Meet me in my secret heart Lord

"....teach me wisdom in my secret heart..."  Ps51

The ancient sages know about the secret heart - that corner of our most inner being where we squirrel away any number of things.  No, that's not quite accurate; what we really do is press things into that corner of our inner being - press them hard and often, assuring that they will never find their way to the surface.

Our secret heart is the place where we secure our deepest secrets and our darkest selves.  It is the corner that we protect: from the light of day, from the casual inspection of onlookers, and from any attempts to dissect or discuss.

In this deep corner of our heart we store three things: our dreams, our fears and our sins.

Let's look at dreams.  When I was a child I spotted a wonderful white angora cardigan on a mannequin in a local shop window.  It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen and I knew that if I wore it, I would be beautiful too.  In fact, I might even become the epitome of all dreams: a ballerina....or if that failed, a princess.  All I needed was that white angora sweater.

So I began to lobby for it, subtly of course.  My birthday was approaching so I mentioned that a new sweater would be nice.  White would make it versatile and I had seen so many beautiful ones.  I never missed a chance to point out this wonderful concoction in the store window.  When the birthday box came, it was the right size and shape.  It was a white sweater - a wonderfully practical utilitarian white cardigan sweater.

And my dream was shattered:  now I would never be a princess or a ballerina.  Now I would never know what it meant to be beautiful.  A dream was lost.  A dream no one knew I had.  A dream that wasn't remotely grounded in reality.  A dream that was based on a child's need to feel beautiful.  Gone without ever having been mentioned.

Those are the kinds of things we store in our secret heart.  Dreams like a happy marriage with 2 children.  Dreams like a job helping others.  Dreams like playing professional baseball.  Dreams like sending your children to college.

We tuck these dreams into our secret hearts and guard them from the light of day because the disappointment of their failure is more than we think we can bear.

So what is God's wisdom to us?  God says, "I know."  I know about your dreams, and hopes and disappointments.  I know.  Yet, I have planted within you talents and gifts and strengths and wisdom that are needed in this world to make it a better place, to ease the suffering of others, to build a safe place for all.  I need you just as you are - you are perfect for these tasks ahead.

"...teach me wisdom in my secret heart...."

To heal and mend the world..........

We are knee deep in politics here in America as a dozen men and women press their agendas as potential candidates for the office of President.

What we get to hear is each potential 'next president'  candidate's vision for America.  Their political agenda, and if they are doing it right, their 'call to arms' to the voting public to join them in making America great.

Jesus had an agenda too, and we get to hear it in the 4th chapter of Luke when he quotes from the prophet Isaiah 60.
   

'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to bring good news to the poor,

 release to the captives, sight to the blind

 and freedom to the oppressed.  

To announce the year of the Lord's favor.'

Jesus is talking about turning this world upside down, inside out.....and in the end....upside right.  Jesus is setting out to heal and mend the world.

It's what we've all dreamed of......a world of mutuality, of peace, of fellowship.....a place where the world sings in 'perfect harmony.'  We have a dream; Jesus has a mission.

The healing of the nations is God's great design and desire for this creation.  So through the Son, God acts in this world....in our world....to heal and mend the nations.

And it will start with those who have found themselves at the bottom of the pile:  those imprisoned by ruling authority gone mad, those whose bodies have been broken from the very beginning and whose lives have always been a struggle, and those who are pressed down by the structures humans have created.  But it will not stop there.

Jesus will stand in the midst of all who are held captive by the demons of drugs or mental illness; all those whose spirits have been broken by the brokenness of another; all those who are blind to the truth and those unable to see any possibility beyond today.  Jesus will stand with those oppressed by poverty and those oppressed by others.  Jesus will stand with those who have been wrongly imprisoned and those who are defined by the crimes that put them in prison in the first place.

Jesus will also stand right next to the one who does the oppressing, is guilty of blinding a neighbor, has broken the spirit of another human being.

Jesus will stand right in the midst of the gang wars and abusive homes, the killing fields and depraved indifference.....so that God might be at work in him....healing and mending the world.  Both the do-ers and the receivers.  Nothing less will accomplish God's plan: the whole creation singing in perfect harmony.

For us it is no more than a dream.  For God, it is the future that comes to us in Jesus and at the same time is waiting for us.  Jesus is that tomorrow; Jesus leads us to that tomorrow.  Thanks be to God.