Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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Archives for November 2012

Context, back-story and knowing God

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This is a guest post by Mitchell Hailstone, a student at King’s College in New York City:

“I heard once that they’d rather hear about memories than enemies. Rather hear about what was or what will be, rather than what is. Rather hear how you got it or how much it cost you. Rather hear about finding yourself or how you lost you. Rather make this an open letter about family and struggle and it taking forever, about hearts that you’ve broken and ties that you’ve severed. No doubt in my mind, that’ll make them feel better.”

Your Story ContextThis is a quote from Aubrey Graham, a popular rap artist who goes by the acronym Drake (Do Right and Kill Everything). His poetry might be an odd way to start a piece about taking on God’s perspective, but it might also be perfect. In this monologue located at the end of his popular track “Headlines” from the album Take Care, Drake reveals his strategy when writing compelling pieces: give listeners the whole perspective. You don’t merely tell someone what you’re feeling; you also tell them why you’re feeling it and the back-story leading you to your present situation.

His technique is a fundamental aspect of effective storytelling. In order to understand the present situation, a backdrop of narrative needs to be given. Only then will the listener fully appreciate and revel in the current circumstance with Drake. Why does Drake do this? He’s allowing his audience to get to know him. He’s opening up. He’s sharing his story, his emotions, his thoughts, his struggles with his listeners. He’s building a relationship with his fans. Of course, Drake isn’t breaking a lot of ground here, but he goes further than most in terms of the amount of reality he conveys in his songs. His songs are gritty, honest, dramatic, brooding, haughty, depressing, uplifting, and emotional. The bluntness and depth of his songs penetrates the listeners’ imagination. They gain a desire to know Drake more, and be a part of the narrative that he lays out.

In some sense, we use the same technique when we build friendships. This is what people do with their spouses, family, coworkers, and roommates. We get to know the other person’s narrative. We piece together the story of their life so that we can better understand the deeper meaning of their present circumstance. Your friend’s background and your friend’s future dreams inform your view of his/her present life. When your friend finally gets that job in NASA that you’ve watched him toil over, you rejoice more. You saw and felt his struggle, so you almost feel the same excitement he does in his success. Knowing his full narrative, the past and the desire for the future, allowed you to understand the meaning of the present.

Just like it is impossible to appropriately understand your friend’s current circumstance without context, it is also impossible to look at your own life without the appropriate context. Christians have anxiety and worry about their current circumstance. They look at the scope of their life and become confused. This anxiety could be found in something as little as your reaction to someone treating you poorly, or something as large as a job not working out. It could be a severed relationship, or a bad grade. In Psalm 37, God reveals that “the steps of a man are established by the Lord.” For God knows and understands the full context of each man’s scenarios. He says to Job in chapter 37: “Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge?” (explain what God is doing by asking this question) We know that God is outside of time and has all the hairs of your head numbered (Matthew 10:30). After all, the sovereign Creator must know his creation. He’s existed before the world began and thus knows our context more than any friend.

But, life with God doesn’t end with Him knowing us. God wants us to know Him as well. We are to take on the perspective of the Lord. God tells us in Ezekiel 36 that he gives us a new heart and a new spirit. These allow us, with the Word as a guide, to take on that all-knowing perspective of God. In this way, believers and those who put their trust in God are equipped to understand their life circumstance and the current situations around them in the proper perspective. This is what we call wisdom – knowing and acting according the big picture or the proper perspective. This is fundamental and imperative to the Christian life because it functions as liberation from the entrapments of the world’s ways. His rules and teachings are the proper way of living, and thus give the most life, joy, and freedom. Present circumstance suddenly loses its prominence. We know that each of us sins and destroys God’s plan. We know that throughout history, man has rebelled against God’s ways and created destruction. At the same time, God is active in redeeming the consequences of our sin. He also promises and gives us a dream of a future day in which we will be restored to our initial glory. Therefore, we are not presently surprised by others sin or our own. We know that despite the bad things happening to us, God invites us to a perfect future with him after this life. We will know that his promises are good and always fulfilled!

Imagine what would happen if everyone lived with God’s perspective as the informer of their present. Each person would be loved and taken care of. Love and acceptance would prevail over hate and fear. Anxiety would not exist, for we would take to heart God’s promises. Churches wouldn’t fall to pride and faction. Politicians would perform their duties for the benefit of society and not themselves. Businesses would be run honestly and efficiently. There are countless possibilities for restoration.. Alas, it is not possible as long as our rebellion lasts.

Like Drake, knowing the context and background of God’s character and relationships with the world is a pretty potent and engaging story. It is filled with honesty, grittiness, drama, haughtiness, conflict, and resolution. But unlike Drake, this is the God of the universe. His story and perspective will unlock truth, and has the possibility of changing the world. Tell the story, and surely people will listen.

On the Church and politics

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politics 2I am not a political junkie, nor is this a political blog. I have tried to avoid any hint of partisan politics in my posts. It is my intent to continue on this path. While keeping this intent, I want to make a few observations about the recent election for the benefit of my brothers and sisters in the Church.

The Church is not a political institution

History shows that every time the church has gotten political power, it has turned out badly for the church and the culture at large. While the statistics may show that people who identify themselves as Bible believing Christians tended to prefer one candidate, they also show that this preference was not universal within the Church. Therefore we must be careful to not alienate our brothers and sisters whose political preference does not agree with our own.

God has neither a D nor an R behind his name. You may feel that you can make a case that the policies of your preferred party are more closely aligned with your understanding of Scripture. But I would remind you that the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the truth of Scripture transcend party platforms and political strategy.

Government is not the answer

No matter whether you are depressed, elated or ambivalent about the election result, I want to remind you that the government cannot fix the problems that we face. The fiscal and social problems are not the disease, they are merely the symptoms of a larger moral and spiritual problem. The root cause goes much deeper.

The trajectory of our government is determined by the moral and spiritual climate of the country. In short, we get the government that we deserve because we (collectively) select our leaders. The leaders therefore are reflective of the desires of the people they lead.

For example, we continue to spend more than we have. We do not have the moral discipline to tackle the difficult fiscal problems that face us. We reject the Judeo-Christian ethic of self control and responsibility and have nothing with which to replace it. Consequently, our government does not have the mandate to make the hard decisions which will cause discomfort in the short run but will provide stability moving forward. We are living off of next year’s seed and will have nothing to plant in the spring.

Government cannot hinder God’s plan

Galatians 4:4 tells us that Jesus came “in the fullness of time” which happened to be during the reign of Caesar Augustus. Augustus was followed by a string of emperors that were at best neutral to the propagation of the Gospel. Many of them were hostile to it and persecuted the Church. They had nearly absolute political power but were unable to thwart God’s plan for His Church.

Conclusion

If you are elated about the election results, I would caution you to temper that elation with the understanding that Government, big or small, cannot cure what ails the world. The only cure for the moral and spiritual problems of America is a Holy Spirit led revival and return to a commitment to the moral code that God revealed to us in Scripture.

If you are depressed about the election results, I would offer you the hope that government cannot thwart God’s plan for you or His Church.

For all of us in the Church, I would offer Paul’s words of encouragement found in Romans 8:38-39:

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NASB)

Electricity, Hurricane Sandy and the Feast of Sukkot – Four lessons

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Hurricane SandyHurricane Sandy made herself known in a big way in my area. In all the years that I lived in Southeastern Pennsylvania, I never experienced winds like we had earlier this week.

My family and I were blessed in that there was no damage to our home. Other than the minor inconvenience of being without electricity for a little over 24 hours, we came through the event quite well. Others have not fared so well and have endured major losses, my heart and my prayer is with them right now.

As the hurricane raged, it was difficult to think; it was quite enough just to take it all in. But once the storm began to wane, some thoughts came to me about life and hurricanes. Here are some thoughts in no particular order:

  1. Hurricane Sandy reinforced the idea that all we really need for physical existence is food, water and shelter. So many of the things we think of as indispensible are not. In reality, that iPad that you think you need is a nice-to-have, not a necessity.
  2. A major weather event such as Sandy demonstrates that man is not really the master of his own destiny, Jack Welshnot withstanding. The best we can do in response to such force is to find a shelter with sufficient strength to provide protection. Altering or controlling the storm is impossible. We may want to continue the illusion of control, but Sandy should be a clue to how little control we really have.
  3. The hurricane also demonstrated that we overestimate the importance of many of the things we do. When survival is on the line, it does not matter if the lawn is well manicured. When there is little water for cooking, it does not matter if the spice rack is alphabetized. The point is not that neat cupboards and attractive lawns are not good. The point is that when we take good things and make them ultimate things, we get our priorities out of whack.
  4. When something like Sandy comes along, it reinforces the need we have for community. When bad stuff starts to happen around us, we learn that we cannot live in a vacuum. We need, and are needed by, the people around us. We are called to live in community.

As I started to write these observations, the Feast of Sukkot in the Old Testament (Leviticus 23:34-44) came to mind. This is a Jewish feast also known as the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths. During this feast the Israelites would build temporary shelters and live in them. It was the original family camp.

Ostensibly the feast was to commemorate the Exodus of Israel from the nation of Egypt. The booths provided a physical reminder of how their forebears lived as they wandered through the desert. Yet I wonder if a side benefit of this feast was to demonstrate to the Israelites the four points listed above. Like us, Israel struggled to keep their priorities straight and to understand who was in control of their destiny. This feast could provide a yearly reorientation to a better perspective.

I do not want to downplay the hardship that some have had to endure in the aftermath of Sandy. But for those of us who were merely inconvenienced, I suggest that we think of it as a forced entrance into Sukkot. We have been given the chance to reflect on what is really important and to redirect our thoughts and resources to better uses.

We only need to stop long enough to reflect.

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