Big As Life
By
Pastor Jack Hayford
“I’d just like a little home in the country where life
is easy...”
“Wouldn’t it be nice to have a job with less responsibility...”
“Honey, I don't see how we can plan that direction; it’s
too much...”
“It’s such a large church, we thought we'd rather attend
a smaller...”
“Yes, we had the chance for promotion, but Harold thought
it better to ...”
Do you recognize those words? I do. I’ve said some of them
and heard all of them. They’re words which characterize our
human preference for what poets call "the idyllic.” It
is the quest for the quiet, the slow, the easy, the undemanding.
It is carried out in a scene of tall trees standing sentinel around
a small, but comfortable cottage. You can see it, can't you? The
wind blowing through the high grass also curls the smoke from the
chimney. The clouds on the horizon are purpled by the sunset.
Isn’t it beautiful?
Isn’t is restful?
Isn’t it pointless?
How “big” is life supposed to be?
Are scenes like those visualized above to be places of periodic
retreat and rest, or is all of life to be an enchanting dream? Honestly,
aren't we all of us tempted by the presence of duty to permanently
flee it?
Of course we are. I resist the pressure of responsibility and I
am troubled by the fact that life seems never to reduce in responsibility—it
ceaselessly increases. Hence the load...as big as life itself.
What stance do I recommend? Flee, run, resist, wrestle...or live?
I vote for life. I say, LIVE.
But live in “the power of an endless life.” Hebrews
7:16 relates those magnificent words. They're expressive of the
dynamic which Jesus can work inside of anyone who will let Him.
And He keeps making Life bigger!
He closes out the possibilities of tiny-ness, pettiness, small-mindedness,
non-expectancy, and fear-unto-flight. And while He doesn't move
you into the woods, He brings wisdom, discernment, and sound-mindedness
to the marketplace of your daily living and thereby...
...Peace.
Perfect peace. “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to
you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart
be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). Those
are promise-packed words from the Head of the Corporation. He directs
that we stay in business, and that we be unafraid of expecting business
to increase. He builds quality into the people-products He is recreating
to live life to its fullest—its largest.
You don’t need to be afraid for one moment that the responsibility
He brings you will burn out the equipment He’s given you.
His life power—endless in quality and quantity—is the
resource to guarantee you can more than survive. You can triumph.
Peacefully. |
Jack
Hayford Ministries
14800 Sherman Way, Van Nuys, CA 91405-2233