For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her vindication shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch. – Isaiah 62:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 5, 2017): Isaiah 62

Nineteenth Century poet Ralph Waldo Emerson argued that “Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.” Too often the reality seems to be the reverse. We find people in our lives that appear to want to limit us to something less than we can be. Of course, it is entirely possible that we are the biggest limiter that is placed on our lives. We always seem to have excuses for why we should not reach higher or stretch further. We consider ourselves to be too busy or maybe we think that we don’t possess enough talent. We believe that our fate is to be mediocre, which tends to be a place that we can reach with expending much effort. But what we have always needed was to be inspired.   

God says that he will refuse to keep quiet. For the sake of Jerusalem, he will press on, inspiring the people until they become what they were intended to be. At the time Isaiah spoke these words, the situation for the returning exiles was still bleak. Yet, God had determined that he would speak of the hope of what the future held for the Jews instead of the limitations that the present had placed upon them. In the end, Judea’s salvation would shine out like a blazing torch.

I am not sure that God’s job is ever completed. There is always something more toward which that we can, and should, aspire. Our vindication and salvation are never really complete. And God keeps pressing us toward that next step that we need to take; helping us to love more, and to be the force in this world that God has designed us to be.

I also believe that we, as followers of this “not silent” God, are supposed to be the presence of God in this world. So even if we are raised to such lofty heights that we no longer need God to press us toward what we were intended to be (and no, I do not believe that that moment ever arrives), we become the ones who refuse to be silent. Rather are a vocal encouragement to those who surround us on a daily basis, inspiring them to become more than they are and to take steps toward the person that the God of this universe created them to be.

This we do together, because God created us for something, and he believes that we are worthy of his purpose.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 63