I have a lot of work to do today and I can't do it. I read an article in a magazine that came in the mail today about a website that facilitates adultery and it has ruined my day. It isn't the first time I've heard about it, but it has ruined my day non-the-less, or at least my hour.The worst part is that that's not what ruined my day. I was doing some work on Facebook and saw several other articles and videos posted testifying to the gravity of the depravity that inundates this world and then read that awful article all in a matter of 15 minutes and all without looking to find such instances of evil at work. And so this combination and unsought reminder of the magnitude of evil in the world ruined my day, or at least my hour. And so I couldn't work.
Instead, I started praying. Sort of. I imagined the mass number of people recorded flocking to this anti-marital website and I started crying. I thought of a conversation I had yesterday with someone believing prostituted women choose to be prostituted. I thought of the statistical level of online porn usage and the number of people it has sucked in and devoured. I told God it sure looks like evil has triumphed. I asked Him what He was thinking making all these millions and billions of people who have become so eager to marry themselves to evil and join in its fate.
Then I saw myself here crying and I remembered that I am not the only one. I am not alone. I am not the only one broken by the awareness of evil. I am not the only one whose heart and mind Christ is and has been at work to change into one like His own. Perhaps this awareness does not affect all in the same way, but non-the-less there are others called to be set apart, to see the world through a different lens, to think with a different mind, and to live differently, as ones reconciled to God. There are others and they are one. They are called the Bride and the creation of the masses with the ability to choose or reject Christ was the only way to have her and He found her worth it. And He has eyes for no other. He is the only faithful One, and by His faithfulness He cultivates faithfulness.
And so my day has been redeemed. He has done what was impossible to do. He defeated death. He ransomed the hearts of men and is actively changing them into His very own heart. I'm not sure which is harder to believe. Both are impossible, but He did and does. And so when I think of people who have asked in the past and without a doubt will ask again if what we at TriHOPe hope to do is even possible, if it's even possible to end sexual assault or to stop sex trafficking or to change the attitude of our culture, I will tell them confidently, "No." It is not possible; it is impossible. With human effort, it cannot be done. On my own I can do nothing. Nothing. Yet I serve One who specializes in accomplishing the impossible.My faith is not set on the results I may or may not see in my lifetime, rather my hope and my faith are in the One who is faithful and the One who is capable and the One who overcomes. So I will not stop working for His purposes. And I will not stop praying for His purposes. And I will not stop testifying to His purposes. I will fix my eyes on Him who is the Author and Perfecter of my faith and not on the evil that runs rampant because He is the One who triumphs.
So anyway, I'm going to get back to work now.
Psalm 127:1-Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it...
