A visiting pastor from Berlin spoke at my church this past month, he said something in his sermon that still rolls around in my mind. The contrast of his words to my typical thoughts is so stark that I appreciate the presence of his words for them to bounce off of.
He said, “This is the greatest time to be alive.” When he looks at the world we are in, he sees the greatness of opportunity and the beauty of new life just longing to spring forth, he sees fields ripe for the harvest and hunger and thirst about to be quenched...and it makes him say, “This is the greatest time to be alive.”
I don’t think I have ever said that, nor can I remember ever actually thinking that. So often I look around me and I lament in tears; I see the momentum of the decay of sin, the wounds of generations that have rejected the Lord, a spiral of darkness that would cause me to despair if I did not have the Savior to cling to. So often I look at the world around me and feel as Solomon speaks in the book of Ecclesiastes 4:1–3 “Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.”
I see oppressed without a comforter.
I see oppressors without a comforter.
I see wickedness making the lives of the living a place of pain.
And I plead for mercy and for Jesus to come back.
But, while I don’t think this view and plea are bad, I cannot rest in this lament. That is one of the reasons I so appreciate these words, “This is the greatest time to be alive.” The Lord convicted me a while back during a service of this truth, “It is not enough to desire to be with Jesus. You must desire also that EVERYONE would be with Him.”
I know the Comforter, the Hope, the Truth, the Life. When I look at the world around me, I must rejoice in the reality that what often makes me want to despair is really just opportunity for another to know this Comforter, this Hope, this Truth and this Life. I can reach out my hands on His behalf, open my mouth to speak His words and find in those I weep over hope-filled companions to spend eternity with. I get to bring Jesus. With this beauty, how can my heart not resonate with this response, “This is the greatest time to be alive!”
He said, “This is the greatest time to be alive.” When he looks at the world we are in, he sees the greatness of opportunity and the beauty of new life just longing to spring forth, he sees fields ripe for the harvest and hunger and thirst about to be quenched...and it makes him say, “This is the greatest time to be alive.”
I don’t think I have ever said that, nor can I remember ever actually thinking that. So often I look around me and I lament in tears; I see the momentum of the decay of sin, the wounds of generations that have rejected the Lord, a spiral of darkness that would cause me to despair if I did not have the Savior to cling to. So often I look at the world around me and feel as Solomon speaks in the book of Ecclesiastes 4:1–3 “Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.”
I see oppressed without a comforter.
I see oppressors without a comforter.
I see wickedness making the lives of the living a place of pain.
And I plead for mercy and for Jesus to come back.
But, while I don’t think this view and plea are bad, I cannot rest in this lament. That is one of the reasons I so appreciate these words, “This is the greatest time to be alive.” The Lord convicted me a while back during a service of this truth, “It is not enough to desire to be with Jesus. You must desire also that EVERYONE would be with Him.”
I know the Comforter, the Hope, the Truth, the Life. When I look at the world around me, I must rejoice in the reality that what often makes me want to despair is really just opportunity for another to know this Comforter, this Hope, this Truth and this Life. I can reach out my hands on His behalf, open my mouth to speak His words and find in those I weep over hope-filled companions to spend eternity with. I get to bring Jesus. With this beauty, how can my heart not resonate with this response, “This is the greatest time to be alive!”
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