A healthy dose of humility on the journey of real faith
"If humility is what you authentically seek, then simply measure your love of others against the standard of God's love for you, not in comparison to your lowly assessment of other's love of you or others. You will get this more completely when your arrogance, pride, and self-centeredness have been completely dismantled by His overwhelming grace and mercy."
-- Yours Truly
Strap in for a fairly long, ego-confronting ride. Notice what happens within you as you read this. Resist the temptation to blow it off as religious bluster and really pay serious attention, from the place where you do your own damage to yourself.
"When true Christians become fully aware of the challenge of real faith, they set out on the journey - the pilgrimage - with dedication, focus, and resolve to be sure they don't miss out on anything God has planned for their lives. They execute their spiritual duties as if they had escaped a country that was ravaged by the plague. And it is not enough for them to simply cross the border; they exert all their energies to get as far away from the plague as possible. Knowing that the journey of faith will not be easy, they do not become discouraged when difficulties arise. And knowing an adversary will oppose their efforts, they are not surprised or unprepared when the enemy attacks. As they set out on their way, they expect the early going to be extremely difficult, but they know they have the most Trustworthy Guidance and that the end of the journey will be well worth it. It is not without merit that those who pursue authentic faith in this manner are called pilgrims and strangers. A pilgrim is one who is on a bold journey. When the journey transcends the normal boundaries of conventional wisdom and societal norms, he becomes a stranger. He is an adventurous traveler. He learns to expect the unexpected. But as he travels, he knows he is traveling to a 'better country' (Heb. 11:16).
I trust you can see that this pilgrimage is impossible and unimaginable for the cultural Christian who is simply focused on club membership. It's way too confronting and hard. But this is no dreary duty! This is pure challenge and excitement! This is the ultimate adventure! This is what life was meant to be! From Pascal to Sir Francis Bacon, the travelers on this path have seen the end and found the journey more than worth making. When we looked at the characteristics of the nominal Christian, we saw that the underlying deficit was an obvious lack of the love of God. Many examples were pointed out, and the most cursory observation of these men and women makes it obvious. For we know what the love of God looks like. It is obviously missing in the majority of nominal Christians. The most blatant evidence is that they find no real and visible delight in either the genuine service or worship of God. In fact it becomes obvious drudgery, filled with complaint. Whatever outward actions they make in the name of religion are done as if slavishly performed for a harsh master who has not yet delivered the goods. Even while smiling and play-acting among themselves, they are cold and sullen when it comes to things of real faith. To the almighty Sovereign of the universe, who has given them life and new life, they give a dull, artificial, and heartless kind of recognition, devoid of any gratitude for who He is and what He has done on their behalf. They are primarily and relentlessly focused on what hasn't been done for or delivered to them.
Contrast this sentiment with the very first of the commandments. God tells us that our very first duty is to love Him with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength (see Mark 12:30). This one attitude acts like a master spring that sets all the other components of the human heart into action. When it is lacking or not set right, all else falters, and then we often find fault with Him for allowing such disaster to befall us. When it is present and active, many of the questions asked about what is appropriate and not appropriate behavior for a Christian would not even need to be asked. Rather than trying to figure out what they can get away with and how close to the line they can get, men and women would be attempting to discern what they could do to more fully express their love for God. The motivation would be totally different, and we can assume that the product would be also. Love avoids all that might harm the beloved and seeks out all that might be pleasing.
I know I am about to tread on delicate soil, but I feel compelled to apply this principle to the way we entertain ourselves. It has been asked whether certain kinds of entertainment are appropriate for Christians. What would our response be if in every case we evaluated our decisions about our leisure pursuits by asking if our choices would demonstrate our love for God? Is there any way we would engage in immoral or innapropriate kinds of activities when we are genuinely attempting to honor God and serve Him? When entertainment is crude, demeaning, objectifying, or off-color, the answer seems too obvious. When actions we would never allow in our normal interactions of daily life are part of some form of social entertainment, something is deadly wrong. The very values we seek to influence in a positive direction are intimately woven into the fabric of what passes for entertainment today. Much of the content of popular entertainment contains elements the Bible expressly forbids. Somehow, though, when it comes in the form of our entertainment, we find it less offensive, and, in fact, we find criticism of it much more offensive. In reality, this is all very dangerous. We often let our guard down in certain types of casual entertainment and what we call our relaxation time. I fear we have been conditioned to accept such things in much the same way that a frog learns to accept the ever-warming water, until eventually it is boiled to death without ever noticing the gradual change in temperature. Such is the influence of the entertainment/leisure industry in our time.
If the genuine love of God is not extinct in the majority of professing Christians, it is certainly at an all-time low. Even our love of our fellow man is not at the level we would like to pretend it is. Our country is filled with institutions designed to help other people, and these institutions are pointed out as examples of how well we care about our fellow human beings. I believe this praise is exaggerated in the case of these institutions. Nominal Christians love to draw attention to the external and shallow evidence such institutions provide. They would have us believe that the very existence of the institutions is proof of the good will toward their fellow man held by the members of the higher or wealthier classes in this country. But do these institutions offer proof (or visible evidence) of the internal benevolence of those who have funded them? How is giving to be evaluated when it comes from a source filled with pride, vanity, self-love, self-interest, love of ease or of pleasure, cut-throat ambition, competition, and the scramble for elevated social position and prestige? The Bible tells us that 'God loves a cheerful giver' (2 Cor. 9:7) and that He is looking for the one who gives out of self-sacrifice rather than without any measure of real personal cost. The bottom line seems to be whether we are willing to give even when it really costs us. In the same way, are we willing to do what is right when doing so might actually result in a loss of personal prestige or human praise? It again boils down to what is happening in our hearts when we take actions that outwardly are viewed as humanitarian and philanthropic. Are our actions lavish expressions of our love for God or simply half-hearted or ego-driven actions taken because of social ambition or expectation?
When evaluated by these criteria, I fear that the majority of professing Christians have done little that would merit the praise of heaven. Rather than congratulating ourselves on our benevolence or efficiency or skillfulness in doing good, we need to realize that, no matter how it's measured or compared in the human realm, we continually fall short of the giving spirit that comes from the true love of God and our fellow man. In the end, the standard we are called to measure our giving against is not human at all, but the giving nature of God Himself. Jesus told us that we are to be perfect, as the Father is perfect. When that becomes our single criteria and our only measuring rod, it reduced all of us to a healthy humility, in which all competiton and squabbling over form or technique fall away. However, this kind of thinking is virtually unknown by cultural Christians."
-- William Wilberforce, in Real Christianity
And in case you think the above is too old-fashioned or prudish, having been originally written over 200 years ago, within a very conservative (at least in outward appearance) society, here is what eventually becomes all too evident to oneself, written and performed over 200 years later all the way across the pond, in a fairly loosey-goosey, free-wheeling society, but, more importantly, in the delusional, self-destructive aftermath of ignoring His fundamental principles on the subject. I hear very elaborate, gory-detailed versions of this lament all day long (about what a "mess of me I've made," repeated over and over again, even while the conscious thought of surrender and obedience to His will is viewed as total anathema:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9lg7Utdnyk&feature=youtube_gdata
I am my own affliction
I am my own disease
There ain´t no drug that they could sell
Ah there ain´t no drugs to make me well
There ain´t no drug
It´s not enough
There ain´t no drug
The sickness is myself
- Chorus -
I made a mess of me I wanna get back the rest of me
I´ve made a mess of me I wanna spend the rest of my life alive
I´ve made a mess of me I wanna reverse this tragedy
I´ve made a mess of me I wanna spend the rest of my live alive
The rest of my life alive!
We lock our souls in cages
We hide inside our shells
It´s hard to free to the ones you love
Oh when you can´t forgive yourself
Yeah forgive yourself!
There ain´t no drug
There ain´t no drug
There ain´t no drug
The sickness is myself
- Chorus -
I made a mess of me I wanna get back the rest of me
I´ve made a mess of me I wanna spend the rest of my life alive
I´ve made a mess of me I wanna reverse this tragedy
I´ve made a mess of me I wanna spend the rest of my live alive
The rest of my life alive!
AHHHHHHOOOOO! Right
There ain´t no drug
There ain´t no drug
There ain´t no drug
No drugs to make me well
There ain´t no drug
It´s not enough
I´m breaking up
The sickness is myself
The sickness is myself
- Chorus -
I made a mess of me I wanna get back the rest of me
I´ve made a mess of me I wanna spend the rest of my life alive
I´ve made a mess of me I wanna reverse this tragedy
I´ve made a mess of me I wanna spend the rest of my live alive
The rest of my life alive!!
"Mess of Me," by Switchfoot
And this "ignoring them" (God's fundamental principles) doesn't just "happen to us." We are not innocent victims here. We actually "choose our poison," and then guzzle it down in heavy, regular doses. And then, usually only when we've suffered enough, it seems, we get to "unchoose it" and choose again, once we've finally faced the truth of our own self-centeredness and self-destructiveness, and then, with extravagant grace and mercy, He creates our NEW LIFE.
Labels: authenticity
