Choice ... the pearl of great price. Yet it is not intended to be buried and hidden away. A choice not made is worse than no choice at all ... it becomes a snare in which we trap ourselves and yet we can never be truly rid of it. It remains with us and becomes a curse if unused.
Each person must choose between God and the world ... God and mammon as the King James Version calls it. This is the eternal, unchangeable condition of choice that can never be evaded. Never in all eternity. We are not given the luxury of saying, "God and the world." This would be, in effect, to refrain from choosing and Scripture does not give us that luxury. We do so to our own destruction [Hebrews 10:39]. No one can say, "One can choose a little mammon and also God as well."
It is also presumptuous to believe that only the person who desires great wealth is the one who chooses mammon. The man who insists on having a single penny without God ... wanting that sole penny for himself ... thus chooses mammon. A single penny is enough to make the choice. To chose mammon, whether great or little, makes not the slightest difference.
Scriptures say that to love God is to hate the world and to love the world is to hate God. This, of course, is the colossal point of contention, either love or hate. And this is sadly the place where the most terrible of fights must be fought. And where is this place? In our inmost beings. Whether we struggle over millions or over a single penny, it comes down to a matter of loving and preferring God. This is a great and terrible fight for the highest place ... but what great and unmeasurable happiness is promised to the one who rightly chooses.
What is it that God really demands in this eternal either/or? He demands obedience ... unconditional obedience. He says that if we don't obey Him unconditionally, without qualification, we don't love Him. And if we don't love Him ... then we hate Him. If we are not obedient unconditionally then we are not bound to Him and if we are not bound to Him then we despise Him.
But if we can become absolutely obedient, then when we pray, "Lead us not into temptation" there will be no ambiguity in us ... we become undivided and single before God. And that is the one thing that all of Satan's cunning and all of his snares cannot take by surprise ... an undivided will. Where unclarity resides, there is temptation, and there it proves too easily the stronger. Wherever there is ambiguity, wherever there is wavering, there will inevitably be disobedience at the bottom.
But where there is no ambiguity, Satan and his temptations are powerless. But with even the slightest glimpse of wavering, Satan is strong and temptation is enticing, and keen-sighted is the evil one whose trap is called temptation and whose prey is called the human soul. Ambiguity cannot hide itself from him and when he discovers it, temptation is always at hand. But the person solely surrendered to God, without reservation, is absolutely safe.
There is a tremendous danger in which we find ourselves by virtue of our humanity ... a danger that results from the fact that we are placed between two tremendous powers. The choice is left to us. We must either love or hate, and not to love is to hate. So hostile are these two powers that the slightest inclination towards one side becomes absolute opposition to the other. Let us not forget the tremendous choice we must make. To be either duplicitous or to forget to choose is to have made our choice.
May God give each of us a truly undivided will ... one with a singular bent towards Him.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Followers v. Fans
It is well known that Christ consistently used the expression "follower." He never sought out fans, admirers, adherents or even worshippers. No, what He sought was disciples. It was not adherents to a teaching, but followers of a life that Christ was looking for.
Christ understood that being a "disciple" was the only way to respond to the things He revealed about Himself. He claimed to be the way, the truth and the life [John 14:6]. For this reason, He could never abide adherents who only accepted His teaching -- especially those who lived their lives without the application of the principles He taught. He lived His entire life on earth, from beginning to end, in such a way as to make being an "admirer" impossible but, instead, to demand followership.
Christ came into the world with the purpose of saving it rather than instructing it. At the same time -- as is implied by His saving work -- He came to be the pattern, to leave footprints for us to follow should we decide to join Him. This is why Christ was born and died in lowliness. It would be absolutely impossible for any of us to describe the life He lived as having inherent worldly advantages for those who are called and choose to follow it. In that sense, to "admire Christ" has become the false invention of a later age, aided by its inherent presumption of "loftiness." He never really gave us that choice and if He had there was absolutely nothing intrinsic to admire in Christ, unless we would want to admire poverty, misery and the contempt of His peers.
So what then, is the difference between a fan [admirer] and a follower [disciple]? A follower is or strives to be what he admires. An admirer [fan], however, keeps himself personally detached. He fails to see that what is admired involves a claim on him, and thus he fails to be or strive to be what he admires.
To want to admire instead of follow Christ is not necessarily an invention by bad people. No, it is more an invention by those who spinelessly keep themselves detached, who keep themselves at a safe distance. Admirers are related to the admired only through the excitement of the imagination. To them he is like an actor on the stage except that, this being real life, the effect he produces is somewhat stronger. But for their part, admirers make the same demands that are made in the theater or the ballpark: to sit safe, still and calm. Admirers are only all too willing to serve Christ so long as proper caution is exercised, lest one personally come in contact with danger. As such, they refuse to accept that Christ's life is a demand on theirs. In actuality, they are offended by Him. His radical, bizarre character so offends them that when they honestly see Christ for who He is, they are no longer able to experience the comfort and tranquility they so desire. They know all too well that to associate with Christ to closely holds their own lives up for examination. And while He may say nothing directly against them, they know that His life tacitly judges theirs.
And it is indeed true that Christ's life makes it terrifyingly manifest just what a dreadful untruth it is to admire the truth instead of following it. And when there is no danger or cost apparent to our Christianity, it is all to easy to confuse an admirer with a follower. In fact, the admirer can suffer the delusion that the position he takes is the true one, when in reality all he is doing is playing it safe. We must always give heed to the call of discipleship.
To those who know the story of Christ's life there is no doubt that Judas Iscariot was an admirer of Christ. And we know that from the beginning of Christ's ministry that He had many admirers/fans. So how did this admirer become a traitor in a mere three years time? But really, isn't that the way of the admirer? The fairweather fan? Those who only admire the truth, will, when danger appears, often betray the one they admire. The admirer is infatuated with the false security of greatness; but if/when there is any inconvenience or trouble, he will typically pull back. Admiring the truth, instead of following it, is just as dubious as the fire of erotic love, which at the turn of the hand can be changed into exactly the opposite, to hate, jealously and revenge.
Consider the story of another admirer in the gospels -- Nicodemus [John 3]. Unwilling to risk his reputation, he came to Jesus under the cover of night. So far as we know he never became a follower but he definitely was an admirer. It was as if he had said to Christ, "If we are able to reach a compromise, you and me, then I will accept your teaching in eternity. But here in this world, no, that I cannot bring myself to do. Could you not make an exception for me? Could it not be enough if once in a while, at great risk to myself, I come to you during the night; but during the day continue to act as if I do not know you. You must realize how humiliating it is for me and how disgraceful, and even insulting this is toward you." Certainly the webs woven by the admirer can be awkward and unseemly.
Nicodemus, I have not doubt, was likely well-meaning. I am also sure that he was tantalized by the truths of Christ's teaching. But is it not true that the more strongly someone identifies with the words of another while his life remains unchanged, the more he is only making a fool of himself? Suppose Christ had permitted a less costly version of being a follower or disciple -- suppose He allowed an admirer who swore on all that is high and holy that he is convinced -- then Nicodemus might have very well have been accepted. But he was not!
Nevertheless, the difference between the fan and follower still remains, no matter who or where we are. The admirer never makes any true sacrifices. He always plays it safe. Though in words, speech or even singing he may be inexhaustible in how he prizes Christ, nevertheless, he renounces nothing, he gives up nothing, he will not reorient his life, he will not become what he admires [this is often true in sports as well, as the life of the fan takes far less dedication than the life of the athlete that he supposedly "idolizes"]. Not so for the follower/disciple. No. The follower aspires with all his strength, will all his will, with all his might to become what he admires. And then remarkably enough, even if he is living among a "Christian people," the same danger lies for him as was once the case when it was dangerous to openly confess Christ. And as a result of the follower's life, it becomes evident just who the admirers are as well, and as a result the admirers will rise up against him. It will be as Christ promised us, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own" [John 15:18, 19].
Christ understood that being a "disciple" was the only way to respond to the things He revealed about Himself. He claimed to be the way, the truth and the life [John 14:6]. For this reason, He could never abide adherents who only accepted His teaching -- especially those who lived their lives without the application of the principles He taught. He lived His entire life on earth, from beginning to end, in such a way as to make being an "admirer" impossible but, instead, to demand followership.
Christ came into the world with the purpose of saving it rather than instructing it. At the same time -- as is implied by His saving work -- He came to be the pattern, to leave footprints for us to follow should we decide to join Him. This is why Christ was born and died in lowliness. It would be absolutely impossible for any of us to describe the life He lived as having inherent worldly advantages for those who are called and choose to follow it. In that sense, to "admire Christ" has become the false invention of a later age, aided by its inherent presumption of "loftiness." He never really gave us that choice and if He had there was absolutely nothing intrinsic to admire in Christ, unless we would want to admire poverty, misery and the contempt of His peers.
So what then, is the difference between a fan [admirer] and a follower [disciple]? A follower is or strives to be what he admires. An admirer [fan], however, keeps himself personally detached. He fails to see that what is admired involves a claim on him, and thus he fails to be or strive to be what he admires.
To want to admire instead of follow Christ is not necessarily an invention by bad people. No, it is more an invention by those who spinelessly keep themselves detached, who keep themselves at a safe distance. Admirers are related to the admired only through the excitement of the imagination. To them he is like an actor on the stage except that, this being real life, the effect he produces is somewhat stronger. But for their part, admirers make the same demands that are made in the theater or the ballpark: to sit safe, still and calm. Admirers are only all too willing to serve Christ so long as proper caution is exercised, lest one personally come in contact with danger. As such, they refuse to accept that Christ's life is a demand on theirs. In actuality, they are offended by Him. His radical, bizarre character so offends them that when they honestly see Christ for who He is, they are no longer able to experience the comfort and tranquility they so desire. They know all too well that to associate with Christ to closely holds their own lives up for examination. And while He may say nothing directly against them, they know that His life tacitly judges theirs.
And it is indeed true that Christ's life makes it terrifyingly manifest just what a dreadful untruth it is to admire the truth instead of following it. And when there is no danger or cost apparent to our Christianity, it is all to easy to confuse an admirer with a follower. In fact, the admirer can suffer the delusion that the position he takes is the true one, when in reality all he is doing is playing it safe. We must always give heed to the call of discipleship.
To those who know the story of Christ's life there is no doubt that Judas Iscariot was an admirer of Christ. And we know that from the beginning of Christ's ministry that He had many admirers/fans. So how did this admirer become a traitor in a mere three years time? But really, isn't that the way of the admirer? The fairweather fan? Those who only admire the truth, will, when danger appears, often betray the one they admire. The admirer is infatuated with the false security of greatness; but if/when there is any inconvenience or trouble, he will typically pull back. Admiring the truth, instead of following it, is just as dubious as the fire of erotic love, which at the turn of the hand can be changed into exactly the opposite, to hate, jealously and revenge.
Consider the story of another admirer in the gospels -- Nicodemus [John 3]. Unwilling to risk his reputation, he came to Jesus under the cover of night. So far as we know he never became a follower but he definitely was an admirer. It was as if he had said to Christ, "If we are able to reach a compromise, you and me, then I will accept your teaching in eternity. But here in this world, no, that I cannot bring myself to do. Could you not make an exception for me? Could it not be enough if once in a while, at great risk to myself, I come to you during the night; but during the day continue to act as if I do not know you. You must realize how humiliating it is for me and how disgraceful, and even insulting this is toward you." Certainly the webs woven by the admirer can be awkward and unseemly.
Nicodemus, I have not doubt, was likely well-meaning. I am also sure that he was tantalized by the truths of Christ's teaching. But is it not true that the more strongly someone identifies with the words of another while his life remains unchanged, the more he is only making a fool of himself? Suppose Christ had permitted a less costly version of being a follower or disciple -- suppose He allowed an admirer who swore on all that is high and holy that he is convinced -- then Nicodemus might have very well have been accepted. But he was not!
Nevertheless, the difference between the fan and follower still remains, no matter who or where we are. The admirer never makes any true sacrifices. He always plays it safe. Though in words, speech or even singing he may be inexhaustible in how he prizes Christ, nevertheless, he renounces nothing, he gives up nothing, he will not reorient his life, he will not become what he admires [this is often true in sports as well, as the life of the fan takes far less dedication than the life of the athlete that he supposedly "idolizes"]. Not so for the follower/disciple. No. The follower aspires with all his strength, will all his will, with all his might to become what he admires. And then remarkably enough, even if he is living among a "Christian people," the same danger lies for him as was once the case when it was dangerous to openly confess Christ. And as a result of the follower's life, it becomes evident just who the admirers are as well, and as a result the admirers will rise up against him. It will be as Christ promised us, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own" [John 15:18, 19].
Friday, September 30, 2011
What is Truth?
Truth is not something we can appropriate easily or quickly. We certainly cannot sleep or dream ourselves into the truth. No, we must be tried, do battle and suffer if we are to acquire truth for ourselves. It is just an illusion to think that there is an abridgment, a short cut that dispenses with the necessity of struggling for it. With respect to acquiring truth to live by, every generation and every person must essentially start from the beginning.
What is truth, and in what sense what Christ the truth? The first question, as most recall, was asked by Pilate [John 18:38], and it is doubtful that he ever really cared to even have his question answered. Pilate asked Christ, "What is truth?" That it did not even occur to Pilate that Christ WAS the truth demonstrated precisely that he had no eye for truth at all. Christ's life was the truth [John 14:6]. It was to this very end that Christ was born, and for this purpose did He come into the world, that He should bear witness to the truth. What, then, is the fundamentally fallacy in Pilate's question? It is primarily that it even occurred to him to question Christ in this way; for in questioning Christ he is actually damning himself as he reveals that Christ's life has not illuminated him. How could Christ possibly enlighten Pilate with mere words when Pilate could not seen through Christ's own life what truth is!?
Pilate's question is extremely foolish. Not that he asks, "What is truth?" but that he questions Christ, whose very life is the truth and who at every moment demonstrates more powerfully by His life what truth is than all the most profound lectures by the world's wisest thinkers. Though it may make perfect sense to ask any other person, thinker, philosopher, teacher, pastor, whoever, "What is truth?" to ask this of Christ is the greatest possible faux pas. Obviously, Pilate is of the opinion that Christ was just a man, like everyone else. Poor Pilate! His question is the most foolish and misguided ever asked by any man. It is almost as if I were to ask someone standing right beside me, "Do you exist?" How can one possibly reply to this? So it is with Christ in relation to Pilate. Christ is the truth. "If my life," He might say, "cannot open your eyes to the truth, then what can I possibly say? For I am the truth."
As with Pilate, in our day Christ as the truth has also been abolished: we may accept Christ's teaching -- but abolish the very concept of Christ. We want truth the easy way. This is to abolish truth, for Christ the teacher is more important than His teaching. Just as Christ's life, the very fact that He lived here on the earth, is vastly more important than all the results of His life, so also is Christ infinitely more important than His teaching.
Christ is the truth in the sense that to be the truth is the only genuine explanation of it; the only bona fide way of acquiring it. Truth is not the sum of statements, not a definition, not a system of concepts, but, instead, a life. Truth is not a way of thinking ... no truth is as Kierkegaard would say "a reduplication of truth within ourselves and within Him. Your life, my life, His life expresses the truth in its striving." Just as the truth was a life in Christ, so too, for us the truth must be lived.
Therefore, truth is not so much a matter of knowing this or that, but of being in the truth. Despite our modern philosophy, there is an infinite difference here, as is best seen in Christ's response to Pilate. Christ did not so much know the truth but was the truth. Not that He did not know what the truth was, but when one is the truth and when the requirement is to be in the truth, to merely "know" the truth is insufficient -- it is even an untruth in comparison. For knowing the truth is something that follows as a matter of course from being in the truth, not the other way around. No one knows more of the truth than what he is of the truth. To properly know the truth is to be the truth; it is to have the truth for one's life. This always requires a struggle. Any other kind of knowledge is a falsification. In short, the truth, if it is really there, is a being, a life. The Gospel says that this is eternal life, to know the only true God and the One whom He sent, the truth [John 17:3]. At the end of the day this means that we only know the truth when it becomes life in us.
What is truth, and in what sense what Christ the truth? The first question, as most recall, was asked by Pilate [John 18:38], and it is doubtful that he ever really cared to even have his question answered. Pilate asked Christ, "What is truth?" That it did not even occur to Pilate that Christ WAS the truth demonstrated precisely that he had no eye for truth at all. Christ's life was the truth [John 14:6]. It was to this very end that Christ was born, and for this purpose did He come into the world, that He should bear witness to the truth. What, then, is the fundamentally fallacy in Pilate's question? It is primarily that it even occurred to him to question Christ in this way; for in questioning Christ he is actually damning himself as he reveals that Christ's life has not illuminated him. How could Christ possibly enlighten Pilate with mere words when Pilate could not seen through Christ's own life what truth is!?
Pilate's question is extremely foolish. Not that he asks, "What is truth?" but that he questions Christ, whose very life is the truth and who at every moment demonstrates more powerfully by His life what truth is than all the most profound lectures by the world's wisest thinkers. Though it may make perfect sense to ask any other person, thinker, philosopher, teacher, pastor, whoever, "What is truth?" to ask this of Christ is the greatest possible faux pas. Obviously, Pilate is of the opinion that Christ was just a man, like everyone else. Poor Pilate! His question is the most foolish and misguided ever asked by any man. It is almost as if I were to ask someone standing right beside me, "Do you exist?" How can one possibly reply to this? So it is with Christ in relation to Pilate. Christ is the truth. "If my life," He might say, "cannot open your eyes to the truth, then what can I possibly say? For I am the truth."
As with Pilate, in our day Christ as the truth has also been abolished: we may accept Christ's teaching -- but abolish the very concept of Christ. We want truth the easy way. This is to abolish truth, for Christ the teacher is more important than His teaching. Just as Christ's life, the very fact that He lived here on the earth, is vastly more important than all the results of His life, so also is Christ infinitely more important than His teaching.
Christ is the truth in the sense that to be the truth is the only genuine explanation of it; the only bona fide way of acquiring it. Truth is not the sum of statements, not a definition, not a system of concepts, but, instead, a life. Truth is not a way of thinking ... no truth is as Kierkegaard would say "a reduplication of truth within ourselves and within Him. Your life, my life, His life expresses the truth in its striving." Just as the truth was a life in Christ, so too, for us the truth must be lived.
Therefore, truth is not so much a matter of knowing this or that, but of being in the truth. Despite our modern philosophy, there is an infinite difference here, as is best seen in Christ's response to Pilate. Christ did not so much know the truth but was the truth. Not that He did not know what the truth was, but when one is the truth and when the requirement is to be in the truth, to merely "know" the truth is insufficient -- it is even an untruth in comparison. For knowing the truth is something that follows as a matter of course from being in the truth, not the other way around. No one knows more of the truth than what he is of the truth. To properly know the truth is to be the truth; it is to have the truth for one's life. This always requires a struggle. Any other kind of knowledge is a falsification. In short, the truth, if it is really there, is a being, a life. The Gospel says that this is eternal life, to know the only true God and the One whom He sent, the truth [John 17:3]. At the end of the day this means that we only know the truth when it becomes life in us.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
The Power of One
As I noted in my last posting: the one matters to God.
Steven Spielberg has explored this theme of the one in several of his films. From E.T. to A.I. to Close Encounters of the Third Kind to Schindler's List to Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg seems almost obsessesed with the journey of the solitary individual. In Saving Private Ryan we find the true story of how a troop of men literally marched through a world war to find and secure the safe return of one soldier. This movie raises such important questions as: What is the value of one human being? and To what extreme should we go to save a single person?
Until I met my current pastor, Erik Braun, eleven years ago, I used to think that I was desperately searching for God during my latter teenage years. Looking back, I now realize that God was desperately searching for me. I used to wonder why my soul ached and God wouldn't do anything about it. Now I perceive that it was that very pain that drove me to God. A life lived without God starves the soul. I thought for a while that God could meet my needs and stop the cravings of my soul. Now I know that isn't really the case. My soul doesn't crave something FROM God; my soul CRAVES God. And by the way, so does yours.
That is why everything else leaves us unsatisfied in the end. But we should not let this frustrate us; we should, instead, let it fuel us. All the evidence we need to prove God is waiting to be discovered within us. As we have traveled together for now twenty-eight postings over the past three months, I just want to say that our journey does not end here. We are not at the final destination, but instead, at a crossroad. There are decisions that we must consider, choices that perhaps we must make, steps that we must take. Maybe we should stop and take a moment to turn our heads and look back. We have journeyed farther than we may know.
If you are still tracking along with me then you are very much the kind of person that Jesus spoke very highly of in the gospels. He calls people like you seekers [or perhaps you may already be one of His believers] and He assures you that if you seek, you will find. He also promises that if you knock, the door will be opened to you, and if you ask, it will be given to you. Please know, however, that He isn't so much speaking about material possessions here as much as He is about meeting the deepest longings of your soul. So continue to seek, knock, ask and don't stop until you find, enter in and come to know the answer your soul has been searching for all along.
Our souls crave, and it's God that we are longing for. So we should listen carefully to the conversations going on inside our heads. We shouldn't worry ... we aren't really going crazy. We are not talking to ourselves. God is trying to get our attention and to bring us into relationship with Him. If we will pay attention to our souls, they will guide us to God.
If God is real and we are created by Him, our souls already know this. We may be in denial or even genuinely unaware of it, but if we would take the time to explore nowhere else except deep within ourselves, undoubtedly we would come face-to-face with God.
In the movie Contact, Jodie Foster asks the question, "Do you think there's life out there?" The theme of the movie, of course, was that if there wasn't, then it would be a terrible waste of space. I say that there is more unexplored space within us than there is in this ever-expanding universe. If we will take the time to journey to the depths of our souls, we will not leave there disappointed, and perhaps to our surprise and astonishment, we will find God there.
Then what do we do? If we find ourselves face-to-face with the God of the universe and feel His presence touch our souls like gentle breezes against our face, how will we respond to Him? To trust in God, we have to truly know that He loves us without condition. This is the beauty of Jesus' death on the cross. It is literally God's celebration of His love for us. His love embraces us wherever we happen to be in our journeys, and He refuses to leave us there. Instead, He launches us on a quest to pursue the lives we were created to live. Our souls know that there is a greater purpose for our lives, a God-sized dream waiting to unfold and become our futures.
We are all on a quest for intimacy, for meaning, for our destinies. Our souls crave love and faith and hope. We are all searching for what it is that our souls long for, and we will be satisfied only in God. My guess is that it will never be easy, but at least Jesus has made it possible. We don't have to be afraid to commit our lives to someone who gives His life for us.
Maybe you are different than I am, but my guess is that we are probably a lot alike in this. Your soul, too, craves to believe. You may have been burned, you may have even been deceived, but deep in your gut, somewhere deep inside, there is a voice telling you that God can be trusted with your life, that you can trust someone like Jesus. His love is pure and your soul thirsts for Him like water is needed by a crusted desert. That there is more to life than you can know without God. Jesus walked among us so that we could get close enough to hear Him, to see Him, to touch Him, to know Him. To know Him, this is what our souls crave.
Steven Spielberg has explored this theme of the one in several of his films. From E.T. to A.I. to Close Encounters of the Third Kind to Schindler's List to Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg seems almost obsessesed with the journey of the solitary individual. In Saving Private Ryan we find the true story of how a troop of men literally marched through a world war to find and secure the safe return of one soldier. This movie raises such important questions as: What is the value of one human being? and To what extreme should we go to save a single person?
Until I met my current pastor, Erik Braun, eleven years ago, I used to think that I was desperately searching for God during my latter teenage years. Looking back, I now realize that God was desperately searching for me. I used to wonder why my soul ached and God wouldn't do anything about it. Now I perceive that it was that very pain that drove me to God. A life lived without God starves the soul. I thought for a while that God could meet my needs and stop the cravings of my soul. Now I know that isn't really the case. My soul doesn't crave something FROM God; my soul CRAVES God. And by the way, so does yours.
That is why everything else leaves us unsatisfied in the end. But we should not let this frustrate us; we should, instead, let it fuel us. All the evidence we need to prove God is waiting to be discovered within us. As we have traveled together for now twenty-eight postings over the past three months, I just want to say that our journey does not end here. We are not at the final destination, but instead, at a crossroad. There are decisions that we must consider, choices that perhaps we must make, steps that we must take. Maybe we should stop and take a moment to turn our heads and look back. We have journeyed farther than we may know.
If you are still tracking along with me then you are very much the kind of person that Jesus spoke very highly of in the gospels. He calls people like you seekers [or perhaps you may already be one of His believers] and He assures you that if you seek, you will find. He also promises that if you knock, the door will be opened to you, and if you ask, it will be given to you. Please know, however, that He isn't so much speaking about material possessions here as much as He is about meeting the deepest longings of your soul. So continue to seek, knock, ask and don't stop until you find, enter in and come to know the answer your soul has been searching for all along.
Our souls crave, and it's God that we are longing for. So we should listen carefully to the conversations going on inside our heads. We shouldn't worry ... we aren't really going crazy. We are not talking to ourselves. God is trying to get our attention and to bring us into relationship with Him. If we will pay attention to our souls, they will guide us to God.
If God is real and we are created by Him, our souls already know this. We may be in denial or even genuinely unaware of it, but if we would take the time to explore nowhere else except deep within ourselves, undoubtedly we would come face-to-face with God.
In the movie Contact, Jodie Foster asks the question, "Do you think there's life out there?" The theme of the movie, of course, was that if there wasn't, then it would be a terrible waste of space. I say that there is more unexplored space within us than there is in this ever-expanding universe. If we will take the time to journey to the depths of our souls, we will not leave there disappointed, and perhaps to our surprise and astonishment, we will find God there.
Then what do we do? If we find ourselves face-to-face with the God of the universe and feel His presence touch our souls like gentle breezes against our face, how will we respond to Him? To trust in God, we have to truly know that He loves us without condition. This is the beauty of Jesus' death on the cross. It is literally God's celebration of His love for us. His love embraces us wherever we happen to be in our journeys, and He refuses to leave us there. Instead, He launches us on a quest to pursue the lives we were created to live. Our souls know that there is a greater purpose for our lives, a God-sized dream waiting to unfold and become our futures.
We are all on a quest for intimacy, for meaning, for our destinies. Our souls crave love and faith and hope. We are all searching for what it is that our souls long for, and we will be satisfied only in God. My guess is that it will never be easy, but at least Jesus has made it possible. We don't have to be afraid to commit our lives to someone who gives His life for us.
Maybe you are different than I am, but my guess is that we are probably a lot alike in this. Your soul, too, craves to believe. You may have been burned, you may have even been deceived, but deep in your gut, somewhere deep inside, there is a voice telling you that God can be trusted with your life, that you can trust someone like Jesus. His love is pure and your soul thirsts for Him like water is needed by a crusted desert. That there is more to life than you can know without God. Jesus walked among us so that we could get close enough to hear Him, to see Him, to touch Him, to know Him. To know Him, this is what our souls crave.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Hide and Seek
Solomon once wrote that God has set eternity in the hearts of men, but that in the end we cannot seem to make any sense of it. He somehow knew that deep within us is both our greatest evidence for God and our greatest connection to God. Jesus said that the kingdom of God was within, yet for the past two thousand years we have kept looking outward for this kingdom rather than inside us. I am absolutely convinced of one thing: God has placed cravings within our souls that will either drive us insane or drive us to Him. Our souls long for God; we just may not know it yet.
I lose things all the time [and as it turns out, so does my wife ... perhaps even more than I do ... so at all times there is a fairly good chance that there is a hunt going on at the Currieo hacienda]. I have literally spent untold hours of my life looking for lost items. This goes back to childhood, and when I was a kid, I used to think God was punishing me by hiding whatever object was missing. A bit of magical thinking I must admit now:) I was certain that I had committed some heinous crime against both God and humanity, and now God was punishing me by hiding my wallet, keys, ticket, fill in the blank. My parents would be exasperated saying things like "a place for everything and everything in its place." The past few years I must admit that I have done better in the keeping things in their place department ... but it is forty years too late.
Losing things drove me to prayer [and it really drives Janna to prayer even more than me]. I would spend virtually every minute of my search begging God to help me find whatever I had lost [or He had hidden]. I, of course, would also make untold promises to God about ways in which I could be more holy if He would just show me where the missing item was. Not that I was so good about keeping those promises mind you. I would wrack my mind for anything I could have possibly done wrong to cause said item to go missing and then do whatever I could to make it right ... frantically trying to find the one thing God was holding against me so that I could get Him to give back what was missing.
Most people, I am sure, might think this was a ridiculous thought process, but frankly it seemed to work pretty well [maybe that is why I kept doing it ... after all, a behavior reinforced is a behavior repeated as the psychologists tell us]. Most of the time I was able to get God off my back, repair whatever breach in the cosmos I had created, and find the missing watch, wallet, keys, radio or whatever happened to be lost at the time. Looking back now, I realize that the one thing that seemed to be lost all the time was me. I kept looking for me. Or really for who I was. Somewhere along the way from grade school to adolescence I had become lost.
We try to fill ourselves with everything we can grab [remember the Schlitz beer commercials in the 70s ... you only go around once in life so grab all the gusto you can?]. And yet there always seemed to remain an inescapable emptiness within. Even when we have looked everywhere else, even when there is seemingly no where else to even look, we still somehow fail to consider the possibility that what our souls long for is God. We cannot take enough [gusto, money, things, whatever] or make enough to fill the hollowness within us. No matter what we try to do we cannot seem to avoid the void.
Perhaps this is exactly what Jesus meant when He said, "What is it worth to gain the whole world, but to lose your soul?" Could He have been describing someone like me or you? We can spend our entire lives as slaves to our desires, determined to somehow satisfy the deepest longings of our souls. We can take everything that we get our hands on; we can keep everything that we grab a hold of; we can, in the end, become human versions of a black hole.
Yet there remains something deep inside us that pulls us toward God, something our souls long for that we cannot fully understand or comprehend. Doesn't it make sense that if we were created for relationship with the God of the universe, that He would leverage everything within us so that we would search for Him, to reach out for Him, and perhaps just end up finding Him?
So at the end of the day, we are back to our cosmic game of hide-and-seek. At this point, we might be asking ourselves, If God wants me to find Him and my soul craves to do so, then why doesn't He make it easier than this? How many of us have gone searching for God? I have. And frankly, I didn't feel much like He was cooperating at all [while now looking back I can see that He was there all the time]. And then when my propensity for losing things was factored in, it is a miracle that I ever ended up finding Him again at all.
When we lose something, we have to backtrack. Don't you just hate the question we always get asked whenever we lose something, "Where did you last have it?" If we knew that, then it wouldn't be lost, now would it? But like an investigator from Scotland Yard, we go retracing every step. When that doesn't work, sadly I too quickly move to Plan B ... blaming others. "Who lost my _____ [fill in the blank]?" Oh, that's right, we're talking about God. "Who moved my God?" Or worse yet, "My God, where did God go?"
Now I'll say it right here and now. It is a very bad thing to misplace the Creator of the universe. He could be just about anywhere [think of the infinite possibilities as to where this search might take us]. Or maybe in this case, everywhere. Sometimes hide-and-seek isn't a game.
So I asked around and I looked for God in the last place someone saw Him -- in religion. After all, millions of people around the world go to see God every week unless, of course, you were to interview them and then you might realize that they didn't see Him either. They were just there looking for Him, hoping that they could find Him. There may be nothing more frustrating or confusing than having tried God and then walking away with the bad taste of "religion" in our mouths.
So many of us spend our lives worrying that God is going to punish us or hoping that God is going to help us, but neither of these things ever seems to happen. For all the activity that there is in the world trying to get God's attention, it can leave us wondering whether it's all just a horrible waste of time. I couldn't really blame God, though. I never really got too mad at Him [except perhaps after my mother's suicide ... why couldn't I have a normal family like everyone else?]. I just figured that He was too busy with more important stuff or maybe more important people. So much of my life felt invisible. It seemed pretty arrogant and presumptuous of me to think God would actually notice me. Probably God was more of a big picture kind of guy. Maybe He just wasn't that into details. Or maybe, just maybe, there was more going on than I knew.
Over and over again, Jesus taught the value of the one to God. He described God as the shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to find the one that is lost; the woman who searches for the one coin that is missing till she finds it; the father who waits patiently for his wayward son to return home to him. The one matters to God.
... To be continued ...
I lose things all the time [and as it turns out, so does my wife ... perhaps even more than I do ... so at all times there is a fairly good chance that there is a hunt going on at the Currieo hacienda]. I have literally spent untold hours of my life looking for lost items. This goes back to childhood, and when I was a kid, I used to think God was punishing me by hiding whatever object was missing. A bit of magical thinking I must admit now:) I was certain that I had committed some heinous crime against both God and humanity, and now God was punishing me by hiding my wallet, keys, ticket, fill in the blank. My parents would be exasperated saying things like "a place for everything and everything in its place." The past few years I must admit that I have done better in the keeping things in their place department ... but it is forty years too late.
Losing things drove me to prayer [and it really drives Janna to prayer even more than me]. I would spend virtually every minute of my search begging God to help me find whatever I had lost [or He had hidden]. I, of course, would also make untold promises to God about ways in which I could be more holy if He would just show me where the missing item was. Not that I was so good about keeping those promises mind you. I would wrack my mind for anything I could have possibly done wrong to cause said item to go missing and then do whatever I could to make it right ... frantically trying to find the one thing God was holding against me so that I could get Him to give back what was missing.
Most people, I am sure, might think this was a ridiculous thought process, but frankly it seemed to work pretty well [maybe that is why I kept doing it ... after all, a behavior reinforced is a behavior repeated as the psychologists tell us]. Most of the time I was able to get God off my back, repair whatever breach in the cosmos I had created, and find the missing watch, wallet, keys, radio or whatever happened to be lost at the time. Looking back now, I realize that the one thing that seemed to be lost all the time was me. I kept looking for me. Or really for who I was. Somewhere along the way from grade school to adolescence I had become lost.
We try to fill ourselves with everything we can grab [remember the Schlitz beer commercials in the 70s ... you only go around once in life so grab all the gusto you can?]. And yet there always seemed to remain an inescapable emptiness within. Even when we have looked everywhere else, even when there is seemingly no where else to even look, we still somehow fail to consider the possibility that what our souls long for is God. We cannot take enough [gusto, money, things, whatever] or make enough to fill the hollowness within us. No matter what we try to do we cannot seem to avoid the void.
Perhaps this is exactly what Jesus meant when He said, "What is it worth to gain the whole world, but to lose your soul?" Could He have been describing someone like me or you? We can spend our entire lives as slaves to our desires, determined to somehow satisfy the deepest longings of our souls. We can take everything that we get our hands on; we can keep everything that we grab a hold of; we can, in the end, become human versions of a black hole.
Yet there remains something deep inside us that pulls us toward God, something our souls long for that we cannot fully understand or comprehend. Doesn't it make sense that if we were created for relationship with the God of the universe, that He would leverage everything within us so that we would search for Him, to reach out for Him, and perhaps just end up finding Him?
So at the end of the day, we are back to our cosmic game of hide-and-seek. At this point, we might be asking ourselves, If God wants me to find Him and my soul craves to do so, then why doesn't He make it easier than this? How many of us have gone searching for God? I have. And frankly, I didn't feel much like He was cooperating at all [while now looking back I can see that He was there all the time]. And then when my propensity for losing things was factored in, it is a miracle that I ever ended up finding Him again at all.
When we lose something, we have to backtrack. Don't you just hate the question we always get asked whenever we lose something, "Where did you last have it?" If we knew that, then it wouldn't be lost, now would it? But like an investigator from Scotland Yard, we go retracing every step. When that doesn't work, sadly I too quickly move to Plan B ... blaming others. "Who lost my _____ [fill in the blank]?" Oh, that's right, we're talking about God. "Who moved my God?" Or worse yet, "My God, where did God go?"
Now I'll say it right here and now. It is a very bad thing to misplace the Creator of the universe. He could be just about anywhere [think of the infinite possibilities as to where this search might take us]. Or maybe in this case, everywhere. Sometimes hide-and-seek isn't a game.
So I asked around and I looked for God in the last place someone saw Him -- in religion. After all, millions of people around the world go to see God every week unless, of course, you were to interview them and then you might realize that they didn't see Him either. They were just there looking for Him, hoping that they could find Him. There may be nothing more frustrating or confusing than having tried God and then walking away with the bad taste of "religion" in our mouths.
So many of us spend our lives worrying that God is going to punish us or hoping that God is going to help us, but neither of these things ever seems to happen. For all the activity that there is in the world trying to get God's attention, it can leave us wondering whether it's all just a horrible waste of time. I couldn't really blame God, though. I never really got too mad at Him [except perhaps after my mother's suicide ... why couldn't I have a normal family like everyone else?]. I just figured that He was too busy with more important stuff or maybe more important people. So much of my life felt invisible. It seemed pretty arrogant and presumptuous of me to think God would actually notice me. Probably God was more of a big picture kind of guy. Maybe He just wasn't that into details. Or maybe, just maybe, there was more going on than I knew.
Over and over again, Jesus taught the value of the one to God. He described God as the shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to find the one that is lost; the woman who searches for the one coin that is missing till she finds it; the father who waits patiently for his wayward son to return home to him. The one matters to God.
... To be continued ...
Dreams ... the Art Form of Hope
Dreams [aspirations] are the art form of hope. They paint a picture of the life we desire. It is impossible to enjoy life to the fullest without dreams. And I believe we were certainly created to enjoy life. We don't have to teach children to laugh. Joy, celebration, and even happiness are the natural environments for the human spirit. Have you ever considered just how difficult it is to fake a real laugh? The imitation is easy to spot. We might have faith in the wrong things and we might later discover our true love to be only of the puppy variety, but we are never confused about whether something is funny.
This can be downright depressing if we think about it long enough. I would rather be right about what I believe or about who I love than have a discerning sense of comedy. At the end of our lives what really is the evolutionary value of laughter? Yet, as it has often been said, it is somehow strangely true that laughter is the best medicine.
When you study any life form, we can discover its proper environment by what brings it health and makes it thrive. Some plants require shade; others direct sunlight; still others only partial sunlight. Some species are designed to thrive in deserts while others can only exist in tropical rain forests. Move a plant out of its natural habitat and it will quickly deteriorate in both health and vitality.
People are no different. Put them in an environment filled with bitterness, despair or detachment and it doesn't take too long to see the resulting negative effect. Despite perhaps seeming superficial, the human spirit thrives where there is laughter. Perhaps we should take happiness more seriously. Somehow we live in a world where those societies who have the highest concentration of human wealth also have the highest percentage of people medicated for depression. I guess it just goes to show that we can't buy happiness. But somehow that doesn't seem to keep us from trying.
I remember laughing when I was a young boy ... I also remember when the laughter stopped after my mother's suicide. Nothing much seemed funny in my adolescent years [maybe that is just par for the course ... but then again maybe not]. My girls' teenage years, on the other hand, seemed to be a barrel of laughs. For me, I was in pretty sad shape. Trapped in a universe that I couldn't get out of or worse yet even understand, I was quickly losing hope. I didn't realize at the time just how essential hope was to getting out of bed in the morning ... yet still somehow I got out of bed every day at 3:00 AM to deliver the morning newspaper [perhaps it was because I didn't really have the choice to stay in bed].
Our souls get into trouble when we stop believing in hope. Still I had dreams of a different life ... one where I would graduate from college and move into the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and somehow find myself in the solitude. It would seem that no matter how difficult our lives are, if we can imagine better ones, that can somehow pull us through. My biggest confusion during my high school years involved figuring out just who God was and why, or better yet how, He could love me. Add my intrigue with the French existentialist philosophers to the mix and hopelessness became almost a given.
Yet I learned that our souls crave truth, beauty, wonder and love. Our souls yearn to dream, to imagine, and simply just to understand who we are and why we are here. Our souls crave to connect, to commune, and to create. And should we become convinced that all these things are merely illusions to be dispensed of [as part of my soul did during my high school years] then our souls become sick.
One ink blot I saw during my college psychology class clearly gave me a choice between a bat and a butterfly. I saw them both, and I fully understood the implications. Which would I choose? Seriously, how does one choose what to do when our souls want butterflies but the world keeps sending us bats? Perhaps we become Batman ... taking our worst fears and making them our strengths. But really ... how do we do that? I never really got answers to those questions but I became convinced at least that asking the questions was a good thing.
And during my college years I began to realize that all of us have a common struggle. While there may be an endless number of philosophies and religions in the world and while we may all disagree on the answers, all of us have the same questions, the same longings, the same cravings.
When I was just a small child, I believed in God, in love and in laughter -- and then I didn't. I think love went first, then laughter. And then since God couldn't help me with the first two, I went ahead and threw Him out with everything else you need to get rid of when you are no longer a child [these were my high school years]. But before you get shocked and think too badly of me, please know that almost immediately I wanted them all back. I just didn't realize how intimately they were all connected together. Imagine my surprise when I began to discover that the things that came so naturally to me as a child were the very things my soul was craving.
I think I gave away my soul at a very young age. By this I mean I gave up on myself. My mom, dad and even step-mom never did and were always saying I "could do anything I set my mind on." I just never believed them ... at least not until my fourth semester of college when it was put up or shut up time. I had just dropped a Physics class that I had a D in and just barely passed my Thermodynamics class the previous semester. I had serious doubts as to whether I should even be in college and really had no idea at all as to why I was there, except that it was what came next after high school.
When we give up on ourselves, we start throwing out things like our dreams, our optimism [we become pessimists who just call themselves "realists"], our hope, intimacy, love, trust, truth, meaning, and even our faith. Looking back now, I realize that I was just paralyzed by fear. I was terrified that I was nothing and would never amount to anything. Deep inside this ever-expanding universe known as my soul, I was drowning in a quickly rising ocean of self-doubt and despair. And I know from experience that is isn't enough just to survive.
... To be continued ...
This can be downright depressing if we think about it long enough. I would rather be right about what I believe or about who I love than have a discerning sense of comedy. At the end of our lives what really is the evolutionary value of laughter? Yet, as it has often been said, it is somehow strangely true that laughter is the best medicine.
When you study any life form, we can discover its proper environment by what brings it health and makes it thrive. Some plants require shade; others direct sunlight; still others only partial sunlight. Some species are designed to thrive in deserts while others can only exist in tropical rain forests. Move a plant out of its natural habitat and it will quickly deteriorate in both health and vitality.
People are no different. Put them in an environment filled with bitterness, despair or detachment and it doesn't take too long to see the resulting negative effect. Despite perhaps seeming superficial, the human spirit thrives where there is laughter. Perhaps we should take happiness more seriously. Somehow we live in a world where those societies who have the highest concentration of human wealth also have the highest percentage of people medicated for depression. I guess it just goes to show that we can't buy happiness. But somehow that doesn't seem to keep us from trying.
I remember laughing when I was a young boy ... I also remember when the laughter stopped after my mother's suicide. Nothing much seemed funny in my adolescent years [maybe that is just par for the course ... but then again maybe not]. My girls' teenage years, on the other hand, seemed to be a barrel of laughs. For me, I was in pretty sad shape. Trapped in a universe that I couldn't get out of or worse yet even understand, I was quickly losing hope. I didn't realize at the time just how essential hope was to getting out of bed in the morning ... yet still somehow I got out of bed every day at 3:00 AM to deliver the morning newspaper [perhaps it was because I didn't really have the choice to stay in bed].
Our souls get into trouble when we stop believing in hope. Still I had dreams of a different life ... one where I would graduate from college and move into the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and somehow find myself in the solitude. It would seem that no matter how difficult our lives are, if we can imagine better ones, that can somehow pull us through. My biggest confusion during my high school years involved figuring out just who God was and why, or better yet how, He could love me. Add my intrigue with the French existentialist philosophers to the mix and hopelessness became almost a given.
Yet I learned that our souls crave truth, beauty, wonder and love. Our souls yearn to dream, to imagine, and simply just to understand who we are and why we are here. Our souls crave to connect, to commune, and to create. And should we become convinced that all these things are merely illusions to be dispensed of [as part of my soul did during my high school years] then our souls become sick.
One ink blot I saw during my college psychology class clearly gave me a choice between a bat and a butterfly. I saw them both, and I fully understood the implications. Which would I choose? Seriously, how does one choose what to do when our souls want butterflies but the world keeps sending us bats? Perhaps we become Batman ... taking our worst fears and making them our strengths. But really ... how do we do that? I never really got answers to those questions but I became convinced at least that asking the questions was a good thing.
And during my college years I began to realize that all of us have a common struggle. While there may be an endless number of philosophies and religions in the world and while we may all disagree on the answers, all of us have the same questions, the same longings, the same cravings.
When I was just a small child, I believed in God, in love and in laughter -- and then I didn't. I think love went first, then laughter. And then since God couldn't help me with the first two, I went ahead and threw Him out with everything else you need to get rid of when you are no longer a child [these were my high school years]. But before you get shocked and think too badly of me, please know that almost immediately I wanted them all back. I just didn't realize how intimately they were all connected together. Imagine my surprise when I began to discover that the things that came so naturally to me as a child were the very things my soul was craving.
I think I gave away my soul at a very young age. By this I mean I gave up on myself. My mom, dad and even step-mom never did and were always saying I "could do anything I set my mind on." I just never believed them ... at least not until my fourth semester of college when it was put up or shut up time. I had just dropped a Physics class that I had a D in and just barely passed my Thermodynamics class the previous semester. I had serious doubts as to whether I should even be in college and really had no idea at all as to why I was there, except that it was what came next after high school.
When we give up on ourselves, we start throwing out things like our dreams, our optimism [we become pessimists who just call themselves "realists"], our hope, intimacy, love, trust, truth, meaning, and even our faith. Looking back now, I realize that I was just paralyzed by fear. I was terrified that I was nothing and would never amount to anything. Deep inside this ever-expanding universe known as my soul, I was drowning in a quickly rising ocean of self-doubt and despair. And I know from experience that is isn't enough just to survive.
... To be continued ...
Thursday, September 22, 2011
So What About Love?
So then there is love.
Some people who do not believe in God are consistent and do not believe in love either. Basically they lack primary evidence. In fact, I would assert that there is a direct correlation between losing faith in love and losing faith in God. Yet for many people it is at this point that they live with the inconsistency. We cannot see God; we cannot prove God in the laboratory. They find that to believe in God is a stretch, but they believe in love. Yet we cannot see love. We cannot prove love. The only available evidence is secondary. Again, like God, there is no primary evidence. However, when we love someone, we are more certain of this than virtually anything else.
It is love that reminds us that there is a knowing beyond reason.
Moreover, I would assert that we are born to love. Children love unconditionally. We can beat the love out of a person, but it is impossible to beat it into someone. Just like faith, love is intrinsic. It is not taught or transferred ... it just is. We cannot make a person love us. God only knows how many of us have tried to. There might be nothing more painful than loving someone who does not love us in return.
For love to exist it does not even require reciprocation.
We can, in fact, live in a loveless environment and still love. Children typically still love their parents when tragically their parents do not love them. If love was something that developed over time, it would not be so. It is certainly not the result of becoming a mature adult. In fact, frequently it seems to be the opposite, where adulthood becomes the enemy of love. I am not saying that love does not deepen with maturity but what I am saying is that the impetus for love is within us from the start. We are all born with both faith and love -- not to mention hope.
Some people who do not believe in God are consistent and do not believe in love either. Basically they lack primary evidence. In fact, I would assert that there is a direct correlation between losing faith in love and losing faith in God. Yet for many people it is at this point that they live with the inconsistency. We cannot see God; we cannot prove God in the laboratory. They find that to believe in God is a stretch, but they believe in love. Yet we cannot see love. We cannot prove love. The only available evidence is secondary. Again, like God, there is no primary evidence. However, when we love someone, we are more certain of this than virtually anything else.
It is love that reminds us that there is a knowing beyond reason.
Moreover, I would assert that we are born to love. Children love unconditionally. We can beat the love out of a person, but it is impossible to beat it into someone. Just like faith, love is intrinsic. It is not taught or transferred ... it just is. We cannot make a person love us. God only knows how many of us have tried to. There might be nothing more painful than loving someone who does not love us in return.
For love to exist it does not even require reciprocation.
We can, in fact, live in a loveless environment and still love. Children typically still love their parents when tragically their parents do not love them. If love was something that developed over time, it would not be so. It is certainly not the result of becoming a mature adult. In fact, frequently it seems to be the opposite, where adulthood becomes the enemy of love. I am not saying that love does not deepen with maturity but what I am saying is that the impetus for love is within us from the start. We are all born with both faith and love -- not to mention hope.
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