Hope

At the Stop of the World

Modern English made famous a song with these lyrics:

I’ll stop the world and melt with you
You’ve seen the difference and its getting better all the time
There’s nothing you and I won’t do
I’ll stop the world and melt with you.

The notion of these songs is that we want to freeze frame those moments of indescribable pleasure; the moments when it seems that all is right in the world.

On the other side of the spectrum are the moments when it seems right that the world should stop and it doesn’t: the untimely death of a loved one, the genocide of a generation, the heartbreak of a child. In these moments, we marvel at the fact that the world can go on. When it seems that the world should stop and stand aghast at the tragedy, nothing delays the turmoil and nothing delays the ordinariness of the rest of life.

Its in these moments while we are grieving and others are going grocery shopping, when we cry and others are cutting class, that we realize that the fact the world continues as it has for centuries past, and years to come (should Christ tarry) is just another example of the faithfulness of God. God comforts us in our pain, at the same time, He sustains our world when we are unable to fathom anything beyond our own grief. The sun still rises, the oceans crash, and its all a part from our own desire or initiative. Even when we are too consumed with loss to appreciate His good work, His good work remains.

There’s only been once in history where God did stop the world (Isaiah 38:8) and when He did so it was to signal His commitment to a promise. The fact that the world doesn’t stop is also a signal of what a faithful God we serve for in guiding the Earth’s path, He provides for His children. In directing the sun, He is sustaining life. Even when life may seem a little dimmer, His care for us shines through. We may be feel like we are the farthest thing from being on top of the world, and yet His providence never stops.

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Hope

Added Value

In my field (marketing), there’s a concept called “added value.” It’s the idea that it is no longer possible to build a better mousetrap, therefore an organization’s job is to find a way to deliver unexpected value to their customers. So maybe you can’t build a better mousetrap, but you can give your customers a lifetime warranty for the mousetrap you can build. That warranty becomes an added-value.

(Quick sidebar – this example also demonstrates poor strategy because a warranty is an easily replicated value added and therefore does not help the organization differentiate themselves in their customers’ minds. I put this caveat just in case a student ever reads this.)

A lot of time, Christians also approach life with a value-added mentality. We believe that Christ alone saves us, and yet we seek to  add our own source of justification. With one mouth we claim Christ’s blood and we cling to our good work. We say He’s paid for us in-full, and yet we worry about our heavenly balance sheet. Scripture however is clear that we can never add any value to what Christ has done. Our righteousness is “like filthy rags” (Is. 64:6) therefore we can never depend on them to aid in our cleanliness. We must rely totally on the blood that makes us “white as snow” (Is. 1:18). There is nothing we can do to add value to that.

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