[now what]

(originally written as a journal entry 8/16/14)

I have spent a good amount of time thinking, writing, and meditating on the ideas of Christian community, bearing burdens, perseverance, and the constants in our lives. I have memorized James chapter 1 with my best friend and participated in numerous discussions about its implications in daily life.

I still come to the end of all this and ask myself "now what?"

To be honest, its a bit frustrating.

I spent a good amount of time last night dwelling on this, trying to figure out exactly what the point was. Why do I write? Why do I spend time with people? Why do I read the Bible? Why do I even meditate on these things?

After a good amount of 'fretting and stewing' I realized that the answer lied in one of the verses that I had memorized in James.... "If anyone is a hearer of the Word, but not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But the one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does" (vs. 23-25).

This is perhaps the problem that plagues much of Christendom today. We place so much emphasis on the mindless action, and none on the heart of the matter. Scripture is memorized by rote, church attendance becomes mundane, Christian fellowship is reduced to trite phrases, burdens are shoved underneath facades of robust faith.
Yet we miss the heart of the issue....

What does it matter if I memorize James if I fail to let it take hold in my life and I actually seek to apply it? How can I be transformed by the renewing of my mind if I don't allow my mind to be renewed?

I feel that many Christians are good at looking intently at the perfect law, and even understanding the importance of it, yet they fail in the phrase "abiding by it."

Abiding by it.

We abide in an abode. We make our dwelling there. We live there.
The implication is that our lives return to this place by default. The perfect law of liberty - the Word - becomes living and active.

I find that this is more for the benefit of others than it is our own selves. While it certainly puffs ourselves up to memorize scripture and be "good Christians", when we apply the Word we hear then suddenly all of those around us are affected. The paradigm shifts and the Gospel is realized in our lives.

We glorify Jesus in this, we edify those around, we grow ourselves to be more like Jesus, and the Gospel is actually VISIBLE. This is what it truly means to be an "effectual doer."

Can you imagine what would happen if we started asking "now what?" once we read scripture? What then do we do? How do we apply?

Application is where faith becomes real.
Until we obey our faith is merely theory.

What does it look like to be an effectual doer - to abide by the Word?
What blessings are we missing out on because we fail to take God's Word as truth?

May we not forget that "this man will be blessed in what he does."

Now what?

Hold Your Ground

“Hold your ground, hold your ground! Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and scattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you STAND, Men of the West!”

- Aragorn, The Return of the King

                                              

“But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.” – Hebrews  10:39

There is something daunting about a fight. Something within us shudders when things go wrong in our lives. Our very souls testify to the fact that we were not created to be at war, yet fight a war we must. Ever since the fall in Eden, man has had to fight. We fight to survive. We fight to maintain honor. We fight to keep the enemy at bay.

We must “Hold our ground.”

Perhaps the most frustrating fights we will face though, is the war with our own selves. There is no enemy capable of breaking us down as quickly and powerfully as our own mind. Our minds are a battlefield, our thoughts the mines – ready to detonate at the slightest jostling. Perhaps this is why Paul refers to “taking every thought captive to obey Christ” in 2 Corinthians 10:5. We can never trust our own thoughts blindly.

War is ugly.

I think that in the Christian life we often forget this. There is a battle going on WITHIN us as the enemy seeks to CONTROL us. Ephesians 6:12 points out that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Yes, there is evil in the world. Yes, we will have conflict with others. But the most dangerous enemy is the one that we allow into our homes.

I have come to the realization that I am my own worst enemy when it comes to fighting depression. Yet, at the same time, I have hope. I have the Holy Spirit. This is how I can have the confidence that 1 John 4:4 conveys –“Little children, you are from GOD and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”

The truth is that while the enemy is close, our ally is a little bit closer! This is why Paul told the church at Ephesus to “Be STRONG in the Lord and in the strength of his might.”

There is an element of standing firm, of fighting, that we seldom address in modern Christianity’s search for unity and “love”. If we are to expect chains to be broken, strongholds to be purged from our lives, then there has to be a moment where we take hold of the truth of Scripture and fight back! Scripture is clear – if we resist the devil then he will flee! If we continue in our faith, God will be faithful! Whatever the fight, HE has overcome and gives us the ability to be victorious by the blood of Christ.

HOLD YOUR GROUND.

I want to be the kind of person that Hebrews 10:39 describes. “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.” So often the temptation will be to shrink back when the going gets tough. I myself find that when the enemy brings up my insecurities, the initial response is to want to retreat into my shell. When conflict appears on the horizon, the core of my being that hates pain pushes me away.  Yet there has never been a battle won because someone decided to retreat. If anything, battles are lost this way. Hebrews confirms the spiritual parallel – those who shrink back will be destroyed.

God increase my faith! This is the only prayer I can think to pray. No I do not like conflict, no I do not like pain; yet if I rise up in the power of God, I will be victorious.

Mid 20^th century Jewish philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel describes this as taking a leap of action rather than a leap of thought. “He is asked to surpass his needs, to do more than he understands in order to understand more than he does.” Heschel believed that through the ecstasy of deeds (or holding our ground) we learn to be certain of what he called “the here-ness of God.” Simply put, our faith is only going to grow when we put weight on it.

At times there must be a fight before we can experience victory. At times there must be pain before we can experience love. 2 Peter 4:12 reminds us to “not be surprised at the fiery trial, when it comes upon you to test you.” It is to be EXPECTED in this life.

BUT, God in his foreknowledge and wisdom has allowed it – because He knows that it will work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

Yes my mind is a battlefield, but thank God that He gives me the ability to overcome. Thank God that He fights my battles by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Running Hard

I ran two miles last night during the rain and pushed my body to the breaking point. 

My legs haven't fully developed yet, so some days my body screams at me to stop - threatening to shut down and just not work. While the temptation is great, I would end up stuck alone, a mile from home. 

The only way I could enter into rest was to push through the pain and continue running until I made it home. Even if I was barely running, if I was limping, I had to continue in order to receive the reward of rest and healing. Rest only comes after exhaustion. Healing only comes after being broken.

Believe me, the spiritual correlation was not lost on me while I quickly hobbled along. 

My running partner was not there to push me on, but in spirit I could feel him pushing me along, remembering the encouragement I had gotten on previous runs and would receive again when we were back together. The point is that whether in person or not, we still run the race together. 

Whether Christian or non-Christian, young or old, we all run the race of life together with the same degree of difficulty and the same propensity for struggles. I would even argue that someone isn't actually living if they haven't experienced pain to some degree.

I am puzzled by those people that imply that my faith will make the race easy. Why, then am I experiencing the kind of intense life experiences I am? Is my faith weak? (Well, yeah, at times) Is the issue my background? My personal valleys and struggles? To a degree, yes, these influence my ability to run the race of life. 

Why is this such an issue, though? Is not the real importance the fact that I'm running and not the strength I have, or the health I have while running? I believe strongly that this is the lesson to be learned. What satisfaction is there to make it to the end without any sort of struggle along the way? You don't appreciate the pain. To quote the book The Fault in Our Stars, "pain demands to be felt." If it is not felt then I won't grow.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1, 2 ESV)

Throwing aside weight and sin implies a focus issue. These sins and weights are directional distractions. Never though, does this verse say that the runner will be unscarred or uninjured. It says to RUN. WITH ENDURANCE. Why else would he charge us to have endurance except that it was going to be a major temptation to stop because we dont think we can make it? The key to running well is to keep running. 

Some days I don't think I can make it.

The shin splints in my soul scream at me to stop. My sides aching spiritually. The depression, the physical pain, the discouragement of the enemy crowd my mind and cripple me. But that does not mean I have to stop. If I make it all the way, even if I am in great pain, then I will receive the healing and rest I need.

The beautiful thing about running the race of life is that I know I will be one day made whole in Christ. No longer will I have to struggle with my problematic and flawed earthly body and mind. One day I will be made perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. This is the promise that  James referred to when he said that the testing of my faith produces steadfastness. "And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

With this future hope, I can find the strength to run. I may never cease feeling pain until the day that I die, but if I don't stop running, I know that it will all be worth it. I run "holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain." (Philippians 2:16 ESV)

It will be worth it.

Pain is never fun.

But home is where the healing is.

So we must continue running on bruised and inflamed legs, going one step at a time until at last we arrive into the eternal rest of the Father.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. (1 Corinthians 9:24, 25 ESV)

We do not run alone! We spur one another on, bearing one another along, encouraging each other every day. Through love and encouragement we run together, each bearing his own pain, but collectively bearing each other's. 

Running home. Where healing is. 

Healing only comes after being broken.

Where is home? 

It's in Christ.