This won't be my normal kind of blog post, for this will involve me telling you about my experience. There will definitely be lessons along the way, but nowhere near the same format as normal. I just say that up front so you know what you're about to read.
I got the chance to go on Trek with Wilderness Expeditions this past week. They are a faith-based guiding service in Salida, Colorado and have been guiding groups since 1989. There are many of you who have probably been on Trek through this company or another like it. I had never actually been on Trek before, shocking as that may be for those who know me best. I was just never part of a youth group that did Trek, so I never really had the chance to go. But here I am as a college grad, and I've finally got the opportunity.
The first official thing we did was go rappelling Sunday morning. For me, this was not something new, in fact, I've helped others do the same before. However, I did see something extraordinary. I saw bravery. In my time leading OC Excursions, which involved climbing and rappelling, I got to see the same thing: overcoming fear. I've seen people step off the edge, go for the next climbing hold, and trust the rope through tears. And that's pretty extraordinary. I'm not brave because I'm very comfortable trusting my life to a rope and have taken very decent falls on it, those who do so despite being scared to death are the real brave ones. I can remember very few situations where I was so scared I was crying and still did the thing I needed to do. Most of the things about Trek are really reversed of the way we normally do things. It's not normal for us to trust our life to a rope and back off the edge of a cliff. It's not normal to deprive oneself of a lovely bed and delicious food to sleep in the woods for 4 days with not much more than granola bars. It's not normal to sign up for hard work, aches, and pains. But as I've said time and time again, the Christian lifestyle is rather similar. Who in their right minds decides to sign up for deprivation of self, picking up crosses and following someone you can't see (Luke 9:23)? Well, Christians do. As much as it is against our nature of self-preservation, God has given us this longing for adventure as well.
After rappelling, we hiked to low camp. I don't rightfully know how far any of these legs of the journey were, I only know the overal distance we covered which was 24 miles round trip (I nearly hit the floor when I heard that). I'm gonna guess the hike to low camp was no more than a mile or two, but it was my first encounter with what would be my nemesis for the week: The Pack. They lent us these exterior metal frame backpacks that were large, old, and for most of them, had seen better days. I'm gonna estimate that I had around 50 pounds on my back for most of the trip. Once again, I don't rightfully know, but I think it was around that. These packs are supposed to sit on your hips for the most part, taking the weight off your shoulders. The two problems with that were that my pack didn't seem to fit the norm, and I don't exactly have the most bodacious hips around. I'm not saying those who didn't have problems had bodacious hips, I'm just saying that when it comes to hips, I've been told (by family, friends, and a yoga instructor) that I seem to be lacking. Anyway, long story short, the pack seemed to set on my shoulders and killed what little hips I have. Good pack or bad pack though, nobody just handles that much weight going uphill well.
The next day we woke up and headed to high camp. This was easily the hardest day of quite possibly the hardest 4 days of my life. It was just a long freakin' hike. MOST of this day was uphill too. Most of our crew broke down at some point, some cried, and there was a decent amount of item exchanging going on, making some packs more manageable. I was doing pretty well for the first half of the day. My endorphins were kicking (inner dolphins as they would say) and I was overall feeling pretty decent. Come lunch, that all changed. What followed was an uphill hike that just seemed like it wasn't going to end. I stuck around the back in part because I was trying to be encouraging to those back there, but I ended up taking a decent amount of time as well. I just got tired.
We finally made it to high camp and I felt like kissing the ground (in part because I was grateful for this soil that was to give me rest and in part because it would feel good to just lay down). We set up camp and laid around for a while before dinner, which was absolutely wonderful.
The next morning we woke insanely early. Like, we needed headlamps to eat and hike with for the first 30 minutes type of early. This was summit day. Every summit day is really just a summit attempt day. Trying to get to the highest point on a mountain is never an easy or safe thing. Weather can change in an instant and you certainly do not want to be the tallest thing around in a lightning storm. Our group faced twisted ankles, asthma, bloodied knees, and just pure exhaustion. To be honest, I wasn't sure we were going to make it, or at least all together. The goal was simply too far away and there were just too many factors weighing individuals down to make it all together. Even the weather wasn't looking like it was going to cooperate just before we were about to summit. However, call it stubbornness, call it providence, call it luck, we made it to the top. I've climbed a mountain that was even higher than this one before, but it didn't quite compare. We had risked alot, struggled immensely, and given everything we had to be at the top of this mountain, and the reward was great. We ended up having around a 12 hour summit day from leaving camp to returning to camp.
Something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. On that day, that mountain summit was worth a heck of alot because of how much our group paid to get there.
Several themes ran throughout all of the hike days. Firstly, it was really, really hard. Everyone was pushed physically, and mentally. The mental was perhaps even the harder for reasons I'm not sure I can explain. Something happens to those who endure hardships together. At this point in my blogging career, I've talked about how we as Christians are called to suffer with one another for the sake of the cross quite a bit, but I really can't say it enough. We live pretty cush lives most of the times. Even if it is not some sort of hardship or persecution related directly to being a Christian, anytime we struggle, it makes us stronger and reminds us of both the reward of such hardship as well as the opportunities we have in daily life to risk something for our faith and get outside our comfort zones. We are surely not meant to live comfy, mediocre lives, and somehow trek reminded me of that.
Secondly, going through such hardships in a community strengthens that community in immense and amazing ways. There was non-stop servanthood and sacrifice for others being displayed as we approached the summit. The closer we got to the summit, the closer we got to each other. In part, this was because as the climb got harder, we needed each other more, for both physical and spiritual help. There was constant encouragement being passed around, such as is almost never found closer to sea level. Burdens were constantly lifted, not only by encouragement but also physically. Those who arrived at a resting point sought to ease the load of those still approaching. It got to the point where the injured were taking on the burden of the even more injured. We shared burdens, we shared food, nothing seemed to belong to a sole individual. If I may be so bold, it was a time where I felt like I was living out Acts 2:44 with people almost more than any other time - "All the believers were together and had everything in common."
Not only did the community lean on each other, but we leaned on God as well. Several admitted to getting some sort of song lyric stuck in his or her head that would just repeat over and over again, calling on God for help with the next step, and then the next.
Humans have always sought and found God on the mountain. Moses communed with God at Sinai. The temple was built on Zion. Elijah was used to show God's power at Carmel. Abraham trusted in God at Horeb. Even Jesus pleaded with His Father on the Mount of Olives. Granted that God is everywhere and we need not go higher to find Him, there does seem to be a closeness to God that is found on the mountain. Somehow, we create a thin space between us and God on the mountain. Perhaps climbing a mountain is not necessary to get close to God, but it certainly doesn't hurt the process.
As we came off our mountain, the hardships did not end. We aren't meant to constantly have mountaintop experiences. At some point, we must enter again into the valley and deal with what we find there. For me, there was a certain amount of disappointment. We took a slightly different trail going down that was supposedly faster. Although my pack had been adjusted, it slowly started to rest on my shoulders again and was bringing me discomfort. With the new route, I did not know where we were exactly but I guessed that we were past where we set up low camp...then I saw it. The area we set up low camp in was marked by several small buildings that were part of an old settlement in the area. When I saw these buildings, I realized we were not nearly as close to our destination as I thought, and disappointment came over me pretty hard. You want to know something though? We still made it, as tired and disappointed as I may have been. Unfortunately, we can't live on the mountaintop, we have to learn how to take the mountaintop with us into the valley. Hard times, disappointment, and low times are going to come, but with God close at hand, we get stronger because of it all. It may help us find God to climb a mountain, but we can't leave Him there. Crap happens, we're reminded of that time and time again. Paul said that we are given the privilege of not only believing in Christ, but also suffering for His sake (Philippians 1:29). It's healthy to be reminded of this from time to time, and to take heart because although we have trouble in this world, Christ has overcome the world (John 16:33).
Trek awoke the adventure in me. Theres something about activity in God's creation that trumps any kind of activity that humankind has created or made. In first century culture, purity was very much related to creation. This makes a whole lot of sense. There is no purer, more fun experience than just enjoying nature as God created it. Some people do dangerous crap that could lead to their death (and many times has). For me, I have different goals I want to attain related to climbing and hiking that I've either formed before this or after my trek experience. One thought I can't shake and now am firmly convinced that I want to do though is to retrace one or all of Paul's missionary journeys, using only methods of travel that He had access to. So basically backpacking and traveling by boat. It'd be a sort of spiritual journey/mission trip. Anyway, I thought about this yesterday, so it's still in it's infancy as a plan (but in Spenser plans, that's pretty good).
What adventure might God be calling you to? Nobody's journey is the same, but we all got one. What mountain do you need to climb? I climbed the easy one, the physical one, now I just have to work on my own spiritual and mental mountains in life. Be bold - Get out there - and Do something.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Friday, June 21, 2013
Forgiveness 201
What does it mean to forgive someone? Before you read this blog, I want you to take a stab at answering that question with someone around you (it'll be like a Bible study through the internet). I'm going to be one million percent honest, I thought I had a decent understanding of this topic until about a week ago, and then the entering of a thought shattered my entire universe. This thought came from a teen in a Bible study we were having, and it started a snowball effect that has reshaped my entire thinking about this particular topic. I'm not going to share that thought yet, but I build it up to say that this won't be an easy read, so strap in and maybe grab someone to work through this with.
Let's start with the simple reason I feel like this is important. In the Sermon on the Mount (go figure), Jesus says something absolutely profound. Matthew 6:14-15 - "For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their sins, neither will your Father forgive your sins." SWEET MOTHER OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. I'm not desiring to use this as a scare tactic, but we have got to figure this out. I think the reason being, God's grace is SO amazing and incredible - how dare we withhold that from others. Ok, let's go.
Firstly - let's get a graph going. On one side of the graph, you have forgiveness, the good side. Now, what's on the opposite side? What is completely opposite of forgiveness? There are many things that may come to mind: holding a grudge, anger, distrust, etc. Let me propose this opposite - retaliation. Literally, they did something to me (sinned against me) and I do something back to them. RIGHT before this in this sermon, Jesus had a good deal to say about retaliation, He said don't. That seems simple enough as a concept, but it's harder practiced than said.
So we have what seems to be the opposite side - a negative action. Now let's move in closer to forgiveness. How it works in my mind is that if you have a line graph with Forgiveness on one end and Retaliation on the other, pretty much dead center is the idea of "not being mad" anymore. It is simply neutral. There is no bad action towards that person, you have "turned the other cheek". Jesus said that, that's good, don't retaliate, but He (unfortunately) said way more right after - he said "pray for those who persecute you." In Luke's account (6:27-28), a certain phrase actually reads "love your enemies, do good to those who curse you." That should make perfect sense. Somehow, we've gotten away from the fact that loving someone means positive action, EVEN when we are loving our enemies and those who sin against us. If simply not being mad (lacking any positive action) and not retaliating are the neutral/middle ground, that simply won't do. If you haven't noticed, Jesus isn't really cool about people straddling the fence. We LOVE to straddle the fence, one foot in the world, one foot in the Kingdom, but Jesus isn't a fan. We are called to something more; we are called to forgiveness involving positive action.
Now for the phrase that started it all ----- "Forgiving someone means putting your trust back in him or her." BOOM. POW. WAM. Let that sink in for a second. I'm still letting it sink in. Maybe I'm of a select few (I don't think I am), but I haven't thought that way, nor have I really taught that. I tend to say something like this, "You have to forgive them, but you also have to learn not to trust them in certain ways and maybe not have as close a relationship." I've taught that. I've DONE that. Remember when Peter came to Jesus in Matthew 18 and asked how many times he should forgive his brother? He even throws out a number all cocky like, "Up to seven times?" (No doubt having a smug grin for having a number higher than 2). Jesus answered him, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times." Some translations render it "seventy times seven", but such details are pointless because the number is not the point, it's the idea. Jesus did not intend for you to be counting down how many times you forgive someone, he intended to freaking blow Peter's mind by essentially saying "doooon't stop...forgiiiiving" (probably singing it like Journey). How does this relate to the profound statement made by the teen in my youth group? How can you possibly expect to forgive someone more than once if you keep that person too far to hurt you again? If you don't put your trust back in them enough to where they have the potential to hurt you again, how can your forgiveness of that person truly be unlimited?
I think that idea puts us on the road to positive-action-forgiveness. As discussions of this topic went on, new ideas were shared. At the heart of this whole "trust" idea lies the concept of relationship. My sin separates me from God. It hurts my relationship with God. God wipes that out completely, the slate is clean, and I am once again in relationship with God. For other people, we need to follow the example and examine what we can get rid of to put us back in proper relationship with the other person. One of the slight dangers in this thinking is something I know I've struggled with - If I don't repent, God doesn't forgive me, so if the other person doesn't repent, I don't have to forgive them - essentially, forgiveness is a two-way street. This is a solid counter point, but there are some holes in the absoluteness of it. God pursues us, sometimes even when we are not pursuing Him. If you don't believe that, read Hosea. God allures Israel back to Him, DESIRING that relationship back. In the same way, if relationship is what we most strongly desire with the person who has wronged us, then we may need to be the first person to make a move to fix it.
An early church father wrote about how when someone has wronged us, we should be quick to go to them and point out their wrong, having the desire to forgive close at hand. I personally think that the forgiveness starts before you ever go to the person, for we are to love and do good to those who wrong us. There isn't gratification in telling the person what they've done wrong, the motive is to remove those things that are hindering relationship with that person. Our motive is reaching out to them with the love of a God who forgave us. It is sometimes necessary to point out such wrongs for the sake of that person, and for the sake of ourselves. But we must do this with the proper motives. I think that when Jesus talks about confrontation, saying that after an initial discussion with the person to bring along a few extra people, those extra people are for accountability on all sides. Perhaps one of their primary functions might just be making sure your motives remain pure.
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We also may have to take some initiative and make some sacrifices while the other person is still a "sinner" towards us. Jesus makes it clear that relationship and reconciliation is of great importance, even more than worship for we are to leave our gift at the altar (Matthew 5:23-24). Relationship trumps a great deal of commandments, for love is the greatest command.
As I work through this, I'm finding that in some ways, seeking to forgive is also seeking forgiveness. If you have been holding back true forgiveness from someone who has or has not asked for it, think of what some of your first words may be - "I'm sorry, I've been holding onto this, but I want to love you better and fix our relationship." Your words almost have nothing to do with them; they have to do with your anger, bitterness, distrust, but also your desire for relationship and to show them God's love.
What if they don't want your forgiveness or your relationship? I don't know exactly, but if we are to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, and do good to those who hate us, I think we're on our way to forgiving them despite what they've done. On that scale from forgiveness (positive action) to retaliation (negative action), there isn't really anything about what the other person has to do. Maybe they won't accept your desire for relationship or your forgiveness you seek to give them, but that is officially on them. We just have to keep doing good and loving them the way God loves those who do not even love Him back.
I'm not sure what this will specifically look like in your personal life, what methods and means you might have to take to get there. Something I do know, it probably won't be comfortable. Believe me when I say that as I write all this, it's AWFUL to think about what this all might truly mean. There's going to be a lot of pride swallowing, praying, trusting, and risking involved. We may be hurt physically, emotionally, or any number of ways in between. But Jesus surely didn't forgive us without it costing Him dearly.
So what would happen if we practiced radical forgiveness of people? We hear stories like the Amish community forgiving and reaching out in love to the man who willfully walked into one of their schoolrooms and killed their children. We hear these and it sounds almost ridiculous to us, like they shouldn't do that. But we are not to fall into the patterns of this world, patterns of revenge and holding grudges. There's a movie called Forgiving Dr. Mengele that recounts a Jewish woman's decision to forgive Dr. Mengele, who's experiments she was a victim of during the holocaust. Long after Mengele was dead, she decided that she needed to forgive him because until she did, she was giving him control over her life. There is amazing power in forgiveness. There is great freedom. But it is by no means easy, convenient, or comfortable, and the world can tend to tell you that it's ridiculous to even consider. Though it is tough and pretty crazy (if not stupid) by the world's standards, we are people of transformation, not conformation.
Don't seek to forgive and forget, seek to forgive despite what has been done to you.
I dearly hope you don't just read this blog and take it for what it says. This isn't a comprehensive guide to forgiveness; this is a couple weeks' worth of thoughts that I hope spurs further conversation between you and someone else. Like I said before, this is far too important to not challenge the norm or to simply write these difficult ideas off because they are unappealing. Believe me, they're unappealing to me as well.
So who do you need to forgive? Who are those people who have done you wrong, maybe you were never friends, maybe you were, but you've never truly reached out to them with the love of Christ. Let these words of Paul soak into your heart and relieve you of some negative emotions so that the positive has room to move in.
"In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. ... Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." (Ephesians 4:26-27, 31-32)
Let's start with the simple reason I feel like this is important. In the Sermon on the Mount (go figure), Jesus says something absolutely profound. Matthew 6:14-15 - "For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their sins, neither will your Father forgive your sins." SWEET MOTHER OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. I'm not desiring to use this as a scare tactic, but we have got to figure this out. I think the reason being, God's grace is SO amazing and incredible - how dare we withhold that from others. Ok, let's go.
Firstly - let's get a graph going. On one side of the graph, you have forgiveness, the good side. Now, what's on the opposite side? What is completely opposite of forgiveness? There are many things that may come to mind: holding a grudge, anger, distrust, etc. Let me propose this opposite - retaliation. Literally, they did something to me (sinned against me) and I do something back to them. RIGHT before this in this sermon, Jesus had a good deal to say about retaliation, He said don't. That seems simple enough as a concept, but it's harder practiced than said.
So we have what seems to be the opposite side - a negative action. Now let's move in closer to forgiveness. How it works in my mind is that if you have a line graph with Forgiveness on one end and Retaliation on the other, pretty much dead center is the idea of "not being mad" anymore. It is simply neutral. There is no bad action towards that person, you have "turned the other cheek". Jesus said that, that's good, don't retaliate, but He (unfortunately) said way more right after - he said "pray for those who persecute you." In Luke's account (6:27-28), a certain phrase actually reads "love your enemies, do good to those who curse you." That should make perfect sense. Somehow, we've gotten away from the fact that loving someone means positive action, EVEN when we are loving our enemies and those who sin against us. If simply not being mad (lacking any positive action) and not retaliating are the neutral/middle ground, that simply won't do. If you haven't noticed, Jesus isn't really cool about people straddling the fence. We LOVE to straddle the fence, one foot in the world, one foot in the Kingdom, but Jesus isn't a fan. We are called to something more; we are called to forgiveness involving positive action.
Now for the phrase that started it all ----- "Forgiving someone means putting your trust back in him or her." BOOM. POW. WAM. Let that sink in for a second. I'm still letting it sink in. Maybe I'm of a select few (I don't think I am), but I haven't thought that way, nor have I really taught that. I tend to say something like this, "You have to forgive them, but you also have to learn not to trust them in certain ways and maybe not have as close a relationship." I've taught that. I've DONE that. Remember when Peter came to Jesus in Matthew 18 and asked how many times he should forgive his brother? He even throws out a number all cocky like, "Up to seven times?" (No doubt having a smug grin for having a number higher than 2). Jesus answered him, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times." Some translations render it "seventy times seven", but such details are pointless because the number is not the point, it's the idea. Jesus did not intend for you to be counting down how many times you forgive someone, he intended to freaking blow Peter's mind by essentially saying "doooon't stop...forgiiiiving" (probably singing it like Journey). How does this relate to the profound statement made by the teen in my youth group? How can you possibly expect to forgive someone more than once if you keep that person too far to hurt you again? If you don't put your trust back in them enough to where they have the potential to hurt you again, how can your forgiveness of that person truly be unlimited?
I think that idea puts us on the road to positive-action-forgiveness. As discussions of this topic went on, new ideas were shared. At the heart of this whole "trust" idea lies the concept of relationship. My sin separates me from God. It hurts my relationship with God. God wipes that out completely, the slate is clean, and I am once again in relationship with God. For other people, we need to follow the example and examine what we can get rid of to put us back in proper relationship with the other person. One of the slight dangers in this thinking is something I know I've struggled with - If I don't repent, God doesn't forgive me, so if the other person doesn't repent, I don't have to forgive them - essentially, forgiveness is a two-way street. This is a solid counter point, but there are some holes in the absoluteness of it. God pursues us, sometimes even when we are not pursuing Him. If you don't believe that, read Hosea. God allures Israel back to Him, DESIRING that relationship back. In the same way, if relationship is what we most strongly desire with the person who has wronged us, then we may need to be the first person to make a move to fix it.
An early church father wrote about how when someone has wronged us, we should be quick to go to them and point out their wrong, having the desire to forgive close at hand. I personally think that the forgiveness starts before you ever go to the person, for we are to love and do good to those who wrong us. There isn't gratification in telling the person what they've done wrong, the motive is to remove those things that are hindering relationship with that person. Our motive is reaching out to them with the love of a God who forgave us. It is sometimes necessary to point out such wrongs for the sake of that person, and for the sake of ourselves. But we must do this with the proper motives. I think that when Jesus talks about confrontation, saying that after an initial discussion with the person to bring along a few extra people, those extra people are for accountability on all sides. Perhaps one of their primary functions might just be making sure your motives remain pure.
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We also may have to take some initiative and make some sacrifices while the other person is still a "sinner" towards us. Jesus makes it clear that relationship and reconciliation is of great importance, even more than worship for we are to leave our gift at the altar (Matthew 5:23-24). Relationship trumps a great deal of commandments, for love is the greatest command.
As I work through this, I'm finding that in some ways, seeking to forgive is also seeking forgiveness. If you have been holding back true forgiveness from someone who has or has not asked for it, think of what some of your first words may be - "I'm sorry, I've been holding onto this, but I want to love you better and fix our relationship." Your words almost have nothing to do with them; they have to do with your anger, bitterness, distrust, but also your desire for relationship and to show them God's love.
What if they don't want your forgiveness or your relationship? I don't know exactly, but if we are to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, and do good to those who hate us, I think we're on our way to forgiving them despite what they've done. On that scale from forgiveness (positive action) to retaliation (negative action), there isn't really anything about what the other person has to do. Maybe they won't accept your desire for relationship or your forgiveness you seek to give them, but that is officially on them. We just have to keep doing good and loving them the way God loves those who do not even love Him back.
I'm not sure what this will specifically look like in your personal life, what methods and means you might have to take to get there. Something I do know, it probably won't be comfortable. Believe me when I say that as I write all this, it's AWFUL to think about what this all might truly mean. There's going to be a lot of pride swallowing, praying, trusting, and risking involved. We may be hurt physically, emotionally, or any number of ways in between. But Jesus surely didn't forgive us without it costing Him dearly.
So what would happen if we practiced radical forgiveness of people? We hear stories like the Amish community forgiving and reaching out in love to the man who willfully walked into one of their schoolrooms and killed their children. We hear these and it sounds almost ridiculous to us, like they shouldn't do that. But we are not to fall into the patterns of this world, patterns of revenge and holding grudges. There's a movie called Forgiving Dr. Mengele that recounts a Jewish woman's decision to forgive Dr. Mengele, who's experiments she was a victim of during the holocaust. Long after Mengele was dead, she decided that she needed to forgive him because until she did, she was giving him control over her life. There is amazing power in forgiveness. There is great freedom. But it is by no means easy, convenient, or comfortable, and the world can tend to tell you that it's ridiculous to even consider. Though it is tough and pretty crazy (if not stupid) by the world's standards, we are people of transformation, not conformation.
Don't seek to forgive and forget, seek to forgive despite what has been done to you.
I dearly hope you don't just read this blog and take it for what it says. This isn't a comprehensive guide to forgiveness; this is a couple weeks' worth of thoughts that I hope spurs further conversation between you and someone else. Like I said before, this is far too important to not challenge the norm or to simply write these difficult ideas off because they are unappealing. Believe me, they're unappealing to me as well.
So who do you need to forgive? Who are those people who have done you wrong, maybe you were never friends, maybe you were, but you've never truly reached out to them with the love of Christ. Let these words of Paul soak into your heart and relieve you of some negative emotions so that the positive has room to move in.
"In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. ... Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." (Ephesians 4:26-27, 31-32)
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Ammunition: Sawdust and Logs
I'd like to briefly discuss a problem that plagues churches. This post may not be very long but it couldn't be of more importance. We all have most likely read or heard a lesson on judging others (mostly how it's bad). One of the most cited scriptures for this comes out of The Sermon on the Mount beginning in chapter 7.
If you haven't noticed, I've been on a real SOTM kick recently. I started using concepts out of this sermon before I even realized I was doing it. Now that I have noticed, I've been digging deeper and am just finding so very much there. Anyway, serious side note to simply say: go dig in the SOTM and let it shape your life, it's well worth it.
BACK TO JUDGING. Jesus uses one of the coolest, and honestly funniest, metaphors when talking about this subject: The speck and the plank (I really like when they translate it "log"). Jesus tells his audience not to judge others unless they are willing to undergo the same scrutiny. To illustrate this, He talks about how you shouldn't go around trying to help people with a speck in their eye when you yourself have a giant log sticking out of your own eye. I kind of imagine Jesus acting this out with a tree limb or a walking staff myself, probably getting a decent chuckle from those listening.
This might just be one of the most misused scriptures in all the Bible. Think about the last time you heard this outside of a lesson. I personally hear this quite a bit in this type of connotation, "Hey, get the log out of your eye before you try to find the speck in mine." This type of use of these words is so very common today. We use it to tell other people to stop judging us. Is that not the most ironic thing you've heard in a while? We literally use a verse about not judging others to judge others.
We don't do this with just this scripture; we have a tendency to do this with the rest of the Bible as well. Think about your personal reading of scripture. Have you ever read something and thought, "Man, so-and-so needs to read that"? I SURELY know that I have. We too often approach the Bible like we're scrounging for bullets with which to fight our spiritual warfare. Even now, be honest with yourself...did someone pop into your head thus far in this blog post that you think might need to read it?
What is so amazingly obvious about Jesus' words in Matthew 7 is that they are completely about self-inspection. We're supposed to check OUR eye for a log before we go looking for specks of sawdust in our brother or sister's eye.
Now, some people take this a little far and say we should never correct. There's a difference between judging and correcting. Galatians 6:1-2 reminds us that we are to be helping restore others with a spirit of gentleness, while keeping watch on ourselves so that we aren't tempted as well. I don't think what Paul has in mind is that you are tempted with the problem your brother or sister is facing. Instead, I think Paul is concerned with you being tempted to think you are better because you are the spiritual person trying to restore someone caught in a transgression.
I think there's a time and place for restoring, but I think it's easy to be tempted and mess it up. So, we must err on the side of grace. As Billy Graham said, "It is the Holy Spirit's job to convict, God's job to judge, and my job to love."
I also find it interesting that when you look at Jesus and how He handled this type of thing, MOST of his harsh words were saved for the self-righteous religious leaders who went about judging others and acting hypocritically. Jesus admonished the "sinners" to go and do so no more, but did so with graceful speech and a whole lot of love.
So, when you are reading scripture, don't be on the look out for ammunition. Instead, read it to better yourself. After that, share how God has used scripture to impact and better you and hope that others will follow your example and not just your words.
Judge Not, So That You May Not Be Judged - Matthew 7:1
If you haven't noticed, I've been on a real SOTM kick recently. I started using concepts out of this sermon before I even realized I was doing it. Now that I have noticed, I've been digging deeper and am just finding so very much there. Anyway, serious side note to simply say: go dig in the SOTM and let it shape your life, it's well worth it.
BACK TO JUDGING. Jesus uses one of the coolest, and honestly funniest, metaphors when talking about this subject: The speck and the plank (I really like when they translate it "log"). Jesus tells his audience not to judge others unless they are willing to undergo the same scrutiny. To illustrate this, He talks about how you shouldn't go around trying to help people with a speck in their eye when you yourself have a giant log sticking out of your own eye. I kind of imagine Jesus acting this out with a tree limb or a walking staff myself, probably getting a decent chuckle from those listening.
This might just be one of the most misused scriptures in all the Bible. Think about the last time you heard this outside of a lesson. I personally hear this quite a bit in this type of connotation, "Hey, get the log out of your eye before you try to find the speck in mine." This type of use of these words is so very common today. We use it to tell other people to stop judging us. Is that not the most ironic thing you've heard in a while? We literally use a verse about not judging others to judge others.
We don't do this with just this scripture; we have a tendency to do this with the rest of the Bible as well. Think about your personal reading of scripture. Have you ever read something and thought, "Man, so-and-so needs to read that"? I SURELY know that I have. We too often approach the Bible like we're scrounging for bullets with which to fight our spiritual warfare. Even now, be honest with yourself...did someone pop into your head thus far in this blog post that you think might need to read it?
What is so amazingly obvious about Jesus' words in Matthew 7 is that they are completely about self-inspection. We're supposed to check OUR eye for a log before we go looking for specks of sawdust in our brother or sister's eye.
Now, some people take this a little far and say we should never correct. There's a difference between judging and correcting. Galatians 6:1-2 reminds us that we are to be helping restore others with a spirit of gentleness, while keeping watch on ourselves so that we aren't tempted as well. I don't think what Paul has in mind is that you are tempted with the problem your brother or sister is facing. Instead, I think Paul is concerned with you being tempted to think you are better because you are the spiritual person trying to restore someone caught in a transgression.
I think there's a time and place for restoring, but I think it's easy to be tempted and mess it up. So, we must err on the side of grace. As Billy Graham said, "It is the Holy Spirit's job to convict, God's job to judge, and my job to love."
I also find it interesting that when you look at Jesus and how He handled this type of thing, MOST of his harsh words were saved for the self-righteous religious leaders who went about judging others and acting hypocritically. Jesus admonished the "sinners" to go and do so no more, but did so with graceful speech and a whole lot of love.
So, when you are reading scripture, don't be on the look out for ammunition. Instead, read it to better yourself. After that, share how God has used scripture to impact and better you and hope that others will follow your example and not just your words.
Judge Not, So That You May Not Be Judged - Matthew 7:1
Thursday, May 9, 2013
The Golden Rule
How we treat others in this life speaks to our character more than any one thing. There is not a stronger or more meaningful area of ethics than that of how we treat those around us. The greatest events that humankind cite as atrocities are those events where a certain group of people objectify another group by degrading them with maltreatment. For the Christian community, the ethical treatment of others is of grave importance, as it is one of the key standards by which eternal life is given or withheld (Matthew 25:31-46). For non-Christians, personal decisions concerning how others are treated serve as indirect standards for how they wish the world, including themselves, are to be treated. A philosopher and ethicist, Immanuel Kant laid out two laws of ethics that I would like to examine.
The first law of ethics Kant lays out is this: Act as if the maxim of thy action were to become by thy will a universal law of nature. This law simply states that we as humans should only act in ways that we would want the world to follow our example. By this standard, a liar takes advantage of a universal system where it is assumed that one is telling the truth. In doing this, the liar makes himself out to be unethical as well as unacceptable in a system that relies on spoken word being truth for virtually every aspect of daily life to properly progress. A thief does not condone such behavior to be done to him or her, but the action unconsciously speaks to the approval of the behavior. Humanity's entire interpersonal dealings require the positive actions, like truth and respect of personal property, in order to work properly. Any person who acts outside of these ideals displays selfishness and communicates with their actions that this is the way they would have humanity treat him or her, although their actual thoughts are far from such a desire (for it is only under the current system of assumed truth and property rights that the liar and thief are able to gain personally from poor behavior). This sounds familiar to Christians, for Kant essentially plagiarized Jesus's words we often dub as "The Golden Rule" in Matthew 7:12 - "...whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets". The thief and liar treat other humans as the means by which to attain their desires, but this is clearly not acceptable, since they would not want to fall under the effect of such universal laws.
The second law is this: act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of any other, in every case as an end withal, never as a means only. This is rather wordy, but this law is really just a furtherance of the first and demands that every individual be seen as a most precious end, and never as a means by which to accomplish something. This law addresses the fact that there are times when human life is held up in contention with a goal of sorts. Most wars that have been fought have done this - put up a goal of prosperity, security, or some other ideal and then put human life as the means by which to reach that goal. Lee Camp illustrates in his book Mere Discipleship that the church has not been immune to this type of thinking; Emperor Charlemagne "furthered the Kingdom of God" by essentially telling those he conquered "be baptized, or we will kill you" (32). Charlemagne showed that to him, the end justified the means. There are times when the sacrifice is assessed as worth the product: we give time for money, money for food, and food for the satisfaction of a full stomach. However, if we truly desire to live by the principle of the Golden Rule, we cannot treat humanity as the means.
It is in my desire to hold life as precious that I digress from Kant's thinking. Kant would say to someone living in World War II that if the Nazis knocked on your door and asked if you were harboring Jews, and you were, you could not lie about it (thus breaking the first law). I would more strongly employ Kant's second law to say that Human life is the ultimate end by which we measure means. In the book of Exodus, God honors two midwives who lie to Pharaoh in order to save and respect the lives of the male babies he commanded them to kill (Exodus 2:15-21). Although deceit is employed, it is done to preserve human life against someone who is trying to destroy it. This is the only biblical account where deceit is rewarded, and only because it is done in the preservation of life when the Pharaoh wished the opposite. So human life is seen as the only end that justifies the means which contradict the first law.
I think Jesus talked about "turning the other cheek" (Matthew 5:38) and "The Golden Rule" in the same sermon for a reason, and one which Gandhi understood when he said, "an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind." Our natural reaction is to retaliate, "eye for an eye", but Jesus calls us to "not resist the one who is evil". Many will argue that although it would be ideal if the whole world would lay down weapon, prejudice and hate, this simply will not happen and thus it is nonsensical to live as though we are working towards that goal. However, it must be remembered that how one lives is supposed to reflect what that individual wishes were universal law. If one reasons that if the whole world were of a mindset up peace, that would naturally be the ideal way to live, the same person must face the reality that he or she knows the right thing to do, but is waiting to be the last person to do it (Camp 43). Instead, we are called to set the example of what we wish to see in other's actions and truly treat others as we desire to be treated.
We are called to be "peacemakers" (Matthew 5:9), not simply "peace-hop-on-the-bandwagon-ers". This mindset calls us to love and pray for our enemies (Matthew 5:44) and ultimately to live out kingdom life here and now. Kingdom life encompasses everything that we are. Ben Langford (a professor at Oklahoma Christian) has said several times, the reason we dig wells in Africa is because we believe that someday, there will be clean water for all. This makes sense. The reason we put in cement floors in Mexico is because we believe the streets of heaven will be laid with gold. We put in mosquito nets because we believe that one day, sickness will have no place in the Kingdom of God. Andrew Root writes that the miracle stories of Jesus "are not stories of magic but [are] rather stories which preview God's future. Jesus proclaims in word and act the future of creation in the future of God" (141).
So, our call is to be people who live Kingdom life here and now, realizing that Kingdom life doesn't always work out here on earth. We may likely get slapped many times before our enemy sees the wrong in his or her action, if they ever see it at all. However, violence, maltreatment, and backbiting cannot be the ingredients if peace, life, and ethical treatment of others are the desired product. We must be ready to lay down all for the Kingdom, including our own lives, acting not selfishly, but selflessly.
This call goes out to Christian and non-Christian alike: Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, and in the words often attributed to Gandhi, "Be the change you wish to see in the world."
Works Cited:
Camp, Lee C. Mere Discipleship: Radical Christianity in a Rebellious World. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2003. Print.
Root, Andrew, and Kenda C. Dean. The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2011. Print.
Sullivan, Roger J. Immanuel Kant's Moral Theory. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Print.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Life Reversed
Ever read something in Scripture and just think "that's weird" or "that's crazy"? You may have been reading something containing Reversal Theme. My limited understanding of Reversal Theme in Scripture renders this type of definition: something gets reversed. I realize that was a lot of build up for the most obvious definition ever, but the ramifications of it are profound to me. The first shall be last and the last shall be first, David (teenager) kills a giant with a single stone, Paul's conversion story (any conversion story really), all of these things are the opposite of what someone would expect when reading.
Everything about Reversal Theme calls for radical living because it goes against everything this world stands for. When you look at Matthew 5, Jesus is preaching "the good news" to the weak, the sick, and the poor. The very first words out of his mouth are "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God." That's pretty trippy. That's not even the weirdest part though. In verse 12, Jesus says "Blessed are you when others revile and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account." Now that's just plain crazy. There's much more crazy stuff that Jesus said - turning the other cheek, loving your enemies - that stuff sounds good...but it really doesn't work. Somehow we fooled ourselves into thinking that whenever we do what is right when other people do wrong to us, they become magically paralyzed and can't do harm anymore. Sometimes, that's true, the suffering stops at least for a little bit. However, Jesus didn't say "blessed are you when you are persecuted for 5 seconds and the other person feels bad and stops".
Fact of the matter is, the way of Jesus doesn't work...by worldly standards anyway (for an interesting read, try out http://www.wineskins.org/filter.asp?SID=2&fi_key=380&co_key=2691) . I heard a series of lessons this past semester (talking about Matthew 5 actually) in which one of the key assertions was that the world is flipped upside down. Things aren't the way they should be and Jesus set the example of living right side up. In part, I agree with this. The only thing I would change is this: The world is the way it is, pretty much has been since we got ourselves kicked out of the garden, and so living "right side up" is going to be opposite of the way things are, and so it's going to be received as more upside down than right side up. We shouldn't expect it to be all "blue skies and rainbows", because it's not going to be. Living reversed is going to be tough, and quite frankly pretty janky by worldly standards. Stop and think for a minute about how successful Jesus would be at almost any line of work today. He was the son of God and couldn't even make it as a preacher for more than 3 years - the religious leaders of the day wanted Him dead. Jesus's way doesn't work. Will you still do it His way?
I remember how big the WWJD thing was when I was growing up. The concept seemed to really take a prominent foothold in the Christian community with a book called In His Steps. This book is rather out of date, but the concept has remained as is evidenced by the WWJD bracelets, The Red Letter Revolution by Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo, and other figures and movements. In His Steps did something pretty cool for the day though, it presented the idea "What would happen if for one year only you asked the question "what would Jesus do?" before every action and decision you made and then acted accordingly. What's cooler is that not every character ended up ahead, they in fact had to make some pretty tough decisions and had to take "cuts" in one way or another.
Fact of the matter is, following Jesus's footsteps closely does not lead to places that are easy to go. It essentially leads to a cross. Jesus overcame the grave, but He didn't do so on His way to it. Living life reversed has within it the idea that you are going the opposite way of everyone else in the world; we should expect some resistance.
We have hope, not that this life is going to be peaches and cream, but in the ultimate form of reversal: Resurrection. Something I forget sometimes is that I have hope, not just in Jesus's resurrection, but in my own as well. Living for God now means life with Him forever later. So I try do my best to not get scared at the idea of suffering here on earth, because I have hope that living reversed here will produce reversal of my inevitable death.
Some would call God unfaithful when they go through tragedy, but need I remind them of the cross? That event shows our Savior's faithfulness. One of the best explanations for why we suffer and why Christ is still faithful came to me from a youth ministry book called The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry. The quote reads, "...Jesus isn't magic. Jesus is human. Jesus is the very incarnation of God; He's God with us - to bring us not magic but accompaniment, not "healing"...but salvation...any healing that is more than a temporary solution - that is, in other words, transformation...demands deep accompaniment. It demands that another enter into my world and bear my suffering, not to magically take it away but to die with me if needed...The cross reveals this Jesus: not a magical one but a suffering one, not a God who takes away pain but a God who joins us in it." That's the savior we have. I'd rather have Him.
So what am I asking of you dear reader? Live a life reversed by the power of the cross. Realize what you signed up for at your baptism is not an easy life, but one that has great reward. The church has always tended to reflect the culture around us, sometimes that's ok, but truly living reversed is going to mean living vastly different than the world (and seems to be getting even more different as time goes on). Get in your Bible and see what living reversed is all about (Matthew 5 is a great place to start). Speaking of Matthew, remember how I said Jesus was teaching "the good news" to the sick and the poor? Whenever the gospels talk about "the good news", it is almost always related to the idea of God's reign. When you think of the crowd Jesus had and His first words: "blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God". Jesus essentially tells his crowd that he knows they are marginalized, but when God reigns...they're blessed. Things change when God reigns in a person's life, the weak are made strong, the poor are made rich, the first are made last and the last are made first. But that's by God's standards, not the world's.
Let God reign in your life and let your life be reversed. And as we seek to reach out to others with "the good news", let us remember to be Jesus to them and join them in their suffering, showing them the love of Christ and how they can be changed by God's reign in their life.
I'd love to hear stories of how you are living out life reversed. Something I've started doing and a few have picked up on (in the twitter world) is the use of the hashtag #LiveLifeReversed. Show a messed up world what it means to truly live a life that has been reversed, one that was dead in sin and now is alive in Christ.
Grace and Peace to you all.
Everything about Reversal Theme calls for radical living because it goes against everything this world stands for. When you look at Matthew 5, Jesus is preaching "the good news" to the weak, the sick, and the poor. The very first words out of his mouth are "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God." That's pretty trippy. That's not even the weirdest part though. In verse 12, Jesus says "Blessed are you when others revile and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account." Now that's just plain crazy. There's much more crazy stuff that Jesus said - turning the other cheek, loving your enemies - that stuff sounds good...but it really doesn't work. Somehow we fooled ourselves into thinking that whenever we do what is right when other people do wrong to us, they become magically paralyzed and can't do harm anymore. Sometimes, that's true, the suffering stops at least for a little bit. However, Jesus didn't say "blessed are you when you are persecuted for 5 seconds and the other person feels bad and stops".
Fact of the matter is, the way of Jesus doesn't work...by worldly standards anyway (for an interesting read, try out http://www.wineskins.org/filter.asp?SID=2&fi_key=380&co_key=2691) . I heard a series of lessons this past semester (talking about Matthew 5 actually) in which one of the key assertions was that the world is flipped upside down. Things aren't the way they should be and Jesus set the example of living right side up. In part, I agree with this. The only thing I would change is this: The world is the way it is, pretty much has been since we got ourselves kicked out of the garden, and so living "right side up" is going to be opposite of the way things are, and so it's going to be received as more upside down than right side up. We shouldn't expect it to be all "blue skies and rainbows", because it's not going to be. Living reversed is going to be tough, and quite frankly pretty janky by worldly standards. Stop and think for a minute about how successful Jesus would be at almost any line of work today. He was the son of God and couldn't even make it as a preacher for more than 3 years - the religious leaders of the day wanted Him dead. Jesus's way doesn't work. Will you still do it His way?
I remember how big the WWJD thing was when I was growing up. The concept seemed to really take a prominent foothold in the Christian community with a book called In His Steps. This book is rather out of date, but the concept has remained as is evidenced by the WWJD bracelets, The Red Letter Revolution by Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo, and other figures and movements. In His Steps did something pretty cool for the day though, it presented the idea "What would happen if for one year only you asked the question "what would Jesus do?" before every action and decision you made and then acted accordingly. What's cooler is that not every character ended up ahead, they in fact had to make some pretty tough decisions and had to take "cuts" in one way or another.
Fact of the matter is, following Jesus's footsteps closely does not lead to places that are easy to go. It essentially leads to a cross. Jesus overcame the grave, but He didn't do so on His way to it. Living life reversed has within it the idea that you are going the opposite way of everyone else in the world; we should expect some resistance.
We have hope, not that this life is going to be peaches and cream, but in the ultimate form of reversal: Resurrection. Something I forget sometimes is that I have hope, not just in Jesus's resurrection, but in my own as well. Living for God now means life with Him forever later. So I try do my best to not get scared at the idea of suffering here on earth, because I have hope that living reversed here will produce reversal of my inevitable death.
Some would call God unfaithful when they go through tragedy, but need I remind them of the cross? That event shows our Savior's faithfulness. One of the best explanations for why we suffer and why Christ is still faithful came to me from a youth ministry book called The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry. The quote reads, "...Jesus isn't magic. Jesus is human. Jesus is the very incarnation of God; He's God with us - to bring us not magic but accompaniment, not "healing"...but salvation...any healing that is more than a temporary solution - that is, in other words, transformation...demands deep accompaniment. It demands that another enter into my world and bear my suffering, not to magically take it away but to die with me if needed...The cross reveals this Jesus: not a magical one but a suffering one, not a God who takes away pain but a God who joins us in it." That's the savior we have. I'd rather have Him.
So what am I asking of you dear reader? Live a life reversed by the power of the cross. Realize what you signed up for at your baptism is not an easy life, but one that has great reward. The church has always tended to reflect the culture around us, sometimes that's ok, but truly living reversed is going to mean living vastly different than the world (and seems to be getting even more different as time goes on). Get in your Bible and see what living reversed is all about (Matthew 5 is a great place to start). Speaking of Matthew, remember how I said Jesus was teaching "the good news" to the sick and the poor? Whenever the gospels talk about "the good news", it is almost always related to the idea of God's reign. When you think of the crowd Jesus had and His first words: "blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God". Jesus essentially tells his crowd that he knows they are marginalized, but when God reigns...they're blessed. Things change when God reigns in a person's life, the weak are made strong, the poor are made rich, the first are made last and the last are made first. But that's by God's standards, not the world's.
Let God reign in your life and let your life be reversed. And as we seek to reach out to others with "the good news", let us remember to be Jesus to them and join them in their suffering, showing them the love of Christ and how they can be changed by God's reign in their life.
I'd love to hear stories of how you are living out life reversed. Something I've started doing and a few have picked up on (in the twitter world) is the use of the hashtag #LiveLifeReversed. Show a messed up world what it means to truly live a life that has been reversed, one that was dead in sin and now is alive in Christ.
Grace and Peace to you all.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Honor & Shame
This post will be the epitome of a layperson's understanding of this particular topic, but perhaps it will be new information to some and provide a very general overview. Hopefully you know at this point in your life that most of the Bible wasn't written directly to you. Yes, it is most assuredly applicable to today, but we were not the intended audience and so reading the Bible can be difficult at times because we are essentially reading someone else's mail. That all being said, there were a number of social values in the First Century that give us a lens for reading Scripture (think of it like needing a certain pair of glasses to make things more clear). When we read things through this lens, certain Scripture becomes more clear to us.
The social value that I wish to talk about briefly (and also to segue into how we can better use this information today) is that of Honor and Shame. In New Testament times, honor was a highly coveted (quite literally) commodity. A person (and family) did everything they could to gain or simply retain their honor and keep shame at bay. At the time, it was really seen as a commodity, something that there is only so much of. This is one reason that the Pharisees didn't enjoy Jesus being around. To them, as Jesus gained honor with His teaching and character, they were losing it, there was only so much to go around. This is at least one of the reasons that drunkenness is condemned in the Bible; it's not that there is some magic blood alcohol content that made a person unholy, but a person would make decisions they might not make sober and these decisions brought shame to that person.
When Jesus came, He did something rather extraordinary. He brought in a reversal theme; he talked about and acted out humility. The idea of humility was not new, but it had definitely been a lost concept with the Pharisees. The word for humble (adj.) in Greek is tapeinos. The word describes a person who withdraws from the honor seeking society and is content with the level of honor that they have. Let me illustrate this. If you go about the next few days putting on a monocle and using your scholarly voice saying, "the Greek word here is actually tapeinos" then you've acted completely contrary to the concept of the word. Jesus touches on this in Matthew 6:5 when He says "when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others." Here Jesus condemns praying vainly, simply for the sake of gaining honor.
I feel like it's pretty easy to fall into that trap. Is our society really any different? Get rich or die tryin' right? We do alot of things for status (honor). We wear the right things, do the right things, go the right places (I mean, what's the use in that $100 outfit if nobody actually SEES you in it?). Like Macklemore, I tend to be like "yo, that's $50 for a t-shirt..." HOWEVER, even in my "Thrift-Shop-Style" I am still seeking a certain amount of recognition from a different set of peers. You can now start to see the dilemma can't you? It seems almost impossible to do/wear anything.
I have some thoughts on how to BEGIN the process of living a tapeinos kind of life. Firstly, we are a consumeristic culture. I am not saying that it's not ok to have nice things (necessarily), but try to be honest with yourself about whether you're buying something for quality or for recognition. I personally struggle with this just a bit. I'm not exactly an Abercrombie type of person...but I do like me some Patagonia gear and I can fall into the trap of brand connotation just as much as the next guy. Granted, their gear is in many ways superior in quality to others, however, not always necessary. I challenge you to do better than me in this. Don't fall into consumerism.
Secondly, check your motives. Are you seeking to do this in order to help others or to bring glory to yourself? Also in Matthew 6, Jesus talks about giving when He says, "don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." (v. 3) Obviously an exaggeration of sorts, but it does call us to check our motives for why we are doing some good work - for the good of another, or for the good of self. I struggle with this when it comes to speaking opportunities and other ministry related events. I truly do want to help those who I am bringing a message to, however, it can certainly feel good having a crap-ton of people come up afterwards and tell me how good a job I did.
This leads me into my third point: pass on the glory. We are commanded to do good things for the Kingdom and for others, but let us not forget the One who gives us the very breath and strength to accomplish these things. Colossians 3:17 speaks of doing all things in the name of our Lord, so that HE may be honored.
I challenge you, dear reader, live a life of humility and strive to do nothing for the sake of gaining personal honor or status. Disengage from the honor seeking culture and instead live a life so countercultural that the world may "see your good works" - not so that YOU receive honor - but so that they "give glory to your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)
"God Opposes the Proud, but gives Grace to the Humble." (James 4:6)
The social value that I wish to talk about briefly (and also to segue into how we can better use this information today) is that of Honor and Shame. In New Testament times, honor was a highly coveted (quite literally) commodity. A person (and family) did everything they could to gain or simply retain their honor and keep shame at bay. At the time, it was really seen as a commodity, something that there is only so much of. This is one reason that the Pharisees didn't enjoy Jesus being around. To them, as Jesus gained honor with His teaching and character, they were losing it, there was only so much to go around. This is at least one of the reasons that drunkenness is condemned in the Bible; it's not that there is some magic blood alcohol content that made a person unholy, but a person would make decisions they might not make sober and these decisions brought shame to that person.
When Jesus came, He did something rather extraordinary. He brought in a reversal theme; he talked about and acted out humility. The idea of humility was not new, but it had definitely been a lost concept with the Pharisees. The word for humble (adj.) in Greek is tapeinos. The word describes a person who withdraws from the honor seeking society and is content with the level of honor that they have. Let me illustrate this. If you go about the next few days putting on a monocle and using your scholarly voice saying, "the Greek word here is actually tapeinos" then you've acted completely contrary to the concept of the word. Jesus touches on this in Matthew 6:5 when He says "when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others." Here Jesus condemns praying vainly, simply for the sake of gaining honor.
I feel like it's pretty easy to fall into that trap. Is our society really any different? Get rich or die tryin' right? We do alot of things for status (honor). We wear the right things, do the right things, go the right places (I mean, what's the use in that $100 outfit if nobody actually SEES you in it?). Like Macklemore, I tend to be like "yo, that's $50 for a t-shirt..." HOWEVER, even in my "Thrift-Shop-Style" I am still seeking a certain amount of recognition from a different set of peers. You can now start to see the dilemma can't you? It seems almost impossible to do/wear anything.
I have some thoughts on how to BEGIN the process of living a tapeinos kind of life. Firstly, we are a consumeristic culture. I am not saying that it's not ok to have nice things (necessarily), but try to be honest with yourself about whether you're buying something for quality or for recognition. I personally struggle with this just a bit. I'm not exactly an Abercrombie type of person...but I do like me some Patagonia gear and I can fall into the trap of brand connotation just as much as the next guy. Granted, their gear is in many ways superior in quality to others, however, not always necessary. I challenge you to do better than me in this. Don't fall into consumerism.
Secondly, check your motives. Are you seeking to do this in order to help others or to bring glory to yourself? Also in Matthew 6, Jesus talks about giving when He says, "don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." (v. 3) Obviously an exaggeration of sorts, but it does call us to check our motives for why we are doing some good work - for the good of another, or for the good of self. I struggle with this when it comes to speaking opportunities and other ministry related events. I truly do want to help those who I am bringing a message to, however, it can certainly feel good having a crap-ton of people come up afterwards and tell me how good a job I did.
This leads me into my third point: pass on the glory. We are commanded to do good things for the Kingdom and for others, but let us not forget the One who gives us the very breath and strength to accomplish these things. Colossians 3:17 speaks of doing all things in the name of our Lord, so that HE may be honored.
I challenge you, dear reader, live a life of humility and strive to do nothing for the sake of gaining personal honor or status. Disengage from the honor seeking culture and instead live a life so countercultural that the world may "see your good works" - not so that YOU receive honor - but so that they "give glory to your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)
"God Opposes the Proud, but gives Grace to the Humble." (James 4:6)
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Why Does God Let People Suffer?
How
can a benevolent God include pain in the universe He has created? This question
has led many to doubt in a higher authority. David Hume argued for an uncaring
universe in his essay Why Does God Let
People Suffer? His
position, essentially, is that because of the pain in the world there cannot be
a benevolent God. Hume’s view of God and benevolence are false as it lacks understanding
of the God it attacks. I'm not saying that you will have all the answers after this, or even that I'm completely right, but here are some thoughts from a bearded theologian.
What brings a person more pleasure: service and praise from an inanimate object that experiences no pain and has no choice to do differently, or a creation that despite hardships, chooses to serve and praise anyway? Any being with the slightest emotional depth will choose the latter over the former. So God finds His greatest joy in His human creations, man and woman, whom he calls “very good” because of one thing: their ability to choose Him. This is a debated topic, as many do not consider themselves to be complete agents of “free will”. There is no doubt that significant scholarship supports this opposing view. Granted there is strong scriptural and philosophical support for both sides, the idea of God’s complete joy is the reason this paper argues for humans having free will. This single factor plays heavily into the concept of a benevolent God that also allows suffering.
Why does God need praise? He is the most high and ultimate being in the universe and made the very universe over which He reigns. We applaud great accomplishment and no other being has done so much as to deserve it. God is furthermore just. Every society has some standard by which it assesses its inhabitants. We are drawn towards justice, because a just God created us. God commands praise, but gives humankind the choice to do so. There are clear cases in scripture where God must punish those who go against His will, because He is just. This is not to say that He is not a God of grace and mercy, for He possesses those attributes as well, but He is most assuredly a God of justice. Humankind often fails at administering this dual system of justice and grace, because we have fallen and are very inadequate compared to an Almighty and Infinite God. Our failures in life need not be projected onto God, however. The idea of justice need not be the explanation for pain and suffering. For if this were the reason, then one would be quick to call God cruel and uncaring, which is not at all the case. It is important though to understand that God’s justice is very real and something to be desired; but it is not always well received, especially when it is being self-directed. Humankind needs direction at times, even to the point of correction.
One might ask why God would use pain and not some varying degrees of pleasure to direct us, as Hume does. Perception is everything in the idea of correction. A person might say that he or she is starving, but this feeling does not at all compare to the hunger felt by those in a much poorer culture or simply down the road sleeping under a bridge. Another person might say they feel cold, when really that person is simply feeling less warmth than another person. In reality, cold is the complete lack of heat. No person has ever felt the complete lack of heat, only less heat than on other occasions. With these examples in mind, one can think of certain degrees of pain he/she have felt. Hypothetically, in a world where complete comfort is the norm, anything less than that is considered uncomfortable. In a world of lush, leather recliners, a wooden chair would be considered torture. Give that wooden chair to a person who has been in a prison made of stone, however, and the prisoner sits in complete luxury. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed person is king.
At this point a person must begin to refine the idea of suffering. And from the last argument, the concept of that person who does actually starve in a third world country comes into the debate. Here is where the concept of free will really begins to shed light on the idea of suffering. If a person looks at the suffering in the world, they will see that a large portion of it is due to people enacting their will on others. Anyone who has ever been offended or hurt by a friend, spouse, or acquaintance has experienced that person’s free will taking a toll on his/her happiness. We don’t question these small incidents, but the same principles apply to larger situations. Most people love having the freedom to choose what they wish to do; the problem arises when the interests of different people collide. Violence ensues from these two conflicting interests. God remains just throughout all of these conflicting interests and will enact His justice on those who oppress the weaker in His own time. However, one can take a look around their home and see other people’s decisions affecting those around them. A person can complain that there is pain and suffering in the world, but drive a $100,000 dollar car to his or her three story home and think nothing of how his or her lack of compassion affects those around them. Certain people directly forcing their free will upon another is not the only cause of suffering, it comes from those who stand by idly with the resources to remedy it. A benevolent God desires no less of His creation. We are made for community.
There is still one more being that has an effect on all the creatures of the earth in a negative way and that is the opposing force to a benevolent and caring God: Satan. Entertaining the idea of the God of the Bible automatically gives way to entertaining the idea of Satan. A person cannot choose the Christian God without choosing the Devil. This being is, like all other creations, under the dominion of God; however, like all other creations, he also has the power to choose. Scripture teaches that Satan chose to leave God and has been cursed ever since. Just as we are able to affect each other with our own selfishness; Satan also has this ability. Satan is a much more powerful being than any human and has some power over creation. He wishes for nothing more than to inflict pain and misery on God’s creation, causing them to stumble and fall. Scripture clearly cites several instances where Satan is the direct cause of pain and misery. God permits, but is never absent. God allows Satan to work in this world, which the Biblical story of Job makes clear. When God’s creation withstands this testing, He strengthens His creation and gives them rest. In this way, God is never absent, and is always able to help those who choose to call on Him. This does not eliminate all of Satan’s schemes, but it ensures that those who reside in God will never be tempted past what they can bear.
Slowly, these ideas start to make sense, but questions still remain. Why do natural disasters cause pain when no human acts upon another? Part of this answer resides in the idea of Satan. Far less powerful than God but much more powerful than any person, Satan has the ability to manipulate nature if it means causing people to doubt in God. The second part of this answer resides in the fact that we live in a fallen world according to the Genesis account. Once again, Satan allured God’s creation to break God’s law and because God is just, consequences followed. No longer would the earth be perfect as it had been, but now would cause toil and pain. Not an uncaring world, because for every negative and troublesome element in the world there exists many wonderful and enjoyable elements, but an imperfect world.
The last and possibly most important issue that Hume fails to address in his narrow perspective is that of the Christian mindset. It has already been stated that when dealing with the concepts of pain and suffering, perspective is vital to understanding. The Christian perspective distinctly gives joy in the midst of trials and afflictions, because we can read encouraging words such as “in this world you will have trouble, but take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) The true disciple considers it all joy when he or she falls into various trials, because in that testing, completeness is found (James 1:2-4).
It
has been shown that God is both benevolent and just. Humankind often has
trouble seeing this because our perception is not that of God, nor will it ever
be. Faith in God does not need to be shaken by pain and suffering, however.
Suffering only makes those in Christ stronger disciples and ultimately makes
them all the more joyous because the end prize is so much greater than anything
that could ever be imagined, worth the woe here below.
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