can know Him. I do know Him because of His Spirit. He leads me to right wrongs, to listen to a wounded heart when I’ve got a really long to-do list and to rest in His presence and be still. He reminds me of my humanity and to love when it’s ever so hard because I am loved though undeserving. He comforts in my grief, He is counsel and might and knowledge and just when I think I get it, He reminds me of the mystery of the Father, Son and Spirit. And this makes me smile. The work will continue in me. I won’t ever be done learning or being shaped into the person He’s made me to be on this earth, but I do have a promise. I’ve got a mighty God, the very Spirit of Him who made the heavens, the earth and every person on this planet, living and working in me. And if He promises to come and live in me, He will see it all the way through to completion.