In our ongoing discussion of Christian spirituality, I would like to go back to the basics and turn to what might seem like an unlikely topic: Obedience.
Obedience seems to be a confusing topic in our modern age. In fact, for many of us, it doesn’t exist. Continue reading “The Christian Soul: The Problem of Freedom”
Dear Readers: My sister passed away unexpectedly this past week, so my series on Christian Spirituality this week is on hold. Below, a poem dedicated to my dear sis.
Here we are gathered together
Drawn by unyielding persuasion
Our hearts and our thoughts are united
Before this unwanted occasion
Unfolding like a movie scene
(We take our places with our parts)
In a tragedy which is our lives
Playing out upon our hearts
— At least, that is how it might seem.
But for my part, I rest my head
And close my eyes and dream . . .
I see you just beyond the veil
Burning bright with that same light that
In this life darkness tried hide —
But to no avail.
And there is by your side someone
Whose life we thought had also come
To an end much too soon. But now
I see, in truth, had just begun.
She’s laughing. And with a laugh that
Pierces heaven, causes God to
Miss a beat. And I can tell that
With each laugh she signals Death’s defeat.
And just beyond you stands another
Grinning with that unmistakable grin.
I know (even now) he has been up to something:
His countenance betrays where he has been.
He’s traveled to a thousand distant shorelines,
He’s tasted of adventure high and low.
And in that land beyond this present darkness
There was no place forbidden him to go.
His time lost here has not been lost; even
The cloud could not contain his deeds and word.
His name is known among the courts of Heaven
In places here the foolish call absurd.
“Dear brother, do not weep or mourn,
For those of us whose lives have been reborn.
Mourn rather in that place we all must leave
Who find themselves unable to believe.
“For in an instant — in the twinkling of an eye
The mortal things you know will never die
And every secret lose its hiding place
Before the judgment of His boundless grace.”
. . . Take heart, young child, and do not fear.
Tragedy is but a thing in darkness unexplained
In a place where understanding is constrained.
But things look much, much different from up here.
In the past, I have spent much digital ink discussing the Christian life and also Christian doctrine in light of trends both in the church and in society at large. I have even gone so far as to discuss what Christianity is not, where current trends in the church depart from orthodox teaching.
But one topic I have not touched upon (except perhaps indirectly) is that of Christian spirituality. Continue reading “Liberating Christian Thought”
Excerpted from Earth Tales
There once was a God who, being God, set out to make a world that was an expression of Himself. He made it beautiful, just as he was beautiful. He made it majestic, just as He was majestic. He made it vast and diverse and creative, just as He was vast and diverse and creative.
He made it highly complex and layered with meaning and understanding but also unfathomable in mystery, just as He was complex and highly intelligent but also unfathomable in wisdom and understanding. Continue reading “The Beginning”
I awoke the other morning with a thought too good to be my own. It was the type of thought that sheds light on all your other thoughts, even thoughts you have been thinking without even knowing it, as morning sunlight might do to your back lawn, revealing the toys left out the night before.
As the thought too good to be my own (which we shall return to shortly) rose up within me, one such toy thought it revealed was this one: The goal of life is to solve problems.
The problems of life for the modern-day Christian are many. First, there is the problem of living in a manner so as to be perfectly acceptable before our Creator. Then there is the problem of living in a manner so as to be maximally blessed, which has its own set of sub-problems, such as the problem of walking in divine health and divine favor, and also the problem of walking in divine financial prosperity.
Then there are the problems of everyday life (in case you think the above ones are not about everyday life) such as how to find a mate and have a good marriage, how to raise godly children, how to communicate effectively, how to avoid worry, how to be a good leader, how to break free from destructive behavior and addiction — and so on.
Life has so many problems, it is reasonable to think that the goal of life is to solve them. It is reasonable to think of life as sort of a super-problem, consisting of a matrix of smaller problems, all designed to challenge our problem-solving abilities. And that our highest calling before God is to do so.
Especially when one consider the modern three-point sermon, and the vast selection of Christian blog post titles out there, such as:
Yes, life is a problem, and God is the problem-designer, and we are the problem-solvers. And God’s deepest desire is that we get better at solving problems. And the better we are at solving problems, the more of God’s blessing we experience. For solving problems is what it means to be fully human.
As opposed to solving problems being merely the means by which we become fully human.
That was my thought at least. As I have mentioned already, I was not aware I had even been thinking it. It wasn’t as if I had heard it in a 3-point sermon or read it in a recent blog post. None of my fellow churchgoers had uttered it to me in passing conversation. It was just there, in the cadence and activity of the modern church body, each member focused on figuring out how to get more of God to improve their lives.
But then the thought too good to be my own rose up within me, in all its simplicity: Maybe life is not a problem.
Maybe life is not a problem to be solved. Maybe the purpose of life is not to solve life’s problems. Maybe the purpose of life is something else entirely.
But in life, there are problems. And those problems cannot — should not — be ignored. What do you mean, maybe life is not a problem? For me, life is certainly a problem. And I am hell-bent on solving it!
So I said in my heart. But as I sat pondering this new thought, I realized there is a big difference between life having problems and life being a problem.
If life merely has problems, then we are — and life itself is — more than the problems we solve. We are called to something greater than solving problems. Granted, we might have to solve problems in this life. But we only do so that we might be in a position to fulfill the real goal of life —that we might be fully human.
But if life is a problem — that is, we see the goal of life as figuring out how to master God’s laws and principles that we might live most successfully — then solving problems becomes our purpose. Our highest calling before God becomes being really good problem-solvers.
Maybe life is not a problem to be solved. Not only this, maybe the problems we encounter in life are not even ours to solve. Maybe life is such that the problems we face are solved while we are focusing on something else.
While I was caught up with the thought too good to be my own, I saw a picture. It was the body of Christ spread across the whole earth. And when the world looked upon it, it did not see a people diligently trying to figure out the problems of life. It saw instead a reflection of Himself. From greatest to least, each member a uniquely created expression of all that He is, and all that He hopes to be, to a lost and dying world.
So lift up your eyes, child of God. Beyond your problems, and all your efforts to to solve them. Your destiny lies beyond.
D. Patrick Collins 