TENSION
Tension.
This morning, I woke up with the word “tension” pressing into my thoughts. No one desires tension. Not tension in any type of relationship or tension headaches. Humans believe tension to be a bad thing. So, we avoid it. We treat it. We attempt to minimize it: “it’s fine, honey.”
Yet, our good, good Father calls us to a life in tension. We live in the tension between our flesh and His Spirit; between the desire for things of this world and the promise of the fullness of eternity. We struggle in the tension discerning our will from His; between our unrighteousness and His righteousness; between our brokenness and His redemptive grace.
So this morning...with the word tension on repeat in my head. I decided to get my dictionary (yes, I still use a hardcover, big, bulky, heavy dictionary despite the computer at my fingertips) and look up the definition of “tension”.
Tension: an inner striving, unrest, or imbalance;
a state of latent hostility;
opposition between individuals or groups
No wonder we don’t like tension! At first, I thought “Wow, tension is the definition of the current decade. We feel it, right? Everyone is striving for self. The unrest. The imbalance. Certainly we are witnessing (and mourning) growing hostility and ever-increasing opposition between groups. It seems no surprise that the definition begins with “inner striving.” When we turn inward to self-seeking, the result is always the bitter fruit of unrest and imbalance. And, no doubt, when everyone strives for self (whether for their individual or group identity) latent hostility (however, we seem to be well past latent) is fostered: If we constantly strive for inner satisfaction, believing our needs are most important, then it is a short hop, skip, and jump to believing that “others” are keeping us from fulfilling our needs (wants).
So why? My next question is why would God….our steadfast, faithful, and loving God...call us to walk in tension? Because His love is agape love (1 Corinthians 13:1-13). His love is a perfecting love that is “poured out into our hearts” so that we are able to love one another as we are loved (Romans 5:5). Agape love is not merely an emotion. Rather, it is a transcendent/transforming love of Ephesians 3.
So, I dug a little deeper into the definition of “tension”. Looking beyond what it merely “feels” like or, the feelings tension produces, to what it’s structural purpose is:
ART: the balance achieved between opposing forces or elements
PHYSICS: at the atomic level, tension is potential energy, a restorative force;
MATHEMATICS: a system that strives for a state of equilibrium
ENGINEERING: the opposite of compression; it is elongation, extension; it transfers stress from an area of weakness to an area of strength
Whew! I cannot begin to unravel string theory and I will leave the engineering and mathematics to my husband. BUT if we understand tension beyond what it feels like, or the feelings it produces, and look to its purposes, then I think it becomes clear why God calls us to walk in tension.
Tension is a refining force of God’s divine nature. Through tension, balance in opposition is achieved. Its forces reveal potential and restore that which is broken. Tension seeks a state of equilibrium, all things in a state of unchanging rest. Tension empowers us to bridge every barrier we encounter in this world through Christ; our weaknesses are made strong (2 Corinthians 12).
We were created by God to grow into wholeness. God’s call to walk in tension is not to compress; rather, it is a process where we are refined and transformed through the constant pulling force of His perfecting love. As our worldly, flesh-driven striving for self--our thoughts, words, and actions are increasingly surrendered to His will for our lives--then we are strengthened against every destructive force. We transform into Christ-minded and Christ-likeness. We learn to love as we are loved (John 3:16).
Without a doubt, walking in tension is uncomfortable. But if we are humbly willing to boast in our weaknesses, endure our thorns; if we are willing to move beyond how tension makes us feel and cling to God’s good, good purposes, then our lives align with His truth. We embrace our need for His sufficient grace, and we are empowered to press on towards the goal and bridge the gap of this world:
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice,though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
1 Peter 1:3-9