As I sit here thinking about what blog to write, I don’t
really know where to even begin. This is not to say that I don’t have any
thoughts worth communicating, just that I don’t really know how to put it down
on paper. Sometimes I just can’t seem to muster up the right words to express
what is going on in my head. So instead, I’m going to let someone else write my
blog today. So here is a little glimpse into what I am learning, where I want
to be, and what my prayers have been, in the words of John Piper…
Oh what a grand design! To make our joy the echo of your excellence. To make our pleasure
proof that you now hold the place of
Treasure in our lives. To make the gladness of our souls the essence of our
worship, and the mirror of your
worth. To make yourself most
glorified in us, O God, when we are satisfied in you. How could I, Lord, have ever been so blind to think that being
loved by you means making much of me and not yourself? How could I put my eye
to some great telescope, designed to make me glad with visions of the galaxies,
and notice in the glass a dim reflection of my face and say, “Now I am happy, I
am loved”? How could I stand before the setting sun, between the mountain range
and the vastness of the sea, and think that everlasting joy should come from
making much of me?
No, Father, love is this: At great expense you made
yourself my glory and my boast. The cost was infinite by which you made
yourself the Treasure of my life. You sent your Son, the blazing center of your
beauty and your love. You gave him up to mockery, betrayal, thorns, the whip,
the rod, the fists, the nails, the shame, and death. For what? To swallow up
your wrath, and satisfy your righteousness, and bury all my sins as far as east
is from the west and in the deepest sea, so that I might come home and see the
galaxy. This is your love, O God, not to make much of me, but do whatever must
be done so that I waken to the joy of
making much of you through all
eternity.
In this life we may begin to treasure Christ, and here
gain, as it were, an aptitude for joy in him. A greater weight of glory waits
to be enjoyed for those who grow in love to Christ. And what is love to Christ?
It is the cherishing of all you are for us in
him. It is the treasuring of his perfection over
all the treasures of the world. It is delighting
in his fellowship beyond all family and friends. It is embracing
all his promises that there will be more pleasure in his presence than from all
the lying promises of sin. It is a gladness in
the present taste of glory and the hope of future fullness when we see him face
to face. It is a quiet peace along the path he
chooses for us with its pain. It is being satisfied
that nothing comes to us in vain.
I have tasted what our life might be if I, and you,
could walk along the ever-present edge of death, and smile with utter
confidence that if we fell, or possibly were pushed, it would be gain. Oh what abandon, what great
liberty, what invincible resolve to love would be our portion if we walked this
way! What readiness to suffer for the glory
of Christ! What eagerness to show the poor that we would gladly spend and be
spent to make them glad in God for eternity! What lowliness and meekness and
freedom from the need for praise and pay! All things are ours in Christ—the world,
life, death, the present, the future. All are ours, and we are Christ’s. And
none of it is deserved.
Take your honored place, O Christ, as the
all-satisfying Treasure of the world. With trembling hands before the throne of
God, and utterly dependent on your grace, we lift our voice and make this
solemn vow: As God lives, and is all I ever need, I will not waste my life…
Amen
