When I’m King

07.20.14

2 Chronicles 29.3 In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the temple of the Lord and repaired them.

2 Chronicles 29 opens with these words: Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. (V.1) And the first thing the young king did was to reopen the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. (Apparently, the place had been closed for a while, so Hezekiah reopened it and hung a sign that read: UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT)

Hezekiah is not my favorite king but he ranks right up there – he tried hard to do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. It makes me wonder what kind of conversations Hezekiah had as a younger man (how stinking young could he have been, Paul? Twenty-five is just a kid!) But somewhere along the line this young man, a kid barely out of college decided that the status quo (what was going on in his pre-king days) was wrong. Who thinks like that? What happened to Hezekiah that made him say, “When I’m king, I’m going to change all this and do things right!”?

Short answer: I dunno. Speculative answer: God. Real answer: everybody sees things differently. When I was in Africa, I bumped into a young man who could be a modern equivalent of Hezekiah to his own country someday. He isn’t royalty (except in God’s eyes) and lives as an orphan with his grandparents. But this young man has a special calling and “anointing” on his life that I believe God allowed me to see. And now, we’ll see what happens.

Where are those who want to see change? Well, really, they’re all around us. When I was in the airport in Brussels awaiting our next leg home, I talked with three young men who were headed to Israel to participate in something called “Birthright”. Having, admittedly eavesdropped on their conversation, I charmingly chatted them up for a few minutes and encouraged them that life usually doesn’t come together without some kind of strategy to make it happen: If you aim at nothing you’ll hit it every time.

We need Hezekiahs today. We need young people who will look at the spiritual status quo and proclaim, I’m going to do something about this! I think of Nick Mastrude. I think of Kristian Krohn. I think of Braden Phillips, Jasmine Fillebrown, and Hayley Lemmon; I think of Anna Payton – young people whose lives are making a difference. I think about the conversations they’ve had, and their relationship to God. My prayer for them is courage: courage to stay the course and walk with God in bringing about desperately needed change in our world.

Of course, God touched Hezekiah. Of course God is just as much at work today as He was when a new king showed up and said: Reopen the doors of this Temple letting the Spirit of God out, and lettung His people in! Wow! What a guy. Somewhere along the line he saw something.

Father, may we never forget the importance of teaching our young to trust in You and follow You. May I be graced to have conversations with the young(er) that they may be encouraged to follow You wherever You lead in making a difference in this world. If You permit, help me to help them; and maybe, if only in attitude alone, they say, “When I’m king, here’s what we’re going to do…! Father, help them – Amen.