It’s Just That Way
As I was contemplating “things that are just” this past week to prepare for the sermon Sunday morning, I realized that the phrase which is the title of the article, and the title of the included poem could be taken a couple of ways. This would depend on your outlook. Some might consider life and all the issues it presents and resign themselves that “it’s just that way”, or simply things are the way they are. Many who consider things in this light rarely seek to change for the better or prepare for what lies beyond after we have shed these mortal bodies. These are they who ‘drift’ through life and receive the consequences in life or the afterlife, whatever they may be.
Others might express this slightly differently, putting emphasis upon the word ‘just’, applying a biblical definition of that which is: meet; holy; right or righteous. Used in this way, the phrase takes on a whole different meaning, doesn’t it? We are instructed in Philippians 4:8 to think on things that are: true; honest; just; pure; lovely; of good report; of virtue; and of praise. When we think on these things, surely, we are thinking of the Word of God. While Christ was on earth, in John 5:30, He stated that His judgment was “just” because He sought not His own Will, but that of the Father.
We are told in Rom. 1:17 that the ‘just’ shall live by faith. We also can see in Rom. 10:17 that ‘faith’ comes by hearing the Word of God. We can only see to be ‘just’ if we read, study and apply God’s Word. Did not Christ live in accordance with God’s Word? He is called “Just” in Acts 3:14; 7:52 and 22:14. God’s Word is just. His plan is just. We can be just, only by following that plan.
My wife’s dad penned the poem below in 1983. I don’t know why he put these words to paper. But as you read it, consider the contrast between: ‘It’s just that way’ as in: ‘que sera sera’ (What ever will be, will be), and “It’s just that way’ in that: life can be “just” when lived as God directs in His Word.
Dennis Strickland – Mooresville church of Christ
It’s Just That Way
1)
Well, a fine little boy was born today,
To a sweet young couple just over the way.
They’d both been so happy, they could hardly wait,
And now they can really celebrate.
Why, they’d planned his life ‘til the time he was grown,
When he’d take a wife, have a home of his own.
The new mother wanted him to be a preacher,
But his dad preferred he’d be a schoolteacher.
And the difference was settled between these two,
He could be a preacher and a schoolteacher too.
2)
But they also had a funeral in our town today,
For a well-known man who’d passed away,
Who had lived a life of many years,
And had shed a lot of sweat, as well as tears.
When you had a problem and felt down and out,
This man would help without a doubt.
When he’d take his old Bible and begin to read,
Seemed he knew just the verse that filled your need.
When he’d bow his head and offer a prayer,
You felt like the Lord was standing there.
(I was thinking just now, that God in His grace,
May have sent that little boy to serve in his place).
3)
And you know, I believe it’s this way friends,
Where one leaves off, another begins.
From the point of beginning in a physical birth,
Our days may be few upon the earth.
We stumble along, make so many mistakes,
Through joy and peace and many heartaches.
I’ve oft asked this question, and now I know why,
When you’ve learned enough to live, it’s time to die.
And our expertise or the things that we own,
Won’t enter the grave or that Heavenly home.
O.D. Wilson deceased.
