John 15, 16 and 17
H,
Well, I think that is a fair
point. There is no montage of glory to accompany that utmost decision to live
for God. It is quite the opposite. Perhaps in the early conversion there is a
weightlessness to it but then you settle into the rhythm of everyday life and
then everything seems to bite. No one can tell what it feels like and I think
it is different for everyone. It is clear that this dark frame of the soul is
responsible for the preponderance of pep talks masquerading as sermons. There is
an odd note in that singing that is simply a self-help manual. The thing about
those things is that every line will get you on some sort of road. If you are
down and you are told that the sun is at your door, and if you are disposed to
be optimistic about a purportedly bleak future, you would want the sun to
really be there. These amped up sermons keep telling you about the sun but they
are not translucent enough to give even a little heat and they are not
visionary enough to lead us to where it is or should be. “Set goals and achieve
them”, is the common fare of getting ahead in life. Anyone who sets goals and
pushes long enough, imbuing some of the system of the world into his or her
travails, will get to some modicum of success. It is not something you need
Christ for. I dare say that, without any context, it is not something He does. Self-will
and God’s will are not the same thing.
It is interesting to note
that nothing in our scriptures above, the real zing in all the bible, tells us
to expect this lush promised land of our own mind. The things we take comfort in,
say Abraham’s wealth or Solomon’s early wisdom, are merely shadows of the
Christ. We have to listen to what He says now. His final words to his disciples
do not betray a certain ease of life. They connect us all, for He is also
talking to us even now, to the great move and love of God. He does not say that
it is easy or that we will get to live out this novel we have in our head that
makes us think we know what we want. He does tell us what we really want. He speaks
to feeling lost, to falling down flat, to reaching the end of our ropes and
knowing it. He speaks to lovers of truth, to the divine spark in the human
heart and the beauty of all things heavenly. He speaks to our present road and
the mystery of the Holy Spirit inside us, once an ancient mark of right and
wrong but now a living being telling us who we truly are. He tells us of true
identity, true love, suffering, sacrifice and the way the whole world will be
redeemed. It is not a recipe for thinking that God wants to build an oasis
around our alleged faithfulness while billions, and trillions through time,
stew in the horrors of this world and the fiery grave afterwards. There is no
allowance for that in the character or the teaching of Christ. The true mark of
the disciple and the apostle is to speak of the goodness of God in the land of
the living. We are not here for something as petty or as ultimately
insignificant as self-actualization or ambition. We are here to be part of the
great move of the eternal spirit to redeem the world for all time. He is
building an army of light. He wants every soul that will yield. He is creating
a new heaven and a new earth. Our true everything lies not in the fading crush
of this world but in the one to come. We have to see that to be pilgrims. We have
to know that to be disciples and then apostles. We have to live like that to
understand the value of time and the meaning of eternity.
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