No Rest For The Good

Centuries ago, an ancient “father of the Church” named Cyprian, who lived in North Africa, sent a letter to a friend. In it he said,

This seems a cheerful world when I view it from the fair garden, here in the shadow of these vines. But if I climb some great mountain and look out over the wide land, you know exactly what I see: murderers on the high roads; pirates on the seas; under every roof, misery and selfishness. It’s really a bad world, my friend. It is a very bad world.

Often in mysterious ways, God is forever establishing His rule in this “world of misery and selfishness,” as Cyprian described it. At the very points at which many people are giving up on this “bad, bad world,” God’s Spirit is present, God’s Spirit is reconciling, God’s Spirit is healing, God’s Spirit is reestablishing lost hope.

We don’t need to mention all the world’s defects right now (just go home and turn…