Renewal of All Things

Recently, I was throwing a baseball around and having a catch with my nineteen-year-old son Nate. He threw the ball over my head and I tried to run to get it. While I was never fast, I’m slower now than ever. I can’t really sprint anymore. When Nate and my other sons were younger I used to coach their baseball teams. At the end of practice, I would have players run the bases. If a player ran too slow, I would run the bases as well and if I caught him he would have to run again. That would be laughable now. When my kids were younger, I could play tag and catch them, but now once they tag me, I have no hope of catching them. They have gotten faster, and I have gotten much slower.

After I retrieved the ball, Nate asked me, “What’s it like getting old?” He wasn’t asking with sarcasm but genuinely seeing his old man not being able to move as he once could. I answered, “Physically it stinks. I can’t run and do things I could once do. My body doesn’t always move as it once did. But hopefully, my soul and character are growing and I’m growing in wisdom.” That’s the tradeoff in this life. I can’t sprint. I can’t play basketball anymore. My balance stinks and my hips get tight after I sit awhile. When I was younger, I skied with reckless abandon and now I am way too cautious. As someone who loves playing sports and physical activity, it stinks getting older. The flipside for anyone who follows the Lord is that we are growing in character.

For those who follow God, getting older means we know God and his ways better. If you walk with God for decades you have a relationship with God that you just don’t have in your teens or twenties.

For people who work in the Church or doing ministry, we get to see the fruit of our efforts, seeds planted years ago that now come to fruition. This afternoon I was on a call with parish leaders who will serve on a panel for our conference. The panelists are leaders at other parishes who have implemented our Rebuilt model. They all shared ways we had helped them lead change in their parishes. One leader noted that at the start of our 2018 Rebuilt Conference, they were defeated. They left the conference inspired, encouraged and equipped them to make change. They are in a different place. Hearing her story filled my heart with joy; that’s not an experience I could have had in my twenties or thirties.

In this life there is a tradeoff. If we walk with God and his ways, we receive the rewards that simply come with time. In this life, there is a tradeoff as time both wears down our bodies and also gives us the ability to grow in character, maturity and fruitfulness. In this life, there is a tradeoff, but in the next life we can have both.

In the book of Revelation, Jesus gives John a vision into the end times and last things. The book can sound pretty strange with its deep literary and stylistic symbolism. Much of the book needs to be read metaphorically to truly grasp it, but the end of the book is pretty straightforward.

When all of God’s adversaries have been completely defeated and every human being has rendered an account of his or her life before Christ, we will see the fulfillment of God’s gracious plan for his people and creation come to pass. Then we will see the fulfillment of God’s promises.

And he who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Also, he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.”   - Revelation 21:5

This is the voice of God the Father. God makes all things new. God sits in the seat of power and says that he makes all things new. Do you know what the word all means in the original Greek? It means “all.” It means everything. Everything God touches, every soul and person who yields to him he will renew and make whole. Write it down. Take it to the bank and write it down so you don’t forget it.

We long for the renewal of our bodies. We long for the renewal of the people we have loved and lost. We long for the renewal of the places we have loved. The things that time has taken from us will be restored and renewed.

The end of the story is that God will renew all things. And yet that does not mean we do nothing.

We work and we wait.

We work for the renewal of all things now. We participate in the ways God wants to bring heaven to earth right now. God calls each of us into renewal project, to co-labor with him. We might not see the fruit of all our efforts in this life but trust to see them in eternity. At Rebuilt, our staff, our volunteers and our partner parishes are working for the renewal of the local parish. Each of us needs to invest in time and energy into working with God to make all things new.

We wait. We wait with hope and expectation. At every Mass, we say and pray, “As we wait with joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.” We work now knowing that the complete renewal is a future promise to be completed.

In his book All Things New, John Eldredge writes:  

“Begin to make conscious, deliberate decisions to give our heart to the return of Jesus and the renewal of all things. Every time you find yourself getting anxious about an uncertain hope, stop and pray, Jesus, I give my hope to your true and certain return, and the renewal of all things. Every time disappointment strikes again, you pray, Jesus, I give my heart to your kingdom.”

When you work for renewal you will experience setbacks and disappointments, know it is not in vain. Nothing is truly lost. This is going to come back to me as a treasure in heaven in the renewal of all things.

Rooting for you, 
Tom