(ala Ezra 5.7-17)
This is your life. For good, for bad, it’s yours.
Subsequently, for a person of faith, it’s also more than that — it’s not just yours; it’s God’s as well. And the way to approach life is to own that — to own that your life belongs both to God, but also to yourself. God is the CEO, but in most ways, you are responsible for the day to day operation.
In Ezra’s day, the people owned their life — all of it — when they responded to a governor who had come questioning what they were doing (viz. building the Temple). The issue was by whose authority they were rebuilding the Temple. And though the people’s response validated that the project was commissioned and overseen by both the king of the earth, and the King of heaven, it also has a lot to teach us as to what owning your life looks like.
1. Your life is God’s.
They tell the governor that, first and foremost, they are servants of God. Of course, this hadn’t always been the case (which will be shown below) but the people had changed a lot since the days before they were carried into Exile and those in which they returned.
If we claim to be people of faith, then this too is our first and foremost role as well. We are servants of God, or at least should be — whatever we do, whatever we say. By claiming Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then we claim to serve a higher power, and not just our own whims and desires.
2. Your life isn’t always perfect.
The people didn’t pretend to be perfect in their response, didn’t skim over the bad parts of what had led them to this project. Instead, they were matter of fact in claiming that part of the reason they were rebuilding the Temple is that they had disappointed God by following other gods, recklessly losing both their Temple and their land. It wasn’t that they were proud of, but it did happen. And they were to blame.
People of faith, then, also claim the bad with the good of their past and present lives. There are things that we have done, or said that we haven’t been proud of, but it did happen. But Grace let’s us say, okay … it happened, now how can we make good on it? Which is exactly what the people who were rebuilding the Temple did — making good on what they (or else their ancestors) had done, and prospering because of it.
3. Your life is always blessed.
Whether it’s by the sense of forgiveness, the hope of new beginnings, the certainty of good being drawn out by God from any situation — our lives are blessed because (ala #1) they are God’s, and what is God’s, God will not cast aside. Not one, Jesus would say, that the Father had given him would be left uncared for.
The way God cared for the Jewish people was through a proclamation through King Cyrus that led them back to the holy city, Jerusalem. Despite the fact that the people had been unfaithful, as they themselves admitted, God had remained faithful.
This is your life, so own it — every bit of it — that it is God’s, that it isn’t always perfect, but it is, by the Grace of God, always blessed.
And may God bless the work of your life, as God did those who rebuilt the Temple!
Easy to forget, especially #1