Active Worklesness

Isaiah 26:12 O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you have indeed done for us all of our works.

Sunday afternoon at the Stubbs' house usually means that Cal and I break out the roundball and sweat it out to the latest Christian rap songs for an hour or so. To me there are few things more fun than playing with Cal, and I must say He is becoming a decent ball player. The brakes are usually applied to our game when Cal's little brother Eli comes storming out on the court. Eli is only three, yet he really thinks he is capable of competing with anyone on any level. Of course, his successful shots occur only when I pick him up and he drops the ball in the basket. After this he feels extremely confident in his ability to score and wants to do it again! Kind of weird how he thinks he is a great player when someone else is really doing all the work don't you think?

The clarity at which Isaiah looks forward to Christ is astounding. If you read through the book of Isaiah it is impossible to miss Jesus. He and His works are every where. In 26:12 above, Isaiah is looking forward to "that day" when Christ reigns and his understanding surpasses that of many Christians today, and he was prophesying almost 750 years before Christ set foot in the manger. What Isaiah is saying is a critical building block to a fruitful life in Christ. We all know that Jesus died the death due for us on the cross and we praise Him for His work. Do we understand that He also lived the perfect sinless life that we can never live, and we need to praise Him for that as well?

He literally has done all of our work for us, work that we could never do. As we walk through this life as a Christ follower, we are much like my son Eli thinking we are a good basketball player when Christ is the one ordaining, providing and directing the work we have to do at hand. Now there can be a dangerous thought process that occurs on the back side of this understanding which looks like total inactive self absorption in the world. We could logically say well if Jesus has done it all then we can just party on and do our thing. The big problem with this type of mentality is that it misses the core understanding of what a Christ follower does. He follows Christ, the head of the Church as he redeems the lost and restores the oppressed, and he does it with the same simple joy that my Eli does by dropping the ball in the basket.

Jesus does not prescribe to us a life we must live to please Him. He filled that prescription and sacrificed back to the Father. True freedom is found when we understand that His life and death are substituted in our place and that there is no other person, place or object that can permanently fill our hearts desires. When those truths are firmly planted in the core of our hearts, we are then set free to passionately minister with Joy unto the Lord. When that occurs God alone receives Glory and we are stoked to just be a part of it all.

If you want to see what active worklessnes looks like in person, come on over about 3:30 Sunday and watch Eli dunk in his simple joy, accomplishing his goal powered by one stronger than him that is doing all the work.