There are certain truths in life that make it rich, that make it meaningful, and make it worthwhile. There are other things in life that seem to destroy its beauty, corrode its substance, and undermine its value. At the end of the day, when we stop to consider our lives, we ache to be engaged in the things that are rich, meaningful and worthwhile…..but we often find life to be destructive, corrosive, and unsettling. Sometimes things and people around us author the painful disappointments we are left carrying in our broken baskets of life. So we ask ourselves and the world around us if there is an author of something that overrules or overcomes the disappointment, discouragement and destructive elements of our dismal surroundings as well as the periodic despair we face when we gaze into our personal mirror. Is there something that can offer hope? Is there someone who can enter into our experience and offer compassion rather than blame and shame? Is there some way that we can deal with life without having to earn an impossibly elevated standard?
Eventually we are forced to consider a power, a person, a presence that is above and beyond mere mortality. At some point we find ourselves considering the immortal and the transcendent in a quest of find meaning and purpose. We search for transformation on the inside of our being. It seems like we understand that whatever that power is, whoever that person is, wherever that presence is….it must be unlike us at some profound level. It might be something and/or someone that offers a quality that is radically different than the norm we experience day by day.
I think that is what we are wrestling with in Paul’s letter to the Galatians…..what do you think?