I’ve owned the domain ’58twelve[dot]com’ for some time, and the thing to which it refers continues to simultaneously torment and inspire me, so I decided that it was time for a change in order to realign what was then just a blog called ‘Live a Big Life’ with something that better captured the place in which I find myself on this adventure known as life.
It was probably about two years ago (2007) when Isaiah 58 hit me square between the eyes. I have spent a lot of time angry at Church, both for the inconsistency I see between it and the church I believe I read about in the New Testament; and for the personal hurts it has inflicted on me and my family in recent times. Indeed, I walked away from Church back in 2005 and it is only in the last few months that I have found myself inclined to return. In Isaiah 58 I found a message that resonated: a message that picked apart the hypocrisy, pomp and ceremony of institution and laid bare the essence of a living, breathing community.
Reading the chapter through several times and in several versions, I was deeply struck by the translation in The Message, and when I reached verse 12 I was left awestruck.
In summary (the full text is below) God rails on the leaders of the time, telling them he is sick of their shows – their fancy fasts, extravagant prayers and public law following – when their behaviour is far removed from their words – beating the already downtrodden and neglecting those in need. He tells them that all their posturing will get them no-where at all; he tells them what he wants, and shows how it bears no resemblance to that in which they currently engage. Then he introduces that word I have come to love in scripture – ‘if’ – IF you show generosity, IF you fight injustice, IF you quit gossiping and blaming, IF you give yourselves away to the people in need THEN a bunch of amazing things will happen, and he lists them.
In that list of outcomes to a changed behaviour lies verse 12 – “You’ll use the rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community liveable again”. Oh my goodness! As I read that verse my soul practically leapt out of my body. I just sat there and read it, and re read it: live like Jesus wants us to live – the life he lived – the life of a humble servant – and you will make communities liveable again. This was it – this was why I bothered to breathe. This was what it was all about.
Since 2003 I had pushed, pulled, struggled, and fought against a seemingly impenetrable tide of apathy to instil this principle in churches and christians in the place we live and beyond. I had produced videos and literature that were all about the results in communities if we would simply serve. All this time I had felt like I was fighting an unwinnable war, and suddenly I could see that it was entirely winnable because God has promised the outcome – IF we give ourselves away and live out Micah 6 verse 8: loving mercy, acting justly and walking humbly each day with God – that is basically what chapter 58 says, even if the chronology is out of whack. This feeling that burned in my soul and threatened to eat me alive suddenly seemed valid, and one to which I should cling.
That verse – 58:12 – captures who I am – it’s what makes me tick, it’s what drives me, it’s what makes me angry at God, it’s what gives me hope. One day I hope I will have lived a life that captures that verse, and then all I want on my gravestone is that: 58Twelve. If I have lived a life that justifies that I will have lived well, and I will, as a consequence, have lived a big life.
Your Prayers Won’t Get Off the Ground “Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout! Tell my people what’s wrong with their lives,face my family Jacob with their sins! They’re busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me. To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people law-abiding, God-honoring. They ask me, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’
and love having me on their side. But they also complain, ‘Why do we fast and you don’t look our way? Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?’“Well, here’s why: “The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit. You drive your employees much too hard. You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight. You fast, but you swing a mean fist. The kind of fasting you do won’t get your prayers off the ground. Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after: a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black? Do you call that fasting,
a fast day that I, God, would like? “This is the kind of fast day I’m after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer. You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’ A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places
“If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people’s sins, If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places – firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
“If you watch your step on the Sabbath and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage, If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy, God’s holy day as a celebration, If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’ making money, running here and there. Then you’ll be free to enjoy God! Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all. I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.”Yes! God says so!
