For an entertaining evening, ask the question of your friends or family what you might do with a hundred million dollars, tax free. Given the fact that lotteries are sometimes won at the unbelievable heights of a couple hundred million dollars at a time, this isn’t outside the realm of imagination, and it is a thought that crosses the mind of the poorest homeless person, no matter how unlikely. Let’s say that we happen to obtain the whole amount at once—unlike the lottery money—and we didn’t kill ourselves with drinking or drugs right off the bat. What would one purchase with such a large amount of money—more than any of our needs might warrant?
Perhaps we would buy a new house, filled with stuff. Then we would have to have a new security system, but that would be no problem. We could quit our job and the whole lifestyle we are living dependent on others to meet our needs. Some of us might take the opportunity to get a new family. Others might travel around the world, seeing everything they ever wanted to see. It would mean unlimited freedom. Some might see this as an opportunity to do good, or to change the world into a better place for all. It could be an opportunity to get a particular message out. It would mean amazing power.
What would we give for such an opportunity. Suppose the wealthiest man in the world came up to us and said, “I want to give you a hundred million dollars, tax free. What would you give up for it?” Would you surrender your dignity—do something publicly that would shame you before everyone? Would you surrender your sexuality? What if he asked you to never have sex again in your life for a hundred million dollars? Would you surrender your right arm—have it amputated right off for the sake of all that the money provides you? Would you surrender some of your life—you would have to work for the billionaire, do whatever he wanted, and at retirement he would give you the money?
Most of us would be willing to make such sacrifices—within limits. This is because to have almost unlimited freedom and so much power is worth almost any price we give it, even if it means we are limited in many other ways.
We are often willing to sacrifice much, if only we believe that the exchange is worth the amount we pay. It is amazing to me the huge sacrifices people make for such small gains. A man, in order to gain a small amount of dignity or money, will kill someone, and spend a lifetime in guilt in prison for it. Another woman will give up a life of security and contentment for the excitement and drama of cheating on her husband. Another will live their lives in abuse rather than get away because they have an anxiety of what “might” happen.
These are extreme examples, but all of us, at one point or another, make exchanges that are significant to our lives, but they make the quality of life miserable. We will keep working in a job we hate for a small amount of money each week. We will eat food or smoke things we know will kill us, and make our bodies miserable, because we gain a small pleasure in eating or smoking it. We will marry someone for the security of a relationship, even though the relationship is awful. We will pour our heart and effort and time into a project in the hopes of obtaining some respect, only to be ignored.
It is hard to determine a proper exchange. What is our life really worth? And is it equal to what we actually give it? We desire freedom, we desire respect, we want our deepest longings fulfilled. What are we giving to get that which we most desire? Every life has a price. Are our lives worth the price we paying?
The wealthiest man in the universe is approaching us right now. No, he is not offering us a hundred million dollars—that would be too simple, and that life wouldn’t actually give us what we want anyway. Instead he is offering other, more essential goods. He promises to provide our food, our clothes and often our shelter—a simple existence, but one that offers contentment. He promises to provide peace of mind. He promises to help us deal with our guilt and anger—not just wiping them away, but processing them in a positive way. He promises to grant us justice. He promises to give us the freedom to be the best people we can be. And most importantly, He promises to give us hope—hope for an existence that not only is good for ourselves, but good for everyone else.
What does He want in exchange? He wants us to give up our shoddy existence, to give us trying to seek justice for ourselves. He wants us to stop grasping for our own needs and allowing Him and others to help us. He wants us to give up our crippled ethic, and to adopt one that is complete and is good for all. He wants us to work for Him, to go where He tells us to go and to do whatever He tells us to. He wants us to surrender our possessions and money to those who need it more than we do. He wants us to give up our family, so He can provide us with a family that loves us. He wants us to give up scrounging for our needs so that which we did not even know we need could be provided. In all honesty, He wants our whole life—everything. So we can have a richer, fuller, more satisfactory existence. And this satisfaction He offers is not just for now, but for all eternity.
This is a huge price to pay. But it is a huge thing to receive. It is a fair exchange—give up one’s miserable life for one of generosity and peace. The main issue in such an exchange is that the one giving up one’s life has to trust the one offering him or her a new life. Because to surrender one’s life is the ultimate act of trust. This is why God, in making this offer, says that to be involved in this exchange one must have faith. The less faith one has in the one making the offer, the less the offer means. Because the more of one’s life is surrendered, the better exchange one gets.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Desire of God
God is our Father. God has reached out and touched our souls, giving each the breath of life. God holds us together, keeping us alive. God empowers us with strength and allows us to do good. Every good we have ever received came ultimately from God. And so we rightfully thank God, for all He has been to us.
All God wanted from us in return is our love. God desires our devotion, not just our worship, but our heart of gratefulness and joy to be in Him. God gave us all we had in order to be in relation with us. God desired to sit long hours with us, to bask in our company. We are not sure why, for often we cannot even endure our own presence, but God desired us more than we do ourselves. He longed for love and intimacy that only we could give.
Yet when has so much been given for so little in return, only to have the true Lover spurned and despised? Oh no, we do not hate God. We cater to Him, and so we sing our little songs and attend our little churches and express our little devotions. But He cannot endure them, because He knows that though our lips express longing, our hearts are distant from Him. Not only because our busyness has crowded Him out of our lives. No, because of the sorrows we have poured on Him.
God has let it be known to us how it must be if we are to live with Him. We must be people of faithfulness, people of love. We must walk in justice and our hearts must overflow with mercy. We must have integrity and grace. We know the life we must live to be with Him. And yet we refuse it. And yet we constantly reject being the people whom God asks us to be so we can have intimacy with Him.
God understands. We are people of the world. The world is corrupt, and some of that corruption rubs off, sometimes. But what God sees, that we do not, is that the world is corrupt because of our action and inaction. The world is separated from heaven because we are separated from God. As long as we allow the little fears, the little injustices, the little infidelities, the little judgments, the little greeds, the petty rejections, the furies of passion that destroy those around us become our lifestyle—then the world will not only remain corrupt, but will become more and more corrupt daily. Should the salt of the earth become unsalted, what hope is there for the earth?
Us being part and parcel of the evil—yes, let’s call it what it really is, the damned evils of this world—means that we are not a part of God. And so God remains lonely. He is alone in heaven, surrounded by the angels, lonely, without the love of humanity. We, His created partners, have rejected Him, because the ways of the world are more real to us than He is. We have accepted that which we know is separating us from God, because we love our comfort more than we love Him, our Father, who gave us all things.
He is there, waiting. He awaits for us. We cannot know just how much He loves us. He calls to us, daily, begging for us to surrender our petty evils and to return to embrace Him. And this is what we want as well. We hear his call, and we long for Him. We fall before Him, beg for forgiveness and then we get up and return to the evils of our lives. Never forsaking them. Never turning away from them. Longing for them, even as our lips speak confession.
See God the Father, alone in His study, wishing for our company. Beside Him, ever before Him, is His Son who died for our sins. The crucified Jesus, wounds still bleeding for us, dripping on the floor, the pool of his suffering growing larger. Jesus died for us, his sufferings meant to fill our separations—every one of them—if we would but break from them and embrace Him.
Can we turn from the world to embrace the Son? Can we run from our evils to go to the Father who waits? All of His resources are ours, every grace that He provides is waiting to be poured into our lives. Because of Jesus’ death, we need not fear death, nor the lack of survival. God will help us survive. Because of Jesus’ death, we need not fear injustice, for God promises true justice for us. Because of Jesus’ suffering, we need not fear a lack of mercy, for God pours out mercy upon us as a waterfall pours water.
Kneel in the puddle of Jesus’ suffering. Accept it, receive it. Embrace the Son, kiss his wounds. Put your hand in his side and make His suffering your own. To separate from the world, to deny the very self that is knit tight with evil, we must bleed with the suffering of Jesus, our very flesh being torn from us, until we die.
Mourn, cry out to Him who loved us so. Weep because of the separation that you, you yourself caused. Let Him know of the sorrow you felt. Let him know how weak you were—how weak you are. Confess to Him with all your heart how you long to be with Him, how you thirst for Him like no other beverage. That you desire Him deeper than your most joyful experience. That He is the fulfillment of your greatest needs.
For this sorrow, this mourning, this suffering is the seed of the greatest joy. Through your tears of sorrow come tears of joy. Through your surrender comes the greatest gain. It is though dying to this world—the destruction of the plans, distractions and comforts of this world—that we can obtain our greatest satisfaction.
Only in the surrender of all in the presence of God can we obtain the greatest joy.
All God wanted from us in return is our love. God desires our devotion, not just our worship, but our heart of gratefulness and joy to be in Him. God gave us all we had in order to be in relation with us. God desired to sit long hours with us, to bask in our company. We are not sure why, for often we cannot even endure our own presence, but God desired us more than we do ourselves. He longed for love and intimacy that only we could give.
Yet when has so much been given for so little in return, only to have the true Lover spurned and despised? Oh no, we do not hate God. We cater to Him, and so we sing our little songs and attend our little churches and express our little devotions. But He cannot endure them, because He knows that though our lips express longing, our hearts are distant from Him. Not only because our busyness has crowded Him out of our lives. No, because of the sorrows we have poured on Him.
God has let it be known to us how it must be if we are to live with Him. We must be people of faithfulness, people of love. We must walk in justice and our hearts must overflow with mercy. We must have integrity and grace. We know the life we must live to be with Him. And yet we refuse it. And yet we constantly reject being the people whom God asks us to be so we can have intimacy with Him.
God understands. We are people of the world. The world is corrupt, and some of that corruption rubs off, sometimes. But what God sees, that we do not, is that the world is corrupt because of our action and inaction. The world is separated from heaven because we are separated from God. As long as we allow the little fears, the little injustices, the little infidelities, the little judgments, the little greeds, the petty rejections, the furies of passion that destroy those around us become our lifestyle—then the world will not only remain corrupt, but will become more and more corrupt daily. Should the salt of the earth become unsalted, what hope is there for the earth?
Us being part and parcel of the evil—yes, let’s call it what it really is, the damned evils of this world—means that we are not a part of God. And so God remains lonely. He is alone in heaven, surrounded by the angels, lonely, without the love of humanity. We, His created partners, have rejected Him, because the ways of the world are more real to us than He is. We have accepted that which we know is separating us from God, because we love our comfort more than we love Him, our Father, who gave us all things.
He is there, waiting. He awaits for us. We cannot know just how much He loves us. He calls to us, daily, begging for us to surrender our petty evils and to return to embrace Him. And this is what we want as well. We hear his call, and we long for Him. We fall before Him, beg for forgiveness and then we get up and return to the evils of our lives. Never forsaking them. Never turning away from them. Longing for them, even as our lips speak confession.
See God the Father, alone in His study, wishing for our company. Beside Him, ever before Him, is His Son who died for our sins. The crucified Jesus, wounds still bleeding for us, dripping on the floor, the pool of his suffering growing larger. Jesus died for us, his sufferings meant to fill our separations—every one of them—if we would but break from them and embrace Him.
Can we turn from the world to embrace the Son? Can we run from our evils to go to the Father who waits? All of His resources are ours, every grace that He provides is waiting to be poured into our lives. Because of Jesus’ death, we need not fear death, nor the lack of survival. God will help us survive. Because of Jesus’ death, we need not fear injustice, for God promises true justice for us. Because of Jesus’ suffering, we need not fear a lack of mercy, for God pours out mercy upon us as a waterfall pours water.
Kneel in the puddle of Jesus’ suffering. Accept it, receive it. Embrace the Son, kiss his wounds. Put your hand in his side and make His suffering your own. To separate from the world, to deny the very self that is knit tight with evil, we must bleed with the suffering of Jesus, our very flesh being torn from us, until we die.
Mourn, cry out to Him who loved us so. Weep because of the separation that you, you yourself caused. Let Him know of the sorrow you felt. Let him know how weak you were—how weak you are. Confess to Him with all your heart how you long to be with Him, how you thirst for Him like no other beverage. That you desire Him deeper than your most joyful experience. That He is the fulfillment of your greatest needs.
For this sorrow, this mourning, this suffering is the seed of the greatest joy. Through your tears of sorrow come tears of joy. Through your surrender comes the greatest gain. It is though dying to this world—the destruction of the plans, distractions and comforts of this world—that we can obtain our greatest satisfaction.
Only in the surrender of all in the presence of God can we obtain the greatest joy.
A Thirst For Wisdom
In the world there exists no lack of truth. Libraries are stacked with truths, the internet is exploding with facts, experts are just full of it. If we want truth, we can look anywhere and find it. The world focuses on the differences between what is true and what is untrue. This is significant, for if we believe a lie, then we have nothing true within us. However, it is equally possible for us to focus on the wrong truth. For some truth does not set us free, but bind us and blind us to what is significant.
The church has often been mislead by what is untrue. We have often listened to rumor or the speculations of a charismatic figure rather than examining what we have received in order to determine it’s accuracy. The Bereans were considered high minded because they didn’t just accept what they heard—as true as it was—but examined it according to a standard of truth. They analyzed and so were able to decide what was true, not just accepting it blindly.
But rarely does Scripture command us to determine what is true. Because there are so many truths to choose from. The Scripture never denied that there were spiritual powers beside God. The Scripture never said that all the pagans had to say was false—instead, they used the literature of the pagans to convict of the truth that was obvious to all. But what the Scripture emphasizes is the differences between truth and wisdom.
Truth is simply what is. It is fact. But we cannot live by facts alone. It is a fact that the sky, when clear, is blue, but that does not tell us why we are on this earth. It is a fact that light travels at the speed of … miles per second, but this fact does not tell us how we should live. It is a fact that there are (a hundred) kinds of penguins, but this fact does not tell us how to live in integrity and love.
Truth is the fact. Wisdom is the significance. Wisdom not just applies truth to reality, but it brings balance to all things. It tells us which truths to focus on and which truths are less important. Wisdom recognizes what is real and how to communicate reality for the benefit of all. Wisdom does not see fact as a hard-edged, black and white proposition. Wisdom sees truth as being the moldable tool of love and community.
Truth is relatively easy to discover. In many questionable areas we can find the reality, if we would but look. Truth is only difficult because so many people determine to remain ignorant, to leave it unsought. But wisdom, no matter how often or with what effort one seeks it, is always difficult. No matter how many confirmed facts we learn, we do not from that know the fact of what is important for us to know. We can comprehend and communicate millions of true sentences, yet none of them true for us, true for our family, true for our community, true for our world.
Knowledge is not life.
Facts are not action.
Truth is not love.
Propositions are not wisdom.
To focus on this fact can be despairing, which is also in opposition to wisdom. We must not dwell too deeply on the fact that fact is outside of practical reality. Where can we obtain wisdom, love, community, hope and significance? With wisdom God created the world. With wisdom, God saved the world. With wisdom, God decided to give His Son with love. Where is wisdom? It comes from God, and God alone.
Many have looked at God and have reduced Him down to facts. This accumulation of facts—both historic and philosophical—is called theology. Yet God cannot be found in the beauty of theology. God can truly be found in the wisdom of God.
Jesus is the wisdom of God. Jesus, who sat with the sinners and explained the Law as love. Jesus argued against the true facts of the Pharisees to show how insignificant they were compared to the act, speech and love of God. Jesus argued against the priests who put God into the box of the temple, and so tore the veil in two which blocked people’s vision of God. The fact that Jesus was the being of God isn’t what we should look at. Rather, Jesus was the revelation of the wisdom of God. In Jesus the truth of what is important is found.
Because Jesus is the revelation of the Father. The Father wanted us to understand wisdom, so he gave us not a rule book, nor a theology text but a living person. As Jesus is passed to us, it is not in a mathematical formula nor logical propositions, but written lives. Only life can display a wise life.
And Jesus knew that he would not be sufficient wisdom for all the generations to come. A single life, even expressed four-fold, is not enough to give the wisdom for all. So God planted the wisdom in our hearts. The Spirit gives us the teachings of the Father, day by day, hour by hour. These teachings are not the facts of truth, but the wisdom of life. Significance, not proposition.
The Spirit is revelation. The Spirit tells us that which human logic could never convince us of. The Spirit leads us to holiness, to love, to mercy, to humility, to community, to the power of God, which cannot be seen by eyes or measured by instruments.
For wisdom is the direct gift of God. All we need to have it is to open ourselves to receive. All the best of life is ours to grasp, if we would but seek Him. If we would listen to Him, we might have to set aside the facts that we have grasped onto in order to truly have Him. We must surrender our knowledge to Him, so that we can live in love. We must burn the insignificant as a sacrifice, so that God will grant us peace with others. We rest the burdens of our lives upon his arms, so that His wisdom might guide. Give us your wisdom, O Lord, display before us the love you wish us to live.
The church has often been mislead by what is untrue. We have often listened to rumor or the speculations of a charismatic figure rather than examining what we have received in order to determine it’s accuracy. The Bereans were considered high minded because they didn’t just accept what they heard—as true as it was—but examined it according to a standard of truth. They analyzed and so were able to decide what was true, not just accepting it blindly.
But rarely does Scripture command us to determine what is true. Because there are so many truths to choose from. The Scripture never denied that there were spiritual powers beside God. The Scripture never said that all the pagans had to say was false—instead, they used the literature of the pagans to convict of the truth that was obvious to all. But what the Scripture emphasizes is the differences between truth and wisdom.
Truth is simply what is. It is fact. But we cannot live by facts alone. It is a fact that the sky, when clear, is blue, but that does not tell us why we are on this earth. It is a fact that light travels at the speed of … miles per second, but this fact does not tell us how we should live. It is a fact that there are (a hundred) kinds of penguins, but this fact does not tell us how to live in integrity and love.
Truth is the fact. Wisdom is the significance. Wisdom not just applies truth to reality, but it brings balance to all things. It tells us which truths to focus on and which truths are less important. Wisdom recognizes what is real and how to communicate reality for the benefit of all. Wisdom does not see fact as a hard-edged, black and white proposition. Wisdom sees truth as being the moldable tool of love and community.
Truth is relatively easy to discover. In many questionable areas we can find the reality, if we would but look. Truth is only difficult because so many people determine to remain ignorant, to leave it unsought. But wisdom, no matter how often or with what effort one seeks it, is always difficult. No matter how many confirmed facts we learn, we do not from that know the fact of what is important for us to know. We can comprehend and communicate millions of true sentences, yet none of them true for us, true for our family, true for our community, true for our world.
Knowledge is not life.
Facts are not action.
Truth is not love.
Propositions are not wisdom.
To focus on this fact can be despairing, which is also in opposition to wisdom. We must not dwell too deeply on the fact that fact is outside of practical reality. Where can we obtain wisdom, love, community, hope and significance? With wisdom God created the world. With wisdom, God saved the world. With wisdom, God decided to give His Son with love. Where is wisdom? It comes from God, and God alone.
Many have looked at God and have reduced Him down to facts. This accumulation of facts—both historic and philosophical—is called theology. Yet God cannot be found in the beauty of theology. God can truly be found in the wisdom of God.
Jesus is the wisdom of God. Jesus, who sat with the sinners and explained the Law as love. Jesus argued against the true facts of the Pharisees to show how insignificant they were compared to the act, speech and love of God. Jesus argued against the priests who put God into the box of the temple, and so tore the veil in two which blocked people’s vision of God. The fact that Jesus was the being of God isn’t what we should look at. Rather, Jesus was the revelation of the wisdom of God. In Jesus the truth of what is important is found.
Because Jesus is the revelation of the Father. The Father wanted us to understand wisdom, so he gave us not a rule book, nor a theology text but a living person. As Jesus is passed to us, it is not in a mathematical formula nor logical propositions, but written lives. Only life can display a wise life.
And Jesus knew that he would not be sufficient wisdom for all the generations to come. A single life, even expressed four-fold, is not enough to give the wisdom for all. So God planted the wisdom in our hearts. The Spirit gives us the teachings of the Father, day by day, hour by hour. These teachings are not the facts of truth, but the wisdom of life. Significance, not proposition.
The Spirit is revelation. The Spirit tells us that which human logic could never convince us of. The Spirit leads us to holiness, to love, to mercy, to humility, to community, to the power of God, which cannot be seen by eyes or measured by instruments.
For wisdom is the direct gift of God. All we need to have it is to open ourselves to receive. All the best of life is ours to grasp, if we would but seek Him. If we would listen to Him, we might have to set aside the facts that we have grasped onto in order to truly have Him. We must surrender our knowledge to Him, so that we can live in love. We must burn the insignificant as a sacrifice, so that God will grant us peace with others. We rest the burdens of our lives upon his arms, so that His wisdom might guide. Give us your wisdom, O Lord, display before us the love you wish us to live.
The Mystery of Weakness
To be ready for revival, we have to recognize our weakness, our lack of depth, our helplessness in the face of the world. Only then will we recognize how much we need God.
Unlike the masses of animals, humanity has no clue as to why we exist. We have no skills to help us be who we are meant to be, ultimately, and all of our great plans have come to naught. We have tried to live our lives on our own terms, only to find ourselves impotent. We have tried to overcome our faults, only to find ourselves enslaved to them. We have gained the knowledge of success, of a good life, only to find that it was all a lie. We have loved, we have built, we have obtained wealth, we have planned, we have been empowered—only to have it all slip from our grasp. We are left with nothing. Our greatest achievements have ultimately been anthills—clumsy in design and as easy to topple. Our lives are but a leaf on a tree—quickly turned brown and withered and falling down, only to be crushed.
God is there, calling out to us, ready to meet our needs. Our relationship to God is not that to the harsh father, always wanting more from us than we can give. God knows our weaknesses, our helplessness. God made us helpless and hopeless on purpose. He created us weak so that we could recognize that we would never be complete without Him. So that, in the end, when we came to the end of ourselves, our plans, our hopes, our lives, we would turn to Him as the only fulfillment left.
But God also made us weak to prove something to all the universe. There are many powers in the universe, and God made them all. Some are less than humanity, and some are greater. But none are more helpless than the human infant. The human infant is more naked than any other creature, so helpless that he cannot even find his own food. The human infant’s only means of defense, expression and response is her cry. Almost any creature can destroy the human infant with a swipe or a bite. If an infant is left alone, it would die within hours.
Yet, amazingly, God pointed at that infant and said, “I choose YOU to rule the earth.” God’s most masterful creation, the ever-bubbling pot of life and creativity, and God put a helpless infant in charge of it.
How the great powers of heaven must have laughed! Had they the nerve to mock God, they surely would have. To place a baby in charge of the most complex system ever made is insanity, even stupidity. Yet this is what God did. God placed a small, helpless collection of gobs of cells to rule it all.
God did it, not to show humanity’s greatness. Their ability to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” (which, by the way, is a great way to fall on your ass). God chose humanity, with all its failings, with all its weaknesses, with all its helplessness, to show how great anyone can be when He is helping them.
The greatest power, God is teaching, is not power at all, but anti-power. The greatest strength is weakness.
But the other amazing characteristic of humanity is its blindness. Not only is humanity helpless, but it sees itself as strong. Humanity thinks that it can do anything. It thinks it can live on its own terms and succeed no matter what. What idiots we all are! So we continue to reject God, wanting to relate to God only on our own terms. Even the most saintly of us really only depend on God when we recognize that we absolutely can’t do it on our own. We don’t realize that we, no matter how old we become, are still that baby, that helpless infant unable to control our lives.
So God came to earth. He became that helpless infant Himself. And he did it to show us that the best life that any of us could live is a life of dependence. As Jesus was on earth, he had no food, but depended on the Father to provide. He had no power to help, so he depended on the Father to heal. He had no time to rest, so he depended on the Father to give energy. He had no place to sleep, so he depended on the Father to provide shelter.
And his is the best life ever. He is the only one to know—truly know!—why he was here on earth.
He was here to serve the Father. Not on his own terms, but the Father’s terms. He was here not to do his own will, but his Father’s.
To be an infant isn’t so bad. To be helpless is right where God wants us to be. Helpless and crying out to Him. Helpless and seeking His help. Helpless and not knowing where to go or what to do or how to do anything so we can just be leaning on Him.
The best we can be is dependent.
Unlike the masses of animals, humanity has no clue as to why we exist. We have no skills to help us be who we are meant to be, ultimately, and all of our great plans have come to naught. We have tried to live our lives on our own terms, only to find ourselves impotent. We have tried to overcome our faults, only to find ourselves enslaved to them. We have gained the knowledge of success, of a good life, only to find that it was all a lie. We have loved, we have built, we have obtained wealth, we have planned, we have been empowered—only to have it all slip from our grasp. We are left with nothing. Our greatest achievements have ultimately been anthills—clumsy in design and as easy to topple. Our lives are but a leaf on a tree—quickly turned brown and withered and falling down, only to be crushed.
God is there, calling out to us, ready to meet our needs. Our relationship to God is not that to the harsh father, always wanting more from us than we can give. God knows our weaknesses, our helplessness. God made us helpless and hopeless on purpose. He created us weak so that we could recognize that we would never be complete without Him. So that, in the end, when we came to the end of ourselves, our plans, our hopes, our lives, we would turn to Him as the only fulfillment left.
But God also made us weak to prove something to all the universe. There are many powers in the universe, and God made them all. Some are less than humanity, and some are greater. But none are more helpless than the human infant. The human infant is more naked than any other creature, so helpless that he cannot even find his own food. The human infant’s only means of defense, expression and response is her cry. Almost any creature can destroy the human infant with a swipe or a bite. If an infant is left alone, it would die within hours.
Yet, amazingly, God pointed at that infant and said, “I choose YOU to rule the earth.” God’s most masterful creation, the ever-bubbling pot of life and creativity, and God put a helpless infant in charge of it.
How the great powers of heaven must have laughed! Had they the nerve to mock God, they surely would have. To place a baby in charge of the most complex system ever made is insanity, even stupidity. Yet this is what God did. God placed a small, helpless collection of gobs of cells to rule it all.
God did it, not to show humanity’s greatness. Their ability to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” (which, by the way, is a great way to fall on your ass). God chose humanity, with all its failings, with all its weaknesses, with all its helplessness, to show how great anyone can be when He is helping them.
The greatest power, God is teaching, is not power at all, but anti-power. The greatest strength is weakness.
But the other amazing characteristic of humanity is its blindness. Not only is humanity helpless, but it sees itself as strong. Humanity thinks that it can do anything. It thinks it can live on its own terms and succeed no matter what. What idiots we all are! So we continue to reject God, wanting to relate to God only on our own terms. Even the most saintly of us really only depend on God when we recognize that we absolutely can’t do it on our own. We don’t realize that we, no matter how old we become, are still that baby, that helpless infant unable to control our lives.
So God came to earth. He became that helpless infant Himself. And he did it to show us that the best life that any of us could live is a life of dependence. As Jesus was on earth, he had no food, but depended on the Father to provide. He had no power to help, so he depended on the Father to heal. He had no time to rest, so he depended on the Father to give energy. He had no place to sleep, so he depended on the Father to provide shelter.
And his is the best life ever. He is the only one to know—truly know!—why he was here on earth.
He was here to serve the Father. Not on his own terms, but the Father’s terms. He was here not to do his own will, but his Father’s.
To be an infant isn’t so bad. To be helpless is right where God wants us to be. Helpless and crying out to Him. Helpless and seeking His help. Helpless and not knowing where to go or what to do or how to do anything so we can just be leaning on Him.
The best we can be is dependent.
Friday, July 10, 2009
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