Power

"Without deliberate awareness of the present risenness of Jesus, life is nonsense, all activity useless, all relationships are in vain. Living in the awareness of the risen Jesus is not a trivial pursuit."
- Brennan Manning in "Abba's Child"

The kids and I read through Hebrews a few weeks ago during our morning Bible time. Brandt and Gresham teased me because each day it seemed that I would end our time with "Wow! Some strong words for today, right kids?" But for this mom who is always looking for more power to do more than "just make it" through the day, Hebrews is a part of God's word that I never consider carefully enough. In its message is the power that I crave. I always seem to need an insane amount of forbearance, three extra hands to dry tears and tie shoes, a bigger lap for the little ones, better ears to actually HEAR the drywaller amid the screaming, a bigger heart to understand more, a stronger will, a different mind, an extra 15 minutes... There literally is never enough "Mommy" to go around, it seems, and yet to me it seems that I'm giving all that I can.

When Evangeline was born, Cathy Thompson (Brian's sweet "Sponsor Mom" from the Air Force Academy), sent me a timely card. Two years later, I can still picture the doorway in which I read it, the handwriting that inscribed the message, and the general meaning of the words: "If with three children you ever believed that you could do it all, that you could keep it all together, you will find that with four children this is finally impossible. Now the Lord has you where He wants you. You must begin to live 'in the power of His present risenness.'" From that day forward, that mandate has been my mantra in banal moments and pivotal times. Eva needs a diaper change but Seth needs his nose blown: Live in the power of His present risenness. Brandt needs to talk about some serious problems with a neighborhood friend but Gresham just came screaming into the house with a bleeding head: Live in the power of His present risenness. Eva fell and broke her leg and Brian's gone to Colorado for the weekend: Live in the power of His present risenness. Brandt broke his arm on the day our packers showed up: Live in the power of His present risenness. Our only daughter is hospitalized for the third time this year. Her vital signs are getting weaker: Live in the power of His present risenness.

There is no power in the words themselves; but there is power in the FACT that Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God the Father. In our house we like to ask this question: "Why is Jesus seated instead of standing?" Answer: "Because He has finished the work that the Father gave Him. He has already done all that is necessary to save us and sanctify us." That's what "It is finished" meant when Jesus spoke those words on the cross. I don't have to fear and fuss and fume and rage because I've been spiritually checked out of that rathole of despair that the Bible calls "The World" and checked into the Kingdom of God! Could I find a better position than this if I searched the earth high and low for a lifetime?

Hebrews 2:9
"But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone."
All possible fears are vanquished. Jesus tasted eternal death and physical death for me. What more can my grasping for control add to a done deal?

Hebrews 2:11-13
"For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying 'I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You.' And again: 'I will put my trust in Him.' And again: 'Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.'"
I have been given to God the Father through the work of God the Son. I am the child of the Creator of the universe ... a "brethren" of Jesus. If God will not ignore the cries of His Son, He will not ignore the cries of His daughter. These are bold words! His power will flow to me and through me when He wills it to be so. I do not need to sink my fingernails in to what cannot be mine but instead open my hands gratefully to what He is choosing to give me at the moment when I need it most.

Hebrews 2:16
"For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham."
What more do I need than His aid?

Hebrews 2:17-18
"Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are being tempted."
Jesus sees me. He sees you. He knows and aids because He WAS. He experienced the exact magnitude and genre--if not the exact predicament-- of the temptation that I face today. To be sure, His work was for the propitiation of the wrath of God against my sin; but it's also for all of these unbearable moments. It's for these moments so that instead of fretting and fighting with my intractable will, my impossible impatience, my "overwhelmedness," I can instead lay down in my Father's arms and simply "do the next thing." (Thank you, Elisabeth Elliot for that piece of advice)

I used to think that Christ's power was for salvation and that the subject ended there. Perhaps I wouldn't have stated it that way; but my actions and secret thoughts betrayed me. Overcoming sin always seemed to be a matter of "trying harder" and "remembering lessons from the past." And so I constantly failed. Because the power was all my own and it was no power at all. But the process of raising children kept my aching heart longing for some better way. How could I look Brandt in the eye and tell him to "try harder" when I knew very well that such advice couldn't hope to conquer the monster that lurked within? I'm not sure how the transformation happened, but I believe it culminated and crystallized in my mind when our congregation in Alaska memorized Hebrews 1:1-3:
"God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds. who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High."
I'm not sure I can think of a better reason to continue living and fighting joyfully!