The young woman was in the throes of birth pangs and she was screaming at the top of her lungs for relief. She and her husband had taken classes over the previous months and he was supposed to be coaching her with her breathing. She had him by the chest hairs, calling him names and demanding this thing be over with as quickly and painlessly as possible. The young man had never seen his quiet, little, soft-spoken wife like this in all the six years of their marriage. The nurse grabbed the young man’s shoulder and said sir, “You must tell your wife to breathe, breathe!” He turned to the nurse, grabbing her by the shoulders and, totally exasperated, yelled, “Breathe, breathe nothing! We want off this program!”

The beauty and unity of her assisted birth by her husband was so ideally desired that they could not imagine anything that could possibly upset the serene, well-planned event that would make the memory of a lifetime for them and their precious child. But when difficulties arose and comfort zones were totally surpassed by the rude reality of the moment, they both decided that they wanted off the program. 

The program of the Lord Jesus Christ is that His redeemed ones would be salt and light, reconcilers of men to God and manifest Him to a groaning creation. There is no “opt out” button included with the program. “Salvation does not mean flight and escape from the lower material world to a higher spiritual world; it means the redemption of the realm of human history by the invasion of the spiritual realm of God, so that the historical realm is lifted to a new and higher level of existence.” (George Eldon Ladd, “The Theology of the New Testament”, p.489)

(This is the first excerpt from Marty Gabler’s article “Regardless the Moon“. More excerpts will be posted Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.)