The picture above I took on January 16, 2021, through the window in Jan’s hospital room at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. This building is on the corner of 21st Avenue and Medical Center Drive. I’ve been around Nashville for a long time, and this building preceded my arrival. I didn’t think to count the floors, but I’m thinking it’s more than eleven or twelve. Once I get above the top of the foundation, I generally start respecting the edges of the building. I don’t have much of a fear of heights, but I do have a distaste for sudden reductions of speed. Acceleration is exciting. Deceleration, not so much.
I watched these guys off and on all afternoon. While I would not like to do their job, I would like to try out their rigging at least once. My talent is not in the realm of cleaning. My talents lean more toward the art of creating circumstances that call for a gifted cleaning person.
The guy on the right, the one highest up, was a latecomer. I watched him set up his rigging, test it, and then, without hesitancy, lean back and step off the ledge. He was obviously secure in his knowledge of how gravity worked, the quality of his rigging, how to set it up, and in his ability to manage his task.
I have thought about this photograph a lot. At some point in my thinking, another picture came to mind: Jonathan Edwards. I met Jonathan in “History of Baptists” class in my second year of seminary. He was not a student. He was a fascinating proclaimer of the Gospel in New England before our nation was a nation. I have the highest admiration for the way he lived his life. Among other things, he is remembered for creating and preaching a sermon entitled, “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God.” There is a monument in Enfield, Connecticut, commemorating the location where the sermon was preached on July 8, 1741.
I studied his life but never read the sermon. I just don’t like the title. I’m not a hellfire-and-brimstone kind of proclaimer. When I finally gathered up the courage to read it, I was amazed! He was certainly articulate in presenting the awfulness of rejecting God’s offer of salvation. His description of God’s kindness, not His anger, is what I came away with. He helped me rediscover a deep sense of security in God’s passion to rescue His people.
About five minutes of reading brings you to this phrase: “…so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that anything hangs by; thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to hell.” This pondering is not about God’s enemies being cast down to hell, as remarkable and accurate as that phrase is.
Where the window cleaners meet Jonathan’s sermon is at the precarious, “slender thread that anything hangs by.”
The risks we take in directing our daily life attitudes and activities are governed by gains and losses, or hope for gains and fear of losses. The guys cleaning windows are there because the pay is worth the risk. And the risks are minimized by their careful attention to the quality of their rigging, a constant and thorough examination of it, and the knowledge of its proper use. If they obey the rules of gravity and live within the parameters of their rigging, there is no more danger than walking down a sidewalk. Maybe less.
The same is true for a joyous, peaceful, and productive life as an “image of God.” Pursue God, and we will find the benefit of His advancing Kingdom. Pursue self and find the pain of running into the catastrophe of banging our heads into the walls of the Kingdom of God.
Either way, we will go through difficult and painful seasons of living in the crazy world. The better you know the rules of nature, the more we will enjoy the splendor of this Creation. Ignore the laws, and there’s less joy and peace, with more pain and frustration.
Getting to know God is the not-so-secret to getting and using the “rigging” for the good life. Leaving the “rigging” at the default setting is more than dangerous – it is disastrous!
The higher the quality of our rigging, the higher the chances of finding success in the Kingdom. The better the rigging is maintained, the fewer mishaps and delays there are. If you want to wash the dirty windows of our world, rig up, train up, and step over the edge with self-confidence. God has you!
…Until He doesn’t! Or more properly, you chose to hook up to your own “rigging” rather than what He has provided. That happens when we modify His rigging, His Truth, to adapt more comfortably within our preferences and wishes.
That is the point where you choose to go it alone, without Him. That happens when we trust our assumptions about how life should work over the hard work of seeking God’s truth about how Creation works. At that point you’re on your own, twelve stories up, anticipating a graceless and rude landing. The dashing of a hope long-awaited for an eternity not expected.
