It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.
Ephesians 2:1-6 (The Message)
I have been listening to a lot of U2 over the last two days. One of my reasons for doing so was to “purge” my soul from a lot of the darkness I had been feeling since learning about Chris Cornell’s suicide. I listened to quite a bit of his music afterwards and it was depressing. After that I needed something with more hope. U2 served that purpose.
I am still reading Ephesians from Eugene Peterson’s The Message. I really appreciate the imagery and the down-to-earth language he uses. I know he takes artistic liberties from time to time but even the most scholarly translations have to resort to interpretation when it comes to some things. As long as one understands and acknowledges that I think that different translations and paraphrases are helpful, especially to those of us who don’t know the original languages.
The first thing that jumps out of this passage is the idea that the world’s way of living is no life at all. I sometimes forget that. I let the things of this world distract me or bog me down. I fall victim to the temptation that the world has all the answers when I know that just isn’t true. Peterson reminds me that God’s immense mercy and incredible love show me what true life is all about. It’s found in Jesus. I can never hear that enough. That is what sustains me.
Grace and peace.
Through A Glass Darkly 