Last week some friends had a baby. I know this happens all over the world all the time, but this was their first - always special - and she is a miracle baby. Without going into the details or story, baby Grace is a gift of God. Her birth capped off a week for us as our youngest child graduated high school and our daughter was accepted to medical school, all of which caused me to be thankful for the goodness and grace of God.
This isn't to suggest that there haven't been challenging and difficult times through the school years, or that there won't be more to come. Life is full of struggles and battles, joys and celebrations, dark nights of the soul and glorious breaking dawns. Life is what it is, and through it all is the goodness and grace of God.
Paul wrote, 'I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.' (Phil. 4:11-13 NIV) Despite revisionist attempts to make this affirmation of trust in God more triumphalist, it stands as a confident assertion that no matter what life may throw at us, God is sovereignly involved in our lives and is our source of strength and peace.
The biblical picture of God isn't a deist one that depicts him benignly looking down over the balconies of heaven to see what is happening with his creation, but one that portrays his immanence and intimate involvement in every aspect of our lives. Jesus taught that his Father watches over the birds and knows every single hair on our heads, the psalmist writes that God provides the food for the animals and birds, and Psalm 139 is explicit in the engaged presence of God in our lives. God's goodness isn't promised to protect me from the difficulties and tragedies of the human condition, but to sustain me through them.
Jesus participated fully in being human. We are to grieve with those who grieve, as did he; to rejoice with those who rejoice, as did he; to embrace and engage in this life we have been given trusting in the goodness of God, dependent on the grace of God, confident that one day he will redeem and transform this world completely at the coming of Christ.
Many would consider the Christian confidence in God's goodness and grace and ask, 'What about....' and then list tragedy, suffering, pain, injustice and disaster. They ask how a God who allows such things can be good and gracious. In reply we might expound our theological and philosophical reasoning, and yet, in the face of human suffering, they often fall on deaf ears. 'Where was God when.....?'
This isn't a place for me to try to interact with these difficult questions, even assuming I could. All I can do is reflect on my own experience, an experience that has known deep, deep hurt and struggles, and also incredible joys and celebrations. My experience has been that when life has done it's worst, God wasn't in heaven looking down to see how I'd go, I couldn't love a God like that, rather, he was with me, walking with me, suffering with me, giving me that glimmer of hope that whatever happened, he wouldn't abandon me. The God who suffered for his creation on a cross suffers with his creation even as he works to redeem it. Romans 8 teaches that the Spirit groans with us even as he helps us in our weakness.
Last week was a great week, some weeks won't be so great, but no matter what, God is good and gracious and for that I am eternally thankful.
It's been a few weeks since last I blogged thanks to the busy-ness of life, so as I come to this new post my thoughts are occupied with Jesus. That's probably a good thing for a Christian, particularly if you're a pastor, but I guess my point is that in the many things that vie for my attention and the many facets of church and faith I study, I always come back to Jesus. He is the centre of my faith.
Again, that may seem obvious, and yet as I live my life and talk to so many people it's amazing how easy it can be to get caught up with things and forget that Christians are simply called to follow Jesus. Christianity is that simple, and that difficult. Whole industries have evolved and keys and steps and principles appeared to teach us how to follow him. It occurs to me that Christ himself didn't feel the need to complicate this call to discipleship because he knew the complexity that was hidden in that call. To follow Jesus is to embrace the mission to image God in this world and represent the presence of his kingdom, this new way of living as a redeemed human being. This isn't easy.
Jesus himself said that in this world we would have difficulties (John 16:33), and we often - rightly - take this to mean opposition from the powers and the fallen nature of our world. I think that he also knew that negotiating life as a renewed-yet-still-flawed human being means making choices and decisions that are often less than clear, even with the guidance of the Bible and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Some would tell me that we can clearly hear the voice of the Spirit leading us in every decision if we just listen carefully enough. Yet my observation is that they struggle just as much as anyone else. So if you think that either you're hard of spiritual hearing or that the Spirit shouldn't play Chinese whispers and should communicate with more volume - take heart, you're normal! A study of the scriptures indicates that God expects his children to navigate life wisely and in submission to his Word and their renewed, Spirit coached conscience. God doesn't desire puppets or robots, but children who grow, triumph, fall, get up, and actively and lovingly follow their Lord. This mixed up, sometimes confusing, always surprising wrestling to work out our faith is what it means to follow Jesus.
And so it comes back to him in his humanity and deity, God and man, demonstrating how to live well and be the soon to be revealed kingdom: to be salt and light and a window into what could be and will be when God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven. The life and words of Christ challenge and fascinate me, his suffering and death redeems me, his resurrection liberates me and assures me his promises are true. I am rarely able to determine 'what would Jesus do,' but I can seek to comprehend all that he has done and how I can therefore express the reality of his kingdom, this new age he has inaugurated, in my time and culture.
It is so easy to get caught up with programs and styles and goals and success and buildings and all the other aspects of modern life. But in the midst of it all is Jesus. Our wonderfully, gloriously, incomparable Saviour. The call to follow him is to humbly and joyfully journey through life in community with a bunch of other disciples, learning together what it means to be 'the body of Christ.'
I don't think Jesus is particularly bothered about the size of our churches or bank accounts or houses or share portfolios (he probably is actually, but not for the reasons we expect - see Luke 6:20-26), I think Jesus is interested in whether we are seeking to follow, whether we are doing it in loving company with others, and whether we are different today than we were yesterday. I am constantly challenged as to whether my life is a Jesus shaped life. It's not, but I pray that I'm on the way - that I'm following him.
