The Gal In The Mirror

When we were children, my brother and I argued a lot. These set-tos usually ended up with one of us accusing the other of being a liar, cry baby or worse. The inevitable rejoinder was something along the lines of, “Look in the mirror, why don’t you?” For some reason, the mirror remark always hurt worse than the name-calling. 

Almost half a century later, I am doing much the same thing, albeit in the private confines of my head. I glare at the driver who just cut me off and mutter, “Selfish so-and so!” When a movie character sulks and indulges in a pity party, I think, “Grow up!” 

Lately, the Holy Spirit has been giving me little nudges concerning this attitude…quietly holding a mirror up to my inner eye. Not to shame me or accuse me, but so I can see what is really going on when I launch into attack mode. It comes down to this: I don’t want to see the mess in me, so I deflect my accusations toward others. It’s painful to poke around in my own trash pile. Some things are too icky to expose to the light of day.

I tend to think that it’s going to kill me if I admit to certain flaws in my character. I certainly don’t want God to look too closely at the real me. After all, he might point out that “this and this and this has to go or you are no longer in my good books.” Ouch! Of course, I know that type of thinking is a lie. God isn’t condemning me - he’s saving me. He isn’t trying to whip me into shape, but is transforming me by renewing my mind. He doesn’t want me to feel ashamed and full of despair at my failings.

In fact, according to Apostle Paul, God’s power works best in the midst of my most dreadful weaknesses (2 Cor. 12:9). The character defects that persist, despite my best efforts to get rid of them, eventually drive me to my knees. God’s grace always meets me there and we make a great exchange – I offer him my inability to help myself and then his power starts to work in me to effect change. 

Sounds good, doesn’t it? And yet, even though I know this to be true, the “keeper of the mess”  - frightened and stubborn - can’t live with that kind of grace, so hauls out pitiful excuses and useless rationalizations for maintaining the status quo. It’s not easy to cede control of certain areas of my life, even to our immensely loving and merciful God. Part of me doesn’t trust him, you see.

Lately though, I’ve sensed the Spirit saying, “Let her die, dear one…she’s sucking the life out of you.” I’d like to do that, but how do I go about it? First of all, I need to look at her straight on, with no deflecting and no excuses. Giving in to fear tends to enlarge the mess rather than shrink it.

Obstacles are like wild animals. They are cowards, but they will bluff you if they can. If they see you are afraid of them…they are liable to spring upon you; but if you look them squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight. ~ Orison Swett Marden

 I don’t need to be afraid because Jesus will be right there with me. The battle is not mine, but God’s (2 Chronicles 20:15) and I can do all things through Christ - including facing my mess head-on. Once the ugliness is exposed, I must then cut ties with it and invite Jesus into that area of my life. After all, light always overcomes darkness. It’s a bit of a mystery how that works, really. You take a little faith leap and then look back later on and see that God has been working quietly in secret places. You have some extra peace or joy or patience. Maybe you’re a tad more comfortable in your own skin.

So, the next time I’m motoring around town, perhaps thinking snarky thoughts about other drivers and then feeling ashamed about it, I hope God intervenes to remind me that, “…anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Cor. 5:17)

Be willing to surrender  what you are for  what you could become  (Reinhold Niebuhr)  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What about you? Has God been helping you to trust him in some area of your life?  Please share in the comments section (which is located below in very, very small font).


Photo credits: Drawing of woman - Bas Vanuyen;  Butterfly - chronowizard

Duking It Out In The Church

Many things – such as loving, going to sleep,

or behaving unaffectedly – are done worst

when we try hardest to do them.

~ C.S. Lewis

Chris: That behaviour is a sin – the Bible says so here and here…

Lee: No, no – you are interpreting those verses from a narrow perspective. Scripture writers wrote within the contexts of their cultures, but we have new information and interpretive techniques now and should update our theology accordingly.

Chris: A sin is a sin, no matter the cultural context.

Lee: Sigh! Jesus said that the Law was all about love – for God and our neighbour. We must have compassion for our neighbour – walk a mile in her shoes before we stand in judgement over her.

Chris: Yes, I agree about that. I’m just not so sure that we understand God’s love as much as we like to pretend. In fact, I think we try to make God adapt to our standards rather than vice versa. We decide, according to our own lights, that some of his judgements and actions seem unloving, so we try to interpret them right out of the Bible and onto the scrap heap.

Lee: And maybe we like to focus on the sins of others so we don’t have to acknowledge our own. We should be asking ourselves if we are walking justly and loving mercy rather than lambasting fellow Christians for their perceived moral lapses. 

And so on and so on, ad infinitum…

Christians have argued and split into factions since the dawn of the Church. Even the first apostles had to agree to disagree on certain issues and nothing has changed since. The matters of contention vary, depending on the times and cultures and I think that the imaginary exchange above reflects some of the issues under debate today. 

It is understandable that Christ’s followers would want their faith to rest on solid doctrine and right practice. After all, the Apostle Paul did warn Timothy that  “…the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”  (2 Timothy 4:3) 

Does that mean the Church should close all its theological doors and stop trying to come to terms with challenges to its teachings? Fresh movements of the Spirit tend to start with a rush of enthusiasm for God, a new understanding of his ways.  We were blind, but now we see!  Our instinct is to try and preserve this with doctrines and practices, but the more we try to control it, the more quickly that first love, that life force, slips from our grasp. Eventually, we’re left with a pretty, but somewhat empty shell.

But then, how many layers of doctrine may we safely peel away and discard in our quest to discover the Love at the heart of it all? How do we discern the difference between sound doctrine – those things that define our faith - and inessentials that we may cast off with no ill effect? Sometimes I despair of the whole tug-of-war, as we yank Scripture verses back and forth, hoping to tie them to our own points of view. I find myself wishing that God would make it clear once and for all what he thinks about the issues in question.

It is apparent, looking back on centuries of divisions and even violence, that the Church has never been able to say, “Finally – we all agree and are at peace with one another.”  It is especially difficult to discern truth and falsehood these days because Christianity seems to be many things to many people. The internet vibrates with competing views on "how to be a good disciple". Should we be modern day John the Baptist types, calling a sinful world to repentance or should we soften our harsh edges and warmly welcome one and all into our church sanctuaries, “just as you are”?  Or can we do both and if so, how would that look? 

Whether we wish to protect the tenets of our faith or to change them, I am discovering that barricading ourselves behind doctrinal certainties or, alternatively, pushing through with trendy new theologies serves more to hide Christ than to reveal him in our midst.

I say that because Jesus made it clear that people would be able to recognize disciples of Jesus by how they love one another. Not by who has the best doctrine. Not by who best serves the community. Not even by who displays the best morals, the best success in life or best promotes peace and justice in the world. Jesus said that our love for one another would prove to the world that we are his disciples. Loving one another well is harder than any of the good things I just listed. Two thousand years of infighting has made this quite clear. 

I was struck by something Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians. “…it sounds as if more harm than good is done when you meet together. First, I hear there are divisions among you when you meet as a church…But of course, there must be divisions among you so that you who have God’s approval will be recognized!” (I Cor. 11:17-18)

Bible commentators vary in their understanding of these verses, but all agree that Paul was talking about a certain prideful attitude. In the passage context, he is instructing the church how to live and worship together. The Corinthians should have been imitating Christ, but their “me first” attitude was antithetical to how Jesus lived his life on earth. They were proud of their wealth and position in society, trying to carry that over into congregational life. They argued about whose theology was better.

Above all, they seemed to forget that they were to prefer one another above themselves. Jesus laid down his rights and his lofty position in order to come down among us – to identify with us and to love us. He chose to serve rather than dominate. Paul talks about Communion (or the Lord’s Supper) in order to illustrate what it means to walk in love as Jesus did.

And of course we want to be like Jesus!  We desire more than anything to speak the truth in love with one another and we try to get it right. But we fail. I like the way D. Thomas, a Bible commentator, described our dilemma:

“…assembling together for religious purposes does not necessarily imply unity of soul. It does not follow that because people are brought together in the same church that they are united together in spirit. Two people may sit in the same pew, hear the same discourse, etc., and yet in soul be as remote from one another as the poles.”

And then the clincher: “No real spiritual unity can exist where there is not a supreme affection for Christ, who is the only uniting place of souls.” *

When I read that I feel a tinge of despair because my affection for Christ can hardly be described as “supreme.”  But then a verse from Philippians comes to mind. "For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him."  Oh yeah…mustn’t forget the good news about what Jesus has accomplished for us! We are not able to manufacture authentic Christian unity because that can’t be built from the outside in. Despite our best efforts, we have no idea how to go about it. It’s kind of a mystery, really. But God’s Spirit has access to the building materials and knows exactly where to commence renovations within each individual Christian heart.

Can we trust him enough to allow him access to our inner wreckage? If so, he’ll poke and prod and dismantle and build. Slowly, slowly, we’ll relax and let him love us. Inch by inch, our love for him will blossom and grow, like wildflowers after a drought. Perhaps we’ll notice a new sense of freedom – freedom from the desire to lord it over each other or to protect our spiritual turf from intruders; freedom from the need to judge and find wanting, or to nurture a sense of offense.

Instead, with mental swords beaten into plowshares and emotional fists unclenched, we’re likely to find ourselves speaking the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. (Eph. 4:15)

We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly. ~ Sam Keen

________________________________________________________

* D. Thomas, The Biblical Illustrator

Photo credits

Birds in conflict: Vinoth Chandar/Creative Commons

Thumbs up: Sarah Reido/Creative Commons

Geese in formation: Howard Ignatius/Creative Commons

A Familiar Voice

 Every day there are chances to be happy, sad or upset about things that are happening in the world.  All the latest news and views are available to us 24/7 via news websites and Twitter Feeds.  I try to look at both Christian and non-Christian information sources in order to get a broader picture of issues that interest or concern me.  After all my reading and listening I may develop an educated understanding of events, but I still feel a bit bereft, somehow, as if I’ve edged my way up, down and around the truth, but missed some important aspect of it. 

Of course, I try to figure out if the Bible has something the say about issues.  Quite often, it doesn’t say explicitly, “This is the truth about such-and-such” and that can be disconcerting.  It seems that God’s viewpoint about things like science, politics and even church practices is not laid out for us quite as clearly as we’d like it to be.  This can lead to relational tensions, both inside and outside the Church.  Certain subjects in particular seem to polarize Christians, all of whom think that their widely differing opinions most accurately reflect what the Bible teaches. 

Jesus famously said, “My sheep hear my voice.”  If the sheep seem to be hearing considerably different things, then something has gone amiss in the communication process and I dare say the problem lies with us rather than Jesus.

The noise

At times I do remember – almost as an afterthought - to ask the Lord for his point of view.  That is when I discover that, although my self-education about the issues may be helpful in forming an opinion, all the ideas milling around in my mind tend to drown out the still, small voice of God.  It amazes me to recognize how fiercely I cling to my considered opinions once they’ve settled in and made themselves at home in my head.  I tend to construct walls around them in order to protect my hard won intellectual territory. I may even post “sentries” at strategic spots on these walls and let them pepper enemy arguments with vaguely relevant Bible verses or not-so-subtle labelling (e.g. bleeding heart liberal, stick-in-the-mud conservative). Under such circumstances, if God wants to nudge my mind-set in a slightly different direction, I doubt I’ll hear or understand what he’s trying to say to me.

The big picture

And yet – I do want to know what God thinks!  Human wisdom is fine as far as it goes, but there is no replacement for hearing what the Creator of the universe has to say about how things ought to be working. God knows what is right and what needs to happen in each and every circumstance and he wants us to ask for his opinion.

“For my thoughts are nothing like your thoughts”, says the Lord. 
“And my ways are beyond anything you could imagine.” (Isaiah 55:8)
~~~

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you.  
He will not rebuke you for asking. (James 1:5)

Having said that, I don’t know if God intends to hammer out definitive positions on every possible cultural, political or religious issue.  Sometimes the Bible writers were painting the bigger picture and we need to discern how to apply those general principles to individual situations.  Given that Jesus approached people and their problems in a number of creative ways during his ministry on earth, I doubt he would want his present-day followers to resort to cookie cutter solutions.  He is able to see beneath the surface and gauge the motivations of peoples’ hearts.  His view is wide and takes in every aspect of the matter.  He sees connections that we can’t, remembers exactly what happened in the past and knows what is in store for the future.  I believe that he can give us an understanding that we can’t develop using our own resources.

So, how does an earnest seeker of God’s opinion learn how to discern his voice from amongst all the others clamouring for attention? I’ve been trying to get better at this and have learned a couple of things along the way. 

Which comes first?

This may seem obvious, but it is quite helpful to ask God for his thoughts about an issue before seeking out the opinions of others, even if those others are trusted Christian teachers or theologians.  I’m not saying that we can’t benefit from the wisdom and learning of other Christians, but if we want to hear God’s opinion about something, it’s best to go straight to the source.  Jesus made it clear: if we belong to him, we can hear him speaking. The Holy Spirit is in our hearts and Jesus described the Spirit as a counselor who comforts, advises and shares God’s wisdom with us.  We can check out secondary sources afterward, but nothing beats listening to God first. 

What to expect

One more thing: expect surprises!  When he walked the earth, Jesus did not follow anyone’s party line.  He went straight to the Father for wisdom and sometimes his approach to people and their problems was unusual.  The things he said and did surprised even those closest to him.  As God has made clear, his thoughts and ways are very different from ours.  If we are to hear what he wants to communicate, we must be willing to allow our minds and hearts to stretch and grow in unexpected ways. I’ll close with a little story from my own life that illustrates this. 

Not all that long ago, we had a provincial election in Alberta.  I’ll admit that I haven’t been all that interested in politics since we moved here, as there is one party that wins most of the seats in landslide proportions every election and our city is a safe bet to gain them a seat or two. However, this last time, there was a serious contender for the premiership who swept in under the auspices of a new political party.  This added quite some interest to election debates and, since the present reigning elite was starting to get on my nerves with some of its policies, my interest was piqued.  As is the norm nowadays, the campaign heated up and mud was slung every which way.  Each time I read the paper or listened to outrageously edited sound bytes on television news shows, I felt upset because neither of the top two candidates nor their parties seemed to share my values.  In the back of my mind I remembered to pray, “Lord, give me discernment.” 

One day I happened to see an article in the newspaper about an issue dear to my heart, so I paid attention. The reporter quoted a politician, one I knew very little about.  He had been ousted from his former political party (the reigning incumbents) for criticizing the party’s track record in my area of interest. He had then proceeded to run for and gain the leadership of a different party.  Soon after reading that news item, I was channel surfing and happened to catch sight of this politician on a current events program, so I listened to what he was saying.  His party was so far behind the other front-runners, there was no chance he would be elected as premier, but I sensed that God was drawing my attention to him because of his character, not his chances of winning the election.  There was something about his general demeanor and the way he spoke that drew me to him.

Looking back, I don’t think God was trying to nudge a particular party or leader into power through my vote.  I asked him for discernment and he showed me how one politician shared some of my values.  Although I wasn’t consciously aware of it at the time, it was important to me to vote for the person more so than the politics and God knew that. That’s what I mean about surprises.

Dietrich Bonheoffer once said, “All things appear as in a distorted mirror if they are not seen and recognized in God."  Perhaps he was referring to what the Apostle Paul said – that we see things imperfectly and our knowledge is partial and incomplete (1 Corinthians 13:12). God is the one who searches people’s hearts and knows what is necessary and important in every possible situation.  He is willing to share if we are willing to listen. 

Photo credits: sheep - http://www.flickr.com/photos/russelljsmith/352031119/
Roadway -http://www.flickr.com/photos/raindog/1653231144/