Above All

 Weeks ago, a letter arrived in the mail from a long-distance loved one. Laced with fear and pain masking as political angst, it was filled with words I would never have expected to come from this person I'd known all my life and love deeply. And when other communication followed that letter, and I thought of other conversations that had taken place with family in recent years, I began to realize a powerful truth that has the power to make or break all of our days... 

Whatever you place as the first thing is the very thing that shapes you. You don't have to look very far to see that what you've chosen to make the center of your soul is what you eventually become. 

They say everything is theological, and we're all walking theologians in some way and, the more I live, the more I really see that's true. Because in every way, we're all choosing to have something or someone be our way... often settling for substitutes of the only One who Himself is the Way. Bombarded with many counterfeits calling for our attention, we are faced with the decision of whether or not we will place Him as King and Lord of all. And as soon as you begin to move deeper into submission, further into Grace, wholly into Love Himself, you will find that it will expose - not just in yourself but also in others - the lesser things that have set up residence as the focus of your life. Even the good things that have become idols, God's invitation into richer, fuller being will showcase these too. 

In the last several years, as world-wide tensions have risen and everything in our lives has felt like it's shaking and devastating events have pulled on our collective compassion, I feel like it has revealed so much about what matters to us. All the things that we have placed our hope in - candidates, laws, social norms, governments, relationships, life rhythms - it's all been stripped away in some fashion and we've had to ask the hardest question: who or what will be in the center? 

When all you've put in the center becomes fractured, what will be your hope in it all? What will carry you through when it feels like nothing in your life has been left untouched or unchanged? 

Eyes glance across paper, and I can feel the anxiety seeping through the sentences and I want to just reach through the words and hold an aching heart. Because what really matters at that moment is not the fearful sentiments expressed but the fact that it's all crumbling and they have nowhere to go. All the things they have trusted in, relied upon, taken for granted are now shifting, causing them to panic. And all they really need is to come to the Sovereign God Himself and cast their cares on Him, believing in His everlasting care. My heart hurts... not just at the words said but the fact that one can feel so alone when there is no sure foundation. 

Place your hope in politics, in leaders, in outcomes, in money, in education, in status, in title, in your own strength or wisdom, in skills, in circumstances... and watch as God every time finds a way to remind you that this broken place is not your home. HE is your home-space. Always. Watch as life transitions and health declines and jobs change and people change and governments rise and fall and, through it all, One thing remains the same, and only One. Put anything in the center other than God alone, and you will eventually find yourself wanting. Unsatisfied. The unpredictability of events and people and situations will tear you right apart unless you put full-faith in the fact that there is a Ruler who oversees all things for your good and His glory. 

God must be above all, or He is not God at all.

And the ancient apostle put it well when he reminded the early Christians that this same Jesus who was raised from the dead has been placed "far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name... not only in the present age but also in the one to come" (Ephesians 1:21). This means that, if we really believe this, than every hurt that comes, every storm that touches our lives, every shift in the world, every change in our circumstances, has been written since the beginning by the Supreme Author who wisely sits on the throne. He allows things and disallows things in conjunction with His ultimate plans, and no amount of fear on our part can stop what He has ordained. No scheme of man or dark power can shake or remove the move of Him who reigns justly and Whose love for the broken is behind every act. 

Perhaps you feel like life is pretty good right now... or at least improving. Maybe you instead feel like it's all crumbling around you and there's no place to run for shelter. Wherever you find yourself, ask if you truly trust that God is over all of it. Do you place these things in the capable hands of God and keep doing so over and over and over, even when you try to take them back out of unbelief? At the end of the day, as long as you know that your God is above all, working for the benefit of all those who trust in and love Him, then what is there to fear? 

After all, this very God Himself has promised in His own words that "though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed..." (Isaiah 54:10). The One who went to the cross and endured the greatest pain which led to the greatest victory, He it is that speaks to your wild heart and says, Still your breath... I am here... You are free to calm because I still storms, just like I did in Galilee... You are free to rest in Me because I am taking care of it all... Because I am above it all.