cairns

What if the proper interpretation is that we, not God, cursed the earth?

What if all God’s statements here are just the proclamation of the natural and supernatural consequences of our acts, which He warned us about beforehand in the words “you must not touch it, or you will die?”
What if God from the very first moment of creation has been trying to rescue us from the fate He knew we were going to choose, and continue to choose, for ourselves and the planet?

Can we bear the burden of knowing that global warming is only the latest manifestation of the curse that is us?

Can we turn loose of our image of a god who curses all life for the weakness of a human moment?

Can we fathom the heart of a God who loves us after our cursing of His total creation?

peace

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“When was the last time someone asked you about ‘the reason for the hope that is in you?’” (1 Peter 3:15)

 Thank you John Piper.  That is a question I can live within only if I am willing to be called out and called in deeper.      peace

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And that is good, not bad news!  But, it brings up more than one paradox.

God loves us. He wants the best for us and has planned it for us — in who we become, what our status is with Him, and in the works we do.  But, no, I do not believe he believes in us to get any of it done.  God believes in God.  The promise of Romans 8:28-9 and similar passages is not that all things eventually work to good for us because we are able to turn them to positives.  The promise is that God, who has known us before we came into being, has arranged for us to become like His Son.  The promise of Philippians is that He (not we) who began a good work in us will complete it.

This is very good news indeed because we are not capable of doing it for ourselves.  I believe this is why mankind was not to taste the fruit of the knowledge of both good and evil.  He wasn’t being selfish.  He already knew we could not handle it.  Being removed from the garden is not just a punishment, it is a rescue because to have also eaten of eternal life within our own weakness would be everlasting disaster.  This goes back to my theory that part of why we have a Bible not a pamphlet is so that we have all the accounts of the heroes of the faith and how miserably they failed time and again.  But, they trusted in the God who loved them and was able.

So, how do we keep trying?  By abiding in the One who declared Himself to be the Vine.  Like branches we stay connected to Him and growth happens.  His great power and love flow through us, transform us, and produce good fruit.  The “trying” I see in in scripture is so foreign to our American mythologies!  I do not believe we are called to try harder, try longer, try new methods to achieve, try and try again with the god who believes in us cheering from the sideline.  We keep on “trying” by becoming better and better branches, conduits of His power.  Now there are “methods” of a sort for doing that found in the ancient disciplines of the church.  Contemplative prayer, fasting, simple living and the like can help us draw more tightly into Him — not because we are finally trying the right things, but as they teach us to stop trying and do more abiding in Him.  That is the other paradox I mentioned at the beginning.  We try by stopping our trying and allowing the One who is able to do His work in and through us.  That is where I see the issue of the quality of the questions in my life.  If my questions are good enough, they turn my attention from ‘trying’ to enjoying the mystery with my confidence in the only One for whom none of it (including me!) is mystery.  My questions help me to discover more and more of how big, how holy, how powerful, how beyond all that I imagine, and how loving and full of grace God is.  And my weakness becomes more, not less, evident in the comparison, but also far less important!

Now, if by ‘believe in us’ we mean does God love us? Yes! See us as we will be? Yes!  See us already seated with Christ on the throne? Yes! Believe we are worthy to participate in His work? By Grace, Yes and yes again!  Paul even presents it all as a great race or contest with the heroes and martyrs cheering us on!  It is just a very strange way to race as we run to our place of rest when we run the best!  When we realize that the ultimate finish line, the final goal and prize, the heart’s true desire above all others is to be in His holy presence…then running to Him now makes perfect sense.

Believe in me? No, my God knows me.  I am not worthy.  But, I am loved and my God believes in the plans He has made for me because He will complete them.  And I am one ragamuffin who is more grateful for that each and every day! 

peace

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When I was younger, I wasted a great deal of effort in arguments about minute details of “what” we believe.  Raised in a fundamentalist context with no doubts about the existence of objective external truth, we were sure there was one right answer to every question and one right outcome to every argument.  So we argued, discussed, fought, dialogued, and interrogated each other in the name of clarifying and communicating “what” we believed.

We fought about faith vs works, free will vs predestination, evolution vs creation, permanence vs vigilance in salvation, pre vs post tribulation, women’s roles in church…well pretty much any topic raised.  And it never dawned on us that we were using ancient sacred texts in ways completely outside their meaning.  We never considered that our right views were anomalies of very recent church history.  And, I never considered how much my views would change with both education and age.  It did dawn on me over time that anytime being “right” about an issue became more important to me than the brother or sister on the other side of the issue, I was “wrong” no matter what position I was arguing.

I now hold opposite views to those of my youth on more than one issue I once won great battles over with church “friends.”  In fact my views have changed in so many ways that it might have led to confusion and despair if something else had not happened along the way. 

I learned more and more of the nature of “who” I believe.  Through good years and bad the God of all Creation and Savior of Mankind has become more and more real in the quiet center of my being.  I owe a lot to some wonderful authors, mostly Catholic (That alone is such a departure from my youth…) who explained the old disciplines, contemplation, and dwelling in The Presence.  But, mostly God just kept showing up and loving me whether I was right or wrong, sure or confused, loving or unkind.  In the rear view mirror of my life more and more unexplainable events fall into place and reveal the loving hand of the divine. 

I have now become sure that whether the “right” answer turns out to be any of the things I have believed of something far different than I have yet imagined, it will be “right” because the One who actually makes all things right Is Able, Is Just, Is Loving, Is Holy, Is.

Now on each path I walk stumbling, humbly I hope, along the way home, it is the Father who runs off the porch I trust.  It is the older Brother who would die to bring me home — not object to my presence at the feast, that I love.  I still enjoy study, contemplation, searching for deeper understanding of the world I live in. But I am far less bound by being sure of what I believe now that I have all my hope firmly placed in Who I believe. peace

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I didn’t know her, but many there did.  And it has taken me a week to decide how to post this.  Imagine being at a conference of people dedicated and professionally engaged in caring for others in crisis situations, and one of their own passes away.  It happened at MHM.

Larry and Lois Dodds of Heartstream Resources were at the conference along with their friend (their word, daughter) and Larry’s caregiver, Mary.  Larry has ALS and is wheelchair bound.  Mary is their constant companion and work partner.

Then as we sat at dinner we saw two ambulances pull up to the front door.  At the evening session we learned that it was Mary and that she had fallen gravely ill.  By morning we learned that she had passed.  Many there were clearly shaken by the passing of a friend.  Larry came back from the hospital to personally eulogize his friend for the group.  Apparently she was a first name person, because I never even heard her last name.

What intrigued me most was the response of the group.  No big theories or theologies.  No postulating significance of suffering or realities of redemption.  They quietly comforted each other and cried.  One veteran there told me it was really very simple in his mind.  The Bible says that confronted with the death of a friend and the sorrow of other friends, “Jesus wept.”  They quietly chose to follow His example.

If I am ever in trouble out there in the world somewhere, I would be very happy indeed to see any one of these folks come walking to my door.

peace 

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If anyone is trying to leave comments, please try again.  Or leave one just as a test.  I loosened security one level to see if it would work better.

peace

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The final session of the MHM conference was Sunday morning and titled A Spirituality Sufficient for our Vocation by Scott Shaum.  I staid because everything else had been so powerful, but I was worried.  Specifically I was worried about the word “sufficient.”  I have grown weary and leery of anyone trying to bring me spirituality, theology, philosophy, or pedagogy ’sufficient’ as presented.  I do not believe they exist, so I wondered where this would go.

After a nice time of worship music together, Scott got up to speak.  My fears dissipated.  This man was not going to offer pat answers for anything.  He shared his own weakness and experience with ‘the darkness’ during the months preceding the conference.  And then he gave this gift:

“We mature as we ask the right questions and then seek to live into them…If I attempt to reduce life to simple answers, then I rob the opportunity to mature.  Simple answers do not allow the heart to wrestle, the soul to expand, the mind to be curious and creative, and character to wizen.”  He followed by offering this question:

Is the breadth and depth of our spirituality sufficient for who God is summoning us to become in this session of our journey?

No easy answers, a few suggestions for why to reconsider the disciplines so seldom practiced by evangelicals, an invitation to dwell in the question with God…a gift indeed!

Thank you Scott.  Tomorrow you are on the list of people I am grateful to have met on this journey.  I will abide in this question for some time.

peace

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She stood at the podium full of years, wisdom, and honorable service, with undeniable right to speak.  She congratulated the collective representatives of world missions on improvements that have been made, scolded them over shortcomings long discussed and little changed, and challenged them to be more.

Then she said it.  “As a lifelong evangelical always ready to share my hope, I no longer believe some of our basic theology.”  She went on to point out that the god who would condemn every person who died in ignorance to hell, just isn’t the One she has known all these years in India.  She mused about how it might work after death when Jesus meets the departed and makes all things known.  She apologized for offering her doubts about basic evangelical teaching to such an assembly which had not asked.  Yet, it was clear they loved her and would receive and consider any word from her.

I sought her out later and we shared the most wonderful conversation about Truth beyond easy answers, a God of grace much larger than our western view of individualistic reward for the privileged western few who “know,” the gift of resting secure in the knowledge revealed over time that our hope is based on who we have believed, not what. 

We discussed the reasons for sharing the incarnation story if/when it turns out that He really meant “so loved the world.”  What if He meant it?  What if the redeemed is the whole planet, mankind and sister-kind, animal kind and plant, rock and water and sky?  How would it change our message, our tactics, our approach? I used to fear such questions outside my comfortable little prison box.  Now I can say with adoration, I would share with more hope, more joy, and more love for the One who is bigger than all we imagine in our puny theologies.

peace

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I don’t know how anyone from the group would find my little blog, but thank you to each of you there.  I was made welcome among mental health professionals, agency heads, and pastors without exception. 

And, I learned a great deal about current issues in this critical area.  Confirmed some fears — what must the world think of our supposed connection to the God who is real when they see the condition of our workers?!  Saw encouraging trends in improved training for broader understanding, professionals with huge hearts for front line workers, and folks who have turned their own most negative experiences in living out their faith to a serious determination to care for others.  That is largely why I was there.  Twice burned by the ending of ministries by the action and inaction of others, and all too frequent witness to the same in the life of worker after worker, I want to know how do I come along side those who need the care of a brother in the absence of a community.

I will probably be posting a few thoughts about issues raised at the conference in the next several days.  But, it was very good.  I am grateful.

peace

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