Driving along the south shore of Lake Crescent in mid October is an awesome experience. The yellows scattered across the green hillsides reflect across the water. The water is still as glass. The hills, the greens, and the yellows in the bright sunlight like the original Impressionist canvas. Every turn brings on a new vista, but I whip past the turnouts and picture opportunities because I’m on a mission. I don’t have time to stop!
Climbing out of the Lake Crescent basin gouged by an ancient river of ice, we hit the reds dabbed across the hillsides. We oh and ah, but, I’m on a mission. No time for a picture! We gotta get there! Perhaps on the way home they sun will still be out and there’ll be time.
We conclude our visit and head home in the late afternoon, still in daylight. However, while were inside the Big House with our friend, the clouds had rolled in from the ocean. I stop at chosen spots for pictures of the firestorm on the hillsides and roadsides. By the time we get to Lake Crescent, however, the brilliant colors are faded in the fast growing twilight. A light breeze on the water has ruffled the surface. Although we stop at a few places, I’ve passed every opportunity for capturing that most glorious the original Impressionist’s artwork.
God used this picture to remind me of one of the themes He has been working into my life lately. The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable. Too often in life I’m in a hurry. I whip by opportunities to slow down and capture what He is doing. I delay doing until the clouds of struggle have obscured the opportunity or the stress has ruffled the waters of my day. When I’m stressed, when I’m struggling, when I’m hurrying, I can’t see the reflection and beauty as clearly. When I’m stressed, when I’m struggling, Jesus’ reflection gets obscured and I miss out on the beauty He is painting for me to enjoy. It is all still there. I just don’t see it as vividly. The clouds of circumstances obscure His light, so I see more darkly. I miss what He wants me to enjoy. His peace will slow me down, unruffled my waters, and reflect the reds, yellows, and greens as I pass through life. Not only will I enjoy it more, so will those who see God painting in me.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Nuts!
In one of the more memorable scenes from WWII, the American 101st Airborne found themselves surrounded by German troops at the small Belgian crossroads town of Bastogne. Confronted with a demand for surrender, General Anthony McAuliffe gave a famous one word answer, “Nuts!”
According to the Bible, we are in a spiritual battle and “Nuts” doesn’t sound like a very good answer. 3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. (2 Corinthians 10:3) 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. (Ephesians 6:11).
We often find ourselves surrounded by conflict and struggle. Images of war flood our TV screens, radio newscasts, and newspaper headlines. And, then, there are the “culture wars”, conflicts over what philosophy of life will govern our laws, morals, and media. Political conflicts rage over issues like abortion on demand, health care, immigration reform, taxes. Our neighborhoods and schools often seem like war zones, with bullies and shootings sowing fear. The battle even invades our homes: conflicts in our marriages dissolve the family structure. Parent-child conflicts erupt and tear at the fabric of our families.
The great danger for us, however, is to be mistaken in who we are fighting, how we are fighting, and what it will take to win in this spiritual conflict.
Paul is clear that it is not people we are fighting when he says, 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
People are the victims of the battle not the enemy. In all these arenas, spiritual forces are the enemy. It is not the drug dealer, the pro-death politician, the greedy salesman, the brain washing rapper, the selfish mate who is the enemy. They are the victims of the spiritual forces fighting against God. But, even bigger than the culture wars, there is the internal war for control of our own mind and heart that Paul labels as strongholds in 2 Corinthians 10. Negative thinking, fears, addictions, self-indulgence, greed all sink their hooks into us to pull us away from the life God intends us to enjoy.
And, because our enemies are spiritual, not human, our weapons can’t be what the world uses. The world uses physical weapons, political gambits, persuasive words imbedded in catchy tunes to fight their battles. The world uses the ballot box, the petition, letter writing campaigns, the editorial pages and the switchboards of our legislators to fight the battle.
God, however, calls us to use spiritual weapons to fight the battle: Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand (Eph. 6:13). Paul goes on to mention truth, righteousness, sharing the good news, faith, the Bible, and prayer as weapons we use. In addition, God uses our loving good works (Matthew 5:16) and our attitude under trial (2 Corinthians 4:7-12) to break through in the battle for our minds and hearts.
Winning is more than just saying “Nuts”! It is yielding to God’s Spirit and God’s Word and letting them loose in our lives to set us free… if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed John 8:36.
According to the Bible, we are in a spiritual battle and “Nuts” doesn’t sound like a very good answer. 3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. (2 Corinthians 10:3) 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. (Ephesians 6:11).
We often find ourselves surrounded by conflict and struggle. Images of war flood our TV screens, radio newscasts, and newspaper headlines. And, then, there are the “culture wars”, conflicts over what philosophy of life will govern our laws, morals, and media. Political conflicts rage over issues like abortion on demand, health care, immigration reform, taxes. Our neighborhoods and schools often seem like war zones, with bullies and shootings sowing fear. The battle even invades our homes: conflicts in our marriages dissolve the family structure. Parent-child conflicts erupt and tear at the fabric of our families.
The great danger for us, however, is to be mistaken in who we are fighting, how we are fighting, and what it will take to win in this spiritual conflict.
Paul is clear that it is not people we are fighting when he says, 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
People are the victims of the battle not the enemy. In all these arenas, spiritual forces are the enemy. It is not the drug dealer, the pro-death politician, the greedy salesman, the brain washing rapper, the selfish mate who is the enemy. They are the victims of the spiritual forces fighting against God. But, even bigger than the culture wars, there is the internal war for control of our own mind and heart that Paul labels as strongholds in 2 Corinthians 10. Negative thinking, fears, addictions, self-indulgence, greed all sink their hooks into us to pull us away from the life God intends us to enjoy.
And, because our enemies are spiritual, not human, our weapons can’t be what the world uses. The world uses physical weapons, political gambits, persuasive words imbedded in catchy tunes to fight their battles. The world uses the ballot box, the petition, letter writing campaigns, the editorial pages and the switchboards of our legislators to fight the battle.
God, however, calls us to use spiritual weapons to fight the battle: Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand (Eph. 6:13). Paul goes on to mention truth, righteousness, sharing the good news, faith, the Bible, and prayer as weapons we use. In addition, God uses our loving good works (Matthew 5:16) and our attitude under trial (2 Corinthians 4:7-12) to break through in the battle for our minds and hearts.
Winning is more than just saying “Nuts”! It is yielding to God’s Spirit and God’s Word and letting them loose in our lives to set us free… if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed John 8:36.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Serving is the New Sexy
OK, now that I have your attention, I’m not talking about showing skin on the food line of the local homeless feeding ministry. One meaning for the word “sexy” is “generally attractive or interesting, appealing” according to www.Merriam-Webster.com.. So, I’m saying that serving rather than talking is what the world sees is attractive about Christianity. The world generally rejects the message of Christ because they feel that Christians are condemning and critical of others while ignoring their own lovelessness toward gays and people of other religions. However, when the world sees Christians acting loving, they give new credence to the gospel message.
And, right here is where we run into a problem: Too easily churches develop sitters, not servers. If all we do is come to the weekend service, week after week, soaking up what is in some cases gourmet preaching, we may be infected with a disease called “spectatorism.” One author says, Spectatorism generally creates flabby, weak, spoon-fed believers who have grown old, but not up, in the Lord.
Yes, sometimes the best way to serve people is to tell them the Good News that Jesus can make a difference in their lives. The good news that God accepts us and forgives us changes the lives of Khmer Rouge Murderers, of Indian low castes, of empty hearted communists in East Asian countries, and drunken fathers who are drinking up all their children’s food money in order to find peace. Sometimes the good news is the best way you can meet someone’s needs, because the Good News does change lives as well as eternity.
But, the Matthew version of the Great Commission tells us to teach people to Keep the commands. That feels more like action than talking. Keep has a custodial flavor—We are given "custody" of the message that Jesus is good news, and Jesus in us is how He intends to touch the world. Our Message that Jesus is in us presumes that we will Serve with it. The only way Jesus can touch the world, heal the world, feed the world, show compassion on the world is through His body. We are His body, His instrument to touch a hurting and hopeless world. We are the only good news that many will ever see.
Serving is being the good news, being Jesus to a pain filled and broken world. The Bible includes serving in how we SHARE the good news: Peter tells us in his first letter to use whatever gift we have received to serve others (I Peter 4:10). Twice in Titus 3 and in Eph. 2:10, Paul says that God brought us into His forever family so we would be devoted to doing good. In Galatians 2:10, Paul says that there was only one thing that the Apostles asked him to do when he went to the Gentiles: to continue to remember the poor. Peter tells us to 1 Pet. 2:12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God
To often the pain of life shouts louder than our words and people can’t hear the good news until they see the good news. But, when they see the good news working in us, changing us, unleashing us from being anchored to our houses and toys, and connecting us to the hurting, hopeless, and disheartened in practical love in action, they find that Christians are attractive. Former atheist and now Christian author, Lee Strobel, says, “when we put our love into tangible action as Jesus modeled…this can open up the hardest of hearts otherwise impervious to the message of Christ.”
And, right here is where we run into a problem: Too easily churches develop sitters, not servers. If all we do is come to the weekend service, week after week, soaking up what is in some cases gourmet preaching, we may be infected with a disease called “spectatorism.” One author says, Spectatorism generally creates flabby, weak, spoon-fed believers who have grown old, but not up, in the Lord.
Yes, sometimes the best way to serve people is to tell them the Good News that Jesus can make a difference in their lives. The good news that God accepts us and forgives us changes the lives of Khmer Rouge Murderers, of Indian low castes, of empty hearted communists in East Asian countries, and drunken fathers who are drinking up all their children’s food money in order to find peace. Sometimes the good news is the best way you can meet someone’s needs, because the Good News does change lives as well as eternity.
But, the Matthew version of the Great Commission tells us to teach people to Keep the commands. That feels more like action than talking. Keep has a custodial flavor—We are given "custody" of the message that Jesus is good news, and Jesus in us is how He intends to touch the world. Our Message that Jesus is in us presumes that we will Serve with it. The only way Jesus can touch the world, heal the world, feed the world, show compassion on the world is through His body. We are His body, His instrument to touch a hurting and hopeless world. We are the only good news that many will ever see.
Serving is being the good news, being Jesus to a pain filled and broken world. The Bible includes serving in how we SHARE the good news: Peter tells us in his first letter to use whatever gift we have received to serve others (I Peter 4:10). Twice in Titus 3 and in Eph. 2:10, Paul says that God brought us into His forever family so we would be devoted to doing good. In Galatians 2:10, Paul says that there was only one thing that the Apostles asked him to do when he went to the Gentiles: to continue to remember the poor. Peter tells us to 1 Pet. 2:12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God
To often the pain of life shouts louder than our words and people can’t hear the good news until they see the good news. But, when they see the good news working in us, changing us, unleashing us from being anchored to our houses and toys, and connecting us to the hurting, hopeless, and disheartened in practical love in action, they find that Christians are attractive. Former atheist and now Christian author, Lee Strobel, says, “when we put our love into tangible action as Jesus modeled…this can open up the hardest of hearts otherwise impervious to the message of Christ.”
Friday, October 2, 2009
Share It!
The Great Commission is about making disciples. And making disciples involves teaching them to keep whatever I have commanded them. In other words, following Christ’s last words on earth gives us custody of a world changing message—Share it!
The Acts 1:8 version of the Great commission says God will make us His witnesses, to tell what we have experienced. Words are part of what we use to witness.
The Mark 16:15 version of the great commission says to share the Good News. The first church, in Acts 8:4, when chased out of Jerusalem by persecution, preached the word wherever they went. Sharing the good news generally goes verbal in some way.
Sharing the good news is part of what we do with the great commission. And, while words are usually part of sharing, there are multiple ways to sensitively share in a world that rejects verbal Christians as offensive. My friend Paul just returned from a trip to England, Northern Ireland, and Wales. On the train in Wales, he spied a sign that said, ‘NO SOLICITATIONS!” A man got off the train in front of him, opened his satchel, and pulled out a pile of calendars to hand out. He wasn’t soliciting. He was giving. The calendar was contextualized for Wales, about sheep, and animals, with Bible verses that shared the good news.
Perhaps handing out a calendar with pictures and verses on it isn’t your style. However, sharing that message of GOD LOVES; GOD GIVES; WE BELIEVE; WE RECEIVE (John 3:16) is vital…because we live in a world that is rapidly becoming Biblically illiterate. Many Christians suppose that just doing loving things is witness enough. However, Buddhists are good people. Muslims do good deeds. Our society values doing good deeds, even setting aside weeks and days to “make a difference.” In fact, doing good is how most people think they are going to get to heaven. All the religions in the world suppose that God grades on the curve. Their religious efforts to do good are attempts to make themselves acceptable for the next life. People don’t know the good news that God has already sent Jesus to make them acceptable for the next life…they just have to accept Him. People don’t know the good news, so we need to be prepared to tell it.
But, how do you share it without an argument? One way is to write out your story of how God has worked in your life (your witness). Print some copies to give to friends and family. Include how you responded to the good news. Generally, people will listen respectfully to someone’s story as long as it doesn’t turn into condemnation or a sermon. It might open the door of their heart to find Jesus, too.
Another way is to ask people to read the good news for themselves. Give them a modern version of the Gospel of John, and ask them for their honest opinion of what they read. Don’t argue. Just ask them if they have what John talks about in 20:31.
And, of course, when someone asks you why you are doing something kind for them, be ready to “give an answer for the hope that is within you.” Tell them it is because Jesus is living in you and loves you that you want to pass His love along, that you hope they can experience His love, too.
The Acts 1:8 version of the Great commission says God will make us His witnesses, to tell what we have experienced. Words are part of what we use to witness.
The Mark 16:15 version of the great commission says to share the Good News. The first church, in Acts 8:4, when chased out of Jerusalem by persecution, preached the word wherever they went. Sharing the good news generally goes verbal in some way.
Sharing the good news is part of what we do with the great commission. And, while words are usually part of sharing, there are multiple ways to sensitively share in a world that rejects verbal Christians as offensive. My friend Paul just returned from a trip to England, Northern Ireland, and Wales. On the train in Wales, he spied a sign that said, ‘NO SOLICITATIONS!” A man got off the train in front of him, opened his satchel, and pulled out a pile of calendars to hand out. He wasn’t soliciting. He was giving. The calendar was contextualized for Wales, about sheep, and animals, with Bible verses that shared the good news.
Perhaps handing out a calendar with pictures and verses on it isn’t your style. However, sharing that message of GOD LOVES; GOD GIVES; WE BELIEVE; WE RECEIVE (John 3:16) is vital…because we live in a world that is rapidly becoming Biblically illiterate. Many Christians suppose that just doing loving things is witness enough. However, Buddhists are good people. Muslims do good deeds. Our society values doing good deeds, even setting aside weeks and days to “make a difference.” In fact, doing good is how most people think they are going to get to heaven. All the religions in the world suppose that God grades on the curve. Their religious efforts to do good are attempts to make themselves acceptable for the next life. People don’t know the good news that God has already sent Jesus to make them acceptable for the next life…they just have to accept Him. People don’t know the good news, so we need to be prepared to tell it.
But, how do you share it without an argument? One way is to write out your story of how God has worked in your life (your witness). Print some copies to give to friends and family. Include how you responded to the good news. Generally, people will listen respectfully to someone’s story as long as it doesn’t turn into condemnation or a sermon. It might open the door of their heart to find Jesus, too.
Another way is to ask people to read the good news for themselves. Give them a modern version of the Gospel of John, and ask them for their honest opinion of what they read. Don’t argue. Just ask them if they have what John talks about in 20:31.
And, of course, when someone asks you why you are doing something kind for them, be ready to “give an answer for the hope that is within you.” Tell them it is because Jesus is living in you and loves you that you want to pass His love along, that you hope they can experience His love, too.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Dial In Your Mind
When I set my television set to channel 13, I have fixed my attention on the programming from that channel. When I set my radio to the 105.3 frequency, I have fixed my hearing to that station’s music and news. When I set my thermostat, I maintain the room temperature at 70 degrees. When I set my cruise control on 62, the car travels that speed, regardless of the terrain under me (and the vehicles in front of me!!!).
When I set my eyes and attention on obtaining a goal, completing a project, or attaining an accomplishment, my energy and efforts are devoted to that end. That purpose or goal controls my choices and decisions, because I have previously made the choice to focus my energies in that direction. My mind is devoted to channel 13 and misses what is on the other channels because I’ve chosen, I’ve predetermined, what I will watch. My mind determines how I react to my environment, and helps me maintain an even keel no matter what is going on outside.
So, when Paul commands us in Colossians to set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things…we understand that God is calling us to choose to dial into Jesus, to focus our attentions, motivations, energies, efforts, on Him. He becomes the programming of our mind. He becomes the music and news for our day. He determines the direction and speed of our lives, regardless of the terrain or obstacles. With Him as the focus of our attention, we become thankful, peaceful, pure, and humble, like Him. When we are set on Jesus, He gives us the ability to rejoice no matter the storms around us. With Jesus as the focus of our attention, we respond to His commands, example, and warnings. When we dial into Jesus, into heaven, we will be so focused on Him that we will miss some other programming in life, but will never feel deprived…because we have died, and our life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, appears, then we also will appear with Him in glory.
When it says ”You died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God,” it means that we have previously chosen to dial into Jesus. Our choice has been made. Our problem is that we are too often like an FM station that tends to drift off the frequency. Someone bumps us and we find ourselves jiggled over to a focus on our problems and pain instead of the answer to our pain, Jesus. Someone grabs our remote, and begins channel-surfing, and we flit from pleasing others to pleasing self.
And so, we take the remote in hand, and choose to re-set our mind on Jesus, on heaven!
When I set my eyes and attention on obtaining a goal, completing a project, or attaining an accomplishment, my energy and efforts are devoted to that end. That purpose or goal controls my choices and decisions, because I have previously made the choice to focus my energies in that direction. My mind is devoted to channel 13 and misses what is on the other channels because I’ve chosen, I’ve predetermined, what I will watch. My mind determines how I react to my environment, and helps me maintain an even keel no matter what is going on outside.
So, when Paul commands us in Colossians to set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things…we understand that God is calling us to choose to dial into Jesus, to focus our attentions, motivations, energies, efforts, on Him. He becomes the programming of our mind. He becomes the music and news for our day. He determines the direction and speed of our lives, regardless of the terrain or obstacles. With Him as the focus of our attention, we become thankful, peaceful, pure, and humble, like Him. When we are set on Jesus, He gives us the ability to rejoice no matter the storms around us. With Jesus as the focus of our attention, we respond to His commands, example, and warnings. When we dial into Jesus, into heaven, we will be so focused on Him that we will miss some other programming in life, but will never feel deprived…because we have died, and our life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, appears, then we also will appear with Him in glory.
When it says ”You died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God,” it means that we have previously chosen to dial into Jesus. Our choice has been made. Our problem is that we are too often like an FM station that tends to drift off the frequency. Someone bumps us and we find ourselves jiggled over to a focus on our problems and pain instead of the answer to our pain, Jesus. Someone grabs our remote, and begins channel-surfing, and we flit from pleasing others to pleasing self.
And so, we take the remote in hand, and choose to re-set our mind on Jesus, on heaven!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Adventure
A person’s last words reach out and grab us because they are often the most important thing a person wants to get across. Jesus’ last words on earth, His last command, are part of the Main Thing He wants us to make the Main Thing. We call it THE GREAT COMMISSION: 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
The great commission is not about making decisions, not about making attenders, not about making donors or even good church members. The great commission is not about filling seats and offering bags. It is about investing your life in a few people who will invest their lives in a third spiritual generation. When Jesus truly gets inside of us, we embark on the great adventure of making disciples.
The great adventure (wrapped up in the word Go in Matthew 28:19) is not so much about changing location as it is that wherever we are located, we are involved in the adventure of shaping lives for Jesus. God is in charge of our journey, our transfer, our layoff, even the recession that forces relocation or the orders from Uncle Sam. Like the disciples in Acts 8:1, 4, He scatters us so we intersect with new lives who have never heard it before, or never heard it as presented in our life and words. God has designed us so that our lives will be just what others need to understand the good news. God has designed us to that our lives will rub off on others’ lives…and that’s the Great Commission.
God places us where we aren’t comfortable, secure, or even have the American dream—because the main thing is not about getting, it’s about giving. Jesus died take us into dangerous places to fish for men. Adventure may take many forms, but, basically, it is getting us out of our comfort zone—going to the street to serve the hungry, teaching ESL in a community center, risking your health by going to the mission field to live for a few weeks or months. Getting out of our comfort zone may risk our sanity by hanging out in a children's classroom for 90 minutes during a weekend church service. Adventure is welcoming people to the church door, or to your castle gate…letting them in, getting to know them. Now, that’s adventure.
Ask God to help us stop living life defensively, trying to keep what we’ve got. Ask God to help us see life as Adventure! It’s part of this Great Commission thing—the Main Thing!
The great commission is not about making decisions, not about making attenders, not about making donors or even good church members. The great commission is not about filling seats and offering bags. It is about investing your life in a few people who will invest their lives in a third spiritual generation. When Jesus truly gets inside of us, we embark on the great adventure of making disciples.
The great adventure (wrapped up in the word Go in Matthew 28:19) is not so much about changing location as it is that wherever we are located, we are involved in the adventure of shaping lives for Jesus. God is in charge of our journey, our transfer, our layoff, even the recession that forces relocation or the orders from Uncle Sam. Like the disciples in Acts 8:1, 4, He scatters us so we intersect with new lives who have never heard it before, or never heard it as presented in our life and words. God has designed us so that our lives will be just what others need to understand the good news. God has designed us to that our lives will rub off on others’ lives…and that’s the Great Commission.
God places us where we aren’t comfortable, secure, or even have the American dream—because the main thing is not about getting, it’s about giving. Jesus died take us into dangerous places to fish for men. Adventure may take many forms, but, basically, it is getting us out of our comfort zone—going to the street to serve the hungry, teaching ESL in a community center, risking your health by going to the mission field to live for a few weeks or months. Getting out of our comfort zone may risk our sanity by hanging out in a children's classroom for 90 minutes during a weekend church service. Adventure is welcoming people to the church door, or to your castle gate…letting them in, getting to know them. Now, that’s adventure.
Ask God to help us stop living life defensively, trying to keep what we’ve got. Ask God to help us see life as Adventure! It’s part of this Great Commission thing—the Main Thing!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Our Kite Runner
I recently finished The Kite Runner, a gripping piece of fiction about two boys who grow up in Pre-Taliban Afghanistan. Besides grabbing and possessing your thoughts and emotions, Khaled Hosseini, the author, gives you a feel for the background for the present Afghani conflict and a window into various issues. For instance, he reveals the underside of racism and tribalism that underlies modern Afghanistan…one boy is from a privileged tribe, the other is from a hated, abused, slave class. The fact that they are best friends and playmates, unknowingly sharing more than just their country and family estate, evokes echoes of America’s racist past and present.
The core of the story, however, revolves around the relationship between the two boys: the kite flyer and the kite runner (who chases down the prized kites cut loose by his friend) and the guilt that the privileged boy carries into adulthood over standing silently by in the shadows while talibanistic thugs rape his loyal and faithful friend.
The guilt from his inaction grinds through his transition into adulthood and climaxes in an opportunity to “be good again.” The opportunity presents itself in the form of returning to Afghanistan to rescue the orphan son of his childhood friend, now in the clutches of a Taliban warlord. In the process he is beaten into a near lifeless pulp by the warlord and in the beating feels so healed from the guilt and shame of his childhood cowardice that he laughs in the midst of the beating.
This posed for me a question: Is physical suffering really a way to atone for our sins? Is taking a beating really a way to find redemption and freedom from guilt? It was for Ali, the character in the Kite Runner. And, certainly it feels that way for many who suffer in the physical wasteland of drug, alcohol, and other addictions. Sometimes the addiction is a way to drown the pain of guilt and shame. Sometimes it is a sick, sadistic, self-punishment by those who feel that they are worthless because of their guilt and shame. Sometimes people feel they deserve the self-abuse, and it is a way to “pay” for their guilt. Certainly, when our daughter went through her 10 year battle with an eating disorder, self-punishment was one peel of the onion in her addiction. Often children who feel guilt will push for a beating as a way to make themselves feel better…to pay for being bad!
But, do we need to punish ourselves or face punishment to find forgiveness, as the Kite Runner puts it, “to be good again.” Do we need to hurt to pay for our sins? For Ali, the payment for his sins nearly killed him. And, except for a dramatic rescue (which I will leave to your reading) it would have killed him. Do we need to die for our sins? How can we be good again if we die? Does self-punishment really remove guilt?
The Bible is clear that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Guilt, shame, internal pain…all are parts of this death…but God neither wants us to stay in that pain nor pay to escape it…because we can’t pay for it ourselves. Jesus is the one who took our punishment, so we could go free. The Bible is clear…1 John 1:7 the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. Heb. 9:14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
In fact, Jesus is our Kite Runner…the one who rescues us, saying, for you, a thousand times over.
The core of the story, however, revolves around the relationship between the two boys: the kite flyer and the kite runner (who chases down the prized kites cut loose by his friend) and the guilt that the privileged boy carries into adulthood over standing silently by in the shadows while talibanistic thugs rape his loyal and faithful friend.
The guilt from his inaction grinds through his transition into adulthood and climaxes in an opportunity to “be good again.” The opportunity presents itself in the form of returning to Afghanistan to rescue the orphan son of his childhood friend, now in the clutches of a Taliban warlord. In the process he is beaten into a near lifeless pulp by the warlord and in the beating feels so healed from the guilt and shame of his childhood cowardice that he laughs in the midst of the beating.
This posed for me a question: Is physical suffering really a way to atone for our sins? Is taking a beating really a way to find redemption and freedom from guilt? It was for Ali, the character in the Kite Runner. And, certainly it feels that way for many who suffer in the physical wasteland of drug, alcohol, and other addictions. Sometimes the addiction is a way to drown the pain of guilt and shame. Sometimes it is a sick, sadistic, self-punishment by those who feel that they are worthless because of their guilt and shame. Sometimes people feel they deserve the self-abuse, and it is a way to “pay” for their guilt. Certainly, when our daughter went through her 10 year battle with an eating disorder, self-punishment was one peel of the onion in her addiction. Often children who feel guilt will push for a beating as a way to make themselves feel better…to pay for being bad!
But, do we need to punish ourselves or face punishment to find forgiveness, as the Kite Runner puts it, “to be good again.” Do we need to hurt to pay for our sins? For Ali, the payment for his sins nearly killed him. And, except for a dramatic rescue (which I will leave to your reading) it would have killed him. Do we need to die for our sins? How can we be good again if we die? Does self-punishment really remove guilt?
The Bible is clear that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Guilt, shame, internal pain…all are parts of this death…but God neither wants us to stay in that pain nor pay to escape it…because we can’t pay for it ourselves. Jesus is the one who took our punishment, so we could go free. The Bible is clear…1 John 1:7 the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. Heb. 9:14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
In fact, Jesus is our Kite Runner…the one who rescues us, saying, for you, a thousand times over.
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