Restoration
Many of us in the West tend to believe that attaining freedom - the right or ability to do whatever we want - is the path to true human flourishing.
But is that true?
I think that if we define freedom as the ability to be and do what we were created to be and do, we are closer to flourishing.
Wholeness, we said was this: "The state of perfect peace and wellbeing that is God's intent for everything that exists, including all plants, animals, and humans. It is where we, as humans, derive our ultimate sense of value and purpose." Brokenness, then, is the seemingly insurmountable obstacle to Wholeness. Redemption is the surprising removal of that obstacle by God, himself.
There’s one more chapter to this story: Restoration.
Restoration is the process by which God takes the brokenness of the world and heals it - putting things back into place.
It is a present, personal, experience of those who follow Jesus.
It is a project Jesus is inviting us to participate in.
And it is a final ending we can put our hope in.
Restoration in me.
God gives his life to those who give their lives to Him. Jesus promised his followers that God’s real presence, his Spirit, would come and live in them after he was no longer physically on earth. In the same way that wherever Jesus went on earth, he brought the life of God to those around him, his Spirit now brings life to those who follow him.
God begins to restore my internal life: bringing freedom from the power of sin and healing from the pain of my past actions and of actions done to me. Sometimes the process is painfully slow, but it’s as real as it would have been had I met Jesus on the streets of Jerusalem.
Restoration in the World.
Christians in the West have often misconstrued what it means to "become a Christian."
You might have heard it like this: “If you become a Christian, God forgives you of all the bad things you've done, so now you get to go to heaven someday when you die.”
That is true. We desperately need forgiveness whether we sense it or not. And Heaven is a wonderful promise.
But here’s the problem:
What about the rest of my life? What about tomorrow? So now I'm good and I just wait for Heaven?
Forgiveness is not the end of the story, but the beginning.
If you decide to follow Jesus, you are immediately invited to begin participating in God's restoration work in the world, now. One of the prayers Jesus taught his first disciples to pray went like this:
"Our Father, who is in Heaven,
Let your name be known as Holy.
Your Kingdom come, Your will be done,
On Earth as it is in Heaven."
What this means is that God's desire is for life on Earth to become more and more like the “Wholeness” he intended for us to experience at the beginning. Jesus wants his followers to not only to pray for this, but to work for this! With God’s Spirit, you are now free to be what you were created to be and do what you were created to do. What unique restorative work (big or small) is God calling you to begin now?
Sometimes these works are big and noticed by many, while others are small and maybe unnoticed by anyone but God Himself. But united with God’s restorative power, all work becomes meaningful, restorative work.
Restoration in the Future.
A question that often unsettles me is this: What about all the people and things in the world that aren't made right?
The "bad guys" win sometimes. Millions of people still live and die in poverty and oppression. Children die of cancer - even when people pray fervently for healing. Friends die from addiction. Parents get divorced. Wars continue. New wars start. Natural disasters continue to roll through.
How can anyone say God is restoring all things?
That's a very good question. It's a hard quesiton.
The Christian Story doesn't give complete answers. Instead, it leads us to trust that one day God will make a move to restore "all things" once and for all.
After Jesus has gone to Heaven, he gives one of his closest friends, John, a "preview" of what’s to come in the future, and he has this vision:
"God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Though exactly what this will look like is a mystery, our confidence is rooted in the character and quality of Jesus’ life and the facts of his death and resurrection. This is strengthened by our experience of God’s restoration work in our lives and our world.
Details aren’t given about exactly how things are going to be made right, or how the deepest pains of our lives and the most horrific atrocities of our times will be "wiped away."
Still, we are invited to trust that somehow that's exactly what God will do.
Do you want your story to end in restoration, too?
Where do we go from here?