the reckoning

I stole this from one of the blogs I currently visit, but I couldn't help it. Andrew Peterson's new single, The Reckoning (How Long), has been released to provide a taste of his new album due out in mid-summer. Over the course of my musings, I have touched on some of his songs given their richness of Scripture and honest emotion. His latest single is no different, and it touches on some of my questions over the past year. It presents the age-old question, "how much longer do we have to wait for the Day of Reckoning?" The song wrestles with the struggles of walking through this sin-encompassed life while clinging to the joy and grace offered through Christ. The questions his lyrics ask are the same ones I pray over on a daily basis. The promises the words bring to light are also the ones God reveals to me in His Word.

I don't have the permission (or technological know-how) to post the song, so I suggest you find it somewhere and give it a listen. To help encourage you, here is a taste of some of the lyrics:

And I know you hear the cries of every soul tonight
You see the teardrops as they roll tonight
Down the faces of saints
Who grow weary and faint in your fields

And the wicked roam the cities and the streets tonight
But when the God of love and thunder speaks tonight
I believe You will come
Your justice be done, but

How long until this curtain is lifted?
How long is this the song that we sing?
How long until the reckoning?

Most recently these words, spoken in many of the Psalms and prophets, have become my words. My classroom, alone, is filled with tears, the reaping of wickedness, loneliness, depression, and much more I am unaware of. By the end of the day I feel weary and faint trying to tackle each one while filling heads with the knowledge deemed necessary. I wish with all my heart that I wouldn't have to muddle through these effects of sin day in and day out. (I have enough of that in my own life). It hurts my students as well as me to see it. I know Christ is coming back to redeem everything to Himself, but it's painful to wait and watch. The only thing I can do is rely on the strength God provides while placing my full trust in His promises. Only then can I endure and be exactly what these students need.

And I am standing in the silence of the reckoning
The storm is past and rest is beckoning
Mighty God, how I fear you
How I long to be near you, O Lord

How long until this burden is lifted?
How long is this the song that we sing?
How long until the reckoning?

And I know that I don’t know what I’m asking
But I long to look you full in the face
I am ready for the reckoning

My hope lies in one day the storms of this life passing and eternal rest being found in the presence of my Savior. I will be near Him, physically, for all of time. My "how longs" will be turned into unending "hallelujahs!" As the old hymns say I will still declare "it is well with my soul" because "Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow." But am I ready for this now? I love Peterson's line about not knowing what he is asking, because none of us do if this is our prayer. We have no idea what the Day of Reckoning will include, only a glimpse. However, we still shouldn't be afraid to ask for it. It's what our regenerated hearts inside us have been screaming for since the day of our salvation.