Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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Archives for 2017

More than I can handle

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More than I can handleWhen we read the stories about the heroes of faith, it is easy to forget the uncertainty they experienced in the midst of their stories. When he started building the ark, Noah had never experienced a flood. When David was fleeing from Saul, David did not know if he would survive that day. When Joseph was sitting in prison, he did not know that within two years he would be second in command to Pharaoh. We know how each of these stories ends, so we can be oblivious to the emotions that these heroes experienced in the midst of their trials.

The recent resignation of a coworker to a competitor has caused me to be in some difficult situations over the last few weeks. I have taken over some of his former clients not knowing what he has said about my company or about his replacement (me). On top of the people challenges, there are technical challenges of quickly learning the clients’ systems so that I can be effective as a consultant.

As a result, I found myself feeling rather overwhelmed on a recent drive home. I was challenged by a fear of failure combined with self pity with a little bit of anger thrown in.

One of the Christian platitudes that I find most irritating is “God will not give you more than you can handle.” Try telling that to Gideon and the 300 men with him as they moved toward a battle with the entire Midian army. Try telling that to Job who, in addition to experiencing the loss of health, wealth and family, had to endure the empty and sometimes harsh words of his so-called friends. Both Gideon and Job had more than they could handle and God was behind it all.

No-where in Scripture have I found any support for the idea that God will not give me more than I can handle.

But as I drove home on that commute, I was reminded of two things which provided the necessary perspective to begin moving away from my emotional funk.

First, I was reminded that God was not taken by surprise in anything that has happened to me. These changes did not disrupt God’s plan for my life.

The second thing that came to mind is the promise in Philippians 1:6 that God will complete the work that he has begin in me. The circumstances in which I find myself will, if nothing else, reveal the parts of me that remain in need of transformation. God uses my circumstances as a tool to shape me into the person he intends me to be. How will I overcome my inappropriate fear, self pity and selfish anger if they are not exposed through these circumstances?

This knowledge does not make the circumstances any easier. But this knowledge is like a life vest that will keep me afloat until I get back to shore.

God is the initiator

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InitiatorThe longer I am a Christian, the more I realize how dependent upon God we really are. This quote from John Stott resonated with me:

“Many people visualize a God who sits comfortably on a distant throne, remote, aloof, uninterested, and indifferent to the needs of mortals, until, it may be, they can badger him into taking action on their behalf. Such a view is wholly false. The Bible reveals a God who, long before it even occurs to man to turn to him, while man is still lost in darkness and sunk in sin, takes the initiative, rises from his throne, lays aside his glory, and stoops to seek until he finds him.”

I recently heard a speaker make a comparison between Christianity and other religions. Christianity at its core reveals a God who initiates and man who responds. Other religions reverse this by making man the initiator who seeks to gain a response from God. In those religions, man earns the notice of God through his diligence in following rituals and his performance of good deeds.

We cannot be the initiator in the relationship with God. This is because we have a fundamental problem which Jesus came to address. I borrow from John Stott again:

“For we are not only ignorant; we are sinful. It is not sufficient therefore that God should have revealed himself to us to dispel our ignorance. He must also take action to save us from our sins.”

To put it another way, we are wilfully ignorant of God. We are ignorant because we choose to be. The coming of Jesus confronts us in our rebellion and forces us to make a choice. We can choose to remain as we are or engage in the process of learning to respond to God’s initiative.

In coming to Christ, we begin the process of learning to choose correctly.

A difficult transition

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Transition from I to himOne of the things about the Christian life that I have had the most difficulty with is fully appreciating my identity in Christ and the implications of that identity.

I have nearly completed my sixth decade of life, all but five years of it as a believer, yet I find myself trying to earn the approval of both God and the people around me. I need to transition from trying to earn God’s approval to responding to the love and acceptance that I already have. Rather than trying to be an initiator, I need to be a responder.

In the case of God, my head knows that he already approves of me. I do not need to earn his love. By doing so, I am trying to earn what I already possess.

In the case of the people around me, it is a fools errand to try to please them due to a combination of my propensity to failure and their own similar struggles. My experience is (John Lydgate not withstanding) that I can’t please some of the people all of the time. I can’t even please myself all of the time.

Yet, I am reminded that while I do not need to earn God’s approval, my life goes better when I am obedient to what he calls me to do. While I cannot earn God’s love, nor earn my salvation, I can act in such a way that brings pleasure to God. In the parable of the talents, Jesus enjoins us to faithfulness so that in the end we hear “Well done, good and faithful slave . . .” (Matthew 25:21).

But I find this complicated by the distractions both within and around me. My life has been a process of transitioning from being a man-pleaser to being first and foremost a God-pleaser. I feel that I should be so much farther along than I am in making this transition.

I am very good at making excuses for my lack of progress. I might blame it on personality (indirectly blaming it on God who made me), I might blame the way I was brought up or I might blame it on the people in my life. While these often make it more difficult, they are not the reason for my lack of progress.

My lack of progress in making this transition is due to my pride. I want to be in charge. I want to earn what I am given. I want to be admired for what I have done. I want to finally conquer the lingering feelings of inadequacy through hard work and determination. I. I. I. I ad infinitum.

My only hope is what Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:4-7:

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (ESV)

I should follow God’s advice and cease striving and know that he is God (Psalm 46:10) and let him do the work that only he can do.

Easter should blow our minds

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EasterThose who have grown up in the church can lose sight of how radical the claims of Christianity are. We can be so casual about truths that should blow our minds.

Imagine your shock if Aunt Betsie came knocking on your door three days after you attended her funeral. You would want an explanation as to how this was possible. You would wonder if it is safe to answer the door. In short, you would probably stand there incredulous as to what was before you. Your mind would be blown.

But this is exactly what we celebrate at Easter. Jesus came back from being dead and caused a stir in Jerusalem one Sunday morning. This event should cause us to ask all sorts of questions if we are really connecting with what happened.

Is this myth or did Jesus actually rise from the dead? If it is not a myth, how is the resurrection of Jesus possible? What implications does the resurrection of Jesus have for humanity?

With regard to the first question, there is one argument that in my mind stands above all the others against the idea of the resurrection being a myth. All of Jesus’ first followers went to their graves believing and proclaiming that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead. The apostles were all martyred or exiled because of this belief. It is hard to imaging that if there was conspiracy to promote a myth that all of them would have maintained the story as being true. For other arguments for the truth of the resurrection, I suggest reading The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Habermas and Licona.

With regard to the second question, Paul writes this about Jesus is Romans 1:4:

“and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,” (ESV)

Because Jesus was the Son of God, he was able to conquer death and rise again. The resurrection was proof that Jesus was who he claimed to be. Of Jesus, the Nicene Creed states:

“We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.“

There are many implications for believers as a result of the resurrection but I will state two of them. First, it is right to worship Jesus in response to the event of the first Easter. The second one is that the resurrection of Jesus proves that we do not need to fear death. We may fear the process of dying, but we should not fear the result.

A corollary of the removal of fear of death is that all our other fears should be alleviated. If death has no power over us, what else is there to fear?

I’m not saying that I live this way, but I am acknowledging that I should. This is a classic example of “do as I say, not as I do” because I often respond in fear to my circumstances.

Today is Easter, the day set aside to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Can we at least acknowledge that the event we celebrate should give us victory over all fear? Perhaps with that acknowledgement, we can take baby steps toward living that way.

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