The Grace Habit, Part 2

Ever notice how trying to not sin, thinking about ways to not sinning, leads to ... well ... thinking an awful lot about sin?  It's kind of like that old trick:  Do not. Think about. Pink Elephants! Stop it.  I really mean it!  ("Anybody want a peanut?")

Also ... how come (my inner child wonders) there are so many prayer methods that teach you to confess ... is that all there is to do with sin?  Confess.  Sure sure ... there is that conversation Jesus had with that one woman "Go and sin no more" (John 8:11).  But how come for all the times we hear that - we don't hear Jesus saying to this woman (who - no offense -  my mama would've have grounded sooooo hard) "Neither do I condemn you".  Jesus said those words to her.  She was caught - not just "kinda" but "in the act" - and was seconds away from losing her life for it.  This was BIG sin - cause - you know - sin IS ranked - right?  And Jesus just goes and tells her - "I don't condemn you"?  How's that work?  I don't know what's worse - that she "got away with it" - or that she didn't even ask!  Maybe she didn't even repent. 

man - this scene from The Passion of the Christ just gets me - every single time. Watch it here.

Pffft.

But you know what that just sounded like?  Yep.  The very people who set that whole mess up.  So I'm a sinner - and one of these miserable judges?  Gah!!! Shoot!

And there we are - right there - we're staring in the face of why/how so often Christians get branded as Hypocrites.  Heck.  We're even looking - I think - right at - at least part of how we actually fall into acting like a hypocrite ... and how if I don't pause and reflect on what I'm doing - I end up in fact becoming a hypocrite. The sickest aspect of that however, is that I got there precisely by trying to avoid being there.  Oh help. Don't we at that point just want to throw up our hands and quote Paul

"Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from [a]the body of this death?"  Romans 7:24 (NASB)

There's something missing from this whole discussion though ... a really, really, BIG something. Something which I believe - changes everything.

No part of the above conversation mentions grace.  We can say Jesus' actions manifest grace. But for all the prayer methods that encourage confession, for all the conversations about how not to sin, what things are/are not sin ... we're usually left with just the "Go and sin no more" part.  I have personally never heard any one quote the other part: "Neither do I condemn you" 

Is there a way - to embrace both "Neither do I condemn you" and "Go and sin no more"?  Half the time the "Neither do I condemn you" part gets treated like an after thought - despite the fact that in the text, Jesus said that first.  

So ... what gives?  How do we do this?  

The Grace Habit

I have a confession.  I used to obsess about sin.  I'd sit around with friends - parsing out the pitfalls and snares that could surely be avoided with just the right music, just the right movies and so on.  We'd debate at length the pros/cons of violence vs. explicitness.  Before that - there were a few semesters when I'd literally walk around campus with at least a couple of nails in my pocket - an ever present reminder that Christ died so I could walk in holiness ... or at least holy Levis. For some reason this tested my mother's holiness - mightily - and she finally got me to stop - by threatening to sew patches all over my hard-earned holey 501's.  Gasp!! Apparently I wasn't the only one thinking this though - this was a t-shirt that you could at one point buy at any Christian anything it seemed.

I'd get on a great streak with my morning devotions for a few days - but then miss one - maybe lose my temper - and next thing you know - it'd take me a couple of days to get back on track - because I felt too bad about how I'd blown it to jump right back in.  Basically - this was the paradigm regardless of what spiritual discipline, habit or practice I was pursuing.

But - what are you gonna do?  

I wanted absolutely no part of NOT chasing after God with my whole heart - and I didn't see anyone doing anything different - maybe there wasn't any other way.  Everyone I knew was "trying".  Well - not quite - there were some who'd given up on trying and were now very zen about that ... but they weren't offering a better method, or a slicker approach.  In fact - in some cases - the "zen" looked like they'd given up.  

Is this all there is?  You pick a point along the continuum of license verses law - and you take your stand there - not because it's defensible, not because it's effective, not because it's leading to daily renewal?  What about all that abundant life jibber-jabber in John 10:10?  Or how about being transformed by the renewing of my mind like Romans 12:2 talks about?

And what are those few people doing who look so calm, so serene, so "chill" ... how do I get some of that?  

Maybe there is a way.

Maybe there's a few ways - but I think I've found at least one ... and I've been testing it out pretty intensely for a few years now - and I'm so sure that it has legs - I'll tell you - and you try it - and you see if it works for you too. 

Come back.  I can either flesh out this idea in one, eye-ball desiccating post, or I can split it up - posing questions - taking our time along the way.  I don't see the point to rushing. 

Most mind-blowing diary ever

This - will blow your mind.

About 1800 years ago two young women were martyred.  Vibia Perpetua was a noble woman of 22, with an infant son, and Felicitas, a pregnant slave martyred with her.  They were new converts to Christianity along with a few other individuals - converted - but not yet baptized - and had actually been arrested on their way to their baptism.  It's not ultimately clear how Perpetua and Felicitas came to be arrested - it is possible that they were arrested due to a decree by Emperor Septimus Severus.  It's also possible that they were arrested under a local law after being reported by Perpetua's father.  However the arrest came about - the group of 5 was arrested - Saturus, Revocatus,  and Secundulus.  Saturinus seems to have also been martyred at the same time - at a series of games held in honor of Emperor Septimus Severus's birthday.  The Diary of Perpetua and Felicitas was by Vibia Perpetua and is at times an astonishingly raw portrayal of the last days of an early martry.  While it includes several visions - it also records Vibia's emotions as she slides in and out of the most formal style of writing at that time - to the most blunt and undecorated descriptions of their desperate situation.

Here's some dialogue from the trial where they were condemned:

'Have pity on your father's grey head; have pity on your infant son. Offer the sacrifice for the welfare of the emperors.'

'I will not', I retorted.

'Are you a Christian?' said Hilarianus.

And I said: 'Yes, I am.'

When my father persisted in trying to dissuade me, Hilarianus ordered him to be thrown to the ground and beaten with a rod. I felt sorry for father, just as if I myself had been beaten. I felt sorry for his pathetic old age.

Then Hilarianus passed sentence on all of us: we were condemned to the beasts.

When the two women for whom the diary is named are taken out to face the beasts - Perpetua has another vision - and Saturus completes the last diary entry - including a description of Perpetua's and Felicitas's deaths.

The day of their victory dawned, and they marched from the prison to the amphitheater joyfully as though they were going to heaven, with calm faces, trembling, if at all, with joy rather than fear. Perpetua went along with shining countenance and calm step, as the beloved of God, as a wife of Christ, putting down everyone's stare by her own intense gaze. With them also was Felicitas, glad that she had safely given birth so that now she could fight the beasts, going from one blood bath to another, from the midwife to the gladiator, ready to wash after childbirth in a second baptism.

They were then led up to the gates and the men were forced to put on the robes of priests of Saturn, the women the dress of the priestesses of Ceres. But the noble Perpetua strenuously resisted this to the end.

'We came to this of our own free will, that our freedom should not be violated. We agreed to pledge our lives provided that we would do no such thing. You agreed with us to do this.'

The two women met other people condemned to die in the arena where beasts were to be let loose after they'd been scourged by soldiers.  Felicitas died first being crushed - whereas Pertpetua's death was hastened by a young soldier who relieved her from a slow, agonizing death.  

I first read of this account several years ago and every now and then stumble across it again in my files and think, "Do I really need to keep this" - only to find myself pulled into the story again and so encouraged by the examples set by the believers in it.  It may not be the most mind-blowing diary ever - but it is an incredible account.

Rediscovering our roots

Radical love.  Radical courage.  Radical grace.  Radical generosity.  There was a time when these were the usual ways bureaucrats, political leaders, and the powered-and-moneyed elite of the day referred to Christians - a term which was originally meant to be derogatory and essentially meant "mini-Jesus".  Jesus' followers co-opted the insult - because it so succinctly captured their sincerest and deepest hope - to BE a mini Jesus.  

They earned this insult-turned-compliment by ... taking food - and even more importantly - Kindness - to prisons where young roman men were being held as they were marched to conscripted military duty - even if it cost them their lives, by selling off land to help feed orphans and widows, by crying out against what took advantage of the most vulnerable.  These things were so radical to the Romans at large - that they felt threatened by them.  They had other insults for the early Christ-followers too - one of my favorites was "pagan" - because Christians didn't believe in the roman pantheon.  But the threat roman leaders felt by the Christian movement was real - they saw it as a force of social power that could destabilize the stabilizing effects of meaningless routine - the "bread and circuses" that those in charge used to keep the citizens cozily asleep in Pax Romana 

I have a sneaking suspicion that what bothers most mini-Jesus's today about the current batch of derogatory terms we get painted with is the way they also hit the nail on the head - but not a nail we're proud of.

But the really good news is that there's probably an opportunity to be radical  right now not far from where you are. Can you see it?  

Simple Conventions

Just a note before we get too far into this conversation ... I tend to capitalize words that I'm giving especial weight - for slight emphasis.  So there are in my mind "TRUTHS" in scripture - Jesus is the incarnate, resurrected Son of God; the Bible is God's inspired word, and God is the multidimensional, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent entity which simultaneously exists in every particle of the universe at every moment of the universe.

There are also Truths which though maybe not quite as expansive as above are nonetheless underpinning to our whole lives.  An example might be that there is no other planet for us to inhabit but this one.  Or we might say that fulfillment awaits us insofar as we live courageously.

Then there are truths - such as I love a good cup of coffee.

Shade-free zone

So - we're about to dig into some great discussion - but before we get any further in I just want to say that my goal here is to lift burdens - not lay them down.  That means that I will take the high-road, pull no punches, and throw no shade on other hard-working believers; after all - the vast majority of us are doing the very best we can.  I know no one who follows Christ meaningfully - who isn't walking through a perfect life - full of nothing but unicorns and rainbows.  And - while surely most people able to read these words are among the most privileged people in the world - again - that doesn't mean that we're all where we want to be - or able to do all we feel called to do.

It was also a purposeful decision to engage in this discussion of the Grace Habit on the official JC's village web-site blog.  I believe this discussion is just as relevant to students as it is to anyone else.  You could even argue - that students who haven't burned out in their life's work yet even once - it's more important - they have the hope of avoiding that pit-fall.  Moreover - while there are surely those on the college campus who'd prefer to stick to The Onion and Buzzfeed - I know from first hand experience that there are plenty who are as spiritually hungry as I am and are eager for a deeper dive into discipleship conversations.  

So - let's dive in!

Grace Habit

Everyone just "knows" that if you're a Christian you should read your Bible every day.  Also, everyone just "knows" that if you're a Christian you should pray every day.  And it is surely hard to imagine growing without these habits.

But what about Grace?  

But what about Love?

Can we have some conversation about the importance of these on the daily? What would that even look like? 

You know what I think is really funny?  People get really creeped out about the idea of Christians and Christ Followers daily participating in these two habits.  Sometimes they even get a tad cranky.  "Reading the Bible daily IS daily experiencing God's love."  

uh huh.  Okay.  So - I suppose yesterday (Valentine's day) you handed out Bibles? Oh you didn't? Hmmmm.  To be honest - I'm not sure we teach people to read the Bible as a means of absorbing God's love.  In fact - I think it's possible that somehow the church I grew up in taught me to open up my Bible, read, understand all the things I'm doing wrong and feel decently bad about that. Eesh.

Some people even get testy - as if daily soaking up God's love could ruin you spiritually.

what?

There HAS to be a better way.  Actually - I imagine that there are actually many better ways ... but come back tomorrow and we'll go a little deeper into at least one way to daily top off your tank with a full-and-slopping-over amount of God's love and grace.

Taking an Encouraging Amount

I traveled abroad in high school for a year and quickly learned that my new friends were horrified when the first time visiting their homes I responded to their hospitable question, "Would you like something to eat?" with a typically American "A glass of water please."  Whether my hosts were well-to-do doctors or hard-working farmers - they wanted me to trust in their hospitality and that it was really their pleasure to offer me what I wanted.  If I'd sincerely said "Ham and eggs, a slice of bread, and a side of hash-browns" - they'd have been and thrilled!

Some time after that year abroad I lived in a more diverse community than I'd grown up in - and found myself in exactly the same situation ... fabulous cooks of exquisite dishes that were at the very least going to blow my mind as they delighted my taste buds ... the only way to insult these chef's talents - was to take puny amounts and hold back.  

Now - on a regular basis I host people in my home and I truly LOVE to cook for them.  I LOVE it when someone goes off about my cooking. When it's sincere - such words are such a compliment - and make all the effort so very worth it.

Imagine then - the inestimable effort God has gone through to so lovingly bestow Grace on us! The cost to Him and His Son paid to make such grace not just available - but freely available is beyond calculation. Let us confidently, and like the grace-starved people we are - throw ourselves into devouring daily the feasts of Grace God makes available to us in all the forms they appear - answered prayers, laughter with friends, God's promises in Scripture, encouraging fellowship that fills us with hope.  Let us daily take from God an amount of Grace that will make Him smile with our trust in His provision.

7 Steps to Spiritual Strength

Here are 7 ways to really grow and strengthen your faith this year

1. Group up.  If you haven’t joined a campus ministry or fellowship group on campus – do it. The staff who run these groups are dedicated people who have devoted their lives to ministering students. Being a part of a group like this will teach you more about living out your faith in less time than anyone could learn on their own.  
2. Bible up.  Read it as many times as you like. Start studying your favorite parts. Allow yourself to get curious about the other parts.  Hungry for still more - then go ahead and study it with all sorts of great tools: concordances, maps, culturally and historically relevant information, meditate on it.  Still hungry for even more?  Ooooh!  Look at your bad self!  Go ahead and memorize the bits that speak to you deeply. 
3. Pray up.  The strongest Christians have long viewed prayer as the "breath of a Christian."  Prayer is the most natural thing in the world - until it gets complicated by lots of "shoulds" and "coulds".  We work hard in JC's to demystify prayer make prayer a refuge and meeting place between our busy daily lives and our loving Father in heaven.
4. Align.  This is the shortest way I can think to say “learn to do the Godly things that Godly people do the way Godly people do them.”  Besides reading your Bible and developing your prayer life, – be baptized, pray to receive the Holy Spirit, practice the spiritual disciplines, invest your time and talents on behalf of the group that feeds you. Model your life after your spiritual heros in Scripture, in history and around you in real life.  
5. Be authentic.  Commit to being authentic about your ups and downs, your lessons and your trials, your strengths and your weaknesses along the way.  Christians are fond of saying “walk your talk” … I think it’d actually work much better if we all just talked our walk.  Be honest.  Be real.  There is great power in a real, honest, authentic walk.
6. Become a "Let-it-Go-Pro".  Strategically hang on to what will help you - and that's it.  Letting go is trickier for some at first than for others - but the more you practice it - the easier it becomes - and the easier it will be to really enjoy the things you hang on to.
7. Stay humble.  Even if someone were to “get” this whole list – they would find that a truly mature faith encompasses so much more than these self-evident basics.  However much we learn – there is still more available.  Faith in Jesus is worthy of our life-long pursuit -  there are no "masters" of lists like this - only those who are more aware through experience of just how blessed by Grace they really are.
8. BONUS!  Have some fun along the way ... sometime Jesus tossed His posse into a boat and went fishing ... because they liked boats, and fishing, and relaxing.  

The Two Most Powerful Forces in the Verse

If Elijah's sweet chariots of fire come claim me right off my desk-chair just after I click "publish" and no other post can ever appear here - I'll be satisfied if this is all you know about us.  God's Love and God's Grace are the two most powerful forces in the universe.  You may say "it's ionic bonds" if you study chemistry, or you may say "gravity" if you get physics, or "evolution" if you're more of a biological sciences kind of geek - and those are all valid answers in those contexts.   In the context of faith and life though - I'm sticking to my guns here; it's Love & Grace - specifically God's love & God's grace.  It was Love that motivated God to create everything (John 1) and it was more love that motivated Him to reveal Himself to us through all that's around us - all that Christ did for us once we made it unquestionably clear we needed help; big time.  

And Grace - Grace is the force by which Christ's redemption of us works.  Love - the motivation for everything.  Grace - the fix-it tool for everything that happened next.  God's love moved Him to walk with the man and the woman in the garden in the cool of the day (Gen 3:8) - and however you might read all that comes next - love was the foundation to the plan - right up to the cross - and that love kicks off the work of grace in our lives so we can start to "get it" for ourselves.  

JC's Village exists as a place where any student can come and celebrate these two most powerful forces on earth can grow, hang out, belong, serve, impact, bask.  It's that simple.  

Thanks for stopping by.  Come again.

Love & Grace to you today!