The Sweet Tension

Last week I was trying to tune an old guitar that was lying around in my place. Now I’m no musical genius and I can cite references to prove that, but even to my amateur musical mind, the twang of a string that wasn’t in tune was truly irksome. Wind it a little too much and it would snap but wound just a tiny bit lesser, it was painful to the ear, but at just the right tension even my untrained fingers could produce glorious harmony.

I often feel like my heartstrings are like the ones on that rusty, old guitar. Either wound too tight to the point of snapping or too loose and causing an annoying din. It takes me forever (way longer than it took me to tune the guitar which was in itself a ridiculous length of time) to arrive at the sweet tension where I hear the beautiful harmony that God intended for it to create.

Get to the point already, you say? Fine, don’t let me revel in my analogy! But here’s my point - So much of the Christian faith seems like diametrically opposed concepts being forced to coexist. It is in these areas that I struggle to find this sweet tension. How do I uphold with the same integrity, mercy and justice or faith and works or humility and glory?

I’m always way too wound up on these matters that my mind just snaps and decides it’s not possible, and I just have to pick a side. Or I’m just making a noise - a whole lot of talk on the matter but one look at you and me, and everyone knows neither of us is convinced.

But ever so often, the Spirit would open my eyes to something so simple, so profound and suddenly I’ve hit that sweet tension and I no longer feel the need to debate the matter.

The matter of humility that Christ calls us to vs. the ever-increasing glory that He is working into us (2 Corinthians 3:18) had taken permanent residence in one corner of my mind for a while now. And then yesterday, I read Matthew 26: 6 – 13 – the story of the most famous unnamed woman.

This woman performs a great act of humility in paying no regard to her pride, her reputation or her possessions. She holds nothing back and lays it all down before Him. And in response, Jesus not only jumps to her rescue (unbidden, mind you) and raises her up above anyone else present there. And still somehow, even as she is elevated to a position of becoming as well-known as the gospel itself, we still know absolutely nothing about her, not even her name. And there, plain and simple, were humility and glory married and coexisting in perfect harmony for centuries.

Jesus had found a way to make it happen. At the end of the day, I was reminded of the one thing about this sweet tension that is the eventual conclusion of every single debate I’ve had with myself – IT’S NOT MY JOB! It’s not my job to find the tension. It’s not my job to figure it out. In Christ, they do coexist and His Spirit is working it out in me is all I really need to know.

For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand what God has freely given us. 

1 Corinthians 2: 11- 12

Perhaps the next time I find myself caught between two matters like this, I’d remember that the He who lives in me is beyond capable. I can ruminate and meditate but I need never be perturbed because in due time, He will open my eyes and I will see. He will hold all things in tension and open my ears so I may hear the wonderful music that has been playing for eternity