Wholly Yours
I am full of earth/You are Heaven’s worth/I am stained with dirt, prone to depravity.You are everything that is bright and clean, the antonym of me/You are divinity.
But a certain sign of grace is this: From the broken earth flowers come up, pushing through the dirt.
CHORUS:
You are holy, holy, holy
All Heaven cries, holy, holy God
You are holy, holy, holyI want to be holy like You are
You are everything that is bright and clean/And You’re covering me with Your majesty.
And the truest sign of grace was this: From wounded hands redemption fell down, liberating [all].
CHORUS
But the harder I try, the more clearly can I feel the depth of our fall and the weight of it all.
And so this might could be the most impossible thing--Your grandness in me making me clean
Glory, hallelujah/Glory, glory, hallelujah/
CHORUS
So here I am, all of me, Finally everything!
Wholly, wholly, wholly - I am wholly, wholly, wholly!
I am wholly, wholly, wholly…Yours
Okay, but the part that I had trouble with in this same section of the book was Peterson's quote on p. 77: "The gospel of Jesus Christ has no patience with a spirituality that is general or abstract...that takes as its theme song, 'This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through.'" I know what he's saying, that spirituality is lived out on this earth. However, how do we balance living fully while we are here and yet anticipating heaven, our true home? And what about those who are living in a constant state of suffering--children dying of AIDS in Africa, impoverished families in South America, etc. For them, this world is not where they want to live. Thoughts??
2 comments:
esther, i share that final question. i thought of the african american spirituals that were sung during the days of slavery in north america, and i thought how crucial the "sweet by and by" theology was for their daily endurance and perseverance in a world which was unjust and unkind, a world which held little relief, hope or joy.
of course we shouldn't be escapist in our faith (i really appreciated peterson's description of this approach as a form of gnosticism). and the promise of heaven's glory doesn't give us reason or license to "check out" on the here and now.
i'm really attracted to folks who in their lives and faiths and the ways they talk about Jesus demonstrate a balance--they live with their eyes and hands wide open to what God is doing all around them--they're attentive, full of praise and thanks, they give generously, but they also speak confidently of the KOG which is already, but also not yet. . . the fullness of God's glory and time which has been revealed in Christ and is coming, soon and very soon. . .
Yes--the already and not yet Kingdom of God! We are called to put down our roots on this earth, to work toward bringing the reign of Christ, yet always with the hope that Christ WILL come again in final victory. Seems to me that the Church errs on one side or the other (stereotypically the "liberals" vs the "conservatives"), and balance is lost.
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