A Desperate Man

On a recommendation from a friend, I was recently able to got a copy of the daily devotional book, Thoughts from the Diary of a Desperate Man.

In its introduction, the author writes that he grew up in the best family one could wish for: peace and happiness, love and prosperity.  Yet, for all their goodness, his parents were not Christians.  And as he began to strike out on his own, he found a void within himself that those earlier adjectives just couldn’t fill.  You know where the story is going…  But my intention is not to paraphrase his autobiography; my point is this: how can all that goodness result in what a man calls desperate?

Isn’t desperate at the end of the rope?  Who with a hundred million dollars in the bank begins to worry if they will be able to afford retirement?

No, the author understood something deeper here.

Stockholm syndrome is the phenomenon when a captive begins to have positive feelings toward their captor.  In other words, what we see is a complete reversal of the truth, or of how things should be.  Similarly, both a Christian or a non-Christian can experience a type of positive feelings living a life outside of what is pleasing to Christ.

But we as humans were built.  We were designed by a Creator, and it is not audacious to say that we were loved enough to be the object of his affection.  This is not our doing.  It’s his!

In this same way, we can purport peace and happiness and love and prosperity, but if we do apart from God, what’s the point?  It’s ultimately only temporary for a few decades on this Earth.

This is what the author was getting at.  There is a deep truth within us all, and we can either decide to follow it where it leads, or we can ignore it and take the easy route.  Inside of us, we are all a desperate man in need of savior.  The good new is…

that savior agrees.

Recently I met a person of another religion, a witness of sorts.  And as we began talking, I realized two things.

The first was how much I didn’t matter in the equation.  As we discussed different interpretations of the same verses (and even different translations), it quickly became apparent that I could either argue him into a corner (which might not be possible for me), or, be myself argued into a corner.

Then it hit me, like a small mouse standing between the dusty feet of Gladiators: this isn’t about me.  This isn’t even my fight.  Yes, we are to be faithful, and yes we are in the middle of it all. But as Jesus so sweetly promised, we are not alone in this (John 14:15-17), we have our Lord’s very Spirit guiding and protecting us.  And Paul articulated it this way: “our struggle is not against flesh and blood…but against the spiritual forces of evil.”

But where does that leave us?  What can we do in a situation where our logic and reasoning is simply dismissed?  If I argue the color green while my opponent staunchly holds the same to be purple, where can we go from here?  We have no basis; we’re at a stale-mate.

Almost.

The second thing.  The true power of Love.  And I don’t mean in a John Lennon eutopic-whatever kind of way.  I mean when a person gives their sweat, time and resources to another who vehemently attempting to stab them in the back.  (The darker sides of corporate rat-races come to mind to name one instance).  In these places–giving to these people…that is love.  And that is what Jesus did for us (see that here, here and here).

The only weapon we have in this fight is love.  In some ways it begins to make sense to me, why it is so hard a weapon to pull out and use.  It’s a big sword, and sometimes I can barely lift it off of the ground.  Much less actually fight with it.  But then again, it’s a war.  We must train for these things.

Further reading on the subject: Ephesians 6, John 3, Matthew 26, 1 Corinthians 13

I was fortunate to see some things recently [in the last few months] about myself.  I won’t go into the gory details, but it brought me to a thought that has been near and dear to my heart recently: In order for us to die to ourselves, we must make the hard decision to: do it.

And like all hard decisions, there must be a motivation behind this, or it won’t stick.

But for me there were a few thoughts I was getting hung up on. I’ve seen plenty of people die to themselves. Many did this either for reasons of social justice or for the betterment of someone else, and some even did it for falsely-pious reasons. But there are problems here. For instnace, what IS social justice (who defines this, and if it’s a different definition from the one sacrificing, then what?). Or another, WHY should I sacrifice for someone else? What does this actually do?

So there must be a commonly agreed upon rational of social justice and sacrificing for another, or it’s all just arbitrary. And if it’s arbitrary, then why don’t we just self-indulge? After all, that would be a much more comfortable solution, right?

But I don’t think these things can be answered in our heads (or through the NY Times Top-10 Non-fiction list). There must be some thread that runs through all of this that is objective–that is, bigger that the variables.

And having worked for the past 6 years with many humanitarian aid groups (many non-Christian), it is apparent that people are looking for something ‘good.’ Even if it’s a convoluted good, there is a ‘good’ they inherently strive for.

The problem gets to be, sorting all of that out. If you slow down and analyze this next statement, it answers each point by point: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)

The way: The singular way. There IS a correct path, and it is not relative.
The truth: I can be leaned on, and it will not fall over. It will sustain.
The life: Actual fulfilment. Actual purpose.

The problem with the Gospel is not that it DOESN’T make sense, but that it does. That is, in order for it to work, we really do have to die to ourselves. And as plenty of people the world over are finding, the alternatives are not very fulfilling.

In closing, the thought hit me in this way: our lives without Christ are like dumpsters. Yeah, they can hold a lot, but you don’t really want to put anything important in there…and there’s not too much that once goes in, anybody really needs anymore.

Fellowship is spending time with like-minded people for the purpose of building up and being built up. It’s that simple in concept. But it’s not that simple in actuality. In actuality it means putting aside your time, making the effort to stick to a schedule (probably not your own), and getting along with people who are not always “compatible” individuals.

But these are the silly, superfluous things.  These aren’t really the actuality of fellowship.

Fellowship is having a group of people that will talk you off of the ledge…and not because you owe them money.

In other words, there is relevance in fellowship.

The bottom line is, life is hard.  The Bible tells us “the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  And it’s for this reason that we are instructed to actively encourage each other to do good things, and to meet together, and to remember that there will be a time when all wrongs are righted.  And when that time comes, we don’t want to find ourselves on the business-end of God’s lightning bolt (so to speak).  God has us getting together so that we can remember why he’s got us here on this Earth!

It’s been said, we have two choices–to work for the Lord, or to work for the Devil.  Everything we do is either one or the other.  Life isn’t easy, much less doing it alone.

Fellowship, is oftentimes, a God-sent.

(Continuing from Part 1, here)