Groaning In The Mire

“The effort to think like a Christian is . . . an effort to take seriously the sovereignty of God over the world he created, the lordship of Christ over the world he died to redeem, and the power of the Holy Spirit over the world he sustains each and every moment. From this perspective the search for a mind that truly thinks like a Christian takes on ultimate significance, because the search for a Christian mind is not, in the end, a search for the mind but a search for God.” —Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, p. 253 (from JT's Blog)

Have you ever felt angered, saddened, and burdened by the sin that surrounds you? Rather it is the environmental effects of the Fall (i.e. sickness and death) or the unrestrained sin of those in your Wardroom and crew? Read with me in Romans 8: 22-25: "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not have, we wait for it patiently." What is this groaning that Paul speaks of? Is this not the inward pain resulting from being broken and part of this hurting world while desiring to be home with the Lord. Tripp states that, “This side of eternity, groaning is meant to be the default language of the big kingdom.” We desire more in this life that just this life. The Redemptive Leader will foster within another person the deep longing for something more than self-serving achievement and fulfillment. We are able to assist the unbeliever in breaking free from self as they seek to serve something bigger by creating a Gospel-infected environment counter to the default, sinfully accepted setting of "Sailors being Sailors."