Aufedersein (Our Feet are the Same)

Some observations from II Corinthians 5:


We've been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies! The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what's ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we'll never settle for less.

I can't tell you how many times that Hunk O Man and I have looked at each other and said "It just doesn't get any better than this, does it?"  Not on this earth, maybe.  But what a gift to get just a taste of what is to come!

If I acted crazy, I did it for God; if I acted overly serious, I did it for you. Christ's love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do.

So it's all your fault.  Metaphorically speaking.

 ^14-15Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.

So knock it off with all this "my Dad can beat up your Dad" nonsense.  (So to speak.  With laughter.)

^16-20Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore. 

What a relief.  We're all the same.  The ground at the foot of the cross is level.

Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. 

So let's get to it, shall we?

xoxoxox

Sorry, I Have No Idea. Actually, I Don't Work Here.

I often walk through a store (usually Wal-Mart, since that's pretty much all there is where I live) and pick up things.  I don't mean things to buy -- I mean things that have fallen on the floor.  I also put the clothing back on the racks when it's fallen down, and even put pieces of clothing with others of its kind when it's out of place.  I pick up trash and throw it away.  I pick up the odd things stuck in the checkout stands and give them to the cashier to put away.

I am just one amazingly conscientious person, aren't I?  Giving and generous with no thought to myself.

Wow, humble too.  I even amaze myself.

Did I mention that I often say to myself, "What is the matter with people these days?" and "Who works here, anyway?  Do they actually work?  Do they pay any attention to the way this store looks?  Well apparently not.  Jeesh, look at this place.  I don't even work here and I'm doing this."

I recently remembered an incident in my past.  A boyfriend at the time (who proved to be a complete jerk -- but apparently now is a pretty nice, good person) noticed a garden hose outside my apartment.  It had not been wound up and put away.  He asked why not.

To which I replied, "How should I know?  It's not my hose."

He then said "Well who cares whose hose it is?  Somebody should put it away!  And especially you if it isn't your hose!"

I then thought "gosh, what's the matter with me?"

I then thought "who does he think he is, anyway?"

Well, even though he and I and pretty much everyone I knew at the time who was my age were all jerks, he was right.  I should have been even more concerned about that hose because it didn't belong to me.

I have such high ideals for myself, my family, my life.  I try to example Jesus in my life.  The problem is that while I think it's a great idea and it will make me look good, my motivation is often suspect.  Or if I were actually honest with myself, I'd have to admit that my motivation pretty much negates the whole action.

And this just goes to show you that no matter how close to God we think we're getting, there is still a vast chasm between us and Him.  All the more reason to believe that it doesn't matter how good we are.  It still won't get us to heaven.

And I am certainly no better than those people who left this stuff all over.  Maybe they were having a crisis, or dealing with unruly children, or in a hurry and late, or maybe they didn't even notice the thing fell down.  Or they were too shy and insecure to admit to a cashier that they just didn't want that thing they brought to the register.

Ah, the benefit of the doubt.  I want it but I don't want to extend it.  Shame on me.

And once again, thank God for His amazing grace.  I have to go to Wal-Mart right now, and I think I'm going to need it.

xoxoxox

Patterns and Fractals

As most of you who regularly read this know, I'm a full-time student now. One of my classes is Biology I.

This class has nearly killed me. But, I'm getting pretty close to an A, so I suppose death by Biology has its rewards. Hunk O Man is fond of saying "there's no one more motivated than a 50-year old college student."

This Bio class is a "hybrid," meaning simply this: you have to teach yourself. Most of it is offered online; we only meet once a month to take exams and hand in homework. If I didn't meet with a study group and do the labs, I'd be completely lost. This is not the kind of stuff you can always figure out on your own.

One of the assignments we regularly have is to go to the computer lab and either watch a DVD or a powerpoint presentation that addresses the current chapter. So yesterday, I decided to get all of them done for this particular set of chapters. And one was a DVD, about 30 minutes long, about cancer. We've learned all about cells -- now we're onto how the cells divide and grow, and why.

So I'm sitting in this tiny little room, alone, watching this DVD about cancer. There's a guy on it who's an expert, and who is also expert at putting everything into very plain language. He was talking about cancer cells, and how they work.

So he brought up some natural defenses we have in our bodies, called tumor-suppressor genes, which act like an emergency brake on the cancer cells. He also talked about how the cells in our body work together to accomplish a task, like building and maintaining a tissue, or organ. There's no central government telling them how to build, but each has DNA -- a copy of the blueprint -- and each one does their job.

Cancer cells, however, don't work according to the blueprint. They go off and do their own thing, running rampant in a chaotic way.

And something kind of ding went off in my mind --

Interesting thought: when sin came into the world, it may have been environmental. Adam and Eve were created sinless, and we know that sin is "passed down," i.e., we are born into sin, as Paul states. But what if sin was introduced into the world as something in our environment -- at a cellular or molecular level (or even smaller, probably) -- which got into us when we had to eat, or touch something? Once we did that, some cells broke off and did their own thing. We began to die, because death is the result of sin. We slowly break down and crumble back into the stuff of which we're made -- and maybe sooner if we get cancer.

Are you seeing the pattern here that I saw? God creates the world, then people mess it up. God creates our cells, then cancer screws them up. The bad stuff was always there, but it wasn't allowed in until we invited it, foolish folk that we all are.

In the end, it's all just the effects of sin, and going against God. But I love the way He reveals these little things everywhere. I like to play seek-and-find games on my computer. But it's even better when I'm playing them with God, and He shows me a pattern like this.

xoxox

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Lessons?

So I'm reading along today in I Corinthians 10, and I come across this, Paul talking about lessons from the past and the way the Israelites really screwed up:

• But just experiencing God's wonder and grace didn't seem to mean much—most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased.
• 6-10The same thing could happen to us. We must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way as they did. And we must not turn our religion into a circus as they did—"First the people partied, then they threw a dance." We must not be sexually promiscuous—they paid for that, remember, with 23,000 deaths in one day! We must never try to get Christ to serve us instead of us serving him; they tried it, and God launched an epidemic of poisonous snakes. We must be careful not to stir up discontent; discontent destroyed them.
• 11-12These are all warning markers—danger!—in our history books, written down so that we don't repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at the end—and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were.
• Don't be so naive and self-confident. You're not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it's useless. Cultivate God-confidence.
• 13No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it.
• 14So, my very dear friends, when you see people reducing God to something they can use or control, get out of their company as fast as you can.

I know, it's a long passage. But so chock full of great stuff!

That said, I have a question. Why is this so hard for us to learn?


In my life, I always have believed that I would never fall prey to some sins. They were too big, or so terrible that I could never imagine myself committing them. I had a strong faith and good relationships with God and others. How could anything that bad happen? I knew what the bible said, and I knew that technically I could commit one of those sins, but really -- what were the chances? It was like those experts they put on the witness stands in movies -- they make them admit that there might possibly be a one-millionth of one percent chance that this or that could happen.


HOWEVER . . . I have sections of my life that I'd just like to cut out and throw into some kind of eternal fire that leaves no ashes or evidence of any kind. I'd like to go back in time and have a re-do. Where is the eraser? I look back at those times and I marvel at the person I was -- totally unrecognizable. I think to myself 'that wasn't me. Who was that person?'


Well, it was me, and there you go. None of us -- no powerful politician, no respected pastor, no wonderful parent that loves you, no sibling with a perfect marriage -- nobody is exempt. It may be a shock to learn that they've done some horrible thing, but then again -- why? Aren't we all susceptible?


That's why Paul warns us to be on our guard. Essentially, he tells us to never say never. He's so right! How I wish I didn't know this so personally! It is naive to think that we are somehow put in a special group of folks that will never do some big bad thing. Sometimes, we get so damaged by our circumstances that we become a person that nobody recognizes anymore as us. We do things we never thought we'd even think of doing.


And let's not forget that Satan is always looking to exploit any weakness, any little cracks in our walls. A little tiny crack in a dam can be responsible for an entire lake flooding a very, very big area and doing one heap of a lot of damage.


I know all too well that the ground at the foot of the cross is level. Nobody is better than anybody else. I live every day thankful that I have a God who loves me that much, and who empowers others to love me that much as well. And I do little checks with myself from time to time -- any cracks in the dam? Any stresses of life that are pushing me toward some big bad sin? Any thoughts coming in too often and lingering too long? Any junk that needs clearing out in my heart? Any pride rising up in my, only to go before the fall?


So this is me, today, cultivating God-confidence, knowing that the next step could be a stumble. The words "My gracious Redeemer, My Saviour art thou, If ever I loved Thee, My Jesus it's now" couldn't be more true . . .


xoxox