Idols

7-4-10

Where have we been? (review)

The Bible presents us with (2) contrasting approaches to life:

            Wisdom: the wise person is the one who honors God (recognizes him as God) as central to all of life and seeks to order their life accordingly.

            The “head” or “beginning” of that knowledge (relationship) being, “fear of the Lord” (Prov.9:10).

            Folly (fool): the fool places himself at the center of his/her own world. It’s being your own point of reference which causes you to make determinations and reach conclusions independent of God.

            Essentially, this is life that is being formed and informed from the wrong premise… “there is no God” (Psalm 14:1).

Wisdom literature offers us a glimpse of who we were meant to be and the kind of life that we were meant to experience.

The proverbs sees our choices (or, the way we actually conduct our lives) as the most real thing about you. Therefore, living wisely is the most spiritual thing that you can do.

Wisdom is God’s invitation for us to stop living such self-defeating, self-destructive lives.

Wisdom doesn’t just tell us what to do, but helps us to see the connection between our heart, our choices and the outcome of our lives.

Wisdom allows us to affect our future choices so that we might actually avoid the damage. Wisdom says, “You don’t have to learn everything the hard way.”

● Over the years, I have been privileged to interact with people in the various seasons of their lives (i.e. birth, baptism, soccer games, school plays, graduation, weddings, illness, surgeries, death).

            In a great many circumstances, I have encountered people as they experienced human dysfunctionality, in its varying degrees.

● Admittedly, much of which I have felt woefully inadequate to address; hesitant to offer some clichéd approach or pad answer (“Let go and let God”), but also not desiring that they leave in despair. “Yeah, Phil thinks I’m hopeless, too”.

● As I listened to some, the addictive behavior that they were experiencing seemed to be a valid response given the depth of their pain and woundedness (“I’m surprised you’re sober now!”)

            I remember how many times those interactions evoked feelings of utter hopelessness. I recall occasions of physically lifting my hands God-ward and declaring, “I don’t even know where to start.”

● I do recall never wanting to listen with a sense of judgmentalism or condescension, but always with a sense of my own unhealthy tendencies and desperation for grace.

“As the deer pants for the water”, the Psalmist says, “so my soul longs for you” (42:1).  I felt that neither of us would survive without it.

I have come to determine, as well, that apart from some mental disorder that renders us “incompetent”, we are not completely held hostage by our environment or our personal history, no matter how unhealthy or crippling that history may have been.

            There’s always opportunity for “transformation”, no matter how small the window. Grace doesn’t need much space to seep in and initiate the process.

Grace, as I have defined as the movement of God toward us and the movement of God in us.

            Its power is in its vulnerability; its willingness to be ignored or rejected, yet its capacity to alter the human person if embraced. You just have to “recognize” it and be “grateful” for it (Romans 1). Our dilemma started when we said, “No, thank you”, to God.

Grace is always “one-upping” sin.

            “…as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful kindness became more abundant” (Romans 5:20)

            “superabounded”; “exceeded”; “overflowed”. The interesting thing about the word is that besides Paul’s use of it in another letter (2 Cor.7:4), the word is found nowhere else in ancient Greek. It’s as if he made it up!  This is Paul’s, “Oh, yeah?” (‘billion, gajillion, bazillion, catillion’ times more!)

Our sin may impede the flow of grace in our lives, but it can never completely obstructs it!

If we are to realize any success in living wisely, we must learn to understand sin as a “relational term” and not just a legislative one.

I have personally observed that grace is not subject to our discretion. It comes at the most unexpected times, in the most tumultuous circumstances and to the ones we consider least deserving.

            It breaks into our lives like a flower through the asphalt or like a shrub growing from a rock. We are left with no explanations… simply wonder.

God designed us for presence.

            God has always wanted to be with his people. Nothing can ever take the place of presence. We can text, tweet, carry pictures or a momento, but it’s just not the same. Ask anyone who has experienced the loss of someone close to them and they’ll tell you: “It’s just not the same without them here. I just miss them being here.”

● But, to be present with someone always speaks of both interest and interaction. It doesn’t just mean proximity.

            From the very beginning, God is portrayed as present, involved, interacting with all of creation, not as some impersonal cosmic force, but as a personal Creator.

Humanity’s earliest recollections are of God.

All around is trace-evidence of our Creator.

● It was to be this presence that established our identity; that shaped our sense of value and worth; that determined for us ultimate reality. He was to be what mattered most to us. Whatever else these are, they are acts of worship(attaching worth). Everyone worships.

 “No other gods but me…” (Exodus 20).

Life either nourishes or squelches those desires.

            They either get suppressed or we are encouraged toward discovery, but they never go away.

It’s interesting how, in our culture, we identify this limitless self-indulgence as “freedom”.

Freedom, we’re convinced, is somehow connected to the pursuit of unrestrained pleasure. That journey becomes insatiable, with each new pursuit leaving us wanting more, until all of our energies are expended on that which ultimately enslaves!

It simultaneously champions our ‘free will’ and ‘enslaves us’ (strips us of freedom).

In Eden (delight), humanity was truly free, but became convinced they were limited. Now, we are enslaved, but convinced that we are free.

            If left to ourselves, we will create the very circumstances (lifestyle) which enslave us.

Admittedly, it’s hard to live freely.

Solomon discovered that freedom is not undenied pleasures nor unrestrained self-indulgence. He would describe it as “chasing after the wind” (Eccl.2:10-11).

We speak of freedom as ‘life without restraint’; the Bible speaks of freedom as ‘life constrained by love’.

                Everyone “doin’ their own thing’ is fine when it comes to the omelet bar, but it’s anarchy and chaos when it we take that approach to life.

But, this love can only inspire us; it cannot manipulate or coerce a response, or by nature, it is not love.

We were created for freedom, not independence.

The entire story of the nation of Israel is the journey from captivity (enslavement) to freedom. Their prime-narrative is the “Exodus”.

            As we track with them, it becomes apparent that, most often, they couldn’t handle freedom, but they knew they were not designed for enslavement.

“Let my people go so that they might worship me” (Exodus 10:3)

            Not, “Cut ‘em loose so they can run free and find themselves”, but, “Free them to detach themselves from all that inhibited them from experiencing real life.”

Only in love do we discover freedom without boundaries.

We are free to forgive without keeping track of the wrongs done to us. We are free to serve without feeling belittled. We are free to give without fearing inadequacy. With love, the possibilities are limitless.