18th of December, 2015

Psalm 15 and John 15

H,

It is almost too difficult to talk about the things we face because we seek to live in the light. There is a real sense that the obstacles in our way may just be paranoia. We could elevate every human criticism to a personal attack and make it all about the world’s slimy assault on our good nature and virtue. This is wrong because we have no good nature or virtue. Of course we have good intentions. Sometimes this means we will act in better ways than others seem to. Yet we should never forget that holiness is wholeness and we are not whole enough. “The worst of us are a long drawn out confession, the best of us are geniuses of compression.” We are never as good as we think we are. We all require to spend time in the light to see this and more time in the light to be someone else. Like Christ.

Still, while all this is going on, the more we let it shine, the more the dark seems to encroach. There is a real spirit of hate in this world for anything that approaches the truth. We are told it is a dividing sword and not a reuniting fervour. It seeks to connect man back to God and thus back to himself and his fellow man but it is not always received that way. It is possible that you will be hated for it. Well, scratch that, it is certain that you will be hated for it. I do not mean people because they will more or less just express the zeitgeist. You will be shocked by the impersonal nature of how they hurt you. It is not a personal thing. They are following a tide they do not believe in. They are in the thrall of something metaphysical and they do not know how to be free. Part of your assignment may be to tell them how. Most likely it would be the system that is tooled against you. There will be a conspiracy of falsehood that will aim to make you act in ways that are outside the character you are being built into. It will mean you will lie, you may steal and you may seek other comforts. These things that are propelled by fear, by the real impute of the three temptations of Christ (physical well-being, struggles with identity and thirst for power, even to do ‘good’), are designed to take you away from the fullness of joy inherent in the road you are travelling. They are subtle and they are dangerous and they will get you more times than you think.

There is hope in this. First, we are told not to take this personally. It is fine. Do not be offended by people or what they do. They are fallen creatures like you and love is the answer to hate. This will take a lifetime to sink in but it will. Second, we are told the end of the story. We are not fighting on the losing side. We are soldiers in a celestial war over the souls and hearts of men but we fight in reverse because the battle is already won. The human heart and soul will live forever. Christ saw to that at Golgotha and beyond. We are here to learn and speak of that great victory.

We will get afraid. We will be beaten into corners. We will fall down. We will dance with the dark. It is all fine now. We are to be of good cheer. We are the heirs of many troubles. We will carry on our bodies the mark of our Christ.

But be joyful. Be of good cheer. He has already overcome the world.

Love.

17th of December, 2015

Psalm 15 and John 15

H,

I know it is just as important that we speak of the other side of things. There is no hiding from the dark nature of the world we currently live in. It is not as easy as knowing what to do and then doing it. It is that simple in terms but not in practice. The honest tale is if you stand for something you will stand against something. There is an opposition and an accuser for everything we seek to become in God.

Now, this is not the kind of thing that goes down well. On many writing afternoons at home here I experience the expression of taking that part and making it the whole thing. I hear bellows from across the street that purport to cast out demons from every soul that exists. You and I are not strangers to the esoteric matters of spiritual warfare but this, I fear, makes the point of Christianity the engagement of fire (over and over again) against the likes of poverty, decay, unemployment, singlehood and a host of other crimes against our own enjoyment[FB1]  of God. The thing this sort of thing sets up is the old pleasure and pain principle. It makes the point of life to avoid pain and to enhance pleasure. This is not a bad bet when grappling in the dark. Who does not want to do this? The crucial point is some pain gives life and some pleasure brings death, not healing, in its wings. We have to be watchful not to mix it all in.

This is not even the main thing we face. Christianity is conditioned to thrive in opposition, in pain, in scarcity, in sorrow and in pain. The only thing it is not made up to do is stop. To stay in one place and become stagnant. It is supposed to grow our hearts and not necessarily our pockets. The quality of the Christian life is not in things that go bigger but things that go deeper. It is like the rich Christian. We have been warned about the eye of the needle. We all know how money warps the mind. It always blurs the line between wants and needs. It enlarges the taste for things and before you know it you cannot remember the simple things so simply anymore. It has to be this or the whole world will crumble. Life has to be framed in comfort or else it is a life less than ordinary. It is subtle and it is powerful and it is an escape (or defence) but not a very good one. We carry the full armour of Christ into battle. Money is not a piece of the war ensemble.

I do not mean the knock money so much. God knows you need to send me some soon. Hehehe. But you get the point, Hectore? It is not only that. Anything out of context keeps us off the road. The sneer of apparent success, the foibles of romantic love, the idolatry of worthy themes or the desecration of what is sacred in our lives. You could almost pick anything that is in life and once put above the path, the glory, the light and our journey home, it will fizzle out our joy and leave us somewhat addicted to the mundane.

So these are the demons within. They do not need a fire other than the cleansing fire of being connected to the vine. We will get to them one after the other and choose. Sometimes we will choose wrongly but we will get another chance to choose the other way. The vital thing is not to give up. We may look at the world as stealing our shine and making us vulnerable to the dark but the real battles happen inside. Implicit in the call of the Gospel is a guaranteed right to choose how you will live. You may not choose the circumstances that you live in but you will choose the heart you approach it with. You will choose if you keep moving toward the glory or recede into the old fable of the dark.

---

 [FB1]

16th of December, 2015

Psalm 15 and John 15

H,

There is, as you have rightly noted, all this propensity for sin and chaos in the human soul. This is the same as it has always been. It is no excuse when you have the final cure. There is no longer the “I cannot do it” argument. The word itself has told you that. It goes further and says you could actually never do it. You were well deceived when you thought you could. The falling down was actually a beautiful let down.

 Now that we have all that sorted out, we can move on to why we are really here. There is something above being wrong that is also above merely feeling you are right. That old lie that being in the light was merely avoiding the dark cannot hold water anymore. There is more to do than merely dodging potholes on the road. We are on the road to something grander than our dreams.

And isn’t everything we need just part of the road? Are we not changed from glory to glory by following and not worrying? We learn the dance by falling down and (add appropriate metaphor). We are not going to feel light about failing to live up to our faith. Nor should we because we care. There is, however, a difference between the sorrow that leads to repentance and the guilt that makes us stop and give up. One is Godly and the other is not.

Sooner or later, we will get this idea firmly rooted in our heads:         God is not going anywhere. We are the ones who can leave. His love is not less than the love He demands from us to show others. He tells us to forgive till perfection and He will do the same and more. His forgiveness is transformation and His love is an abiding sort. It is a scandalous sort of thing and there are parts of it that will hurt our sensibilities and make us uncomfortable.

So, as we approach this new dawn in God let us settle in our minds once and for all the unending nature of His Grace. There is no fragility here. It is a strong response to our battles with death and decay. It is the freedom to live outside of fear and an awareness of a throne that can handle our mistakes. He is not unaware of the sordid details. He just puts them in context. That context is love. Until we know the height of His forgiveness we cannot experience the depth of His love.

Tomorra.