Summer Meditations
by Ashish Joy
When I take an up close, personal look at my faith, I am most amazed not during times of relative peace and security. Rather I am most amazed at what this relationship I have with Jesus does for me when I walk through tough times, when I’ve made mistakes, when the road ahead is marked with uncertainty, or when I feel the weight of some heavy burden on my shoulders. There is this overwhelming sense of God and the reality that my life is firmly in his grasp.
More than ever I look at the brokenness of the world around me, the sensual and selfish desirings of the human heart, the cold ignorance of the rich and powerful who continue to gain from injustice, the weak will of the addicted soul craving their next fix too strung out to care anymore, those who have it relatively good in the world and care more about their retirement than a dying soul…and I have to ask, “Where is God and where are God’s people?” But the moment I ask the question, the irony of it all hits me. These frustrations have little to do with people, churches, religions, organizations, cities, governments, world powers, or anything of the sort. It has more to do with the direction I feel like I’m headed into. These thoughts and frustrations have more to do with how I will respond to them.
Do I believe my life will make a difference in the narrative of God’s kingdom? I don’t know and I propose that’d be the wrong question. But the bigger issue is that I want to find an overwhelming cause where work needs to be done in my world. I want to spend less time philosophizing and posturing and rather live and be Christ’s hands and feet.
I am tired of getting caught up in the medium and not the message. There is much to be done in the world, and God desires some obedient, willing soul who would look upon a mountain and foolishly say, “We can take it.” I think God can work with that sort of foolishness. God can work with anything or anyone, why do we complicate it so in our Christian understanding?
I am sick of Christ-followers who are so caught up with their plot of vineyard of God’s kingdom, that they belittle and disregard their fellow laborers in Christ. Who are we to say that a church, an organization, or a group of people are not in the will of God? How is it that we fight more readily with our brothers and sisters than we fight against the encroaching darkness of a world system? Why have we turned into self-righteous, Pharisaical, religion workers? Is this what the grace and compassion of Christ and his work have taught us?
I have few convictions and many opinions. There is not much I am sure of anymore. There are always multiple accounts, different perspectives, and charged emotions that run through it all. What I am sure of, what I would stake my life on, is Jesus and his kingdom. The sheer reality of God in our lives, his ability to make us his own, how we are now a part of his body in the earth, and our ability to respond to the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit…of these things I am sure of.
It’s not about having the right thing to say, or that I’m always right, or that my opinion even matters. The thing that keeps the world going round is that we care, that our hearts are overwhelmed with compassion, that we should prefer others above ourselves, that we find our identity and purpose in our Heavenly Father, and that at the end of our lives we would have done Christ’s will to the fullest.
Comments
The simple idea, “There is security and freedom when following the Master … Jesus,” is so simple and so oft-repeated, that I think it is overlooked and ignored. It blurs into the background of noise … noise that is so common and so loud and so often tries to get our attention that we tune it out in order to carry our own agendas unhindered by the ‘inconveniences’ that the Gospel implies
Interesting: Security speaks of control, stability, order, predictability. Freedom speaks of the lack of such things. Yet both can be found in following Christ.
I think people become Pharisaical and self-righteous when they feel they’re losing control. They take matters into their own hands. They try to earn merit in God’s eyes by justifying themselves with the principles of the God’s law. When that law exposes cracks and flaws in their character and integrity, they run to defend their own innocence the only way they know how–justification by law.
They have yet to learn how to receive, how to rest, how to live in God’s grace, how to live in Christ. They still need to know what it means that man’s best efforts are as filthy rags, and that only God can justify. No matter how blessed and prosperous they become by practicing the principles of the law, they are only ever acceptable to God by the kindness and grace he offers through Christ.
“Those who have been forgiven much, love much.” I’m convinced that the closer you get to God, the more apparent and horrific your sins become. That’s the nature of God’s holiness. But the more apparent they become, the more necessary is Christ’s mercy. Though we needed God’s forgiveness the whole time, the moment we become aware of it is the moment we can show more patience and love toward others.
Blessing is not a sure sign of God’s acceptance of the person. Christ died, yet his death was acceptable to God. Peter and Paul both suffered for the sake of the Gospel, yet their pain was an acceptable offering to God.
These men measured their blessedness by a different standard. Western society generally measures blessedness by material gains with a bottom line in black ink. We look for success in Gross Domestic Product. A material culture shouts, “We are what we produce!”
What made Jesus happy? Our living in him makes him very happy! (John 15) His prosperity is found in what we receive from him and give to others. Notice, it is both receiving and giving, not one without the other. If we come to Christ destitute and empty, what makes us think we have anything to offer anyone else apart from Christ? We must receive (passive) from Christ his love and service so that we may in turn serve and love others (active).
What made Paul happy? “If you’ve got any encouragement from Christ, comfort from love, communion with the Spirit, or affection or mercy, then complete my joy and be like-minded, have the same love being united in spirit and having purpose.” (Philippians 2.1, 2) Paul’s measure of prosperity comes from what the people receive from Christ to give to one another. Notice also, he didn’t lay out a grand methodology or plan for Christian love and action. These come naturally as we both live in Christ and come in contact with others (Gal 5.16ff)
What made John happy? Everything that he witnessed from Christ, he wished to share with others so that his joy would be complete. (1 John 1.1-4)
I say, as citizens of God’s kingdom, this too should be our standard of prosperity and success: That we are remaining in Christ and benefiting from God’s promises through Christ (mercy, forgiveness, identity in Christ, power of the Spirit, etc.) and that we are sharing what we have received–both in word and in deed–with those around us, both in and out of the church.