This is most definitely a unique season in church life. It’s Sunday morning and most of us are sitting on our couches, drinking coffee, viewing online services, still in pajamas…feeling unproductive, unsure, uncomfortable and un-connected (and a lot of other un-words). I don’t think I’m alone in these feelings!
God is UN-doing a lot in us right now. Everything we’ve been working toward for the last year, everything we were planning, hoping, believing has changed. Right now I want to be at church. I want to be with you all. I want to sing with everyone, I want to preach to our community. But here we are. UN-Done.
But there is good news! Being UN-done, though painful, is what God does to us to bring us exactly what we need…Him! When we are UN-done…we sit in good company. Look at what Isaiah says:
And I said: “Woe is me! For I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5)
Isaiah was confronted with the earth-shaking presence and glory of the Lord. That confrontation left him amazed, excited, frightened, and most of all…humbled. As he saw the majesty of God, he was staggered by how little he was, how out of control he was, how sinful, how lost, how fragile, how weak! He was UN-done! But that’s exactly what God needed to do in Isaiah to release him into a whole new ministry. The breaking within Isaiah was necessary so that God could put him back together for world-impacting service. To use our vision language, God allowed Isaiah to experience brokenness so that he could know the Wholeness of God and bring it to the world.
Family, God is stripping us, bending us, molding us for a purpose. I don’t know exactly what that purpose is, but I know that it is for our good and for his glory. I know that he desires for His Wholeness to come to us and to our world. I also know that this is hard and that things are uncertain. I know you want to be at church today and not worrying about a microscopic enemy. But take heart…we ARE together today…just in a new way! God loves to switch things up on us and do new things. That’s exactly what He’s doing…a new thing.
A bit later in Isaiah’s ministry he writes…
Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:18-19)
It’s not an exact parallel to our situation, but Israel was in a bad way when this was written. But God never leaves us without a promise. He is doing a new thing at New Covenant. He is doing a new thing in me. He is doing a new thing in you! He is making a way in the wilderness. He is making rivers spring up in the desert. He is piecing together Wholeness through brokenness.
Let’s lean in to God this Lord’s Day! Yeah, church on TV isn’t the same. But God’s people will meet today and his word will bring Wholeness to all who watch. He’s giving us a whole new platform to use and a whole new audience to serve. May he bless our feeble attempts to provide a worship experience that is completely new to us. May he save the lost today. May he strengthen the broken. May our living rooms turn into the Earth-shaking experience Isaiah had. So we would be further humbled by our limitations and further amazed by our God.
Let’s find joy and excitement in being UN-Done!
Love you all!
Take Away:
- Believe that God is doing something IN you and THROUGH you during this crisis.
- In the moments when you feel UN-done, let the humbling bring you to a fresh awareness of the majesty of God.
- Like Isaiah, turn your focus outward: find ways to bring Wholeness to others.
Questions:
- In what three ways are you feeling UN-done during this quarantine?
- What new thing is God doing in your life?
- What step will you take today to bring Wholeness to someone in your life?