Before Tr8s -- On the Platform: 2012

Friday, April 6, 2012

It's Not Easy

Karma. Vigilante Mother Nature. Cosmic justice.

Frankly, one has to be on a long mental vacation to actually believe this stuff. We see the opposite all the time. Innocents die, poor people cry and used car salesmen are happy. History records it. Remember Able, Jonathan, Job, Jesus, Joan of Arch, most of Henry VIII's wives, Gandhi, MLK, and the time you helped a coworker and they got your promotion? Plus, scan today's obituaries--only bad people?

Reality is the opposite of Karma. Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people.

In spite of knowing better, I continue to think, "This bad thing happened because I did something wrong." It's not a new idea. Yet, if only perfect people get perfect lives, where does that leave us?

Jesus' followers were no different. They saw a blind man and asked, "Is he blind because of his parents' sin or his own?" Jesus said, "Neither." Another time Jesus asked, "You know the tower that fell near Siloam Fountain? Killed eighteen people? Were those eighteen the worst in Jerusalem?"

Jesus taught nature is not just and life is not fair.

It gets even worse if you are a disciple.

Jesus said, "If you follow me, expect trouble. You'll know you are on target if they kill you." No punches pulled. Following Jesus is like carrying a cross to your own crucifixion. The last "blessed" in the Beatitudes should make us think:

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11 & 12)

Do we really want to be this blessed? As Jesus sent out seventy of his disciples (Luke 10) he said, "You'll be like lambs sent as missionaries to wolves."

It's not easy.

In fact, if we're doing things Jesus' way, we can expect the sky to fall. With the exception of John, who, according to Roman legend, was fried in hot oil near the Latin Gate and survived, all the Apostles were killed for their faith. According to Tacitus, the disciples in Nero's Rome were literally the "light of the world" as they burned on their crosses in 69A.D.

So, odd as it may seem, believers should expect life to be tough, painful and unfair. Jesus: "In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world."

Even if it's not easy we are more than conquerors in Christ. He will keep in perfect peace all who keep their minds stayed on Him.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Get a Life

Critics are quick to note Jesus marginalize other religions. He flat out says you can do Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, Shiva, Moses, or whomever all day long, everyday and never come to the Father.

I work at a college where everyone MUST be tolerant. We have everything from Eastern Buddhists to Western New Age spiritualists who believe and practice different things, but all pretty much agree nobody's wrong. That would be rude. Do what seems right for you. Who are we to tell you what to believe? There are many ways to heaven, nirvana, paradise...

...BUT not the Florida Keys. One must travel south, past Miami to get to the Keys, but I digress. Plus, I was being insensitive and intolerant of those who think one can get to the Keys going west on Interstate 20. I often forget, "We are all climbing the same mountain."

Everything is copacetic until Jesus comes along and says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). He means one can't get any nearer to the Father without him than one can get to the Keys heading west on Interstate 20. One can plan, fast, pray, confess, and beseech the Lord for travel mercies, but if you're on I 20 west, no amount of religion will get you to the Keys.

Definitive language is good when it points us in the right direction. Instead of the Keys, Jesus was telling us how to get to his Father--the source of pure goodness. The goodness thing is significant because the Greeks associated goodness with godness. So do most of the rest of us.

Let's clear this up.

First, all the other religions target something other than knowing the Father's motivation. They usually promise a reward of some sort. Some think Christianity is all about heaven or fire insurance. Not so much. No other religion makes a claim or provide a path that will reveal the mind of a living, loving God.

So, Jesus wasn't throwing bricks at the other religions.

Second, if you followed Jesus around for a while when he was on earth, you'd have seen and heard some amazing things. You'd witness goodness--healings, sermons, demons being cast out, stories, cures, compassionate forgiveness, parables, miracles, prophecy, and more. And right beside you would be Jesus' friends, enemies, and those who didn't even care. Jesus lived out loud--that's why he was unforgettable whether you liked him or not.

Following was the WAY. The disciples followed the way of Jesus--living and loving. The WAY is/was love in concrete fashion. Jesus was "doing God" for our benefit. We can know the way of love because of his example.

Listening to Jesus, we hear/heard the TRUTH. Jesus was the teacher and the classroom was real life. Disciples watched and listened; Jesus taught. The TRUTH is love taught in abstractions.

Here's the big idea:

Follow the WAY OF LOVE (Jesus' example)
Apply the TRUTH OF LOVE (Jesus' teachings)
Get a LIFE OF LOVE (Jesus' life)
See the FATHER OF LOVE (as Jesus did)

Let's review: If you yearn to know God's heart, follow Jesus' words and ways. It's the only way you'll experience God's character. If knowing God personally isn't on your agenda, you probably aren't reading this anyway, so never mind.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Walking close to the truth

I'm not a very humble person. I come by it naturally. An idiot savant, as it were. That said, I'm learning to be less and less confident about things that don't matter and more confident about the things that do.

When I was younger I knew just about everything. Ask my family. But, bit by bit, through trial and error, I've realized I'm as dumb as a rock. There's satisfaction in knowing the truth. As I get older, it's easier to admit I'm clueless. I suspect you are this way, too. That's no small thing because some people never learn how dumb they are.

Proverbs 16:18 says, "Pride comes before a fall." This verse was called to remembrance recently when I overestimating my ladder skills. Over-confidence is dangerous. I've decided I don't want to be one of those people who know everything anymore.

I like humble people. Maybe because I see in them something of which I wish I had more. I've seen a lot of people who aren't effective because they lack humility--they rip into everyone else and aren't well acquainted with the truth about themselves.

Humility is the truth--knowing who you are and who you aren't. We either see truth or we don't. The rest is a show we put on for ourselves and others. Humbleness isn't something you do, it's something you are. The truth is, I don't need to work on humility. I need to work on finding the truth, and then be faithful to it.

I know someone who is humble. He's confident and good at what he does and he's not full of himself. He's a true person. His perspective is worth hearing, but he won't always give it. I wonder if he's that way with his wife and family, if so, he really is humble.

I don't know if this guy's humble for sure because I don't know all the truth about him. If I did, I could be his mentor, but that's not going to happen. More and more each day I find there's a whole lot I'm missing. I wish this guy was my mentor.

Knowing the truth about yourself is a humbling experience.

Jesus claimed to be "the way, the truth, and the life" (John14:6) and I believe that's so. He followed those words with, "no one can really know God, but by me." The "way" part is methodology--imitating Christ--living the way he lived. The "truth" part is knowing the truth about him. The "life" part s what happens when one follows his way and his truth. The "God" part is his way and his truth define "goodness" which, if you trust the Greeks, defines God.

When one walks in his way and truth, one knows goodness (godness) and gets a life. Living becomes meaningful and humble because it is not I, but Christ. When one lives according to self, one wastes a life. The self-life is vain because it is I, not anyone else.

Humility is walking close to the truth.

The truth will set you free.

On the platform waiting...

Imagine one is finishing a long journey, expecting to reunite with a loved one. Also imagine another waiting on the platform for the arrival of a loved one.

I like stories that could be built around these possibilities.

The saddest situation would be a person finishing a long journey who arrives to find no one. I stumbled upon the analogy while thinking of a few of my atheist friends. They don't think anyone is waiting. They don't even think their train will pull into a station.

I recently mentioned this to a student who works in our office at the college. This student traveled in a group of students who went with me to Greece last year. One of the really good things about the college work program is faculty become acquainted with students over a number of years. It gives us time to share about whatever is on our minds.

On this morning, as the student poked her head into my office to say hi and I was thinking about railway platforms. She said, "Good morning," but eventually sat down as I field tested the analogy.

I mentioned how sad atheism seemed to me. No hope. No expectations. This is it--what you see is what you get. I guess that would be slightly okay if one had a great life, but most atheists I know aren't exactly riding prize horses.

So, I said, "What if we are making up our own eternity?" Sort of sweet and sour justice. This idea isn't even remotely scriptural, but it might be a worthwhile reflection anyway. It eventually helps one explore hope in the end.

This game has only one rule, "As one wishes, so be it." Justice is built in. One gets whatever they wish AND gets to compare it with what God had prepared. So, if one is an atheist, he or she would get nothing or whatever it is atheists expect...and then see what God had planned. To summarize: one dark, lonesome hell with a balcony view of heaven.

If you build a mental paradise in which you are a ruler with wealth, power, vestal virgins, or whatever, that's what you get! However, you have to polish the gold, figure out how to make it rain to keep the plants alive (if you remembered plants), find water, keep all the vestal virgins happy, fight off those who want what you have...you catch my drift. Another hell with a view of something better.

After a few plays one begins to see it is best to try to imagine God's plan and wish for that. Sort of another take on Paschal's wager. Every other play leaves you in a hell or paradise without the one who makes it all work and hang together. A few plays later one begins to experiment with how much one can hope and still stay in God's plan.

One also realizes quite quickly that if "what you wish is what you get" were a reality, most Christians would be little better off than the average atheist in terms of expectations. How embarrassing would it be to get to heaven and not recognize God? God would probably say, "Yeah, we never talked much."

So, hell (at least to me) is on the other side of the fence from heaven, watching everyone have the time of their eternities...all the while knowing one COULD have had it. I can't imagine anything worse than being stuck with myself and my pitiful worldview for eternity. I'm glad I'm not in charge.

It's like this, for now: In this life rain falls on the just and unjust. Peaches grew for Mother Theresa and for Vlad the Impaler. This life as a jumping off place for the next one. Some may recall the story of Lazarus and the rich man. He's on "the other side" and begs Lazarus, "dip your finger in the water, come and cool my tongue, 'cause I'm tormented in the flames..." Jesus told this story.

So, what about heaven? Hopes of heaven, theoretically, might include anything conceivably in harmony with God's character. Jesus talked about the Kingdom of Heaven all the time. Kingdom of Heaven this, Kingdom of Heaven that. He also said he was going ahead of us to "prepare a place." Revelation talks about streets of gold, etc. Regardless of this life, there's nothing wrong about hoping. I've heard the argument we should quit worrying about the future and live now. I agree, but even so, I continue to think ahead and pay my electric bill so I'll have power next month.

I've traveled a lot. Streets of gold or cobblestones are all the same to me. What makes a place are the people and whether you feel like you belong or not. In my hopes of heaven I see myself living in God's house (today it's a Tudor two-story; horses in the pasture south of the waterfall) with all those I love filled full of God. When I see my father and Uncle Jim, I'll see God in my father and Uncle Jim.

God and I will sit with friends and family by a warm fire with snow gently falling outside. Starbucks coffee and cinnamon twists. The snow will be shoveled and the temps mild when we go outside to look at the waterfall before sunset. Sunsets can happen on the hour and one can have spring in the morning and autumn in the evening. There will be a soundtrack. The music will soften while we talk and reach breathless crescendos with each sunset. My dog, Duchess, will be there at God's feet. It'll be great if only two of these things happen.

The greatest thing is, God can imagine better than I can.

So, here's my new game: Can I wish a greater good than God? Can I hope at a level even God will find interesting?

Here's my best try so far: I hope everyone who ever lived finds grace and has a heaven better than mine.

Of course this is mostly nonsense. Mostly. But it has gotten me thinking near God-sized thoughts. I'm starting to hope more than I used to. I'm a Christian. I believe we arrive at the final station through the grace of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.

I think about those without hope. I'm starting to think about those verses in Romans that talk about Christ's death being as powerful as Adam's sin. Through Adam's sin all fall short; through Christ's death all...maybe...

There is one more platform story. The last is a person who expects no one, but is surprised by someone.