Christ considered death on the Cross as His greatest victory.
Stop reading things like that as religious language with its own sacred meaning. Read that as you would any normal English communication. What our world still thinks of as a tragic failure is Our Savior’s success in His mission. How often do we find all this happy Christian talk of victory that carefully excludes human failure?
When the Lord burned into my consciousness the realization that I had to reject Western Civilization in order to walk with Him, I knew it was a Quixotic mission to tell others. I had no doubt I would share some of Jeremiah’s sense of accomplishment. Indeed, I rather doubt I’ll see nearly as much fulfillment of forewarned wrath that he saw directly with his eyes. And just how much “proof” did Abraham have that God truly intended to make his descendents owners of that land?
So I know how Sister Christine feels in a certain sense. Is it any wonder we both find more comfort from wildlife and foliage than we do from our fellow humans? We are still people and we still need that loving touch somewhere. Jeremiah had supporters who would haul him out of a pit and Abraham had his own private army. We share online a lot because we can hardly get anyone in the flesh to listen.
It really is God’s problem whether anyone listens. We don’t rejoice that the world we know first-hand prefers the big lies. That’s the part that hurts the most, because we know it’s wholly unnecessary. We also know the limits of or calling and the dominion that God has delivered into our hands. You’d be seriously mistaking something if you sensed the least bit of elitism or superiority in our work. Every day we are confronted with the overwhelming evidence of just what kind of Hell we have escaped in this life.
The Apostle John warned that it would only get worse, and that we should get used to it. So we let our light shine into the darkness and count ourselves so utterly fortunate to know what light is. The craft of called elders is to hold out God’s answer for those willing and able to take it. God is the One who actually chooses.
