Meeting Our King

I had a teacher once--when DVDs were a new thing--who believed that they would last hundreds of years.

He was wrong.

I just want to watch one scene from the last Lord of the Rings--I mean, I want to watch the whole movie if possible, but at the least the final, triumphant Return of the King.

Not to be my fate tonight...

But then again--who really wants to see the ending without the beginning and the middle and all thats in between?

It's a tricky thing, living.

Sometimes you think your best days are just around the corner and you want to live all the rest out on fast forward, to get to the ones you think you will really love, the triumphant, love wins, joy filled moments when heaven comes...

...but Jesus asks us to be in on the fight, dancing with Him through horrendous moments, knowing His closeness and nearness as the ones around us seem to be going through hell but He's there and we can let them know.

If I got to the end...and hadn't lived out all the parts in between...it wouldn't be much of an ending.

This is a call to live well your fight--for a King is coming--and we are asked to stay faithful, steadfast, trusting in His words and His love for us, even when the world is just war.

Because endurance only comes from having to endure something--and patient endurance only comes as we patiently endure the trials of this life. Joy follows pain--the first is deadened without the wreckage of the last...and though we would like to skip all the suspense and see our King return and heaven come immediately--the middle parts, all the living, is where we grow into the Queens and Princesses, Warriors and Gallant Men that we always were and will be.

This road is no easy straight path to glory--let me never over-simplify the journey--but the pain and joy have purpose. Each step, when consecrated to our King (and that is my word for this year, He keeps asking me to give this year back to Him, my hands off of everything and no more trying to figure it all out on my own) when I choose to live that kind of life, He has promised to turn it all to His glory.

Glory--He will work all things for my good--when I am consecrated to Him, existing for His purposes and listening for His words to me. Will you join me into this journey into the dark? He promises to be a light in dark places, the one guiding us home. He promises us rescue, He promises favor and He promises His Presence--will you take Him at His word and enter the dark, enter the world, shining out light?

He'll be waiting...

Pressing into the dark.