The Tomb.

Revolutions are seldom good. I have found in my readings of some of them that the people who were involved at the start, with a call for an uprising, have seldom had any thoughts or ideas of an end-plan. There would be the fighting, the patriotism, the deaths and the suffering. And then there will be a political and social vacuum for some opportunist leader to come and try to take over and form a new rulership for a social movement or country. But things would never be the same after that.

And yet, revolutions are all the same at their core. They start with a national and patriotic outcry, then a lot of bloodletting and fighting. And then, if the revolutionaries lose they will be put down, or else if the revolutionaries win they will all stand and look at each other and wonder what to do next.

Well, these were my uneducated thoughts as I recently sat in the Musée de l'Armée (The Army Museum), in Paris, France looking at the final resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte. It was a very plain and yet a very magnificent edifice. And it evoked thoughts and mental meanderings of my limited knowledge of revolutionary history.

I thought about several revolutions as I sat there in the gallery looking around at the columns and balustrades. The American Revolution, The 1789 Rebellion in Ireland, The English Civil War and the Jewish Rebellion in Jerusalem in AD69-70. All the uprisings that I have mentioned had differing end results and outcomes. The American Revolution saw the birth of the nation of the United states, but it still took several more internal wars to gain the power that the country has now. The 1798 Irish Rebellion saw the ringleaders captured and hanged or exiled. And the AD70 Jewish Rebellion saw the Romans armies overturn the Jewish revolutionaries which in turn saw the destruction of Jerusalem. History has never been plain sailing. And this grand museum in Paris is a testament to that.

But soon my thoughts turned to another sort of revolution. The strife of a Christian’s soul. There will come a time in every Christian’s life when we will fall. But when we fall we must quickly get up again and fill the empty void with something spiritual. Too often, when we fail or fall to temptation, we sit on our own and spend time in regret, guilt, disappointment and sorrow. And this is the wrong way to handle it.

Instead of spending time feeling guilty we should remind ourselves of Christ’s forgiveness. Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves we should spend our time in prayer, repentance and thankfulness for Jesus’ restoring mercy. As the line from the 1936 movie “Swing Time”, starring Fed Astaire and Ginger Rogers, goes…. “Pick yourself up. Dust yourself down. And start all over again”.

The Bible is filled with stories about people who started out with good intentions and then failed along the way. Moses, Samson, David. All have ended up having a reason to repent and ask for God’s restoring goodness at some time in their lives. But it wasn’t just the restoration in their lives that mattered. It was what God was restoring them to a newer and deeper relationship with Him.

Consider Peter’s repentance to Jesus on the beach. Consider David’s repentance to God after his adultery with Bathsheba. So many times God has shown us that after the sinful rebellion of our souls that He has an end-plan for us.

In Psalm 51 David sang and prayed…..

Psalm ch51 (10) Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Hear what King Hezekiah declared to all of Israel after the kingdoms were split up…

2nd Chronicles ch30 (9)  For the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate. He will not turn his face from you if you return to him.

God does not want us to spend our lives in guilt, self pity, and tears. We are no use to His work when we are in bondage of self loathing. Get up and start again. He will direct our paths. And we will be stronger and wiser people for it all. Amen.

Would you be free from the burden of sin?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood.
Would you o'er evil a victory win?
There's wonderful power in the blood.

There is power, power, wonder-working power
in the blood of the Lamb.
There is power, power, wonder-working power
in the precious blood of the Lamb.
 
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