Poverty With A View

A great friend of mine, Kent Maxson, is a song writer.  His gift has been recognized within his professional circles, as well as the common man’s heart.  His words touch our souls in ways that only music can.  He spoke a phrase in one of our many conversations that has stuck with me ever since.  That phrase was “poverty with a view.”

I wonder if that phrase, “poverty with a view”, isn’t an illustration of the Christian life here on earth.  Compared to what God offers us in the life after our physical death, this current existence is poverty….with a faith-filled view of a wonderful future.

Those in heaven are said to be “before the throne of God, serving Him night and day.  They will never again experience hunger, thirst, the beating sun, or scorching heat.  They have Jesus as their shepherd, who leads them to springs of living water.  God wipes away every tear from their eyes.”  (Rev. 7)  What a powerful and beautiful description of what awaits those who trust in Jesus Christ for salvation.  This life pales in comparison. 

They live in God’s loving and protective presence.  We live surrounded by dangerous and evil people who threaten our loved ones through crime, war, and terror. 

They have all their physical needs met fulfilled.  They are satisfied.  We live amidst hunger, homelessness, disease, and craving. 

They are led to living water that quenches thirst for all time, that springs up to eternal life.  (John 4)  We live under the constant reality and threat of death.

They have every tear shed from grief, loss, pain, disappointment, shame, fear, anger, or despair wiped away.  Such emotional realities will not exist.  They are gone forever.  We….well perhaps enough said.

This current life seems so impoverished compared to what awaits me.  Paul expresses these same thoughts in Philippians 1:20-26.  Here and now we live by faith.  Faith that this current poverty will be replaced by riches beyond imagination.  So we walk through this poverty, believing and trusting in the promise of what we view only through faith.

If the poverty overwhelms you at times.  Look up.  Capture a view of what He promises.  Your pace will pick up.  Your heart will be lifted up.  You will find strength for the journey.

Crock pot God in a Microwave World

I was listening to a David Ramsey video on financial planning.  He talked about how his program would never satisfy those who want a microwavable answer to a crockpot problem.  We want speed.  We lack patience.  Now is acceptable.  Later is not.

My personal experience with God leads me to view Him as a crockpot God in a microwave world.  Day by day, week by week, month by month, and year by year He works in my life to fashion me more and more like His Son Jesus Christ.  Few things seem to come easily or quickly to me.  Perhaps I am dull and slow.  Perhaps I am unique in this.  Perhaps I am not.  You judge for yourself. 

God waited 120 years after announcing the flood to Noah before sending rain.  Moses tended sheep in the wilderness for 40 years while God prepared him to be the Great Deliverer.  Israel wondered 40 years in the wilderness while God raised a new generation faithful enough to enter the Promised Land.  Jesus has now waited almost 2000 years to return in order that the Gospel might be preached to more and more people.  The Kingdom of God might be refined by fire but it seems more like a crock pot than a microwave…slow cooking takes that which is tough and difficult and makes it tender and tasty.

Fast, quick, and now may fill my mind, my heart, and my prayers.  Slow, steady, and lasting seem to fit God.  God give me patience.  God give me perspective for I live in a microwave world….and yet I seek to love, serve, and trust in a crock pot God.