If you're not Him, you come a distant second

It's been a long time, but I think I'm going to get back to blogging. In the past few months, I've been out of town 5 weeks, flown and driven long distances a few times, gotten body-searched by airport security, bought an iPhone, performed in a choral concert or two, and had my five-year plan altered at least twice, once by an external change and once by an internal one. God has answered several very significant prayers, and I think I had my mind blown yet again yesterday.

Pastor Gary continued his series through Colossians, and came this week to the topic of the 'hope of the gospel' addressed in 1:23 and reference elsewhere in the chapter. He challenged us in the morning to write our own description of what our own hope and the biblical basis for it. As I've recently noticed, it's often very difficult to separate my own convictions from the way I was raised. It's one of the few disadvantages of second generation Christianity, because it's possible to just coast through without having to differentiate.

If I had to put it in brief, my hope is based on the simple combination of what IIRC is a couplet of verses. The former says "No one can come to Me unless the Father draws him" while the latter continues "Come to Me, and I will give you rest." Both are equally true, though at first blush contradictory. How can he freely invite those who can't come unless he is drawn? How can one come while knowing he is unable to come without help? The real thing that proves one's election is not that you come, it's that you keep coming. Election doesn't mean you get pushed into Christ's arms against your will... it means that you have your heart changed so that there's nothing in the world that could keep you from those arms. How do I know I'm elect? Because there's nothing that's more valuable to me than Him. No friendship, no relationship, no job promotion, no hobby, no thing. If you put any of them up next to him, you'd think I don't value it at all. Period. And by His grace, that's how it's going to stay.