“I no longer need to be sin-infested, guilt-ridden, doubtful, fearful, ashamed, dirty, stained or kept away from the presence of the most Holy One. The blood of Jesus is above the door of my heart and is the banner of my life. I have been cleansed, purified, washed, made white, guilt-free, confident and bold knowing with a clear conscience and a humble and grateful heart that I can come into the presence of God Most High, hear the words ‘let the little children come’ and know that I am allowed to go and embrace my Father.”From the ‘younger pastor’
This is my son Noah and he’s just turned one. He can’t walk by himself yet, his words make no sense (unless you happen to be a car, a dog or are going anywhere – he can say ‘go’) and his main skill is a love of climbing up and down the stairs. Despite his distinct lack of theological training, few people have taught me more about God than my son.
Firstly, he has taught me about love. I love my wife Emma, but she’s more competent than me in more or less everything. Noah on the other hand is completely incompetent and quite often incontinent. Yet, I love him not because of what he can do but because He is a gift to me. I understand a little bit more now how God chooses to love imperfect, incompentent, impenitent people. Because love in the best sense of the word is a wonderful thing. I was such a reluctant father, but I have been thoroughly and joyfully converted to fatherhood. It’s great, God must absolutely love it.
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (1Jn 3:1)
I also understand a little bit better the depth of the love the Father has for His Son. If I love Noah just a fraction of the love God has for me, an adopted son, and that love is a fraction of the love He has for only Son Jesus, then it’s no wonder that death could not keep. A love like that is an unstoppable force and woe betide any immovable object like a gravestone getting in the way of a Father’s love.
The second thing I’ve learned is what a sinner I am. My prayer every night is that God would work on Noah to become a man like Jesus and a better man than me. Jesus has perfect patience (1 Tim 1:16) and I do not. I get bored by playing the same game more than about twice, I get frustated at having to instil good eating habits into a one year old, I get cross because deep down I am just very selfish. I know the failings of my charcater, my vulnerabilities, my weaknesses, my struggles and my imperfections. By God, I need His grace, because I do not want my son to inherit or learn those things from me.
The third thing, I’ve been taught is how much life is a gift. I’ve no idea how long I’ll have with Noah. I may die or worse still I may live to see him die. It’s a horrible thought, a fear that I don’t want to admit to but it’s the truth. Life is short no matter how long we live. I don’t want to live ungratefully, I am so thankful for the gift of this little boy who smiles every day, who hasn’t in a year been in a bad mood for more than a minute. Life is not a right but an awesome privilege, life is a gift.
There are many more things but if I’m not maudlin already I soon will be so I’ll stop there.
“Love does no harm to its neighbour, says Paul in the book of Romans, yet accidental damage from our high consumption lifestyles is harming our poorer neighbours who are facing unpredictable rains and increased droughts and floods.”
Here’s a question for you, if I accept the link that Tearfund and others make, that our lifestyles in the west are unsustainable and are contributing to climate change that affects the poor the most, then if I know all that and do not change, can I still call that an accident? Even if it is an accident (‘I didn’t mean to run them over Officer’) we do still remain liable. Doing nothing will soon become unacceptable…
Simplicity can seem a mile away in the aftermath of the Christmas season when our accumulation of stuff as well as debt has gone steeply up.
Simplicity, first of all though is not the order of our lives but the order of our hearts. It comes from first of all knowing what we are living for, and as a Christian that means primarily following Christ with our eyes firmly fixed on living out the two great commandments to ‘Love God’ and ‘love neighbour’. This is what gives me my primary purpose and calling as a Christian. It is a universal, for whatever else may change the requirement to do these two things does not.
I may worry or wonder about many other things that I might do with my life or time or energy or resources but instead I should give more of all the above to living out these two crystal clear things that Jesus gave us to do. When it comes to following Christ the requirement is simplicity itself for on these two things, everything else hangs.
This simplicity of heart can bring simplicity of thinking and focus if we let it, setting a framework of freedom for our lives and releasing us to fulfil our potential.
It would seem strange then if that simplicity didn’t filter on down to the level of our possessions, if we are indeed giving ourselves to love god and loving people, seeing us building community and sharing in authentic mission as the people of God, taking the opportunity to be generous to our brothers and sisters and to those in need both near and far away that it that it didn’t result in a reduction of stuff and a greater simplicity in our lives.
These aims go hand in hand, if I reduce the amount of things I need and stuff I want my opportunity to be generous increases, if my heart yearns for the opportunity to give more than I am currently I may think about ‘selling what I have and giving to the poor.’ Listening to the God I love with all that I am may well lead to similar things happening.
In the end, I am sated and bloated by possessions, I buy them, insure them, protect them, care for them and repair them, then I throw them away and replace or upgrade them. All around me are hearts and souls alone, waiting for someone to protect, heal, and provide care for them. One will reap rewards into future generations and the other will disappear about roughly the same time I do. So why is something so simple, so hard to do?
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”
If I love God with all that I have, if I love people as I love myself then how could it be possible for me to live in any other way than one of complete generosity? I just can’t see it, but this has some disturbing implications. This applies to more than generosity but it’s my focus, so if I’m not being generous than I’m failing to apply these two greatest commandments. It’s a logical conclusion I think.
I concluded that if Jesus says these are the two greatest things I can do with my life then that’s good enough for me. I’m inspired by people who did great things, attempted great things, trusted God for great things. But Jesus says these are the greatest – love God, love people. What is so beautiful about this, is that anyone can do the greatest things. Education, opportunity, wealth, ability count for nothing when it comes to loving God and loving people. Too often people with all of the former forget this and do indeed do great things but just not the greatest.
So I see this at work, I love God and I love people as I do so, God works on my heart changing and transforming me and what I find hard now becomes what I do naturally, generous living as well as generous giving. It might be easier said than done, but maybe it’s not all that complicated. Just do two things.
We’ve been blogging around community over the past week but I’ve always found that we can be a bit warm and fuzzy about who’s included, usually friends, people we get on with, people who make us laugh, people just like us. But what if they’re not like us, what happens then?
The lonely, I’ve found, are often lonely for a reason. Sure, there are those who are lonely because of bereavement or circumstances, in another time or place they wouldn’t be lonely. It isn’t too difficult to make room for and care for such people.
But there are other people who are lonely for entirely different reasons. They’re lonely because they alienate people, the difficult people, the socially inept, the awkward, the uncomfortable people, the people who are emotional black holes and who suck all the life out of you. The person who mistimes every comment, talks too much is confrontational or manipulative, the broken hurting and lonely people of this world. They may well be victims and misfits but Christ loves them all the same. Bringing them into genuine community is a real challenge, more often than not the one thing they need the most is the one thing they’re least equipped to handle.
On my own, I think of these people and the mere thought of loving them exhausts me and wears me down, the cost too great, the price too high. Ironically it’s only the resources of a genuine community that has the strength to pull each other as well as the difficult blighters through. Genuine love and acceptance I truly believe is life transforming, for all concerned.
The problem is that we live private lives, fragmented lives and isolated lives and therefore there is precious little room for the lonely.
So who is in your community?
I believe Jesus when he said 'life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions'. I believe he offers something better. This blog is mostly about that search.
I'm also a husband, a father, church planter, keen runner, reader, and motorcyclist. These and a few other things make guest appearances from time to time.
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
Google+
LinkedIn
Picasa
