by RobertCummins | Nov 1, 2016 | 44. Fear
We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. (1John 4:16-21)
New Christians seem to instinctively grasp “the love which God has for them.” They just know, “God loves me!” Being loved is natural to them. It is as though life flows directly up through the root system into the new heart: flowers bloom and fragrances abound. Yet, new Christians often wilt. It’s as though a winter overtakes the new plant, robbing it of its color and aroma. What has happened? Having bloomed and wilted, I have asked, “Are we annual or a perennial plants?”
Annual plants are only enjoyed for one season. When the first freeze comes, they perish. Perennial plants also appear to die at the first frost, but they return each year because their root systems remain alive. Christians are like perennial plants, except our above ground beauty and fragrance appear in less predictable cycles. Because our root system lives, we can bloom and provide color and aroma even in times of drought and harsh weather. A scene comes to mind:
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. (Acts 16:25-26)
Plants that sing in prison have learned to abide. Sadly though, an abuse of this word has wilted many a plant and kept a multitude imprisoned in a perpetual winter. It is essential to remember that abiding is facilitated exclusively by the Master’s grafting skills. Beyond acknowledgement and thanksgiving, we make zero contribution to this miracle. However, religion is crouching at the door with its anti-gospel, preaching that it is our job to cling to the root in order to abide. We are encouraged to cling with all our hearts to the Lord. A young and child like heart recoils: “Yikes! What happens if I can’t cling tight enough?” Fear has now reentered the garden. Religion has challenged grace and the plant has begun to wilt.
How then must l be saved?
Religion asks this question then provides the answers, “Thou shalt comply.” “Thou shalt commit thyself.” Embedded in our religious codes are penalties for those unwilling to comply. In myriad and sundry ways, religion enforces its codes. Penalties await the non-compliant and uncomitted. Religion threatens the young plants:
“If you do not conform, if you do not commit, then … pick your poison; then, you will be bad; then, God will be angry; then, you will be rejected. The if-then thought loop is religion’s maximum-security prison. Fear (our jailer), taunts, “Just you try and escape!”
Sitting in our cell, we might dream of escaping; What would happen to our relationship with God, with the church, if we went non-compliant with that most hallowed practice of the group’s particular religious code? It could be church attendance, baptism, recomittment, bible study or all the above. It really doesn’t matter as long as you believe that anything you could do might currie favor with God.
The degree to which we fear the penalty is the degree to which we are imprisoned. The lie that imprisons us is thinking we could ever cling tight enough to secure ourselves to the root. We cannot sustain in our own strength what God has miraculously done in His. We can’t sustain with works what began in grace. Just ask the Galatians. Paul called them foolish.
What is the Christian life, then, if it is not working out right and wrong in fear and trembling, always uncertain about the then penalty? Isn’t this the fear of God? These are the dead end questions of religious bondage. The only escape plan that has ever worked is abiding.
We must abide in order to draw life from the root. Abide simply means to remain in, to continue in, to dwell in. To illustrate abiding, I am going to draw upon Wayne Jacobson. He is working with the Father to set captives free. He exposes the if-then and the we-must-cling myths for the damning lies they are. Listen to this paragraph from his book, He Loves Me:
“He loves me. He loves me not… He loves me. He loves me not. A little girl stands in the backyard chanting as she plucks petals one by one from the daisy and drops them to the ground. At games end, the last petal tells all: whether or not the person desired returns the affection” (From Chapter 1: “Daisy Petal Christianity”).
This picture seems innocent, but the child has been bitten by a cobra. Its venom, mingling with the child’s insecurity, does its work. It produces an alternating conscience driven by fear. In He Loves Me, Jacobson exposes the bite and provides the anti-venom. He exposes the myth that God’s feelings about us change when our sin management fails. He makes a clear case: we were not designed to cling—we were designed to abide. Abiding is not clinging. It is simply remaining and continuing at rest in the gift of God’s initial grafting. It means that, with each petal plucked, we voice the refrain: “He loves me. He loves me. He loves me. He loves me.”
Color and fragrance return when we are liberated from religion. As we rest in God’s love our identities are sealed. We start to see who we actually are. We are His with zero outstanding debts. Free of the backbreaking burden of trying to please God, we are now free to enjoy the gift—Christ in us, the hope of glory. We can return to childlike innocence where we too know, “God loves me!”
Father, let this be the day and the hour that you put your foot on religion’s neck. Expose every place this spirit has its claws in us. Liberate us from the constriction of works-oriented religion. Where evil has abounded in this way, let grace abound all the more. Clarify to our deepest selves that, in your love, there is zero basis for fear. Let us walk among the religious captives. May they hear our song. May the earth be shaken. May the captives finally go free. So be it.
by RobertCummins | Oct 31, 2016 | 44. Fear
Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself was sending the crowd away. After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray. When it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and He was alone on the land. Seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, at about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them. But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out; for they all saw Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke with them and said to them, “Take courage; it is I, do not be afraid.” Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened. (Mark 6:45-52)
If the disciples had gained the intended insight from the loaves and fishes incident, what should their response have been to Jesus walking on the sea? Instead of astonishment, what reaction would have been appropriate? Mild terror? What was it that Jesus wanted to convey? At the very least, it was this: the rules have been changed! Things weren’t happening as they previously had. The sick are healed, food just materializes, men walk on water, and astonishingly, even tax collectors repent! Suddenly there is a new baseline for normal. All things are apparently possible now with Jesus!
How does this all-things-are-possible thing play out? After witnessing a miracle, were the disciples supposed to just flip a switch and open a new faith circuit? Jesus told them the problem was that their hearts were hardened. How did this happen? “Did they do this to themselves, Lord? You didn’t do this to them, did you?”
Whose domain is the heart anyway, God’s or ours? Who has access and responsibility for the circuitry of our hearts? Who wired them in the first place? I propose that we credit God as the master engineer who had wired his prototype (Adam) without a flaw. Let’s assume God is keenly interested in this circuitry and has told us to watch over it with all diligence. What will that look like? Will Bible study and memorization repair the damaged wiring? Will the confession of God’s Word solder the loose ends back together? Will another sermon be the fuse for our blown circuits? In our quest for answers, let’s begin with this idea: In Adam, our wiring was fried. This was the hardened condition of the disciples’ hearts—and ours.
When we are born again, do we get rebuilt hearts—ones that have been worked on, reissued, and are now warrantied by the factory? I don’t think so; we aren’t going to be made into the image of Christ with used parts. New hearts, capable of relating rightly to God, are central to the New Covenant. Christ in us is our new circuitry. So, is that the end of it? Are we to have no further heart problems? Can we now flip that switch, default to auto-heart pilot, and cruise on in without any turbulence? With no fear and trembling?
No. As long as we have choices and there are commands in Scripture, there is some kind of mysterious joint venture going on between God and ourselves. We have shared responsibility for the domain of our hearts. Since all life flows through our heart, it is essential that we have some idea of what our responsibility is and what is God’s.
It is helpful to acknowledge that God created us with access to the switch. Man had to be able to choose. This was essential to our hearts as well as to the ultimate kingdom power grid. Since the kingdom’s power is based in love, and choice is essential to love, the plan necessitated human access to the switch. It is tragic, isn’t it, to think of God watching his children turn out their own lights? After Adam threw his switch, God was no longer central in his heart—Adam was. He now had the desire of his heart, and the flow of Eden-current ceased.
How does this work though? If our wiring is now good, why do we still do bad? Think of a child’s brain. It is a universe of potential electrical connections, which will either be made or not. For the child to reach its potential, it must have the right kinds of stimuli. Our hearts are similar.
Like the field of the child’s brain, the potential for circuitry is all in place. In Christ, this is true of our hearts as well. Scripture would say, we are saved and are being saved. Our metaphor says that we have new wiring and that, we are completing our circuitry—in fear and trembling. The uncertainty of things has to do with the mind of our flesh, which might be thought of as the remnants of the wiring we inherited in Adam, which has been tampered with by the world and the devil. Through these temporal circuits, phantom currents flow, carrying dying impulses of a life that has been buried in Christ.
The stimuli required for our new wiring is the moment by moment relationship we now have with God. Experience upon experience, encounter after encounter, the potentials of our new hearts are realized. As God shows us where we are still maintaining the old circuitry, by way of our agreements and choices, we see, by design, we still have access to the switch.
To my fleshly mind, it seems like a fearful risk to allow my grubby mitts anywhere even near a switch—yet love demands it. Understanding love’s requirements, we surrender our exclusive rights to this switch and a grace is released which connects miles of potential circuitry in our hearts. Mysteriously, this inner grace makes a way for Jesus to express himself outwardly through us to the world.
Brace yourself for some heavy theology: Our heart circuitry is fried in Adam yet it is brand new in Jesus. In this sense our hearts are good hearts with the capacity to process Truth. Our minds are another matter. They must be renewed. There are synapses and relays yet to be connected. As these connections are made, we are transformed, one circuit at a time, back into the image of God in Christ. This is how we are becoming the light of the world.
This is our joint-adventure with God. As steward-partners with Him, it is our simple, yet fearful task (in light of the voltage) to yield those circuits to God where its obvious His abundant life is not yet flowing, asking Him to have His way in restoring us to the original schematic—His image.
Father, like the disciples, perhaps we could use a little terror or astonishment, at least enough to remind us that the rules have been changed. Please let us be the generation who learns to live from your new baseline of normal where our hearts are not hardened, but are rather, in Christ, discovering that all things are new and truly possible with You. Help us to see that in Christ, the light of Your kingdom is now within us and, by nature, it radiates outward into all creation.
Father, help us to recognize the kingdom is our domain—yours and ours. Teach us to jealously guard this space. Teach us to live the types of yielded lives which allow grace to flow from our new hearts out to the world. Help us to renew our minds that we may be radiant with your glory and shine into all the dark places around us. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Oct 30, 2016 | 43. Questions
Yes. I do believe Jesus still heals people but as one who lives unhealed with chronic pain (at least at this writing), this question has haunted me. Holding on to a belief, while being the apparent evidence to the contrary, is a set up for deferred hope which can make the heart sick. If you want to know the why of me, you will need to know where my “Yes” regarding healing began.
My life in Christ began in 1976. I do not exaggerate when I say it was like being shot out of a cannon. Because of the immediate changes He made in my heart and the love which He inundated me with, I had every reason to believe this Jesus whom I had just encountered, was the same guy in the bible who healed people and did miracles. I concluded that the New Testament must be God’s yardstick. I believed life was to be measure by a New Testament standard – which included miracles. My first one involved God changing something about me that was closer to me than my skin.
While Bartemaeus’ paralysis involved sight, I on the other hand, had grown up as a social paralytic. We were both captives but my prison was shyness. My whole personna developed by compensating for this disability. However, when Jesus entered my life, I had a story to tell and I could not shut up. He had set me free and, with all my heart, I believed He intended to do that for all men! After all, I was not special; God so loved the world. As I heard myself giving account of his encounter with God, I wondered, who was this guy jabbering on and and on? The whole thing was like an out of body experience. This was an unprecedented miracle to me that met that ‘far more abundantly beyond’ – (Ephesians 3:20) New Testament standard.
However, as I looked down on motor-mouth Rob, a strange thing was happening – I noticed a cloud forming between him and other (more mature?) Christians. What’s up with this? Upon hearing my story, they would shut down or even walk away. Older believers tried to gently break the news to me that Jesus really isn’t doing that miracle thing anymore. Your kidding! This was quite disorienting to me as a young impressionable Christian. As a recent miracle, I was naturally dubious.
I didn’t know it, but I had been born again right on top of one of the largest fault-lines within Christianity. On one side there were Christians who believed miracles and the gifts were childish things to be done away with after the death of the apostles. The Bible – the perfect, had come and was now the only source of inspiration for them. In this camp, the Holy Spirit’s main job was to interpret scripture.
I sincerely didn’t want to be rude to the sola scripture segment of my new family but I knew God was still revealing Himself to men and speaking to them because He had just done so with me. As I told my story, I watched an unwelcome cloud form, which I learned, could become stormy and even threatening. As I gave an account of the new hope within me, the right hand of fellowship was withdrawn from this branch of the family tree. I loved these people. This made my heart sick.
On the other side of the fault line there were those who were excited, like myself, that Jesus was the same then, now and forever. They were zealous in their exploration of New Testament life. The Holy Spirit was right in the middle of it all. Admittedly, on this side of the divide, there were plenty of things to raise an eyebrow or even a scriptural-based question over but nevertheless, it was among this group that I took my first steps as a baby Christian. Since this tribe was pursuing a biblical New Testament reality (and happened to be the only ones who would accept me) I threw my lot in with them. Miracles here we come.
At least that is what I anticipated. However, after I watched hundreds of prayers for healing go unanswered, many of which were prayed in behalf of my body, my heart started feeling sick all over again. As my expectations were undershot by a few miles, I had to ask, “What is wrong with me that I do not experience divine health which, I had been taught, is my birthright?” It was as though I were lost all over again, except this time, within Christendom.
I became very discouraged trying to connect theologically to either side of the family. Each believed, with certainty, theirs was the way regarding the miraculous. Sadly, the more prideful, insecure and often prominent, would train their doctrinal guns at the more obvious heretics across the fault line. I have been caught in many a crossfire and to be honest, doctrinal arguments whizzing through my brain and over my head effect my heart in a sickening way.
As I have continued to trek along the fault lines, how often I have thought I would love to have a systematic, air-tight theology that removed the mystery and answered my myriad questions. But the Lord, I believe, has prevented this. It seems that mystery, at least for me, is the context where faith, hope and love must grow. The absence of certainty is the odd yet fertile place where faith grows best in my life.
“Here Along The Fault Line” (that was Dylan song wasn’t it?) I have made a choice that I am not going to be offended when I fail to get miracles on demand. Yet, I am going to presume Christ is still a healer and pray along that line. On grounds of my biblical understanding and personal experience, I am going to reject the notion that Jesus has changed His mission. Just because I haven’t experienced my miracle doesn’t prove they no longer exist.
Jesus is, in the essence of His being – a healer. This reality is not altered by my incomplete experience. I confess I want relief from my pain but I have also desired healing as a hedge to my faith bets. I believe, in certain instances, for our inheritance sake, God stands between us and objectives like this. Instead, I believe God wants faith to precede outcomes. He says faith itself is the assurance of these things we hope for.
Perhaps, like Bartemaeus, we too have issues with our vision. Perhaps, the cry from our hearts should be the same as his, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us !” If we feel some heartache regarding division within Christ’s Body, or we find a longing for miracles, perhaps in the midst of our deferred-heart pain, if we will bear it for a while, we will hear Jesus asking us …
What do you want me to do for you?
I believe we too, if we will persevere and not feint by giving into disappointment, will one day, perhaps very soon, hear Jesus say to us …
Go your way; your faith has made you well.
Father, open the eyes of our hearts. Grant us the spiritual courage to ask questions. Grant us the perseverence to lay hold of that for which we were laid hold of – things which eye has not seen nor ears have heard – these good works which you have prepared for us to walk in. May Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Oct 28, 2016 | 43. Questions
John, the disciple of whom it was rumored, Jesus especially loved, explains his motives for recording today’s passage …
These things have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and in believing you may have life in His name. (John 20:31)
The first question God asks us is …
Do you believe in me?
Our honest “Yes Lord” (which is also a gift) is our modest contribution to our rebirth. God lays the foundation stone, in Christ, and the human spirit is awakened to the possibility of communion with God. Eternity has overtaken our hearts and we are born anew! However, the next question will determine what gets built on this new foundation …
Do you love Me?
How do you respond? For many years this question deeply troubled me. I wanted to say with Peter, “Lord, you know that I love You” but there was a problem. That sentence, which I longed to say, would hang up in my conscience, which readily informed me that my life did not meet the criteria permitting such a reply. My foundation was in place in Christ and I enjoyed God’s favor in so many ways but I was still troubled. In the depths of me I believed construction delays were being caused by my inability to say, with clear conscience, “Lord, I love you.”
I was haunted by a sense of unworthiness so, I just built it into my theology. It was like a perfect marriage (but one made in hell), “Do you Rob (insecure to the core) accept Depravity as your partner?” I responded wholeheartedly, “I do.” The vows had been exchanged and the two had become one. The merger resulted in a new identity and an elder brother was birthed.
This all made so much sense. God is great and I am not. He is large and I am small. He is holy so I must live in brokenness, which I thought of as the heart’s ongoing commitment to recall; my sins are ever before me. At this point I was all about the chores – I was now helping with construction. I read, prayed, studied, served and led. In my labors, I held out a feint hope for myself; if I did my chores well, perhaps one day I will turn that corner and break into that place others speak of, known as abiding. I reasoned; if I did my chores wholeheartedly as unto the Lord, perhaps I would one day (probably after I’m dead) hear Him say, “Well done good and faithful servant.”
Ultimately God, in His kindness (which I confess, felt severe at times) led me to repentance for my elder brother, works-oriented heart. He had heard my repeated cry; “Search me and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way.” (Psalm 139:23,24)
Had God not loved me while I was yet a sinner? Could anything have separated me from His love? How did the idea that I was not measuring up coexist with my salvation? It can easily happen because our hearts, even though they have been reborn, are not immune to deception.
Christian growth has many names; discipleship, transformation, spiritual formation or sanctification. Since, I am a contractor, I think of it all as construction – a building project spread out over a lifetime. The project has an architect, a general contractor, a location, a plan, a foundation, a superstructure and one very important laborer – us. We can sleep in, go on strike, call in sick or even retire, or we can learn to carry our load – which, it turns out, is light.
Job abandonment is insane though; if we are not on the job, the enemy is going to sneak into the project, steel materials, vandalize, scribble on the plans and disrupt the process however he can. He is a master thief and opportunist. And, If we show up, wearing our elder brother hat, we will assist him in construction delays.
A major project milestone is met when we show up and acknowledge we are exhausted and can labor no more. At this point, the foundation is restored and the superstructure can proceed. God is once again building upon Christ and Christ alone. A lie has been exposed; we cannot work hard enough to earn God’s approval. Believing you are saved yet do not measure up is a hurtful way because it undermines the beautiful structure God has vowed to complete, in Christ.
God exposed the lie. He rescued my heart which had become conditioned to laboring in a vacuum of grace. Today, I can freely respond to the Lord, “I love You”. This liberty is certainly one of the more attractive features of the project! My renewed conscience informs me today that I am God’s possession and He is mine. We are each other’s treasure! It really is finished! Further labor to win approval is nonsensical and destructive.
John not only out-raced Peter to the empty tomb, he was also first to rest in God’s love. One who can rest his head upon God’s chest is no longer working for approval. This soul is at liberty to simply enjoy God’s company. Did Jesus have a greater love for John than Peter? I don’t think so. John had simply presumed upon his friendship with Jesus and discovered that the foundation held up. The New Testament message is good because what John experienced is available to all who come to Jesus. John presumed upon God’s love and the rumors followed.
My first encounters with Jesus began with a literal inundation of God’s love. In spite of the obvious message in this experience, I reasoned (in my insecurity); Rob (you screw up), you better work diligently so that you don’t jack this up like everything else in your life. In my labors, I became the classic elder brother, alienating myself from Father’s affection. His perceived attitude toward me seemed so unfair since I believed I had done my chores so diligently for so long and so much better than my siblings. What can be said to us elder brothers? Here is what I eventually heard …
Congratulations on that performance! Enjoy the brief applause (even if its only your hands clapping) because you have just received your reward in full.
If we must have a blue print to follow, I would suggest one depicting a heart, steeped so thoroughly in God’s grace that it is privately and continually saying to Him, face to face, “Lord, I love you. I love you! I love you!!” This beautiful structure can rise from the ashes only because we have ceased from our labors. We have finally realized (experientially) that God has loved us first. With His cross – the demonstration of His love, He has permanently and totally demolished the basis for our guilt-laden introspection and labors. That false foundation has been obliterated! This is the really good news about the Good News!
I can testify that a heart laboring for approval paints a huge works-shaped bullseye on our back – a nearly perfect target for the enemy’s fiery missiles. When the missiles hit, the result is initially condemnation, then our response follows; it is either depression or, more typically (for the devout), a doubling-down on religious resolve which is driven more by fear than love. There is a problem though; Working without resting produces religion.
Religion is one of the most hurtful things that can grow in a human heart. It is every bit as ugly as debauchery but it can look pretty good, depending on your angle of view. We elder brothers and Pharisees have stacked one good work upon another, liking what we see. Sadly, others have viewed it and found it rigid, unattractive and even bizarre in appearance.
Father, may we realize the life we have in Your name. We pray that You would demolish the foundations of religion in our hearts – these places always teetering between self-condemnation and self-congratulations. Demo the places where we are measuring worth by performance. Teach us to live boldly at rest in Your love. May the world watch as we rest our heads upon Your chest. May we live so that others will believe. And as with John, may the rumors spread. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Oct 27, 2016 | 43. Questions
Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. (John 13:1-4)
The intense light of these verses reveals a foundational reality; we live temporarily in a world inhabited by the devil. This reality produces wisdom who teaches us that our hour of departure will also come. While we remain in this world there is both – a devil trying to plant lies in our hearts and an opportunity for us to expose and overcome them. One surprising place God attempts to do this, I believe, is at funerals.
Funerals remind us of our transience. These solemn assemblies are often the times of quiet we have failed to take, providing long overdue reflection. For an hour, deep calls unto deep, eternity tampers with the temporal, pressing upon us things we somehow know are vital. As the pastor asks, “Oh death, where is thy sting” many can find it in their own hearts as they mourn for others and themselves. Our hearts may be at their very best in these moments.
The grieving are then dismissed. We step outside, back onto the treadmill of this world, which is busy dying and trying hard not to think about it. I’m sure the devil meets us at the door and skillfully escorts us back into our denial. Many of Satan’s most potent lies are designed to mask our transcience. When we agree with them, we become friends of this world instead of remaining as the aliens and strangers, we actually are. So, what are we to do, embedded in a world that is asleep at the wheel? We can follow Jesus example …
If I then, the Lord and The Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. (john 13:14)
I know people who engage in spiritual warfare at high levels. They are conscious of the battles, like the one where Daniel’s prayers hung-up for 21 days. I am grateful for their faith and their prayers. Even though they have a heavenly orientation, they recognize the battle has two fronts. They know, perhaps better than most, this same battle is being waged on earth where mankind is stumbling badly, trying to make sense of his brief appearance.
Where our feet come into contact with our wounded planet – defiled and defiant, we are not without exposure. As agents of free will, we can succumb to the gravity of sin; we can be pulled into denial and the indulgences it facilitates. So, in order to equip the ground forces, the Lord said,
For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. (John 13:15-17)
The funeral home experience gave us a brief glimpse of the pain and loss that surrounds us. If our eyes could only remain open just a bit longer, after the last respects have been paid, we would discover that we are surrounded by lonely, hurting and confused people, most of whom are pursuing the American dream as their shot at happiness. Where this is the case, the enemy is winning – denial is serving its master. Jesus calls this flock, “confused and aimless, sheep with no shepherd.” And He would add, “What a huge harvest!” (from Matt 9:36)
While the American dream has been lauded as the hope of mankind, it is at best, a temporary arrangement. One of the problems is that it was born in rebellion and still breeds, an independence that is incompatible with the kingdom of God. Capitalism and democracy have teamed up to generate more material blessing than any previous team but, surely we see that it has not insured peace and happiness. If its a good dream, why does it spawn so many nightmares?
Sadly, the wealth created in our pursuit of happiness, often creates space between us and our neighbors, both physical and relational. This is a problem since it is these neighbors Jesus told us to love as ourselves. How can we be isolated from others and serve them as the Lord instructed us to? The religious right will try me on counts of treason here but I believe there are fatal lies embedded in an uncensored American dream. If these so called fatal lies exist, what are they and, in what ways have we been duped?
So far in human history (other than outright plundering), free market capitalism has proven to be the most efficient way to create material abundance. Yet without self-denial it becomes a cancer of the soul. A dream that claims its independence from God and each other will soon see its own funeral. If the U.S. does not confirm its national soul in self-control it will fail to reconcile liberty and law. It will forfeit the true freedoms God intended for her. Here is a worthy plea by Katherine. L. Bates who wrote the lyrics to “America the Beautiful.”
America! America! / God mend thine ev’ry flaw, / confirm thy soul in self-control, / thy liberty in law.
It would do us well if we could transfer our grieving from our neighbor’s death to our nation’s dying. Can America be saved, or will the dream of it be encased in a coffin similar to Europe’s post-Christian model? Who will save us? If we think it will be the federal government, we are deluded. At the same time, we are equally deceived if we think, a new regime of politicians, who we may endorse, will save us. The problem is much deeper than political discourse has uncovered, so far.
As Arthur Brooks has proposed in his book, “The Conservative Heart”, our problems are not complicated matters that can be solved by public policy – this would be the pinnacle of arrogance. Our problems are complex and systemic, meaning, we are going to be living with them, and working through them, together, for a long while. Jesus said, “The poor, you shall always have with you.” Brooks touts a kind of hope for America (especially the poor) that is birthed in an others-oriented kind of independence. He envisions men becoming social entrepreneurs – innovators in serving others. He sees the ground troops creating abundance without being attached to it. Without going christian-ese on his readership (he is a devout Catholic), he has found an overlap between the American dream and the kingdom of God. Isn’t there a movie – “Mr. Brooks Goes To Washington?” There is hope folks! He is already there. He is the President of the American Enterprise Institute.
Even without Mr. Brooks there is hope. The New Testament is crammed with instruction as to how we are to live together. This very moment you and I are connected to a variety of networks in our work, in leisure, and in family. Someone, right next to us, is needing us. God’s Kingdom will one day displace Satan’s temporal kingdom of lies. One day, by God’s grace, we will overcome the unhealthy type of independence which breeds isolation.
By God’s grace, our networks may one day connect. Kingdom communities can be birthed. Kingdom growth can be fostered as we identify Satan’s lies and renounce them. Momentum could build as we repent of our association with darkness. Our minds could become renewed and we could demonstrate the will of God – that which is good acceptable and perfect.
So, let’s find the soiled feet nearest us. Let’s gird ourselves with towels, and begin to cleanse what we may, here on earth in the lowest places, knowing we are fighting the good fight at a very high and strategic level. Remember Jesus promised …
If we know these things, we are blessed if we do them.
Father, please awaken us from our slumber. Expose the enemy’s stratagems. Overcome them with Truth you have planted in our hearts . May it grow and produce an unimaginably large harvest. May the Word of God soon cover this earth as an ocean, displacing every lie that has held humanity in bondage since the Garden. Beginning with us, connect the army You have strategically located for the great and final crisis. Teach us to number our days that we may present to you hearts of wisdom. Help us to resist the devil that he might flee from us in terror. Amen.
