What would you attempt if you were guaranteed success, guaranteed the desired outcome and all the rewards of a job well done? Remember when Jesus sent the apostles out with nothing, in Matthew 10? With no extra tunic, no sandals, no copper nor silver nor gold, their needs were met as they went. Hearts set on obedience don't worry about failure.
Remember your own zeal? Remember when you would have sold it all and gone out with Him to the very very ends, the absolute edge of reality and sense?
No one fails in the easy yoke of Christ.
Hope, that most intangible of possessions, grows greater in our meager circumstances. When all you have is all He promises and nothing you see, you hope for so much.
And then you get a little something.
A little knowledge. A little experience. A little bit of an opinion and interpretation and logically-drawn safeguards. You might get people's approval or just the opposite, but both can find their way into your heart and make you careful.
You don't lose hope. You lose your need for it and that's worse.
It's the difference between doing something you're comfortable with, like sitting in the pew, for example, and doing something that scares you and maybe even makes you a little mad to be asked, like singing on stage let's just say.
One's comfortable because it's the same. The other is scary because it's outside of all you feel equipped for or called to.
When you are safe you only ask for the hope that nothing will change.
The advent of Christ's birth is also the coming of the One who makes us accepted before God. And it's done. It's accomplished in the failed logic of a virgin birth. It's finished in the seeming failure of a crucified King.
We are the crazy people who follow this juxtaposition. It's a holy contrast and so are we - that we want to please God but are afraid of displeasing Him, so we become safe-keepers and do nothing.
But what if you couldn't fail?
The pages are about to turn on another year.
What if you couldn't fail in this New Year because all your hope was rested in Christ only, not in what you can safely do, easily accomplish, logically complete or skillfully manage?
{This post is linked up with Jennifer and #TellHisStory}