Look at yourself: you constantly chase after joy, clutching wealth, wine and worldly pleasures tightly in your hands. But ask yourself, how much longer will you pursue these fleeting shadows that leave you empty?
You spend your days building fortresses of security, yet you find yourself trapped within walls of your own making, isolated and searching for meaning.
I have come to you many times, bearing the boundless grace and goodness of heaven. Yet, whenever you caught sight of the cross by my side, you hesitated and turned away.
You chose temporary comfort over the path that offers true, unshakeable peace amidst deep suffering.
You content yourself with bearing your own burdens, allowing your shoulders to bow and break under their immense weight rather than surrendering them into my hands.
Why do you guard your pain so fiercely? The company of mockers who ridicule others has fascinated you far more than the gentle counsel of those who offer words of eternal wisdom.
You have traded deep spiritual truth for the hollow echo of laughter that leaves you lonelier than before.
How deeply I have longed to soften your features that deepen your smile lines, yet you chose instead to furrow your brow with wrinkles of worry.
Myles, pause for a moment and look around you. Stop running from the quiet.
There is a narrow path before you, as tight as the eye of a needle, which human pride cannot squeeze through.
A camel could sooner pass through it; yet, if you simply lay down your heavy burden, that very eye will open wider than the grandest gate.
This narrow way is not a restriction, but your ultimate freedom.
Once you strip away pride and carry your cross through that narrow passage, your time to smile is no more distant, and your laughter will bubble with joy.
A woman in labour knows that the joy of cradling her newborn baby far outweighs the intense agony she endured.
Her pain is swiftly forgotten, completely swallowed up by a radiant love that overshadows all past suffering.
So it is with the kingdom of heaven; the trials of today are preparing you for a glory that cannot be compared.
Come to me, all you who are weary, exhausted and heavy-laden, for I, Jesus, am here to give you rest.
Stop fighting a war you were never meant to wage alone.
Take my hand and trust me to lead you out of the dark.
You will finally discover the true, breathtaking meaning of existence, as the peace of heaven takes absolute rule over your heart today.
Maranatha, Jesus is coming.
Rev Elwyn Enos
St Andrew’s Anglican Church
18°C