The Dirty Work of Forgiveness

Ah, forgiveness.  There is nothing sweeter to receive when we need it and nothing harder to give when someone else does.
In the prayer that Jesus taught the disciples, it is assumed the we forgive those who owe us, "forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us", yet so often we neglect or skim over this inconvenient part.
You may even be reading this and think, "Of course I skim over it, I'm on good terms with pretty much everybody.  I don't hold any deep-seated resentment towards anyone, but I really should share this article with ______ ."  But before you check out, consider for a moment that this may apply to all of us.  With our (specifically my) habit of stuffing our feelings, this forgiveness that God asks us to do sometimes requires that we do a little dumpster diving into our own hearts  to see what's been compacted and shoved down to the bottom.

Contrary to our "follow your heart" culture, the Bible doesn't actually teach that our human hearts are naturally beautiful things on their own, that should be listened to and followed;  It teaches us something that tracks far more truly with our daily experience, that our hearts and deceitful and wicked beyond reckoning.  So to plumb the depths of it is not for the faint and cowardly.  You will find hideous monsters there that make Shelob look like a household pet.  Unforgiveness multiplied by time and producing the offspring of anger and resentment.  Lust left alone in the dark, untouched by the disinfecting light of Christ multiplies like parasitic mushrooms into shame, selfishness and isolation.

It is only when we see our hearts as they are, full of utter depravity and worship of self that we begin to scratch the surface of what's been forgiven us by Christ.  Only then, when we realize what He fully and completely paid for on the cross and continues to clean up in us each day that we have the abundant thankfulness required to forgive our fellow sinners when their sin-sick hearts bump into and injure our sin-sick hearts.  It is only out of our own overwhelming realization of Christ's love for us that this same love is able to overflow onto those around us.

Earlier, I called forgiveness inconvenient, but it's far more than inconvenient, its downright painful, hard and completely impossible in our own strength.  But it's worth it.  It's worth the hard work and tears as we take our Savior's hand and say, "Not my will but Yours; In my weakness, You are strong, show me how to love like You do."

Giving to the Ungrateful

Luke 6:35-36
But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.  Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

Wait, what?  Jesus, are you seriously asking us to not only love our enemies, but to love our ungrateful and undeserving enemies who aren’t instantly converted to loving us by our generosity? Even the ones that won’t send a thank you note??? And maybe still hate us afterwards???  Gasp!  
So, we can go with You on the loving people and being kind to your neighbor stuff because our culture is cool with that (largely because of your influence on it) BUT this love your ungrateful enemy stuff, you’re reaaaaally making us go out on a limb here!

EXACTLY.  God’s Word ALWAYS calls us to more that we are capable of.  Not in a “you’ll never be good enough for me” sort of a way, but in a “you’ll always need to be holding my hand to do the things I ask you to do” sort of way.

 “Giving Tuesday” was this week and many millions of Americans participated and gave to very worthy causes that are doing amazing things and many other millions of Americans that did not participate are already intentionally giving to organizations that are doing great things for their fellow humans and the world that we were put in charge of managing.  Most of these groups we supported yesterday have excellent bookkeeping and effectiveness ratings which let us know that our dollars are being spent effectively and stewarded well.  

But what about this “love your ungrateful enemy” business, do we still give time, talent, treasure and toothpaste to those places that won’t throw a gala in our honor?  To those people that might not say thank you, but instead cuss us out with new phrases we’ve never heard before?  That coworker that sabotages us at every turn?  I think that the words that came out of the mouth of our Savior and Creator of Heaven and Earth that holds all matter together by His will says “yes”.  

Scripture also mentions that we should be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves.  I’m not saying that you shouldn’t research charities and try to be a good steward of the money that God has entrusted to you.  There is good scriptural basis for doing that.  

I think what Jesus is telling us here is that our generosity needs to also extend to a few hopeless people that may never get their life on track, a few bottomless pits, a few lost causes.  Because when we do this, we are doing what he did for each and every one of us when we were lost (dead) in our sins and couldn’t help ourselves (Romans 5:10- Enemies-->Friends), and when we do this, we look a little bit more like Jesus.

Prickly Escape Routes

Many people are familiar with the promise in 1 Corinthians 10:13:

"No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful, and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape so that you are able to bear it."  

This is where the common, if slightly questionable, phrase: "God won't give you anything you can't handle" comes from.  But many of us find ourselves in situations where we know we are in over our heads so this verse seems a little naive to us.  But if you look back, the part we focus on, of course, is the section talking about the part we play. On second glance we notice it is sandwiched between, "God is faithful" and "He will also provide a way of escape" both of which describe what His part is in all of this.

So...what do we KNOW?

1) We KNOW that God promises to provide a way of escape when we are tempted, so it will definitely be there.  There will always be a release valve when we feel pressured to go against what God has told us to do.
2) We KNOW that He is faithful.


So, what is this "way of escape" you ask?  Well, as anyone who's been alive for more than 5 minutes knows, it's not typically a paved, pot-hole-free super-highway.  It often looks MUCH scarier than the way we know is wrong.  

Finding the Escape Route:
In so many situations, escape requires someone to sacrifice.  In our Ultimate Escape from sin and its consequences, the Great Jailbreak was only accomplished through Christ's sacrifice on the cross and resurrection.

I think it may be the same principle, reenacted in miniature each time we face sin ourselves. Sometimes it seems that we are only given a way of escape through thistle bushes and locust trees!  But make no mistake, we will walk out of that temptation one way or another.  

We will either choose to believe the enemy of our souls and walk out of a temptation in the way he recommends, choosing his way of escape for us (hint: no real escape at all, its just a tunnel leading back into the prison) or holding the hand of our loving, rescuing Father as he leads us out into greater and more abundant Life.  There is no contest.

So the next time we face temptation and there seems to be know way out but to give in, may we all take a second look and choose the way out, no matter how prickly the path seems.

Walking by Faith, Halley's comet, and the Law of Conservation

We humans are a pretty self-focused lot, no surprise here.  We tend to think because something isn't happening in our life, it means that it can't happen.  You know, because the universe revolves and exists within our experience of it. Right? Right?  

Thinking ourselves very scientific, we create a "law" based on our observations.  We have a million observed laws, Law of Conservation of Singleness, Law of Conservation of Barrenness, Law of Conservation of Weakness, Law of Conservation of Sickness, Law of Conservation of Addiction.  Whatever our personal Law is, EVERYthing we've seen, observed, and measured points to the validity of our hypothesis, which we've now convinced ourselves is a law of nature.  As a defense mechanism against our own disappointment, we teach ourselves not to hope for anything more than what we can see.  

But we have to ask ourselves, what about Halley's comet? (Uh oh, she's really lost it this time...where is this going exactly?) Stick with me here.  What if the comet's failure to show up in the night's sky each day made someone disbelieve in its existence?  What if they'd heard about others seeing it but never actually seen it themselves?
Here's the thing with Halley's comet, it shows up exactly when it supposed to, once every 74-79 years.  Right on time.  I feel like the timing of God is like that.  We hear about other people getting the things we pray for but we don't see it in our own lives, so we assume that it can't happen.  We choose to believe only what is directly in front of our own faces, without regard for the way God has moved in the lives of others around us and throughout history.  So lets try something new, lets stop assuming facts not in evidence and do a little more investigation into the character of God before we assume that He's going to disappoint us.  Let's investigate his faithfulness throughout history like good little scientists and stop making assumptions based on small sample sizes.  

God, please help our unbelief, help us walk by faith in Your ability to act and not by sight.  We are not stronger people for resigning to the assumption that You will not act on our behalf, that resignation and disbelief makes us weaker people.  Not fully realizing the life of faith and wonder you've called us to.  Lord, we don't need a meteor shower every day, we are trusting you for that one comet that you send, in your timing.   Thank you Lord for your steadfast love shown to us through Jesus. Amen. (Let it be so)

Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. Hebrews 11:1

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. Ecc. 3:11

Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! Ps. 27:14

What USBs teach us about trust...

Let me start by acknowledging that I may have waded off too deep in the electronic allegory pool this time, but here we go.

I noticed the other night that the first time I plugged my phone into the USB charger on my laptop, it asks me if I trust the computer.  Am I willing to share my photos, notes, and such with it?  The first time it asks, but the second time, it doesn't bother asking.  It just assumed that the walls preventing communication need to stay up and it just needs to get what it needs from the arrangement.  The phone just needs power.  So they sit side by side, seemingly connected via a cord but without a very meaningful connection, just harvesting the minimum benefit from the relationship.  They can't back each other up if the other one suffers data loss or trauma.  They are both on their own when the going gets tough.  

True, there is a risk in trusting that laptop, it could have a virus or try to update you and make changes.  But what if that update saves battery life and gives you access to new applications you never knew could exist?  Is the connection worth the update and the new possibilities worth the risk?

What are your connections like?  Are you sharing and updating with others or are you settling for simply getting a temporary charge?  Do you need to reset and select "Trust"?