Heaven (Part Four)

I'm thankful that in heaven we will be protected from suicide bombers like the ones in Moscow yesterday. We will be protected from random transients who accidentally drive off with our children while simply attempting to steal our car at a Circle K, like the one that took place in Phoenix today.

Heaven is primarily about getting together with God for the sheer enjoyment of Him, but part of it is about our desire which has been dragging on for years which is our cry out to God, "When will you protect us from these things?" Part of it is about His protection which has always answered, "Yes, I'm doing away with all of this and I will protect you from all of this forever. I will keep them from you forever. All evil will be stripped away. I will never let it touch you again."

One interesting point in Heaven is that we will even be protected from ourselves and others will be protected from us. It will be the ultimate form of protection. God says, "Will you let me strip all of your sin?" This has actually been His question to us all along. It is the question that speaks without words from the cross. Our cry is, "God, when will you protect us?" He says, "Yes, I will." He also says, "Will you let me protect you from yourself? Will you let me protect the others from you? I can't let you hurt them anymore."

There will be some surprises when we get there. Repentant terrorists who grieve over what they have done will welcome us in with grace-filled smiles. Unrepentant kindergarden teachers who do not want God's protection and argue over the terrorists' presence will be absent. It will be for our protection and to God's credit who has heard our cry. No evil, no matter how small will ever start a slow, trickle down process that has lead to the destruction and folly we experience in this present reality. It is God's answer to the Problem of Evil. It is the way He has chosen to solve it. He simply said, "Yes. I will defend you. I will answer your cry. No more suicide bombers. No more kindergarden teachers who make you feel ashamed of coloring outside the lines."

We might be tempted to say, "What about now? Why so long before it happens?" Have you ever dealt with a child in the back seat on a drive home who says, "Are we there yet?" Five minutes later, "Are we there yet?" Five seconds later, "Are we there yet?" Or, how about the child who is dying for Christmas to come so that he or she can get presents. "I wish Christmas were tomorrow," she says with a little pout and stomps her foot. As adults, we smile a little and get a little frustrated because the child doesn't see time as we do. We know we'll get home in just a little bit. We know Christmas is just around the corner. Academia is filled with lots of psychologically hurting and harmed adult philosophers who argue the Problem of Evil based on their childhood belief that Christmas should start tomorrow.

Now I'm not saying we shouln't belt out our frustrations at God for all the evil in the world. I'm right in the middle of it. I'm not saying we shouldn't say, "God, why not now? Why not eliminate it now? When is Christmas coming?" This is grace. This is a God who wants our anger, our frustration, and our pleas. We just have to remember that He has said yes to our cries. He has said, "I will protect you." From God's perspective, heaven is just around the corner. For us, it feels so long away from now.

Motivation and Maturity

For the Christian, the reasons to grow in maturity are often bogged down in shame and poor self-image. There must be new reasons for maturity or else everything turns into more wounding.

Absence in the Heart = Deep Hope

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. ~C.S. Lewis

Romans 12:1

Just show up. ~Romans 12:1 NVT

More on Communion

I really like taking communion. It isn't the ritual involved. I understand the good feelings that come from the rhythm of rituals. Nothing wrong with that. But what I really keep getting blown away by is this whole thing about the God of the universe fighting and dying for me. (This is what communion represents). A God who fights for me isn't a God who simply puts up with me. He wants me. This is my belief.

Inward-Outward Connection

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. ~Nelson Mandela, 1994 Inaugural Speech

The Religious Nature of Any Organization

The "Secular Free Thought Society" at ASU (athiest organization) wants to network with religious organizations on campus. Is officially registered as a religious organization and want invitations to networking activities with those organizations. Most interesting is they disbelieve God, but want to be a religious-organization, the very thing I believe that they are: religious in nature.

Serving Doesn't Require a PhD

Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Repentance, Obedience, and Sanctification

Repentance:

Repentance isn't doing something about my sin, it's recognizing that I can't do anything about my sin. ~Thrall, McNichol, Lynch

Recognize the impossibility of trying to figure out how to fix the harm you've done and will do to others, as well as your resistance towards God. I'm a safe place of forgiveness and protection you can reside in where healing and restoration take place (Jesus in Matthew 4:17 SDT).

Obedience:

In my opinion, the highest form of obedience is to believe that God has forgiven you and turned you into something amazing. All other forms of obedience fail in comparison.

Sanctification:

Sanctification is a flowery, theological term that means: healing, cleansing, getting healthy, and so forth. If we are to truly understand the gospel in all it's forms, then we must recognize the importance of treating sanctification as a gift. In this light, we must understand that God's view of us never changes based on how "well" or how "poorly" we do during this lifetime. He's already made His decision about His feelings for us apart from anything we've ever done or could do. In the end, sanctification becomes something He offers to us without any retribution or ill will towards us, should we not choose it. It is always an open gift, with no strings attached. Only when we know this truth, will we actually move forward in the sanctification process anyways.

As believers, our relationships with other people and even with our own selves do change as we mature or fail to mature. This is true. But, we must separate this from God's opinion on the matter. Only when we really come to understand this separation between our relationship to Him and our relationship to others, can our relationships with others become more healthy in the first place.

Separating the Christian from God (Short Version)

How we feel about ourselves as Christians and how God feels about us as Christians are two totally different animals. God believes there is no problem in our relationship with each other because He has stripped all our sin away and made us new people (Rom 8:1, 2 Cor 5:17, 2 Cor 5:21). We are tempted to believe (and maybe even often believe) that there is a problem or something wrong between us and God because we experience feelings of shame in the here-and-now when we sin, are sinned against, or even make mistakes and fail (which isn’t even sin in the first place). We project these feelings of shame and disappointment upon God as if they belong to Him—as if this is how He feels about us.

The question is: Are we going to believe what God says or what we feel? This is where we have to get into touch with our separateness from God, so to speak. How He feels and how we feel are two totally different animals. Get in touch with this separateness and neat feelings of healthy attachment are complementary. Believing what God has to say about the matter is one of the greatest honors we could ever give Him.

Separating the Christian from God

There is a misperception many followers of Christ have that their relationship with God is sometimes good and sometimes bad. This is a misunderstanding of the Gospel.

God's perception (not the believer's) IS reality, and according to Him, there is NEVER a problem with the relationship between Him and His children (Rom 8:1, 2 Cor 5:17, 2 Cor 5:21). Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Sure, but what about when I sin now? Isn't there a problem then, even if I'm still technically saved?" Again, this is a misunderstanding not only of the Gospel, but also a misunderstanding of what's happening when you do sin, which is completely SEPARATE from what God is thinking. Coming to understand that what God thinks as being totally SEPARATE from what we think about us is a huge landmark in the Christian's life, because it is a breaking of the bonds of co-dependancy. A co-dependancy that influences our theology.

Remember, this is really about belief. What does the follower of Christ REALLY believe? God says "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ" (Rom 8:1). The believer is tempted to say, "But, what about when I went off on my wife today?" God says, "For the Christian, the old has gone, but the new has come" (2 Cor 5:17). The believer is tempted to say, "But what about when I was trying to manipulate my business partner into doing something that I knew would hurt him but help me, instead of playing fair?" God says, "I'll turn myself into sin so that My children can turn into righteousness" (2 Cor 5:21). The believer is tempted to say, "But, what about this adultery I'm in the middle of right now? I don't know what to do? What does God think about that?" The reality is that God does have something to say about that. He says, "I've already stripped it away." See, He knows you from beginning to the end. He doesn't just know you in the here-and-now. Do you really think God is merely constrained to this present tense we live in? That is a self-centered view point which is a misperception. God's perception is the real you or the true you. The real you has no sin. Even the you that existed before you became a Christian is now without sin. This is God's reality which means it is your reality whether you believe it or not all the time. He knows the real you. The new you.

The real question we have to ask ourselves is what do we believe? Do we believe what God says? See, the greatest honor we can make to Him is to actually believe what He says, which is basically that from His perspective, there is NEVER any problem between Him and I. How can this be? This is because reality is based upon what HE has done and what HE says, not what I have done or what I believe about the situation. What I believe about the situation is independant from reality.

The big problem is that when we commit real sin that is harmful* and offensive to God, ourselves, and others, that we feel guilt and shame as a result of our actions. Our shame tries to tell us that we are horrible, awful, unlovable people incapable of receiving God's love, and the big problem is that we take this shame that WE experience and we project it upon God. We believe that He feels this way about us. This is a form of co-dependancy that influences our theology. We have difficulty separating how we feel from how God feels. Our theology and our shame become intimately connected. A true theology is that there is NEVER a problem in our relationship with God. The real problem is that how we feel about our relationship with God is way off-base compared to what God knows to be true because of what He has declared about us.

What He's trying to say in these verses I've listed above is that He has DECLARED that there is no problem in our relationships with Him. End of story. The question is: Are we going to believe what He says or are we going to believe how we feel?

This is where we have to separate ourselves from God, so to speak. Ironically, this type of separateness leads to all sorts of deep feelings of closeness and attachment towards God in the process. It also is one of the greatest honors and pleasures we can give Him, by believing what He says.
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*I do believe that our sin harms God, but only because He has chosen to let it harm Him. By this I don't mean that it causes Him to be reactionary, feel shameful, or triggers all sorts of insecurities in Him. No. What I mean is that all of the harm that we have committed to ourselves and one another has been heaped upon Him by His own desire to rescue us. He bore the weight of our eternal suffering at the cross. Therefore, it harmed Him, but out of his own romantic love for us. By romantic I mean heroic and self-sacrificing.

God's "Primary" Motivation Isn't for Us to Stop Sinning

God's primary motivation in our lives is our healing. It isn't for us to stop sinning.

There is a misunderstanding that adds a step into this equation. It says, "I want to stop sinning so that God will heal me." This statement turns healing into a reward process rather than a grace process.

The true statement is, "God's desire is already to heal me" (Matt 23:37). I mean He fought and died for me at the cross. He's put Himself inside of me. There is no prerequisite to His desire for my healing.

In this perspective, we might desire to stop sinning, but this is because it is part of the healing process. It is no longer a means to attaining healing. It is simply part of it.

Furthermore, because God's desire is my healing, and because He has already taken all my sin and shame away from me and heaped it upon Himself, He never turns His back on me when I do sin. He never says, "Why can't you be more like so-in-so?" He's never ashamed of me. He never condemns in any sense of the word. If He did so, it would lead in the opposite direction of my healing, which is exactly the direction He doesn't want to take me in.

Why then does God desire us to stop sinning? The answer is my healing (Matt 23:37). Again, we have to be careful not to make it into a two step process. He doesn't want us to stop sinning so that by reward or obligation that He will heal us. Sin is more like pouring salt into our wounds, the very wounds He desires to heal. Do you see here how much more direct it is? There is no reward or punishment. It is a direct assault upon our healing.

Therefore, since God desires our healing, His primary reason for warning us about sin is over the salt we are pouring into our wounds. God's punishment already rests upon Himself at the cross, to our rescue. Since there is no condemnation left for us (Rom 8:1), the only motivation left is our healing.

This tender heart is to His credit and to His glory.

Tasty Communion

I've enjoyed taking communion at church lately because they're using these little saltine crackers that taste pretty good. Plus, the grape juice is a little sweetness washing down the saltine.

This is a spiritual metaphor. Jesus' broken body and blood represent the horror of what he underwent, but it also represents His joy in fighting and dying for us.

This is an idea that "tastes good" to me.

Jesus on Electric Guitar

I watched our electric guitarist this morning during our worship service. I realized that since Jesus created him to play music and play it well that Jesus must love electric guitar as well. In fact, since Christ dwells inside of our electric guitarist and since Christ also created all forms of music, I realized further that Jesus himself thoroughly enjoyed playing for us this morning. It's like He was playing, not just our guitar player.

Looking at our electric guitarist as a picture of Jesus exercising his creativity and love for music, I found myself in worship. Not the guitarist, but Christ inside the guitarist.

That's Jesus on Electric Guitar.

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Okay, now picture Jesus going freestyle with some rappers. He's right there with them. I'm serious. I'm going to Jesus' freestyle-rap-sessions when we get to heaven. I'm gonna learn to freestyle there. This is part of the gospel - rapping with Jesus.

Relational Imperfection

My new goal is relational imperfection.

This might sound strange, but when a person has been striving for the perfect words in each and every conversation, the perfect interactions, and a total fear of disappointment or miscommunication with others, this is a very difficult goal to attain. It requires an entire paradigm shift. God help me if the other party doesn't "get me" or "understand me".

Yet, this is where our health resides. Imperfection. Miscommunication. Imperfect interactions. Not being "understood" by everyone. Not even being liked by everyone. It gets messy and unpredictable. The weirdness can feel overwhelming.

Unhealthy lifestyles you might identify with include: work perfectionists, parental perfectionists, athletic or music perfectionists. My default unhealthy lifestyle is: relational perfectionism. Maybe some of you can identify.

My new goal is relational imperfection. Not as permission to harm others, but permission to try to communicate imperfectly. To try new things. To set healthy boundaries. To be okay with making relational mistakes. To forgive and be forgiven instead of running away from the imperfection. To be okay with broken relationships that need time to heal or relationships that are simply changing or evolving. To rejoice in maturing relationships as well.

This is one place where God desires to heal his children. Relational imperfection.

The Simplicity of Communion

I really like taking communion. It isn't the ritual involved. I understand the good feelings that come from the rhythm of rituals. Nothing wrong with that. But what I really keep getting blown away by is this whole thing about the God of the universe fighting and dying for me. When I look at that piece of bread or that wine, I declare to God that I believe He really has forgiven and accepted me simply because He has decided that He wants to forgive and accept me. I do this despite any thoughts of self-condemnation I might be suffering that moment. The way I think about myself and the way that God thinks about me are two different things. When I tell Him that I believe in His acceptance despite any self-condemnation, this is the greatest tribute I can ever make to Him.

The Unwritten Rules

The true culprit for all of the problems in the world isn't religion. Religion is merely one place to express our downfall. You'll find all the same problems in any institution:

Marriages and Partnering. Immediate Families. Extended Families. Schools. Workplaces. Universities. Religious Communities. Scientific Communities. Right or Left Wing Organizations and Communities. Student Organizations. Athletic Organizations. Missionary Organizations. Non-Profit Organizations. Hollywood. Gangs. Law Enforcement. Activist Organizations. Academic Communities. Artistic Communities. Political Organizations. The Corporate World. The Military. Etc.

The moment we try to blame religion for all of the problems in the world, we fail to see one of the main problems in our societies which is the unwritten rules of control which govern our interactions in any institution:

What we can do. What we can't do. When we're allowed to speak. When we're not allowed to speak.

The person who leaves religion most often moves into another community where a new set of unwritten rules is placed upon him or her. They might feel a sense of freedom at first, but soon to follow will come the unwritten rules of control in that community.

The solution to this problem goes much deeper than switching communities. It requires transforming the very nature of these communities from within or finding or creating entire new communities which abide by the rules of love* instead of the rules of control.

Unfortunately, many have tried to create these new communities without understanding the unwritten rules of control they were following in the first place and have simply transferred these rules into the new ones they have created.

The solution has to do with the rules of love which I'll cover in another entry. They aren't restrictive, permissive, or tolerant, although they might involve these qualities. The rules of love have an entirely different nature.

Bearing the Image of God

When we look in the mirror, we must decide to believe something that maybe we've never believed before or maybe something we need to renew in our hearts. We must believe that the person we see has something to give to the world because that person has been created by God. The primary thing we have to give to the world is ourselves.

A Letter from God

Hezekiah was a king of Judah back in the day*. He was in a desperate situation and about to loose his kingdom to the hands of the Assyrians. He sent a message to the prophet Isaiah. It said:

"Isaiah, could you relay the following to God? Tell him, 'We're in a really desperate situation. Would you help us?'" (2 Kings 19:3-4, SDT).

God's response: He sent a message back to Hezekiah through the prophet Isaiah. It said, "This letter to you Hezekiah is the sign that I'm going to save you" (2 Kings 19:29 SDT).

This is extraordinary.

Don't we all want to read our name in a personalized letter from God?

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*700's BC or so.

The Achilles' Heel in Creativity

Music. Writing. Painting. Speach writing. Web design. Film making. Humor.

When I do these things, am I doing them in order to establish who I am, or am I doing them out of who I am? The answer to this question expresses a lot about a person's psychology.

Haiti

I'm in awe over how unemotionally I'm affected when I look at pictures of the recent earthquake in Haiti. Several years ago, I built shelters in Pakistan following an earthquake which killed tens of thousands. I saw the broken buildings. I saw the broken people. I've also been around other horrific situations. In Iraq, I was within earshot of British soldiers using their machine guns to kill radicals who had taken over a local government building. Another time, I felt the walls in my Iraqi home shaken as 80 were killed in car bombs within minutes of each other. Many of you have also witnessed horrific events. For example, a number of you watched TV and saw the Twin Towers fall in New York. A few of you might have even been there. These sorts of events are very non-movie-like in their appearance and do register horrible feelings.

Still, for some reason, Haiti just doesn't register emotionally. I feel like maybe a combination of distance from these attrocities plus the repetitive viewing of fictional destruction in movies has really de-sensitized me. No shame. I'm just acknowleding it. I also don't feel like something is wrong with me because I know that if I were in the middle of a live situation that it would affect me emotionally, despite the fictional destruction I've been inundated with in the movies. I know this because I have been on the edge of horrific events and it has affected me in a horrible way. When it's happening live, there is no background music, there is no slow motion heroics, and often there is no last minute saving or rescuing. There is only an awful combination of silence, crying, and sirens--laced with adrenaline.

Pray for Haiti. As the adrenaline wears off and especially following the initial relief efforts over the next couple months, they move into a multitude of variations involving: shock, denial, acceptance, boredom, sadness, sickness, grief, and misery.

I suppose we could even give to Haiti. We can contribute financially even if we are unemotionally affected. There's nothing wrong with that. A dollar-given is a dollar-earned.

Knowing and Being Known (Part Three)

Knowing is hard because it requires I listen. Being known is hard because it requires I speak.

Misinterpretations of John the Baptist

Now I'm not saying that John the Baptist wasn't a little on the unusual side. The guy was pretty radical. However, I do believe there are some severe misinterpretations about his character and about what he was doing out there in the Judean Countryside. A lot of our misinterpretation of John has to do with our legalistic theology.

Here are some questions: Why did he have to come in the first place? Why did Jesus need somebody to "announce" who he was? What was John teaching? What is repentance? What is the Kingdom of God? What does preparing the path and making it straight mean? Why was he wearing the same clothes as the older prophet, Elijah? Talk to any average pastor, or even a glamorous mega-church pastor, and I bet you'll get a high percentage of deers looking into the headlight looks if you ask them what John the Baptist was all about. This doesn't have to do with a lack of intelligence, but it does have to do with a lack of correct theology.

Bear with me as I simply copy and paste part of the book of Mark for you to read. Let's admit it. We're more interested in reading what a commentator has to say than the scripture when it is quoted. Try to take a look, however, at what I'm showing you though, because it's going to look a lot more interesting if you read it and compare my two interpretations. I've changed some of the words or added words, in italics to show two different ways that our brain might interpret what has been written. I'm not proposing to exposit the Greek. I'm trying to show what's going on in our minds.

Mark 1:1-8

1The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2It is written in Isaiah the prophet:
"I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way"
3"a voice of one calling in the desert,
'Prepare the way for the Lord,
make people who are right with God.' " 4And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of getting more right with God for the forgiveness of sins. 5The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins in shame, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River hoping to stay right with God from then on. 6John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He didn't think you were quite as good as him if you weren't roughnecked too. 7And this was his message: "After me will come one more strict than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. Even I'm still trying to stay right with him. 8I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." So, make sure and get things right.

Holy smokes. As a Christian, I've largely believed all of these misinterpretations I just italicized in the above description of John the Baptist. We mostly believe he was a little crazy, came to blow a trumpet announcing the start of Jesus' ministry, and was teaching people to make sure to get right with God.

I've heard the cultural phrase "get right with God" so many times in my Christian experience and it is so sad. It basically means, "get my act together" or "make myself a little better so God will be a little more pleased with me".

It is the opposite of the Gospel. The Gospel (good news) is that God, through Jesus, has already rescued us from all sin and has already transformed us into new people with his righteousness. It is an action that is already perfected, or already completed.

Therefore, if you really want to "get right with God" or "get righteous with God", then this is more about being open to Him forgiving and transforming you, not about what you need to do go get yourself cleaned up and a little more presentable. The first is a grace based mentality. The second is a shame based mentality.

Most of us grew up or migrated into churches which inadvertently espoused or espouse a shame based mentality. Thus, John the Baptist has been explained mainly as a weird, radical, desert dweller who told people to try to keep up with his pace of holiness and get their act together. "God is coming! You better get your act together! Look a little more sharp than you do. And stop complaining about the cold water I'm baptizing you in. Good Israelites don't complain about such things!" Frankly, my old picture of John the Baptist includes a picture of him with a whip threatening corporeal punishment.

Let's take a different look at Mark 1:1-8.

1The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2It is written in Isaiah the prophet:
"I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your grace-based way of living"
3"a voice of one calling in the desert,
'Prepare a grace-based community for the Lord,
provide them with a grace-based theology of forgiveness and love.' " 4And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching that men and women who allow him to wash them clean with water will be cleansed of their sin by God if in the same way, they take a chance that God is safe enough that they'll let Him wash them clean of their sins and give up trying to make up for them in various ways. 5The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, he gladly washed them clean of their sin in the Jordan River. 6John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8I wash you clean from sin with water, but he will wash you clean from sin by turning you into an entirely new person with the Holy Spirit."

In this interpretation, John isn't teaching about getting our act together or getting right with God, he's teaching about allowing God to get us right with him. The true nature of repentance is the recognition that I can't get my act together or get right with God in that horrible Christian religious culture we have been bred with over the centuries.

The moment I really believe that God has forgiven me (of my real sin) with the heart of someone who would fight and die for me, is the moment I have come to fully obey Him. This is what it means to "obey the gospel". It means to "believe in him". Think about when you've had someone really believe in you. I mean they believe in you, in the sense that they trust you. Wow. That is an amazing feeling. Now, I'm not saying that God is insecure in the sense that he needs us to believe in him, in order to cover up His shame or anything like that, but when we believe in Him; well, I believe this is the greatest complement we could ever pay to our Creator, more than any other type of good work we could ever perform.

What was John the Baptist doing out there? I think he was providing a safe place (away from orthodox religion and its rules) where people could go and find a safe place where they could be told that God is safe and harbors nothing but forgiveness and it is lived out in a grace-based community of believers who never negate sin, but desire (lots of failures here still) to forgive one another for that real sin. A place where people talk and communicate rather than attack one another or hide from one another due to the harm they cause one another. I think this is what John was doing. He was preparing for Jesus, a bunch of people who were learning about God's loving nature in a safe place, alway from the unwritten rules of family, institutions, and orthodox religion. It was a safe place where they could go, practice new ways of living, get recharged, and then go back to the world with God's love in their hearts.

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You might ask, what about when he was yelling at the Pharasees and the Teachers of the Law? What kind of love was that? In that situation, I believe John the Baptist was actually doing the most loving thing he could do. He was protecting his disciples. The religious teachers (with their unwritten rules) were there to influence his disciples with their unhealthy and legalistic ways of living. The only thing he could do was to yell at them and expose them for who they really were. I'm sure some stayed and truly accepted the forgiveness of God. I'm sure he didn't tell them to leave. But, the primary motivation of John was protection, I believe, in those moments.

Knowing and Being Known (Part Two)

I believe that to know and be known for who we really are is our greatest desire and our greatest fear. To act on our desire feels like heaven. To act on our fear feels like hell.

Seventh Grade Consequences

In the seventh grade my teacher figured out how to get my dad in for a parent-teacher conference to deal with my behavior without establishing a true parent-teacher conference. See, I talked a lot behind his back every day during reading class, but very carefully, so as not to get caught. Mr. Blunt would write my name on the board, but then I'd behave to avoid the checkmark by being quiet the rest of the hour. I thought I was so smart. I thought I could get away with my little infractions forever. One day, I came to school and my name was still on the board from the previous day. I said, "Hey Mr. Blunt, you forgot to take my name off the board." He said, "No, I didn't." See, he'd decided to keep it up there for a while until I got a checkmark for talking again. I was livid. I tried real hard to avoid getting into trouble, but about a week later, he finally caught me talking and up went the checkmark. I was embarrassed and resentful. Now, a check-mark didn't require a parent-teacher conference, but Mr. Blunt knew my dad would have to pick me up from after-school detention since I'd miss the bus I took home every day. Once the check-mark went up, then he'd have a chance to talk to my dad. He wanted to talk to my dad, not to shame me, but to get us into a dialogue that would help me. The ironic thing is I never saw his goodness at the time.

I've spent most of my life trying to get away with as much as possible without getting caught. Isn't this our default? Adam set a trend in the Garden of Eden that we follow quite willingly. After he took the fruit, he tried to hide from God. Then, God set out to find him. Adam hid from God in shame. God sought out Adam in love. The reality is, God is more interested in communicating with us over punishing us, just like my teacher in the seventh grade was more interested in helping me over punishing me. He wanted to communicate. I wanted to hide in shame. The irony of God's pursuit is that we run from a God who loves us.