I stood on the wobbly step stool while my friend Hope steadied it from below. Reaching up to the glass in front of me, I spritzed Windex across the pane and cleaned away the dirt, grime, and streaks from the window. "Thank you so much for doing that girls," the lovely lady from our church gratefully said handing us candy and homemade cookies to take on our way. "I have been wanting to clean that for such a long time and just couldn't reach it." Ms. B was a lovely woman to encounter this weekend during our cleanup morning, and I am thankful to her for reminding me that whether it be window wiping or trying to accomplish more monumental things in life, we can't do it from our own self-sufficiency. Oh yes we try like the little engine that could, chugging along and huffing, "I think I can. I think I can!" But when we get to the top of the hill and pull into the station, the cheering crowd may not even be there, or if they are, it turns out that it isn't as fulfilling as you'd hoped. Until we see life through the lens of Jesus' finished work on the cross and make Him our treasure, every striving and addition in our lives will lead to frustrated emptiness.
This reminds me of a passage I read recently in the book of Haggai. To give a bit of context, the Jews had returned to Jerusalem with a mission to rebuild the temple after many years of exile in Babylon. Although work had previously begun, resistance from adversaries halted the progress (see Ezra 4). Thus, the prophet Haggai spoke a message from God to His people calling them to return their eyes and lives to Him. This would be signified by less focus on the menial strivings of their daily lives and instead on rebuilding His temple where His glory and presence would reside among them. The prophet states, "Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. (Haggai 1:4-6)
Do you ever feel this way after all you've done is work, strive, fall down, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and push onward? You've filled and filled and filled.......and it's meaninglessly empty. Like, these men and women over 2,500 years ago, I too can be guilty of this same error. Oh, I don't try to push God out of the way. No, I just keep inching up into the driver's seat beside Him and putting my hands on the wheel too. Of course He's driving, but I just have to get my hands in there to make minor adjustments where I see fit. It's as if I think that by thinking and trying hard enough, I can do it of my own accord. Oh Cassie, Cassie, Cassie. When will I ever learn? Again and again, I have to ask God to tear down the idol of self and to destroy it, decimate it, smash it to smithereens! I like what one of my favorite authors, Tim Keller, says about idols of the heart in his book Counterfeit Gods. "Idols cannot simply be removed. They must be replaced. If you only try to uproot them, they grow back; but they can be supplanted.
By what? By God himself, of course. But by God we do not mean a general
belief in his existence. Most people have that, yet their souls are
riddled with idols. What we need is a living encounter with God."
If we, ourselves and efforts, are not enough and we need an encounter with a living God, where shall we seek? In the Old Testament time such as that of Haggai, the people built a temple so that through priests and mediators they could approach God. Church buildings are wonderful places, and I love mine very much, but now that Jesus has come it's just that, a building. We don't have to build a structure for Him to occupy, for we can look at the cross and shout out victoriously, "Christ has conquered death and paid the penalty for my broken sinfulness!" By embracing that we are fully empty in this world and calling in faith on the saving name of Jesus, we can be filled. They (and we) were eating yet hungry and drinking yet thirsty? Be filled with Jesus, the Bread of Life and the Living Water! We don't need a building, a mediator, or works for we can approach the throne of grace with confidence with one mediator between God and mankind, the man Jesus Christ (Hebrews 4:16, 1 Timothy 2:5). Set your eyes upon His perfect, finished work on behalf of sinners such as me and make Him your treasure. Let what was fully empty becoming overflowing with the greatest abundance and joy in all the earth!
