Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The True Antidote for Worry

Trevin Wax (who is always worth reading) eloquently makes the case that the real solution to worry is nothing less than the Gospel itself. Here’s a snippet that ought to make you read the rest:

So worry shows up whenever my view of God is diminished and my view of myself gets too big. I worry because my vision of God is skewed. I rest when my vision is fixed.

“Look at the birds of the air!” Jesus said. “God gives them food, even if they don’t work and earn their way.” There’s more to this parallel than a mere animal-to-human comparison about how much more God will care for us. There’s gospel here. God has given undeserved favor to the birds. He blesses them apart from their merits.

God’s grace and mercy is sustaining us too. Everything we have comes from God’s hand. Salvation belongs to the Lord. And the powerful God who saved us is the loving Father who sustains us.

Somebody say Amen.

Monday, October 04, 2010

Instant Classic

Jared Wilson hits a home run with this little parable:

“In the 1982 film Annie, the titular orphan is swept out of the vile clutches of Miss Hannigan at the inner city orphanage, where she and her friends spent their “hard knock life” mired in menial tasks, and delivered into the gleaming mansion of the billionaire Mr. Warbucks. When she first arrives, she is mesmerized by its size and beauty, and by the scores of cheerful servants. Her hostess asks, “Well, Annie, what would you like to do first?” Annie misunderstands. She says she’d probably like to start by washing the windows, and then she'll move on to scrub the floors. She’s thinking she needs to get to work. The hostess just wants to know what fun thing she’d like to start her new life doing.

Annie has not realized she is not an orphan any more.

Christian, you are a Christian. You have a new identity. You are in Christ, and Christ is in you. Let your doing emerge from your being. It will not work the other way around.”

I’d tell you to read the whole thing, but that was the whole thing. If you want more, you'll need to check out his forthcoming book, Gospel Wakefulness: Treasuring Christ and Savoring His Power, coming 2011 from Crossway.