When the way forward is shrouded in fog and mist and the road ahead is unclear and uncertain. Remember, there is a way through to the other side.

What if were to remember and to believe that God exists, and what if we allowed that reality to interrupt our view of absolutely everything else?

I love how earthy and human and gritty the Christmas story is. It takes the seemingly abstract notion of an eternal creator and injects Him into the dirt of the world that He made.

In short, I feel a little exasperated as I sit down to write this.

Why is the world so busted? Is there truly a way to live in the tension of the now and the not yet Kingdom of God without giving into empty platitudes or cold-hearted decrees?

So, I am asking the Lord for His help, for help to face the world as it really is, and as I have been sitting here I believe that He has given it. I just remembered that today is actually a significant day in the church calendar. Today is Ascension Day, the day that comes forty days after Easter Sunday, when we remember that the resurrected Christ ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father.

Hope that is deferred makes the heart sick. Hope needs to be applied in the here and now to whatever it is that you face today, in the very present tense, in the immediacy of all of life’s interruptions. Living in the constant deferred hope of some form of sanctified self and world where I am who I hope to be and the world works as it should creates a constant, restless, longing that can make the heart grow sick.

Pray for the church in Ukraine. May the Lord give them supernatural bravery and protection. Pray for the church in Russia. May the Lord use them as peacemakers able to speak boldly and persistently to those in power. Pray for world leaders who are able to influence future outcomes. May the Lord give them wisdom, humility, boldness where needed, and a heart for the good of the people they serve.

We often worship wrongly because we assume that God thinks like we do, but tucked away in Psalm 147 is some great news about the kind of people that please God. He measures differently to the way that we do. He isn’t impressed with physical strength and major earthly achievement. Verse 11 tells us that He takes pleasure… yes pleasure, in the faithfulness and trust of ordinary people.

Sometimes we just need a reminder of who is with us. When life beats us up, and when failure abounds, and when we are too scared and too ashamed to ski down the hill to face our own weak failures, then we too need to remember God’s Spirit has been promised to the church, and that He remains in our midst, which means we are never alone, and we never have truly justifiable reason for unbridled fear.

You see, prayer is a wonderful declaration of weakness, of need, of humility. By its very nature, prayer declares that we are not God, and that we need someone stronger and wiser than us to help. It also declares, in that moment, that the God of the Heavens is that one that we need, and we anticipate that we will be met by Him with mercy, gentleness and love.

Next year though, just you wait and see. I am going to be a whole new person. A person who does Iron Man races and doesn’t just watch Ironman movies. I am going to learn Spanish and maybe some Mandarin, and I am going to write poetry, and memorize Scripture, and cook pastries, and journal regularly (maybe even in Spanish), and avoid carbs (even after cooking said pastries), and drink gallons of water, and stay off coffee, and … well … you get the point. I have aspirations to be a much better version of myself, a version that is considerably more godly and more disciplined than my current iteration. In the meanwhile, though, I will either just pretend, or I will push into the incredible and scandalous grace that is available for a sinner like me.