True Greatness

The movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, shows the story of a man who never achieved his dreams of travelling the world, but who made a difference in the lives of everyone around him. What he discovers in the end is that king Solomon was correct in saying that one should take pleasure in eating, drinking, and being married because joy in that is a gift from God. His wonderful life was not my dream life in any context, but I think I now understand something of the transformation he had to go through to recognize the great gift he had been given.

Forrest Gump follows along similar lines. He is a man to whom life happens. “Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get.” The thing about chocolates, though is that every one of them can be delicious…if you are not dreaming of getting the ‘other’ piece that’s still in the box. We like him because even though he didn’t try, he still became a millionaire. The lesson we forget to take is that he would have loved his life no matter how it turned out.

To take a more widely respected example, one could examine the career of George Washington and his constant desire to return to his farm. However, he consistently sacrificed his interest in a quiet and peaceful life in order to give his life for others. While his aspirations were correctly placed, his actions earned him a legacy – not because he sought to be famous, but because he did what was right.

Martin Luther, in a very different context, simply wanted to disseminate a few wonderful truths he had discovered, but in doing what was right found himself in a war with most of the established western powers. This man did not begin his life with a careful self-analysis that led him to believe his gifts and talents perfectly aligned with a career goal of ‘mastermind of the reformation.’ Instead, his legacy was created by his search for God and his consistent adherence to what he believed was the truth.

The one difficulty in this exploration is dealing with Jesus. Until his ministry began, his life seems to fit in with the model I am refining here, but after His baptism, it was completely different. One thing remains constant, though, Jesus did not seek a legacy (glory) for Himself but for His Father and only did those things His Father told Him to do. Jesus refers to taking up a cross every day, dying to oneself and taking His yoke upon us. However, the purpose behind this is a yoke that is easy and burden that is light. Even in this my greatest example, I do not find a king riding a war horse into Jerusalem, but a humble teacher riding a donkey amid his twelve disciples. This does not discount his anger against evil in the temple, His brutal confrontation of the Pharisees, and His constant war with the kingdom of darkness. However, these things do not typify our Savior.

His greatest command was not to fight the kingdom of darkness, or even don’t waste your life. The greatest command to love God and love others has remained constant since creation. For some, following this command will lead to a lasting legacy and a dramatic life. For most, however, such a lifestyle refers right back to a life of quietness and peace in which the Christian should thrive.

Such an understanding of the Christian religion is not often pursued except by default. Most Christians feel that they should accomplish something for God - perhaps even something great (a large ministry, many people saved, etc...). Usually this requires having money and influence. Considering the people that God often chose to accomplish His work throughout history (Joseph, Rahab, Gideon, David, Mary, Peter, etc...), one would be better off pursuing a life of eating drinking, and enjoying life with his/her spouse than to strive after illusive accomplishments.

It is in this way that the kingdom of God once again defies expectations and the least become greatest. It is where the quiet and peaceful life is an investment in the kingdom of God. It is not where a person can check out of reality to live in a cocoon, but it is a place where the responsibility of changing the world rests on the shoulders of its Creator.It requires one to recognize the true source of change: the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of men. When God’s people will humble themselves, pray, turn from their sin, and seek Him, then He is the one who accomplishes something great. He is the One who gets the glory, and we are the ones who enjoy the benefits of His goodness.

Real Joy

Last Saturday I showed up for a church service where there was a visiting speaker who has been a missionary overseas for years. He spent the entire sermon in a prayer for the congregation. It was a prayer for blessing through poverty, through suffering, through hunger, through unanswered prayers, and even through death. If we want to live like Jesus did, he said, we need to expect all of these things.

As I sat there listening, I realized how easy it was to pray that blessing over someone else, but how scary it was to admit that he was praying for me. Do I actually want to know God so badly that I am willing to give up having food to eat on a regular basis, a place to stay, a nice car, a job, my reputation, or even my life? Having to respond to these questions honestly, I found myself saying no. I am ready to give up the good things of life for Jesus, but I am not ready to embrace the difficult things of life for Him. I am scared of pain and suffering. I don’t know what to do about it. But I pray that God will show me more of who He is so that anything I might go through becomes insignificant compared to knowing Him.

I think this was one of the first times I sat through a message that so severely convicted me that I wanted to change and did not feel like I was a bad Christian. What I learned in Colorado has stayed with me. I will never be perfect and Jesus loves me exactly as I am. In fact, my focus was so drawn back to Jesus that I understood these ‘difficulties’ to be ‘blessings’ that I may not be prepared for now. It seems that truly following Jesus is a pretty radical and scary thing. I understand something of why the disciples had such difficulty being good followers of Jesus.

After the service I was so refreshed through prayer and worship that I want to meet with that church again. Leaving the building though, I began to feel a pressure inside that I could not understand. I wanted to shout. I wanted to run. I wanted to so something to express what I was feeling but did not know what it was. I was entirely discontent with reading, with praying, driving, thinking, or anything. I needed to share the love of God that I felt with someone.

In Acts 2, the disciples waited to be filled with the Holy Spirit and immediately thereafter were out in the streets proclaiming the work of God in a supernatural way. When they were filled with the Holy Spirit, their reaction was to share it with someone else. When I became filled up with the Holy Spirit, I wanted to burst because I had to find a way to share it with someone else. It was only through a conversation with another believer that I ‘let off some steam.’

Next time I want to be prepared for the power of God to overwhelm me by having some outlet to share His goodness with another person.

I began to understand the idea that God fills us up as we pour ourselves out last fall when I began to pray for other people and realized that God filled me up with love and joy as I shared it with others. Now, I wonder at my cupidity in requesting the power of God for my own enjoyment and marvel at the fact that He so often fills me fuller even when I am already satisfied. I think He is trying to get me to spill over into the lives of people around me so that they can know the joy that I have found.

Grace

For the past two and a half weeks, I have found very little time to pray and even less time to reflect. But as time goes by between the moments I still spend with God, I find my attention slipping onto things that do not matter and even into religious ritual that I hope will jump-start the engine of self-motivated, successful Christian living. I begin to forget that my identity is not found in what I have or what I do, but in the love that God has for me. I forget that I am not the one who I depend on for life, for food, and for a car to drive. I forget that my relationship with God can be so much more than simply praying, acting in a certain way, or knowing certain things.

I recognize what is happening as a slip into a world that looks less and less like the kingdom of God and more like my pride, but I am too busy in pursuit of what I want to take more than a token step back in the right direction. I am learning that not only am I unable to follow God without His grace, but apart from His work, I do not even want to try.

The evil that is inside me would draw me further and further into myself, the busyness of my world, and the hollow joys of my success. Even the love that I would show to others becomes a meaningless action when I am in such a condition. 


Then like Peter who lost his focus on Jesus while walking on the water, I notice the waves around me and begin to sink. My only hope is that the Son of God will once again reach out His arm to pull me back to Him.

That is grace!