More than conquerors.
That phrase struck me this week as I revisited my blog, which I started a couple of years ago. Started when my “normal” was turmoil in my home denomination. Started when there was relative balance in my family. Mom and Dad didn’t drive anymore, but they were just next door. Started when I had written two books and put them out into the world. A blog that was started but then left empty for months on end.
As I looked at the last two posts, I noticed the dates. One was from August 2022 – a month before Mom died suddenly on the way to the hospital to get “checked out.” The other was August 2023 – a month before Dad fell and his cancer came back with a vengeance. Both dates were during a time of transition in my spiritual and vocational life. A time when I had to decide to stay in the denomination I had known since childhood, the denomination where I had accepted Jesus as my Lord andI had become an ordained elder.
Or leave and hope to land into a new expression of my faith, where my theology and practice as a pastor were in harmony with where the Spirit was leading me. To coin the phrase, “It was the best of times and the worst of times,”; I couldn’t adequately put my heart into words. So, I stopped writing my blog and gave up on being a published author.
Today, while preparing for this week’s sermon from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans, I came to my favorite chapter in the Bible – Romans 8. There is so much to digest and savor in this chapter. Freedom. Assurance. The Holy Spirit. No more separation. Yet, in reading over it again, the words “more than conquerors” jumped out at me. Especially the word “more”.
In Paul’s discourse, the earlier passage tells of the present struggle and future glory. Sorrows and sufferings are not compared to the joy and glory of the future. We have “God for us” now and in the future; we have “no separation.”
Romans 8:37 reads, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
As a child, I remember playing in the cornfields with my brother. When the corn was green, it was tall and high, and you could hide from the pretend enemy army. Yet, you could no longer hide when the rows turned brown and were cut down. You were in clear view of challenges – whether imaginary or real.
In much of my writing, I have referenced the power of the land in our lives. As a farmer has one plot of land, we have one life to live. So, to gain more from the land, the farmer must be willing to let the plant in the field live its life and then let it go through the harvest process. I had to let my parents go to be with the Lord. I had to let go of the denomination that helped birth my faith in Jesus. I had to accept that a relationship with Jesus is not just about saying “yes” and keeping spiritually fit in the waiting. Plants that stay in the field and don’t get picked for food or seed die where they are planted. Jesus won the victory over death, which makes me a conqueror – but there is more.
More new ground to be overturned. More seeds to be planted. More watering to be done. More experiences waiting. More abiding in the waiting seasons. More growing and reaching to be done.
This morning, the Spirit told me, “Now is the time of MORE.” For me, for the church where God has placed me, and for the world around me, I am going to start writing again. If it only stays in the cloud or on a forgotten piece of paper, so be it. But I have faith that God has a plan. He woke up this spirit in me for His reason, His purpose, His glory. For there is more in store.