Does God only exist in certain places at certain times? Do holier people have more access to God than say your common everyday Joe?
I grew up during a time in which the secular was pinned up AGAINST the spiritual. God was not at the bars, he was at the church. God didn’t approve secular music, he approved Christian music. God was not at the kegger, he was at the Bible study. This was a conviction which was heavily impressed upon me. I was encourage to buy Christian books, Christian clothes, Christian music cd’s and pay lots of money to go to Christian concerts. Many leaders didn’t drink beer for fear of being called a hypocrite and ruing their “witness”. Instead of drinking responsibly, they fled the thought of thinking altogether. Instead of enjoying the world which God created/creates, we were prompted to focus on heaven and spreading the message so that others could one day go to heaven. The message was that this world is tainted and that God will one day do away with it and give us a blissful spiritual existence. So which one is it? Does God love the world and interact in it or is the world a godless place where we suffer until we die?
Parts of that message were true but other parts were horribly misguided. There isn’t enough room on this blog to go into the inner workings of this escape/evacuation/exclusive message but I believe it to be false. I’m interested in a message which is a bit more integrated then that. Aren’t you? A theology which marries heaven and earth the way that the Bible does. Revelation 21:2 saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
God uses ordinary people and places to accomplish the extraordinary. God appeared to Moses in the form of a burning bush. Burning bushes were very common and most people would walk right past them but some say that Moses stared at the bush for a few moments and that was when God appeared. Moses, somehow understood that God could be found in the ordinary. This is conjecture but there are many other examples of God being among the ordinary or even the insignificant. In fact most of the Bible was written by people who were in horrible circumstances such as prison, and/or exile from their homeland. Jesus was known for eating with sinners. Not just regular sinners but “notorious” sinners. People didn’t expect God to be among the sinners but apparently Jesus didn’t get the memo? I recently had an experience that illustrates for me the power of Gods presence in any situation.
My favorite football team, the New Orleans Saints, went to and won their first ever Super Bowl a couple months ago. I couldn’t miss this once in a lifetime experiences to see the Saints win it all and so I went to New Orleans to be apart of the madness? Yes, I made the trip. I couldn’t miss my place in Saints history. I wasn’t able to enjoy experiences like this until about 4 years ago when I first started to realize that God doesn’t look down on me for enjoying myself at sporting events. So now, I make it a point to not only go to the places where I was prompted not to go but to look for the spiritual, to see how God is at work and present.
After the Saints won the Super Bowl they had a parade. The city of New Orleans is approximately 340,000 in population but guess how many people were estimated to have shown up to the parade? A whopping 800,000!!!! It was quite the experience. One of the security guards let me into a restricted area which was designated only for city workers but the guard knew that I was by myself and wouldn’t take up too much space so he let me through.
After crossing the gate I proceeded to wait for the Saints players and coaches to pass through on the floats. I happened to strike up a conversation with another Saints fan who was standing around and instantly I had a light bulb come on. In the middle of our conversation, it occurred to me that God was there at the parade. This man, Reginald, began to talk to me about his life and the role that the Saints had played in it. It was an instant reminder of how God uses insignificant things like football to deeply impact peoples lives and that was what I needed to hear at that moment in time. I live in a world full of hustle and bustle. I live in a world where moving up in the ranks is what proves your worth. I live in a world where the significant are recognized and the insignificant are forgotten. If I come across a situation that merges the “significant” with the “insignificant” then I make sure to take special note of it because it is not far from Gods heart. (1 Corinthians 1:18-30). I video taped Reginald giving his testimony and I posted it on youtube. For those of you who read this blog and have trouble with profanity, please be warned. There is one cuss word. If you do not feel comfortable with cuss words then do not watch this video.
In case you don’t know, Sean Payton is the head coach of the New Orleans Saints. You gotta love Reginald and you gotta love Sean Payton. A class act and fine example of great leadership. Most of all I appreciate how Reginald recognized that God allowed him to see Sean Payton with the weed eater. God used Reginald to encourage me and others about hard work. The funny thing was that we weren’t in a church building or a Bible study and God still blessed me in the “secular”. I thank Reginald and I thank God for allowing me to be at the parade and witness what I did.
Resurrection, what is resurrection? Are you interested in resurrection? Well, you must be interested in resurrection because you are here and because it is the most important event in Christianity right? Paul said that if the resurrection didn’t happen then it is pointless to be a Christian. In fact, Paul said that it is not only pointless but foolish. 1 Corinthians 15:17. Now, if Paul elevated the resurrection to the point where without it our faith becomes USELESS then we ought to take the resurrection pretty seriously as well right? Don’t you love that word, resurrection? Let me say it a few more times, resurrection, resurrection, resurrection.
The body of Jesus was nowhere to be found after he had been resurrected (Lk. 24:3). The reason his body was nowhere to be found is because it had been recreated into the resurrected body which was later seen and touched (John 20:17). Paul gives details about the resurrected body in 1st Corinthians 15:50-55. In this passage Paul affirms that the resurrected body of the righteous will no endure any death or decay. Death will be destroyed and the body will never die.
The other day, I went to in and out with some friends and ate and the plan was to go to Walmart afterwards but for some reason the driver wasn’t heading in that direction. So my friend in the back said “Walmart is the other way.” Well the driver wasn’t paying much attention because she was fiddling with the radio and so my friend in backseat said it again “Walmart is the other way.” And the driver kept driving until a couple minutes later when she said “Wait a second Walmart is behind us” Both my friend in the back and I were thinking “duuuhhhh we tried to tell you that two times.” Often times I feel like that is what has happened to Resurrection in Christian theology. The Bible is constantly screaming Resurrection ****Ding ding ding*** resurrection and yet people keep talking about heaven, salvation, baptism, the importance of sharing your faith, and the wrath of God while resurrection sits in the back seat and says ****What about me? Hello, resurrection?
For many people, the idea that Jesus was raised from the dead (resurrected) serves as a proof positive that, to quote Dennis Green “he was who he said he was“. That’s it. Hardly ever do I hear Christians talking about the resurrection of the dead, rather it is always about going to heaven. IE: We will make it to heaven one day if we trust in Jesus. For many the resurrection is only significant in that it shows God as the winner and that we can count on him to get us into heaven. But is that all there is to the story? Doesn’t that sort of thinking lead to the kind of people who are so “heavenly minded, that they’re no EARTHLY good?” Why clean the brass on a sinking ship? Why recycle when this earth will be destroyed? Why stay in shape when really it’s all about going to heaven and getting an immaterial body while sitting on the clouds and playing harps? Why care about the environment or relationships when heaven is around the corner? It is easy to be obsessed with the after-life when the NOW-life isn’t flowing the way we’d like. It is even easier to manipulate our theology into hope for a better tomorrow by forgetting about today. Doesn’t the Resurrection provide any hope for TODAY? Doesn’t the Resurrection make any kind of difference in who I am or what I do now? It seems to me that there is a major disconnect between the Resurrection of Jesus and our hope in Christianity. That is, how many people would say that there hope is to be resurrected? Don’t most Christians say they’re hope is to “go to heaven?” Many people are obsessed with going to heaven yet going to heaven is not the most important goal in Scriptures. N.T. Wright says “Heaven is important but it isn’t the end of the world.”
Hasn’t the gospel become a guilt exchange for a ticket to heaven? It is such a simple transaction right? I call it the “Generally Accepted Assurance Paradigm” (GAAP), Jesus paid the penalty for our sins thereby insuring a free-ride into heaven? I know that there is obviously more to the story but some would argue that the basic message is what I have written in the previous sentence. Jesus + guilt reduction = Heaven
So what happens to the Resurrection in that equation? Is it even mentioned? What role does Resurrection play in the day to day life of a Christian?
For example, the hope of most Christians today is that they will some day make it into heaven. You hear it all the time right? “I’m saved, I know where I’m going.” Some claim that one cannot know whether or not they are saved but even their hope is to be saved. Isn’t it interesting that being saved is often times associated with going to heaven but not necessarily with being resurrected? Why is this? It is because Resurrection has taken a back seat in our current church climate. While the Resurrection certainly affirms that Jesus was who he said he was, it also plays a much bigger role in the grand narrative of scriptures and the course upon which our world is heading. How can we extrapolate this further?
The problem is that our resurrection theology is NOT connected to our day to day life in a natural way. It is sort of like going on a vacation to tell people that you went on a vacation. It doesn’t serve its own purpose. So what that you took a vacation? Did you enjoy yourself or rest? So what that Jesus was resurrected if heaven is the goal? What does Resurrection have to do with heaven?
Culture.
I have been involved with certain cultures that were repressive at best. For example, certain groups of people are very judgmental, insecure, and resistant to change. These cultures are driven by certain principles about the way the world works. There are all sorts of reasons for this climate and I’m simply stating the fact that they do exist. They exist and often times we find ourselves inside of them or dare I say endorsing them. Then someone comes along who is different than that culture and brings a new attitude. He or she, connects with those that others would not and lets those who aren’t necessarily in their field associate with him. They are, therefore, creating a new culture which is a lot more progressive because it allows for those who in the past were ignored to be heard. Those who were not listened to have something to contribute and they are by being heard opening the door to new possibilities. Granted some of those ideas may be bad but usually it has been the underneath person who sees what the high and mighty cannot see.
The resurrection is the ultimate hope for repressed cultures. The resurrection reminds us that something good can still come from the darkest of situations. The resurrection reminds us that our failing bodies will one day be renewed and that this isn’t the end of the situation. The resurrection reminds us that we should take care of our bodies and that we should take care of this earth because will keep it forever and ever. The resurrection is a sign of new life bursting forth in the midst of the dead. The resurrection is the life we all hope for.
Romans 8: 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
Romans 8:23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Philippians 3:10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians 3: 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there,(from there??????????, shouldn’t he have written, “to go there”) the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
John 5:28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.
A couple passages that have riddled me for a while now are found in Luke 15:31 and 1 Corinthians 13:5b. In the discipline of hermeneutics, or as some call it, Bible study, there are many different barriers. Barriers to getting at the heart of what the text is actually saying. Some of those barriers can be dealt with very scientifically through understanding the background of the text, the grammatical construction, and various other methods for digging out the main point. However, there are some passages I come across that are beyond my bible study abilities. They take something of a moral study, they demand something of a moral fiber which will then connect the reader with the text. A thief understands another thief but hardly ever can an arrogant man understand the humble. So there are times during my Bible study where I’m forced to throw up my arms in defeat, sheepishly admitting that I am missing the moral fiber which is needed to experience a certain text. An example of this lack of moral fiber can be found in the two verses stated above. Both of these versus seem to be pretty straight forward and yet I am convinced that the depth of meaning is beyond where I’m at.
Luke 15: 31″ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.
Hmm. Everything I have is yours? How does that work? What does that mean? Should we cease to work because we are guaranteed to already possess all that is worth possessing? Or do we try to have everything while possessing nothing? Do we move in the tension without depending on it? “Everything I have is yours”. Whoa. What if that is true? Do I give up my pursuits of justice, peace and mercy? How does he share all things and yet desire us to take things to the next level? My lack of clarity is an indicator.
1 Corinthians 13:5b “love is not self-seeking”. Who is not self-seeking? How do you seek without being self-seeking? Should no one seek at all? Can a person look without looking? What kind of release is necessary to be free from the things we want? How can we want and not be self-seeking? Moral fiber. Does my desire for a certain moral fiber disqualify me from attaining it?
I just finished reading a Severe Mercy and it is easily one of the best book I’ve EVER read. It is a rather difficult read, if you are not good at reading books which have a lot detailed imagery. However, if you can get past that, then you’ll enjoy a wonderful gift.
The book is about the love story between Sheldon Vanauken and his wife Jean ‘Davy’ Vanauken but truly it is about more then their love. It is about the motivating factor behind their love. I am no expert in love stories but this was one I could believe in. This love pointed to much more.
The couple fell in love while atheists and created all kinds of excellent elaborate schemes for securing their love. In fact there is a chapter called “The Shining Barrier (the Pagan Love) which highlights these rules. It is quite magnificent to read the attempt which is made at securing their love. CS Lewis was instrumental in their conversion and the book contains actual copies of letters he had written to Sheldon during his conversion.
I had to pause many times and meditate upon what I had just read. CS Lewis is extraordinarily succinct. If he had a blog, it wd. contain few words and v. deep thoughts. I don’t want to say much more about the book because I might botch it.
Here are a few quotes which I highlighted.
“One who has never been in love might mistake either infatuation or a mixture of affection and sexual attraction for being in love. But when the ‘real thing’ happens, there is no doubt. A man in the jungle at night, as someone said, may suppose a hyena’s growl to be a lion’s; but when he hears the lion’s grown, he knows damn’ well it’s a lion. So with the genuine inloveness. So with Davy and me. A sudden glory.” Pg. 29
“Our love of course seemed to us a miracle. First love always does the old, old story sung by poets and sneered at by wrinkled of heart. And yet it is a miracle, an unbelievable miracle, just as every springtime of the earth is a miracle.” Pg. 30
“What we did see was that jealousy is fear: it can corrode even if quite baseless.” Pg. 32
“Over-valued possessions, we decided, were a burden, possessing their owners.” Pg. 33
“But death is no respecter of love.” Pg. 44
“The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness. But the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians – when they are somber and joyless, when they are self-righteous and smug in complacent consecration, when they are narrow and repressive, then Christianity dies a thousand deaths.” Pg. 85
“Some people run away from grief, go on world cruises or move to another town. But they do not escape, I think. The memories, unbidden, spring into their minds, scattered perhaps over the years. There is, maybe, something to be said for facing them all deliberately and straightaway. ” Pg. 195
“All our most lovely moments are perhaps timeless.” Pg. 201
“Disobedience is not the way to get nearer to the obedient.” Pg. 210
That is all for now. Check it out if you need another book to read.
This is a great website for more information. http://www.willvaus.com/sheldon_vanauken
I have been single for the majority of my twenties. I’ve been the best man in 3 different weddings. I just got done with a graduate school program where I think they secretly advertised “Ring by Spring or your money back.” I lived in Dallas, TX, home of the largest single/divorced population. I am currently not married or in a serious romantic relationship.
The Word “Single”
Our current spoken and unspoken definition of the word “single” is one who is not in a romantic relationship. Often times, the word single could easily be exchanged for the word “alone” and the meaning wouldn’t change. When people say “single”, they could mean “alone” and so on. This is a sad and unfortunate reality because it implies that single people are alone or don’t have other important relationships. I don’t like the word “single” as a definition for a person’s status because nobody is really single or alone. Instead we should maybe start referring to people who are not in a romantic relationship as “celibate.” Celibate implies an intentional decision to have a certain lifestyle as opposed to “single” which implies the inability to be romantically involved with someone. I suppose celibate sounds lame and so a better word would be “free”. I am not single, I am free. Anyway, let’s not get caught up in definitions right? After all, they only shape how we see the world.
Life is different for the single person, not better or worse but simply different. The frustrations and joys are different as well. Here are some of the things that make it hard to be single.
1. People who are obsessed with getting married.
There are some people who can’t breathe without thinking about marriage. You know who I’m talking about. In reality, it is not marriage that they are obsessed with but rather romantic love. Marriage takes hard work on a narrow path in a steady direction while romantic love comes and goes. I think that the desire to get married is a good desire but that it shouldn’t dictate our every action. Eventually we have to have substance outside of another person, namely a spouse. Our lives must be geared and heading toward something greater than our own self-satisfaction or “happiness”. People who are obsessed with getting married ruin it for everyone else. I especially don’t like how they will use anyone or anything to accomplish their “godly” goal. Right? It is incredibly frustrating.
2. Formula’s for falling in love…..I thought it was a miracle?
In my days as a single person, I have had so many people try to give me their master plan on how I can go from being single to married. It is often simple one liners like “put yourself out there”, “when the right one comes around you’ll know it”, “in the Lord’s timing”, or my personal favorite “you have to be okay as a single person before God will bring a marriage partner” These are just a few examples. There are massive volumes of books written on this topic which have a much more elaborate scheme for finding your soul mate. The worst are the ones you find in Christian book stores because they somehow put God in the picture which makes them even more damaging. It is one thing to be single and it is another to have people insinuate that either God isn’t on your side or that you aren’t being godly enough. Right? There are some books that go as far as to outline what masculinity or femininity looks like with the aim of making a person more “date-able.” DISASTER. Do people really think God designed the world so that you can learn what principles you need to have in place in order to get someone to love you? What’s worse is that love isn’t LOVE when there’s an agenda/scheme behind acquiring it. So please, for your sake and mine, figure out a better way to look at the situation and quit spreading toxic ideas. Right Again? Such a twisted plot. Nobody is perfect…well I shouldn’t say nobody.
3. The music/movies and ads.
The worst though is the popular media in this country. Every song is about obsessive romantic relationships. I can’t make it to work without hearing 4 or 5 songs about how one person completes another or actually how one person is INCOMPLETE without another. “meet me half way”. 90210, Gossip Girl, the Bachelor, need I say more? Lady Gaga and her codependent, obsessed, don’t get me started.
4. The labels
One of my teachers use to say, “If Jesus or Paul were starting their ministry today…Christians would think they were either gay or unable to connect deeply with women.” What do you think? Is this true? Does the culture at large often view those in the ministry as unable to connect with women? What about single people in general? Are they viewed as having some sort of defect if they aren’t in a romantic relationship? How does God feel about that? Especially Jesus who himself is God and is single with respect to a romantic partner? Have we studied the implications of the Trinity and the perfect relationship that exists among the God head to the point where we can accurately assess all healthy relationships? Why don’t we stop being so narrow minded as to think that marriage is the only way to God’s will. Who dat?
5. Annoying couples
The couples that I like to be around are the ones who were fun/ambitious/alive as single people. The rest are enmeshed in each other and I won’t go on any further. Seriously, what’s up with all the PDA? Relax. Get your hands off each other AND nobody cares bro.
So now that I’ve ranted and raved about the frustrations of singleness, what do I have to say about how to live the single life well? Basically, there are only a few pieces of advice on my end and most of my advice is common knowledge. So perhaps this will just be a reminder to myself and whoever else reads this. The Ten Commandments of the Single life according to me.
1. What Next?
One of the things that helps is to have some sort of mission or goal. What turns you on, what moves you? Maybe it’s an art or a specific trade? I took a strengths finders test that really helped me hone in on my skills. Single people can focus a lot energy that married people can’t? We can’t sit around waiting for something that may or may not happen, rather we should go full force into the God-given ability we have and were built for.
2. Family/Friends
Good friends and family relationships have been important to me in my journey. Often times we neglect our family because we’ve grown up with them our whole lives but why not become best friends with your brother or sister? Heck why not even get to know your grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles better? Even if they make you feel dumb for being single, they are still family. Seek out those friends who are friends for life, best friends. People who love you deeply and know about all your hidden flaws. Have a hand full of best friends that you can look back at and remember special times with. Regardless of whether or not you ever get married at least you’ll know that you mattered to somebody and somebody mattered to you. Have a friend which will look at you and say “I love you regardless of whether or not you ever get married. You are valuable outside of any relationship you have with anyone else.”
3. Vice & Virtue
Handle your vices carefully. We all have vices, lets not pretend like we don’t and as a single person it is even harder to manage the vice if you are trying to do it alone. I believe many vices get eliminated once you are married but I could be wrong seeing as how I am not married. A vice may not leave but it will hopefully get out into the open more. Nonetheless, it is important for having a way of dealing with your vices. I think this is where best friends come in handy. Have those people who know your vices and help you work through them, whether it be through helping you set boundaries or discussing deeply the issues that weigh you down. As a married person you have a spouse who has committed their life to you and so in the back of your mind you know you got something going for you but not for the single person. Kinda. I mean we all have dignity and class regardless of whether or not we are married but our society is not easy on the single person. Single people are usually painted with the brush of loneliness or perversion. We’ve got to change that and I think it starts by having good friends and especially those friends who can help you work through vices.
4. Entertain Angels
Accept the kindness of strangers. Go couch surfing. Some of the people who have encouraged me with my singleness the most have been or were at one time strangers. Simply enjoying a meal with friends I hardly know has gone a long way. It makes a difference because it connects you in a social gathering where you don’t feel like the odd man out. So far this year I have spend the night in the following cities: San Francisco, Dallas, New Orleans, Billings, Boston and New York. I did not pay for a hotel once.
5. The right person myth
Is there just one right person? I really don’t know. Answering that question is like answering the question about whether or not God could build a rock that was so big he couldn’t lift it up himself? People go on and on about whether there is just one or many out there. Quite frankly, who cares? What if there is only one right person for you and you missed your window of opportunity to be with them? Does that mean you shouldn’t go on living or being open to another person? Of course not! Instead we should focus our attention off of this idea that there is just one right person. There is a level of freedom that comes from believing that there is one right person. The freeing thing is that you don’t have to worry about working for it and can trust that when it happens…… it happens. If you believe in fate then it is a good thing but it can easily work against you when you think you may have missed your big opportunity. I don’t believe there is one right person but maybe one day I’ll meet her and then I’ll believe it. We should then call that an instance of Retro-Active Truth.
6. Worst case scenario
Face the facts….get real…..you could be single for the rest of your life. I like to ask this question “What if you have to spend the rest of your life single?” Usually when I ask that question, people are absolutely mortified as if I just violated them or attacked the cornerstone of their being. Once you face this question, it opens up a world of opportunity. If I knew that I would never again be romantically involved with a woman then I would live and think about life differently. Wouldn’t I? I probably shouldn’t but I bet I would spend a lot less time listening to people jabber on and on about the rules of engagement. Everything’s fair in love and war right? Wrong!
7. Friends….How many of us have them?
It has helped me to get a fresh reminder that just because I am single doesn’t mean that I’ve done something wrong. Maybe I haven’t done anything wrong? Maybe I’ve acted in line with God’s will and right now this is where I’m at?
8. The evil x
Learn from your x’s. Either learn where you settled or were in the wrong. Let’s face it we’ve all been in the wrong and so we should just come to terms with that. We’ve also tried to make things work with people who didn’t see the beauty in us. That’s okay, I’m sure they will see the beauty inside of someone else at some point right? Some people just don’t want to put the effort it takes to keep a relationship going. Come on, we don’t need that do we? Seriously, if they’re not interested….walk on. Anytime I have recognized that a relationship won’t work I listen to the song “Time To Move On” by Tom Petty. In it he says “It’s time to move on, it’s time to get going, what lays ahead you have no way of knowing and underneath my feet baby, grass is growing, yeah it’s time to move, it’s time to get going.” In this song, Tom asks a very provocative question….”Which way to forgiveness?” That is a great question to ask in dealing with x’s.
9. Love religion?
Be careful of churches that are really just social networks using religious words to hook people up. Be apart of a church that is concerned with the things God is concerned about. God is interested in our personal relationships but He is also concerned with feeding the poor, clothing the needy, and caring for widows and orphans. It just frustrates me when I see religious events being advertised as religious events but in reality they are a cover-up for a dating network. Pretty soon church isn’t about church rather it is about hooking up. Lamo, don’t create theologies and use religious language to push the loneliness agenda further. Please, please, join e-harmony and stay out of the pulpit. Don’t pretty “myspace” up with religious language. Quit shopping me around for your daughter. If you are sad about being single then admit that and deal with it. Don’t drag anymore people into bad answers to life’s challenging questions. What is wrong with being single? Grow up. I’m probably just as guilty as the next person, as evidenced by this blog.
10. Listen to U2. They will help you through the night.
This is a great anthem for all single singe people.
I especially like the direction that is given at the 1:54 mark.
Religious People are like referees they never break a sweat, they never score any points, they never feel the highs and lows of the game, they just run around blowing their whistles. And when they retire nobody cares. – Matt Chandler
The other day I was channel surfacing (lots of waves that day) and I came across a movie called Everybody Says I Love You. I didn’t get to see the whole movie but I happened to catch one specific scene. The scene was a discussion between two men about a soon-to-be dinner guest. The conversation went something like this:
First Man: “You’re letting a criminal in our house?”
2nd Man: “He’s paid his debt to society.”
First Man: “He has not paid! ……Society forgave him his debt,
he didn’t pay his debt to society.”
I have not been able to shake this conversation. In an unusual “aha” moment, I had the realization that people don’t actually pay their debt to society by doing time in prison. How often does the crime get the punishment it deserves? Are we even able to measure the crime? Usually the crime committed will have long lasting implications on more than one individual. Even if they spend the rest of their life in jail, can one say they have paid their debt? For example, people say divorce is just between a man and a woman but some studies show that divorce affects up to 12 different people not including the residue left over with future generations. How do we resolve this? People pay the penalty for their crimes but do they really pay the FULL penalty?
What do we do with the unpaid debt? Well, my understanding is that after we absorb the pain, we often have no healthy choice but to forgive. Our other option is to continue to hold things against people who themselves have probably forgotten their crime. How to resolve all of this unpaid debt can only be dealt with by one word grace. Grace is favor that is administered even though it’s unmerited. And for many, grace has this devious undertone that denotes a get-out-of-Jail free card. That ain’t right and we all know it isn’t right.
Yet, we are faced with this odd tension because I don’t think our world could function without grace. Grace or unmerited favors are an oddity in our world but shouldn’t they be the norm? Release from debt is an exception, NOT the standard. Yet, a world without grace could hardly exist. Either everyone would be in prison or dead. I mean I hate to bring up the sore subject of economics but we are seeing now that unless people forgive some major financial debt then we are on the brink of having our entire financial system scrapped.
Without grace our world becomes cold, dry, and fake. A world without grace is a world in which everyone pretends to have it all together. If people pretend to have it all together then what can they be forgiven for? What will be left to confess? Oh yes we hate that awful word, confession but what are our other options? Hide? Hiding is the norm of our world and that is the real pain. Sometimes we have no choice but to hide because it is the only safe option but it shouldn’t be the norm. “Sometimes we can’t make it on our own and the best we can do is to fake.” How could one be honest about their mistakes if there mistakes can’t be forgiven? I try to pretty up my mistakes and believe “oh I’m really not that bad.” But wouldn’t it be better to say “I really am that bad” thanks for grace? Wouldn’t that be the better direction to head in? A world with grace recognizes that it is dependent upon something greater then itself for sustainability.
We were originally created good and generous. We were built for freedom and NOT slavery. We hope for a future of freedom, a future where the laws govern but don’t confine. A future where the law is written on our heart and we naturally obey it. C.S. Lewis in his great book The Screwtape Letters said that temptation in the future is similar to offering a man a prostitute in exchange for his life long high school sweet heart whom he thought was dead but is instead knocking at the front door. What would the man choose? Would there really be any temptation to choose the prostitute? I think not. We were created for good and we are destined for better. Grace is who we were and where we are going.
If grace is a necessity then why isn’t it deployed very much? I think one reason people appose grace is for fear of not having their hard-work or effort recognized. We don’t want to grant honor to those who haven’t worked for it. But let’s be honest, do we deserve the things we earn? Also how many things do we get for “free”, simply by existing?
I don’t deserve the smile of a stranger.
Or the blessing of a boss, whom I hardly worked for.
Or the gift of a roommate after a home visit.
Or the free cup of hot chocolate last week.
Or the friend who continues to listen even after the septic tank has been emptied.
Or the experience of tasting delicious Dolma. (drool)
I don’t deserve those things yet they are lavished upon me day after day.
It seems to me that grace is woven into the fabric of the way the earth was meant to function. It was never meant to be a stingy place where we kept long accounts and were held captive by dominating revenge drivers. At the same time it is important to put forth effort. Some may say “why should I try if we live in a grace based world.” But these people fail to recognize, as Dallas Willard says, that “grace is not opposed to effort.” In fact it is because we live in a grace filled world that we should try harder and extend grace all the more. See Romans 6.
Another barrier to grace is the person who’s ego doesn’t allow him or her to believe that they don’t have what it takes. Grace means that my best isn’t good enough and that is a death blow to the ego. You mean if I try my best I can’t make everything better? Dan Allender in his book Leading With A Limp says “If my best was good enough then we wouldn’t have world hunger or long lines at the super-market.” I think Dan touches on a popular myth in our culture, that our best is good enough. Our best usually comes up way short. Trust me I’ve turned many papers in where I’ve tried my best and my best got me an 81. We need more then our best. We need something greater then ourselves as the recovery movement says. We are dependent on a higher power to sustain us through our short comings. Again this can be problematic for someone who’s “got what it takes”.
With some of these thoughts in mind we may enjoy a richer reading of certain Biblical passages. For example, the parting of the Red Sea and the Exodus event start to take on a different meaning. Psalm 51, or when Jesus says “forgive him 70 times 7.” Alas, Jesus the man who believed in grace and gave his life for those who did nothing to deserve it. While enduring through excruciating pain Jesus had something very foundational about the way the world works on his mind. “Father, forgive them…”And there are many more examples which are worthy of further exploration. But this seems to me like a good sermon topic. Maybe one day?
If you read this entire thing thinking it was about the phrase “Everybody Says I Love You”, please show me some grace and forgive me. I did not mean to mislead you, it was a provocative title and it did get me thinking about all of this.
Also, please note. I am not advocating that forgiveness always means reconciliation or that forgiveness means forgetting. One of my favorite preachers says “sometimes forgiving IS remembering.” Sometimes we need to remember what people have done to us because they may have a destructive pattern in there life and will continue to do it over and over. It is totally okay to forgive those people but not have relationship with them. A dog returns to its vomit. I also would like to note that this may be a little too weighty of a subject to be posting about on my blog but I guess time will tell.
I guess you could say forgiveness is about release. It is about letting the other person go so that they aren’t renting space in your head.
So I’m sitting in Ecclesiastes class today listening to Dr. Gordon Johnston lecture about the meaninglessness of life. This is my second class with Dr. Johnston, last semester I had him for Hebrew 4. Class in and class out this man continues to amaze me. I am always in awe of his ability to illuminate the text using his Hebrew language tools and mindset. One theme I have seen over and over in his teachings is “hard work”. Hard work pays off. Today he was specifically lecturing about how there is a balance to everything that is done under the sun and that hard work has its place, as long as the work is done out of enjoyment.
I’m in my last semester of seminary and one of the questions I have been wrestling with is vocation. What it is that I like to do and whether or not I have what it takes to do it. One of my goals was and still is to have a preaching ministry, an excellent preaching ministry. The reason why I came to seminary was so that I could get the skills necessary to dive into the Bible and not only understand what it communicates but also to be able to communicate what it says. As time goes by I see the multi-faceted jewel that the Bible is and have come realize that I don’t have what it takes to know EVERYTHING there is to know about the Bible. But I have learned that there are general themes which run throughout (grace, redemption, love, repentance). This has given me hope. But I have been weary of preaching for one big reason. As I research passages I see that there are seas of commentaries and there are a number of directions one can go with a given passage. Since I am a perfectionist, I find it necessary to do every little bit of research before moving forward with a given interpretation but this perfectionism has caught up with me in the pulpit. I get overwhelmed with all the different directions, nor can I study all the different directions to see which one(s) is legit. Well this all had been weighing me down and today after class I decided to ask Dr. Johnston to get something to drink at the Cafe. He kindly agreed.
As we walked to the Cafe, I happened to pass by a bunch of people that I knew. I quickly interacted with them in passing and then waited in line. In line I began to unload some of my apprehensions on him. We sat in the Cafe and talked for about 30 minutes and during that time he unloaded a wealth of wisdom on me. He zeroed in on some of my talents, reassured me, and gave me some tips on how to combine my talent with his. He put words to the ideas I was wrestling with and brought resolution. These aren’t his exact words but he reminded me that at the end of the day we’re all in this together and there are times where it is okay to trust someone’s opinion on a passage. He reminded me that one of his major contributions is content while my major contribution would be communicating and facilitating enviornments for the content. That conversation lasted about 30 minutes but it covered about three years of questions. One conversation changes everything. I had a class I was suppose to attend after Ecclesiastes but I skipped it in order to talk to Dr. Johnston. Was it worth it? I think so.
Entries (RSS)