Thy Kingdom come??. Or so we pray. I guess I have noticed how often I really mean my kingdom come. You know what I mean. It?s that fight for things to be made right, for people to do what they are supposed to do, for patients to respond the way they are supposed to respond. Not that any of those things are bad. I am talking about the tendency to make it personal rather than about our profession to be followers of Jesus.
Yesterday, I was talking about this with a friend of 15 years who has lived and worked his whole medical career in Africa. We both had a bad case of the ?getting olders? but as we spoke, we each acknowledged in our own way something very important: the longer we follow Jesus, the more we see the significance of the fact that even Jesus came as a follower not a leader. He came to follow His Father?s will all the way to the cross. It was not a great victory for Him personally: it was humiliating. But it was a great victory for His Father when He raised Him from the dead. Jesus gave Himself to the sick, the poor, the disenfranchised, the lost, the blind, the lame, and the very plain. Some followed Him and some did not; but in it all, His Father?s Kingdom was advancing bit by bit, person by person.
One last amazing thing: In the end, our loving Father has promised to give it back to Jesus and His followers. What our Father has won through our obedience, He will give back as our reward. I have no idea what this really looks like, but I know it is God?s Kingdom coming in full, the final answer to our prayer, Thy kingdom come.
