Grace Habit, Part 13 - Can God Spoil Us?

This is actually part of something I've been thinking about for a little while - almost as long as I've been pondering the whole Grace Habit.

Two completely perfect people - totally impervious to spoiling

What do you think?  Can God spoil you?  Has He spoiled you?  Do you know someone who God has spoiled?  I'm willing to bet a delicious sammich - right here and now - that 95% of us answered "no, nope, and yes" to those three questions. 

And I don't know about you - but it goes WITHOUT saying that my parents did NOT spoil me. And my confidence on that has almost nothing to do with none of my relatives reading this. And you seem pretty cool - so obviously you're not spoiled either.  Awesome.

If you look up (and by look up I mean google) "how to spoil a child" - you'll get the above gem - with a link to the rest of the list - which you can see for yourself if you're interested by clicking here.  But our question is not can kids be spoiled - because that seems rather obvious. Instead our question is can God spoil US? 

Based on what we can read about God in Scripture - that He's perfect, holy, just, righteous and loving - God seems ill-equipped to spoil us - or better put - the perfect entity to un-spoil us. Actually I'm of the opinion that God's ability to un-spoil us is directly proportional to our willingness to authentically pursue a growing and real relationship with Him.  Who could ever stay spoiled even just a little in the face of learning about and incorporating into one's life the teachings that Jesus spells out - for instance - in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7)? At least for me - it seems like nearly everything out of Jesus' mouth is well-suited to illuminate any cozy entitlements, prejudices, cravings and expectations my ego is clinging to.  

What about those people in Scripture who seem to have been recipients of some profound favor - people like Abraham, Moses, David and Elijah for instance.  What about them?  Were they spoiled?  Were they God's "perfect little pets?"  Did everyone around them just roll their eye-balls so hard you could practically hear it when any of those individuals names were called out when God wanted to give "someone" special recognition?  If you read these stories ... you come across little bits of information about these individuals that hints that they invested their lives in God in some remarkable ways.  I'm inclined to believe that we're all God's favorites and some of us really take that to the bank - such as Abraham did - in having the requisite faith to pick up and move his whole family away from the rest of the clan - and then giving God his long-awaited and promised son to boot.  You read about Moses' putting all the entitlement of royalty at risk to relate to his countrymens' plights in Egypt.  David had a life-long habit of putting his life on the line for others - and spent the majority of his life putting his life at stake for God.  We know he wasn't perfect - but neither am I - and I don't put my life at stake.  And on and on it goes.

Honestly - this whole idea of "can God spoil us?" is the basis of the book of Job.  Satan was accusing God of spoiling Job.  

It seems that the only way God can really spoil us - is with His love.  Encountering God's love though tends to have the exact opposite effect of spoiling us though.  In fact - it seems that those struggles that inflict the most damage on the body are precisely the ones that frequent and meaningful encounters with God's love counteract.  Hypocrisy, judgement, self-righteousness, bitterness, dissension and strife - cannot survive long in the face of God's great love.  It seems like the more we walk dependent on His Love and Grace - the more we become - strengthened against these spiritual diseases. 

May we then all be so dependent on God's "spoiling" Love and Grace that we would be every earthly good to those around us - and a testament to Heaven's good will towards us all.

Grace Habit, Part 12: Radical Sustainability

Small tangent: Okay - you may not realize this - but I really love it when I remember to get a pic that's just right for the post right at the top ... If I forget to add the pic right away at the beginning of the post - it's a tiny bit trickier to get it just right ... so today's post is about sustainability - which predictably led to a google search with lots and lots of green pictures ... green maps of the world, green globes, green city skylines and such ... no problem ... I like sustainability and green skylines - but that's not really what this post is about.

so then I searched "pure endurance" - and that turns out to be some powder you add to your ... everything to make some store at the mall rich ... sooooo anyhoooo ... long story short ... here is the best picture I can come up with for what I mean by sustainability ... 

Like that?  Great art.  The artist wishes to remain anonymous.  ahem.

How do you suppose Jesus taught the disciples to be with Him while He was with Him? "What a silly question!" you say.  And you're right.  That's pretty much obvious - right?  How did He teach them to be with Him after He was gone?  That's less silly, isn't it?  But I bet when you read that - you didn't think of Jesus' trappings - but rather Him, Himself.  It's interesting to me that Jesus - who could've made it so - that when we read His words we would essentially only read of Him telling us how to be with Him - instead of recording all that other stuff - like Him saying "catch a fish and pay my taxes".  And I'm on board if you say "well, really, all of it IS Him teaching us how to be with Him" ... but I'll still circle back to the thing He did say "this is Me teaching you how to be with Me - is a little prayer called the Lord's prayer and we teach it to children and even people who aren't in church every time the doors are open know at least a lot of "Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name ... " 

Jesus' teaching His disciples how to pray - while He was with Him - was a whopping sub-70 word message on prayer.

Yet how many of us have this ideal way to spend time with Jesus that's just ... well, it's just ... not sub-70 words ... it's kinda ... if truth be told ... grueling.

To be Christian - sometimes - feels like "to want to love Jesus, just a little bit more than I do now."

What if the best way to love Jesus more - is to just love Him now.  That's it.  Just love Him in this moment.  Simply.  Directly.

Call me crazy - but I think that Jesus didn't slip "give us now our daily bread" to leave us groaning - exhausted with tortured looks on our faces "daily?"

Here's another radical idea ... maybe the goal isn't to have this ueber-time with Jesus every day - including the perfect prayer, the perfect scripture study, the perfect intercession, the perfect worship ... 

Maybe perfect isn't all these little bits we add 

Maybe perfect is just us being with Him - and a few dozen words.

Don't get me wrong - I'm really into spending time with Him - praying, studying scripture ... big time.  I confess.  Think I'm kidding ... my current journal is #79 ... I have over 7,000 filled journal pages ... and that's after I edited a bunch and set a whole banana box full of old journals on fire. 

I don't say that maybe less truly is more because I don't want more - but because I do want more.  And I want more for the students I talk to and work with.  But I've also seen them looking at my journals and saying things like "I should journal".  Gag.  

So for the record ... You cannot get into heaven by journaling - daily or otherwise.  Nor can you secure your salvation by engaging in the most technical Bible study. Memorization?: Ditto! Name a spiritual discipline - and the answer will be the same.

But over and over again I hear and see people talking about spending time with God that sounds just so grueling.  In fact - one of the first sermons I remember hearing was called "No Bible, No Breakfast!" I was about 12 - and I'm afraid I remember it for all the wrong reasons ... the preacher lost his mind up there preaching that sermon.  He went ape.  He lost his temper - his cool - his composure - and he lost a 12 year old girl sitting in the back row in the middle of the youth group.

But what if the key to anything "daily" with Jesus were as simple as "you be with Him - and He'll be with you - and maybe you say a few words"?

Hmmm.

Okay - let's think about this another way:  what kinds of "equipment" did most of the people who Jesus ever preached to have?  Um ... their clothes.  Apparently some showed up for revival meetings without even a picnic basket full of goodies for the "well-duh! there's going to be a pot-luck afterwards!" ... and had to settle for fish-sandwiches.  It's hard to imagine any context in which they were all functionally literate - never mind toting around a rig like this ... 

um ... that's my rig

As a person of faith - I think Jesus came when the world was ready ... and that includes their daily rig.  Nobody had anything like this going on back then.  Even the Essenes sitting at Qumran didn't carry around a rig like this.

Also - I believe Jesus modeled for us a way to be with him that was accessible to all.   You know what else - I think sometimes I have covered my imagined insecurities with purchases ... with stuff.  That's just me though. 

So - based on what was sustainable at the actual time Jesus was teaching people how to be with Him - I keep coming back to "If it was really that important for our spiritual growth and development - He would've said it, taught it, modeled it.  Jesus said "pray" and He modeled praying. Jesus said "pray to the Father - and He prayed - both with the disciples and sometimes He went off by Himself for "extended periods" of time ... but when He taught His disciples to pray He didn't say "thou shalt go off and pray all night every night."  ... I have sure added to the Lord's prayer myself plenty of times ... "Give us this day our daily ... verses to live by, deep thoughts to impress others with, meaningful interpretations to get the attention of the leadership, leatherbound Bible looking respectfully tattered PLUS a journal bursting with notes ... " 

Another way to look at this whole conversation is the "daily bread" part ... Jesus referred to Himself as the Bread of Life - and that surely was an homage to how God sustained His people in the desert on manna.  Also back then - bread - a hand milled, stone-ground stuff naturally leavened in the air (think: sour-dough) and baked in an earthen oven or over an open hearth fire - was actually and rightfully on the daily menu.  This was a whole-grain food - because there was just not such a wild abundance of food that anyone was nuts enough to farm by hand to grow a crop and then throw over half of the edible portion out just to make "softer bread" ... people had flat middles and hard bread - and they were eating to avoid starvation. Bread was essential.

Bread was essential.  Jesus is essential. He's comparing Himself to what's essential.

If the way you're spending time with Jesus isn't essential - enjoyable ... you crave it ... change it.  Please.  

I don't want to tell anyone how to do this - but for the sake of example - I use what I do.  Sure would love to hear what you've found is sustainable day over day.

I love being out-of-doors.  I love camping, hiking and backpacking, kayaking and all that ... but don't worry - if that's not your thing - then please substitute what is your thing ...  But this is literally my essential, daily Jesus - and I find that the more I do engage in this practice - the more I want to engage in this practice.

The practice is this ... in my mind - I go to my favorite camp-ground ever ... and I go down and sit on the beach.  (As luck would have it - I have a picture of the view across from this place - see above)  I recall that scene after Jesus resurrection when He sat on the beach grilling fish with His disciples ... and I just sit there with Him.  I imagine the cracking fire.  The sounds.  The feel.  The smells.  Often it is in fact wordless.  Often it isn't.  It is always pleasant. Utterly sustainable.  I finish this one day and immediately want to go back and do it again.  I have never once had to cajole, berate, guilt, or bribe or engage in any other such technique to force myself to comply.  I have found - that being with Jesus is alluring, calming, encouraging, uplifting, engaging, fulfilling, restful, peaceful, inspiring ... it feels exactly like being loved in a place I love.  Feel free to try it for a minute or two. Stay longer if you want.  Don't if you can't. 

And it turns out that the thing that in the way of this much longed for sort of experience all my life was all trappings I brought to it.  Now - participated in at it's essential level - it really is this:

Grace Habit, Part, ... uh ... 10

What if prayer were way, way, WAY more than praying for everyone and everything you can think of from 7:00 until 7:05 and feeling bad about the interrupting and distracting thoughts of to-do-list items and projects, wants and needs?

I remember one day's prayer time in when I was a sophomore at Michigan State University - when I was DETERMINED to pray for five minutes without interrupting myself/distracting myself even once.  I was going to sit there, and not let my mind wander even once ... if I did - then I was going to start over.  Oh halp!!!  You KNOW how that turned out.  At one point in that process I started making a little hash mark for every time I distracted myself ... About 40 minutes later I was so frustrated and felt so ... broke. *sigh* 

There are people in the history of faith who reveled in LONG prayer times - ever wonder how they did that? I grew up in the church - my dad was a country preacher - but as a freshman in college - I seriously thought this was impossible or if it were impossible - it would feel exhaustingly torturous.  I was pretty sure that people who swore up and down that they loved praying like this were praying at "420" if you're picking up what I'm laying down.  Hmmm.  

What's going on here though?!  I mean - Martin Luther is sort-of famous for saying "I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer."   Mother Teresa is purported to have spend copious amounts of time in prayer.  I remember a white-haired old man named at my church as I was growing up named Claude Small who was said to have been a "real prayer-er" ... but I was only 10 when I met him and didn't think to ask him how until he'd passed away.  I've met some people who will hand you something that looks like it came out of a calculus book on how to pray - but I'll tell you a secret ... that gives me the willies.

Then there's the "prayer can be mowing your lawn types" - which on so many levels I absolutely agree with - and if you read the post last week on Frank Laubach you already know this.  But sometimes those efforts fall hard into lawn-maintenance and not so much into the heavenlies.  I'm just speaking for myself.  I haven't found lawnmowers to be particularly helpful - or long walks, or prayer shawls or any of that.  I mean I'm not saying you can't pray long or meaningfully with lawn mowers, long walks or prayer shawls - I'm just saying that those things - in and of themselves - just speaking for myself - haven't contributed to the sort of rich and meaningful prayer life that Laubach or anyone else who doesn't give me the willies refers to.  Those things also didn't lead me straight to the sort of prayer life where on my busiest days my go-to solution for a non-frenzied peace of mind was not - so sadly - to pray longer.  

But there MUST be a way to enjoy that sort of prayer time.

You and I might google search, or amazon search for prayer methods - and find a lot of sites that say "here's a one-minute method." - and there's a place for that - but that's not this conversation.  

                           There may be a blog post in which we delve into one-minute prayers - but not this day!

Honestly - I do truly hope that there are MANY ways to step into such lengthy, sweet, and transformative prayer times.  I do not, however, believe that the doors to such a prayer life are unlocked by lists.  I know!  I know.  I too, am personally a big fan of lists ... but lists, as good as they are at getting all the taco ingredients from the store in one trip, and as glad as I am that people like pilots and surgeons and such use them as much as they do ... wouldn't it be weird if you were hanging out with your bestie, your squeeze, or your mentor - and they busted out a list? Mood. Killer.

So - no more talk of what isn't "the door".

There might be many such doors - and I am open to finding them all.  The door that I have found that keeps luring me back in, over and over again for longer and longer stays - is the door labeled "Curiosity About God's Love and Grace".  

I wish I could say that I found this door through some sort of brilliance.  Nope.  I found it first while in a place that felt beyond lists ... a place and time in my life when I felt that not even the most brilliant list could put the humpty-dumpty parts of my life back together again.  I found that door by saying one day - truly - on accident - to God - "please prove to me your love is greater than all this mess."  It was not a sunny vista. This was a low down, empty, broken place.  I entered feeling this ... 

... and I believe, again - just speaking for myself - that when we're addicted to fixing, and addicted to presenting a tidied-up, fixed-up, perfect life to everyone as a justification for freedom from judgement or as an immunization from feeling too humble or small - that this is possibly how we see the world.  This might even be - how it is - if we reduce God to a list.

But having no fix-its left in my hands, having no more answers that involved my own strength - and coming to a place where there was nothing but God's Love towards me - Goodness towards my life - and Grace to warm me - I found that prayer that focuses on God's infinite good will towards us - that stretched back to before the dawn of time - that put a to-do list into action on a date so far back in God's day-planner that I can't comprehend the date.  I found stepping into a space of prolonged awe and wonder that the Infinite, Omniscient, Omnipresent and Omnipotent King of the Universe who spends every moment of His infinity in every particle of the universe at every moment of every particles existence drew on a motive like Love to plan my redemption is a thought that reduces my inadequacies to a blip on a cosmic radar of infinite "I Got This's" from God.  I think that door that I fell through on accident one day - because the two or three I'd been trying over and over again were just ... tired - has become my new go-to door - and time spent in reflective and meditative prayer there - telegraphs God's hopeful calm - and somehow - reduces my to-do lists, my fixit-addiction to a simple walk.  I do not have words for the gratitude I have for God as I've come to experience Him through this "door."

limited analogy of the space through "the door" and the view there - and the seat from which we can enjoy it

What Is Grace Anyway?

Grace, the Grace of God that is, is so hard to define - so hard to define so sharply that is - that when you hold that definition of Grace clearly in your mind - all you see is that image that so succinctly and perfectly depicts Grace that you can literally see nothing else.  Need an example of what I mean by the above?  Think of the word love.  What basic, simple image comes to mind? A heart right?  Simple.  Clear.  I mean - you can take issue with the marketing of Valentine's Day - the reduction of true/real love in media to some glitzy, Hollywood version ... but still ... if you want to communicate love quickly, simply, universally even almost - this is your go to symbol.  

But what about the Grace we get from God?  What's the basic, no frills, works because everyone gets it sort of symbol for Grace?  Well ... if you Google search it - like I did ... you get a bunch of word-art.  That's it!  Sometimes - the word-art of sunny fields and happy doves isn't quite enough - so a little sub-title about gets written in.

Hmmmm.

Doesn't that about sum it up though?

And I'm with everyone - right?  Because I didn't think "oh - let's insert that super awesome and totally clear image of Grace that I already thought of because I can only think of that graphic is the only one that always comes to my mind whenever I think the word Grace" ... nope - I knew I had nuttin - so I googled it.  Telling - right?

I mean - don't tell me - "well - you see Amy Jo - Grace is so hard to define."  Because I will say back to you (probably a little sarcastically) [in a high, nasal, whinny voice] "Hmmmyeah.  It's so hard! ...  [in your best Bourne movie trailer voice.] Define love."  

How is it that 2,000 years in - this is the pickle we face?  What could be the image of Grace? Or maybe this is just my problem - what image comes to mind when you picture Grace?  

And - yes - just to admit it - I'm doing that thing with the capital letters again - where I'm using a capital G to signify not the grace of a great dancer, or the grace of a court-official, or gracing someone's party with yourself ... but the Grace that God gives "a wretch like me" so we can not only experience His forgiveness but sing about amazingness.

I think that there are two reasons why we don't have a simple, read, go-to image for Grace - like we do for Love or baby, or school, or any of those other big concepts that mean a lot to us all.

Reason number 1:  Grace - however you define it is deep into the theological weeds.  

Reason number 2:  We don't really like Grace.

On point number 2 (because I'm assuming we all get number 1 - HUGE splits have taken place in the whole history of Christianity over this little word) - here's what I mean.  Even the song I just alluded to - Amazing Grace - which I'm going to go ahead and keep on singing (probably alone in the car because singing is just not my talent) - says that Grace is for wretches ... you know - wretches like me.  

In general - we have this idea that Grace is for degenerates.  Grace is for those who need it ... for everyone else - tuck your shirt in, sit up straight - chin up! Stop looking like you need it! (okay - that's the end of my "elementary teacher voice"

But it's true.  Grace isn't really presented to us as something you need more of if you're bad or just not as good.  Pedestal People - you know - the ones that we love to love and put way up high on a pedestal - they don't need Grace - right?

Google's definition of Grace is pretty straight forward ... but when I mentioned that definition to some theological types - eye-ball rolls ensued. 

The founder/original writer and lexicographer of the Webster's Dictionary - Noah Webster - was by accounts we can access today a devout Christian - and based all of his definitions of English words on how those words were used in the Bible.  The last edition of the Webster's Dictionary published with this view strictly in mind came out in 1828 - and there are still today quite a few copies of it floating around on-line ... think I'm kidding?  Google it. I came up with 386,000 results in 0.58 seconds.  And it's still in print! Can Noah Webster help us clear up our confusion about Grace? ... Well ...  Here's the entry (it's long - like really long - so feel free to skip down)

Grace

GRACE, noun [Latin gratia, which is formed on the Celtic; Eng. agree, congruous, and ready. The primary sense of gratus, is free, ready, quick, willing, prompt, from advancing.]

1. Favor; good will; kindness; disposition to oblige another; as a grant made as an act of grace

Or each, or all, may win a lady's grace

2. Appropriately, the free unmerited love and favor of God, the spring and source of all the benefits men receive from him.

And if by grace then it is no more of works. Romans 11:5.

3. Favorable influence of God; divine influence or the influence of the spirit, in renewing the heart and restraining from sin.

My grace is sufficient for thee. 2 Corinthians 12:9.

4. The application of Christ's righteousness to the sinner.

Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Romans 5:2.

5. A state of reconciliation to God. Romans 5:2:2.

6. Virtuous or religious affection or disposition, as a liberal disposition, faith, meekness, humility, patience, etc. proceeding from divine influence.

7. Spiritual instruction, improvement and edification. Ephesians 4:29.

8. Apostleship, or the qualifications of an apostle. Ephesians 3:8.

9. Eternal life; final salvation. 1 Peter 1:13.

10. Favor; mercy; pardon.

Bow and sue for grace

With suppliant knee.

11. Favor conferred.

I should therefore esteem it a great favor and grace

12. Privilege.

To few great Jupiter imparts this grace

13. That in manner, deportment or language which renders it appropriate and agreeable; suitableness; elegance with appropriate dignity. We say, a speaker delivers his address with grace; a man performs his part with grace

GRACE was in all her steps.

Her purple habit sits with such a grace

On her smooth shoulders.

14. Natural or acquired excellence; any endowment that recommends the possessor to others; as the graces of wit and learning.

15. Beauty; embellishment; in general, whatever adorns and recommends to favor; sometimes, a single beauty.

I pass their form and every charming grace

16. Beauty deified; among pagans, a goddess. The graces were three in number, Aglaia, Thalia, and Euphrosyne, the constant attendants of Venus.

The loves delighted, and the graces played.

17. Virtue physical; as the grace of plants. [Not used.]

18. The title of a duke or an archbishop, and formerly of the king of England, meaning your goodness or clemency. His grace the Duke of York. Your grace will please to accept my thanks.

19. A short prayer before or after meat; a blessing asked, or thanks rendered.

20. In music, graces signifies turns, trills and shakes introduced for embellishment.

Day in grace in theology, time of probation, when an offer is made to sinners.

Days in grace in commerce, the days immediately following the day when a bill or note becomes due, which days are allowed to the debtor or payor to make payment in. In Great Britain and the United States the days of grace are three, but in other countries more; the usages of merchants being different.

GRACE, verb transitive To adorn; to decorate; to embellish and dignify.

Great Jove and Phoebus graced his noble line.

And hail, ye fair, of every charm possess'd,

Who grace this rising empire of the west.

1. To dignify or raise by act of favor; to honor.

He might at his pleasure grace or disgrace whom

he would in court.

2. To favor; to honor.

3. To supply with heavenly grace.

*whew!*

The above definition makes a 3 page word-document of 564 words.  Mr. Webster was thorough!  And - yet - I feel even more foggy and uncertain about what Grace actually is.  

Of all the books in the Bible - Romans wins the prize for talking about Grace the most.  The Apostle Paul uses the word as a greeting (Romans 1:5 & 7) , as the gift by which we are justified (Rom 3:24), says that justification has to be by faith or it's not in accordance with Grace (Rom 4:16), Romans 5 says that Grace introduces us to faith and that it's by Grace that we stand - even if we're helpless, and says that with receiving an abundance of Grace the gift of righteousness can reign in us (of course - righteousness might be another word that's taken a beating).  In Romans 6 Paul emphatically declares - you can almost hear his voice straining as you read this chapter - that using Grace as license will not increase it - but rather Grace is the very proof that we are no longer owned by that tyrant, Sin.  In Romans 11 Paul flatly states that if grace is based on works it's not grace at all. 

How is it that Grace ever became associated with the words "cheap" or "easy"?  Encounters with Grace lead to humility, gratitude, transformation, generosity, hope, love ... in fact - despite the linguistic differences and the theological differences - can we see and or experience any practical differences between Grace and Love as we receive them from God?  If you read through 1st Corinthians 13 and replace the word love in that chapter with the word Grace - doesn't it still work?

Could then - this also be the symbol of Grace?

Grace Habit - Grace's Due

Rodney Dangerfield gained global fame on the line:  "I don't get no respect!"

Well - you know what?  Grace don't get no respect.  Really.  I can look back at my own life and recall moments and conversations in which I discounted grace as "soft" and "an easy pass".  It wasn't that I wanted to disparage one of God's gifts - it's just that at that time - I was firmly in the grip of the sweet delusion that I could somehow be a better Christian, a higher-quality sort of Christ-follower if I needed to take a little less grace - than say ... this person, or that person, or ... you know - you.

For reasons that now sometimes seem so hard to recall - I instinctively avoided meaningful contemplation on grace.  In fact - from here on in this post - I'm going to distinguish "grace" before contemplation - and "GRACE" after contemplation and subsequently realization.  This change wasn't strictly precipitated by my consequential and thorough investigation of a term that I astutely recognized in a flash of brilliance I'd been conveniently neglecting.  Nope. It wasn't until that I needed grace - that I started to look at why it was so hard to find, under appreciated and seemingly relegated to those we don't want to be ... you know - like the people regarding whom we've ever uttered the words:  "There but for the grace of God go I."

Barf.

We can do better.  We must do better - for everyone's sake.

While grace - as a license to pity those I'm too lazy to understand - is a miserable and forgettable thing; GRACE - is powerful, mind-blowing and majestic.  Poor grace - smacks of hypocrisy, arrogance, and self-righteousness.  But GRACE - leaves us gob-smacked by the audacity of God to foist unbelievable generosity on the oblivious.  While GRACE profoundly transforms, sad little grace invariably reduces even the best intentions to the sort of "forgiven-large-sums-of-debt" sort of servant - who upon forgiveness - runs out and finds someone who owes us five bucks - and we jump them, and throw the book at them.  This of course isn't behavior exclusive to Christians - you can find that sort of behavior in any place at any time ... it's human - but not redeemed human - and that seems to be why it's so offensive to the world when Christians display sad grace ... the whole, wide, freaking world is desperately, desperately hungry for real GRACE.

So what IS that real GRACE?  

Keep coming back ... I promise - it is not for nothing that I'm circling this issue - we are narrowing in on the center - slowly, methodically and purposefully.  I'm working through these twice-weekly posts to deconstruct the easy thinking about "cheap grace" and once that's dismantled - lay out a case for GRACE.

Grace Habit; Part 4

Wikihow even has a wiki on how to study the Bible - here's their image.

The question remains: "How did you learn to spend time with God?"

Did you have deovtions?  Did you sit down and have your quiet time?  Or did you follow a Bible reading plan?  Maybe you read  "My Utmost for His Highest"?  Maybe you used a Life Application study Bible?  Maybe you had an Inductive Study Bible?  Or maybe your church or denomination offered a class on how to study the Bible - or maybe you took a seminary class?

I remember when I first learned about Christian Book Distributors ... back in the day - with a phone call to a 1-800 number - they would put you on their mailing list - and send you their catalog - printed on newspaper type paper - all black and white - with hundreds and hundreds of horrible little grainy pictures of life-altering bargain priced books like "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis.  I remember my mother handing me a check to "go buy something decent to wear to an interview" - cashing it - driving to Good Will and a garage sale or two - and coming home with something better than ripped out jeans and worn thin hoodie to wear to an interview - and mailing a check off to the catalog people - and buying my first study Bible: a hard-backed NAS Open Study Bible.  Then came the Thompson Chain Reference Bible ... then Bible software!  Ooooh!

There are also a plethora of prayer methods aren't there.  There's the "A.C.T.S." method (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication).  I'm personally pretty fond of the "Hour That Changes the World" by Dick Eastman - an 11-kinds of prayer - that at 5 minutes each(ish) takes up an hour when you begin and end with praise.  I've always liked best that it includes both resting with and listening to God - which actually makes prayer seem like a conversation.

Maybe you remember missionaries coming to visit your church and telling you about people hearing the gospel for the first time, or receiving their first Bible.  The head of the campus ministry I attended as a student was invited at one time to teach a class to some Czechoslovakians back when Czechoslovakia was a country still.  He told stories about two brothers attending who every evening after the last class would plead with him to borrow his old, worn out Bible over-night and then hand deliver it to his hotel room the next morning "on their way" to work (but it was actually horribly out of their way).  Near the end of the class the brothers finally told him that they were taking turns hand-copying whole books from his Bible - because they'd never had one and didn't believe they ever would - and even though this Bible was in English - a language they struggled with - they were so eager to finally access to a Bible - they considered themselves extremely fortunate and were glad to give up sleep - and walk twice as far to work.  When my campus minister heard this - he instinctively gave them his Bible - right then and there.  They were so over-come with joy that this book was now theirs - that they burst into tears.  I believe that just about every single missionary serving near the U.S.S.R. or other closed countries has stories like this.

It's curious that today it's so ridiculously easy to have a completely free personal Scripture study reference library that would be the absolute envy of every seminary student not at all that long ago - and to carry it around with you everywhere you go - on your phone!  You can down-load a free app that will even READ the Bible out loud to you with a professionally produced recording - in the version of your choice - again - completely free and utterly portable.  Yet I don't think this proliferation of resources and ease of access to those resources has led to a significant uptick in Christians diving in.  Obviously, life is extremely complicated and despite the dawn of the internet age has failed to automatically become easier - so the answers to how this has come to be are varied and numerous.  Still - the excuse we all said before you could stuff an entire seminary library into your back pocket was "Well, I'd love to study the Bible more - but who can afford all those resources?"

So - what IS stopping us from diving in?  Busyness for sure - but busyness doesn't really mean busyness does it?  Or better put - what "gem of an idea" would unleash your inner scholar?

Grace Habit, Part 3

Do you know about "the voice"?

No, no, no.  Not this:

Rather ... the voice in your head.

Yeah.  

That.

Did you know that of all the biggest world religions there are three where adherents who suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and are intent in their practice of their faith - can often fall prey to a particularly pernicious form of OCD called scrupulosity.  Sufferers of scrupulosity have intense anxiety surrounding thoughts about having committed some moral infraction.  In other words: they're horrified at the idea of sinning - morally, ethically or in some other way. You can read an article on scrupulosity here.  The three world religions where scrupulosity is most likely to occur? Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. 

How interesting that Christians would face this issue.  Aren't Christians; like the bumper stickers used to all say "Christians aren't perfect.  just forgiven"? Really?  "Just"?  As if it were ... trite?

Hold that thought.

Did you also know - that those same three world religions seem to produce another similar result in another form of mental illness ... adherants of these same three global faiths who hear voices - hear judgy, condemning, and verbally abusive voices.  Whereas individuals from Africa and even India - hear friendly, playful voices. Hmm. Interesting.  

And again - I'm personally just a little curious - how it is that Christians, who's faith, at least in the Good Book, makes some amazing statements about forgiveness, redemption and grace - but that's not impacting people as much. 

Obviously - I'm just noticing - not making a judgment, not denying the real and awful burden that mental health is - especially in a country where it's far more likely to be penalized, criminalized than insured and treated.  I am noticing though - that there's something about the "It Is Finished" part of Jesus sanctifying work on the cross that's not sinking as deep into the Christian psyche as the sin part.  It's like - as a global faith community - we just don't get the "Neither do I condemn you" part of Jesus interaction with the woman caught in adultery in John 8 ... we are as a people fairly hung up it seems on the "Go and sin no more part".  It's as if - as soon as God's forgiveness washes us clean - we feel constrained to "humble ourselves" or "stay real" - and go right back to living as if we were still in the muck.  Sometimes we even try to make it "cool" to be "broken"

But here's the thing ... has anyone ever been able to actually go and sin no more?  Well, other than Jesus, of course?  Wasn't the whole point of Jesus - God's own beloved Son - needing come down and live among us precisely because no one has ever actually been able to go and sin no more?  Isn't at least part of what we glean from every single Bible story every kid learns in Sunday school is that they were all imperfect people?  Adam & Eve sinned. Cain killed Able. Noah got hammered.  Abraham lied about his wife.  Twice. David slew giants, but committed adultery with Bathsheba ... Simon Bar Jonah - so impacted Jesus that the Savior gave him the nick-name "Peter" - literally, "The Rock" - yet just before the crucifixion The Rock himself - gobsmacked by fright and stress - denied having ever known Jesus with colorful language and plenty of volume. Romans 3:23 says it best. 

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," (NASB)

Of course - there's the other side of scripture ...

 because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”  1 Peter 1:16 (NASB)

And yet - just a couple chapters later Paul - the great New Testament theologian, reiterates that despite Romans 3:23, Here's our reason for hope:

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Romans 5:8 (NASB) 

But - can Christians really be stuck between either Jesus' work on the cross was essential to introduce a new paradigm - and yet still - as if it were still the day before Resurrection Sunday, 33 AD live as if there were no option but being trapped in a vicious cycle of breaking the law, and atoning, and then breaking the law again, and atoning again, and on and on ad infinitim, ad nauseum?  

I don't know about  you - but stuck in the muck is stuck in the muck - no matter how cool you might try to make it.  There HAS to be a way to live abundantly now, you know, when we're alive. There has to be a difference between our existence now - and the existence before Jesus.  That can NOT be right!  It's bad enough that I'm stuck there, cuz' you know, maybe that just "my problem" - but I've been asking around and have dragged an innumerable quantity of books back and forth from the Library/book store/my friend's house (shhhhh ... I'll put it back!) - and I haven't found in any book or teaching a practical and clear solution - easily implemented and simple to understand.  Well - I hadn't until just a couple of years ago that is.  And it seems to me that there's a huge connection between the voice that dominates our thinking - and our ability to really step out of the gloom and into forgiveness.  Are we afraid to live in the light of forgiveness?

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. 

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.