Isaiah 40:3-5 says “Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together.”
What’s the good news? The good news of the announcement of the birth of Jesus is that your sad days are over and sin has been dealt with. That’s what God has done.
But then Isaiah says that we’ve got this other stuff that’s a problem – we’ve got obstacles in life and stuff that needs to be cleared out! There are things that are crooked that need to be straightened. There are valleys that need to be filled – mountains in the way that need to be leveled. We’ve got rough spots that need to be smoothed out. Who’s job is it to do all of that?! Who gets that job? That’s us!!
This whole passage in Isaiah 40 is all about the announcement of Jesus coming to earth. It’s all about Jesus’s birth. Sending Jesus and forgiving sin – that’s God’s part. Who is all of this straightening, leveling, moving, and smoothing stuff aimed at? That’s us! God sais, I can give you the gift – but you have to prepare yourself to receive it.
I can give you the connection you’re so deeply wanting. But you’re going to have to get into prayer and counseling and therapy and self-awareness to be able to receive it. I can give you the intimacy you’re longing for – but you’ve got a clot in your system that if you don’t clear that out, it’s going to travel to your heart, brain, or lungs and it’s gonna give you a relational heart-attack and a spiritual aneurism. You need to get rid of the blockage. You need to do the work in you. You need to figure out what the problem is, and stop being so afraid of dealing with it, stop blowing it off like it’s no bog deal, stop thinking you can wait the weekend to get this thing looked at and get yourself into the urgent care to clear that junk out! Your deepest longings are only going to be fulfilled to the extent that you break down the blockage!
When the Bible says about the birth of Jesus, CLEAR THE WAY IN THE WILDERNESS – It’s not a metaphor like God’s way of singing “Make way for Prince Ali,” like the movie Alladin!” It’s a literal command – if you want the longing fulfilled, then there’s work you have to do! You don’t have to work to earn it. The gift is free! That’s why it’s grace! But you do have to work to to live in the grace deeper, and deeper, and deeper in your life – because being given the gift of grace and living in the gift of grace are two entirely different things! Are you with me, church??
How many times in a state of longing do we look at other people and think things to ourselves like, “Must be nice…” Must be nice to have that kind of life… Must be nice to have that kind of family… must be nice to have those kinds of friends… must be nice to have that kind of marriage – and we get it in our minds that the reason we don’t have those things and that others do is because they’re just lucky, or God loves them more than us – and it drives us more into hiding, drives us deeper into covering up our core longing with lesser desires…
It is nice to have those kinds of friends. It is nice to have that kind of family. It is possible to have that kind of marriage – you know how those people got it? The only reason they have those things is because the people who have them removed the blockage. They smoothed out the rough stuff. They straightened out what was jacked up and crooked inside them.
When you really realize how short life is and how fragile it is, what becomes crystal clear to you instantaneously… is that from the time you wake up in the morning until the time you go to bed at night – that kind of connection is your one and only job. That is your primary purpose. The life you’re longing for is on the other side of the work you’re avoiding… So stop thinking you can give that blockage the weekend – because that sucker is gonna travel on you – and it’s going to affect your thinking, and it’s going to affect your heart and your emotions… it’s going to seize you up and you’ll know ABOUT God’s grace and the freedom that comes with it – and you’ll be envious of people who really do live in it and walk in it… But you’ll never live in it yourself.