Perspective...

Someone once said, of God, that He is “Lord of the Heights of Faith that can calm the troubled soul and Lord of the Depths of Fear that can tear such Faith apart”.

In our line of work, we daily come face-to-face with both extremes. Most everyone who finds our doors genuinely desires change; they want a reprieve from a life of choices that just do not work. For a brief moment, all are touched by God and by his life-changing faith. But few will find this place of life-change, because the personal “cost” is just too great. Most desire the better life but find little value in the need to die well (to self) in order to have that better life. This means a return to faith-rending fear.

As a leader (and as a daily-recovering addict to self-exaltation) my constant prayer is for Perspective. This world (Water Street Rescue Mission) that I so dearly love is full of destruction and death (and a few visible victories). In my middle-of-the-night prayer times, the burden of pain often seems unbearable. Yet always He comes very softly, holds me close, and reminds me of just Who He Is (and of who I am not). He also reminds me of the day (about a year ago) that I stepped into His absolute contentment that makes these nightly “deaths to self” have value. He reminds me of His absolute Sovereignty and of the fact that He is Good. He reminds me of how, since His lovely Jesus traded His Righteousness for the Sin of all humanity, He is able to use even Sin to shape us into His Image.

Truly, “He is the Lord of All; of the seen and unseen things; of the creation that proclaims Him; of the power not to sin. He has always been and always will be Lord of All”.

- Norm Lowry, Men’s Ministry