Each Thursday, LTN will be featuring a blog written by an Alumni during their time of service. This week’s feature comes from 2010/2011 Alumni Bradley Brown. This post was originally written in June 2011.
NO GREAT QUEST
[blockquote cite=”J.R.R. Tolkien” type=”left”]“All that is gold does not glitter,Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken:
The crownless again shall be king.”[/blockquote]
In my experience with LTN, what I see as a person’s greatest problem is that they have no great quest. They have no great chief end which they pursue. They merely exist. They have made their chief end themselves.
[pullquote type=”right”]I pray that he lays down his dull life of the bottle and takes up the adventure of the Cross.[/pullquote]One of my good friends here is a homeless man named Zeke. I love this guy. I meet with him almost every Sunday and bring him with me to church. Every time I pray and hope that he takes in the great Hope that he hears preached about. I pray that he lays down his dull life of the bottle and takes up the adventure of the Cross. To live with meaning, to have a worthy goal in your life on earth, to live in eternity, to fight for the splendid and only wise King, how marvelous! But no, he stays in his hole, safe and comfortable, unwilling to embark on such a quest. Many of us do the same. He loves his life too much to lose it, and hence he will never truly find his life. A cruel paradox.How many of us live this way? Living not in life but in death? Zeke may be homeless and live in his tiny universe where alcohol is his God, but he should not be criticized by us. The wealthy and well-fed inherit the same shell of a life, making their job or their safety their great quest. We all by nature, indeed, live in this way. We begin life as our own king, rebelling against the true King, living in our own hell.
VICTORY & ADVENTURE
[pullquote type=”left”]Our great King does not leave us in our helpless state.[/pullquote] Our great King does not leave us or Zeke in our helpless state though. Zeke’s heart may yet catch aflame, ignited by the Fire woken in the ashes. Long ago the one King completed his quest to rescue us. Enduring a life of misery down from his High Seat he died and rose again and put Death to death, ending its cold and frozen grasp on us.That victory is not relegated to the past. It happened for all time. All we need do is listen to that ancient, still voice. Even now, enveloped in darkness as the worst sinner may be, a light from the shadows shall spring and rescue the captive. With faith and repentance we can rekindle our lives fresh and be a part of the great kingdom to come. The King prepares to return, to finally take back his crown once and for all time and to make the whole world anew.
[pullquote type=”right”]To our isolation he delivers blessed fellowship and community, to our depression he delivers hope, to our boredom he delivers adventure, and to our death, defeated, he delivers life.[/pullquote]King Jesus came to give us life. He came to liberate us from the prison of Self and send us on a great journey of faith so that we might have life in abundance. To our isolation he delivers blessed fellowship and community, to our depression he delivers hope, to our boredom he delivers adventure, and to our death, defeated, he delivers life.Now that is life. Life for Him is a great quest. I live in eternity; now. I have the blessing of being shown what is important. I live for what is eternal, not temporal. What matters is not what I do for myself, but what I do for others. Acts of the spirit do not wither and rust.
MY PRAYER
Please pray that we put fire into the hearts of the cold, that we give people a reason to live, that we help people break free of the tiny prison of their own life and that we equip others to embark on the great quest of life for the King.
