כל הדברים

כל הדברים
Means all, or all things.

"Even through our broken sobs and cries of pain we can sing alleluia because we know that He is coming. He is enduring our pains with us, he is coming.

כל הדברים will be redeemed. All things will be redeemed.

All things.

I learned something today, not from the teaching, not from anything anyone said or did, I just learned by experiencing it. This is what I learned: The past is done. The present is happening. The future WILL happen.

You might say to yourself... duh. But each phrase is packed with meaning.

The past is done:

You cannot do anything about the past, it is done, it is finished but most of all it has no power. The past CANNOT control the future, the past CANNOT control the present. The present is the present and the future is the future, the past has no place in this. History describes something but does not decide anything. Oh, and did I mention that everything in the past is forgiven if we just humble ourselves and ask?

The present is happening:

And there is nothing we can do about it. The present is happening no matter what way you look at it. We cannot decide where we are in the present, we cannot decide who is around us in the present it simply is, we have no say over what the present is. But we do have a say about what we do in the present. The present for me (for now) is sitting in this corner at this table listening to music typing on this computer. I cannot change that, the present is the present at the moment I had that thought I could not have been in Berlin or Haiti, but I could only have been where I was. The present is happening, all I can choose is what I do in the present that is happening.

The future WILL happen:

And it will happen as God has made it to happen. This is a hard one. This is painful. There is only one future, and it is known already by God. There are no alternatives, only one future. So in Matthew when Jesus says do not worry about tomorrow, what you will eat or wear... do not worry about it because it is going to happen exactly as it WILL happen. There is a lot of darkness in this idea. To people who are oppressed, they were once in a point where they were going to be oppressed and it was going to happen and did happen no matter what. But there is the ultimate light in the future, כל הדברים . All things will be redeemed.

So I had a recent example of which I will not elaborate where I could not give something up to God. I wanted to be in the past so I could have this, in my present I longed for this thing, and I would not let God be God and have his future (which of course he is going to have anyway). I longed for this thing, I told God that I want it and that he should give it to me. In the present that I was in I dwelt on the past which was pointless because the past is gone, and I longed for a future, which is stupid because the future WILL happen as it WILL happen.

So what do I do with this now?

I live in the present doing what I can in the present that IS happening, letting God have my past that DID happen, and embracing the idea of the future that WILL happen. Only then is there peace.

God tells me not to worry about my past because it is gone and he loves me the same. He tells me not to worry about the future because it will happen as it will happen. He tells me in my present to seek first the kingdom.

This is peace:

כל הדברים will be redeemed.

In Christ,

Ben