GROANING | OPEN USA

Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling… For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. (2 Corinthians 5:2&4)

There is at the center of reality a groan. And the closer to the center we live, the more we will hear it and the more we will share in it: the center of creation, the center of the church, the center of work, the center of relationships, the center of those things that belong to the disciples of Jesus. The closer we move there, the more we hear the groan—the more we share the groan. And we will recognize it….

Paul says that the groan in creation, in us, in God, is a groan not of death; but a groan of childbirth – of life. God is giving birth to something new. God is doing something fresh. God is creating new heaven, new earth, and by the time I have mastered the groan, I will have to exchange it – for a WOW!

May we with all our hearts, and with all our souls and with all our minds and all our strength, groan for Him throughout 2018.

PATRICK LAI and his family have worked in SE Asia for other 37 years. His experience in doing business with Jesus has brought him to understand the meaning of work and worship in the marketplace. He started 14 businesses in four countries, six of which are still operating. Patrick and his wife, May, mentor and coach businesspeople working where there are few or no Christians. Check out Patrick’s latest book, Workship, now available in paperback and e-book.