Not as I Will

By Robin G. Jordan

We had a white Christmas here in Murray. Snow fell on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas Day. It was my first white Christmas since I relocated to western Kentucky. By the afternoon the snow was melting and the birds were singing as if it was spring thaw. I could not help but think of the breaking of the White Witch’s spell, the coming of Father Christmas and the arrival of spring in C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Aslan was on the move.

While winter has only begun here in western Kentucky and more cold snowy days lie ahead, Aslan is on the move. The Holy Spirit is at work in the Jackson Purchase, across the United States, and throughout the world. God is a God with a mission and He is about that mission. He is drawing people to himself. He is quickening them to new life. He is arming them for the fray, for the struggle against powers and principalities, against the forces of darkness. He is coming to their aid in the thick of battle.

All these motifs are found in C. S. Lewis’ story—the gathering of the Narnians at the Stone Table, at what would become Aslan’s How; the Pevensies’ journey to meet him; Aslan’s breathing on the Narnians that the White Witch has turned to stone; the gifts that Father Christmas gives Peter, Susan, and Lucy; Aslan’s arrival with the freed Narnians at the first Battle of Beruna and the death of the White Witch. C. S. Lewis said the Narnia stories came to him as a series of images. He stopped writing the stories when the images stopped. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was published in 1950; The Last Battle, in 1956; Lewis died in 1963—seven years later.

When God quickened us to new life, it was to join him on His mission. He wakened us to serve Him. He breathed upon us to do battle—with the evil within ourselves and with the evil in the world. It was not so that we could live comfortable, safe lives. It was so that we could be fellow workers with God, as Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 3:9. Each of us is called to do his or her part, in erecting God’s building, His Church.

How you may ask is erecting God’s Church doing battle with evil? Each new member of God’s Church represents a captive freed from Satan’s kingdom. Like Edmund in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, they have been delivered from the power of the ruler of this world at a price. God himself has paid that price. It is God who is transferring them from Satan’s kingdom into his own. Yet at the same time God does work through us to achieve His purposes. He calls us to confront evil where we find it, whether within ourselves or in the world. He calls us to be watchmen on the wall warning others of approaching danger—danger not only to their bodies but also to their souls. He calls us to both proclaim the good news and to be the good news.

In barely a week we will be beginning a new year. The close of the old year has been marked by violence and bloodshed in Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the Philippines. Satan seeks to keep a firm hold on his kingdom. Where he can he seeks to advance it. We can expect more violence and bloodshed in the New Year. For Satan takes advantage of the evil in men’s hearts and urges them on to greater evil.

Yet we must not shrink from the fight. We must carry on the battle in this land and aid and support other Christians in their struggle in the lands where they are sojourning. We must like the prophet Isaiah say, “Here I am; send me,” when we hear the voice of the Lord say, “Whom shall I send. Whom shall go for us?” (Isaiah 6:8) We must not like the reluctant Jonah flee from the tasks that God calls us to undertake. God may bid us to open our homes to strangers and to host a home Bible study group through which they may come to know him. He may call us to join the nucleus of a new congregation and pioneer a new church. He may say to us that we are needed on a medical mission team going to a Third World country or that the money we spend on entertainment is needed to purchase medical supplies and equipment. He may call us to undertake more challenging and more difficult tasks for Him.

Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.” (Luke 11:2). In the garden of Gethsemane he prayed, “…not as I will, but as You will.” (Matthew: 26:29) May our prayer this day and in coming days be the same. Then let us rise from our knees and go about the task that God has entrusted to us.