Unconditional love
9 October 2002, Volume 4, Issue 43
Kathy, our word processor's voice and editor has been
given the week off, (see prayer below) and since we are using a new Java based
word processor, which at least under Windows ME leaves much to be desired, you
are consequently stuck with my editing skills.
What was impressed on me at the Pastor's conference some
weeks ago is that yes, we all are truly unique and gifted individuals, but each
person has different callings. We need to operate in those callings to achieve
not only what God created us to be, but also to facilitate the proper
functioning of the church, the Body of Christ as a whole. It is my
understanding, and that of most people that I have talked with over the years,
this just doesn't happen. This is true not because God hasn't provided the
right individuals with the proper gifts to perform the work in a exemplary
manner, but that we just don't
know what others can do and we have no mechanism(s) by which the whole
community of gifted personalities can achieve their God given potential.
We act like toothpicks and broken pieces even though we are not.
We have a saying, "Where God leads, God
provides." This is true, and to God be all the glory. But what glory might
we see if the men and women in the church would actually perform the tasks with
all the given resources that we might provide, God adding beyond what we might
think or imagine?
To some major extent, we have not, not because we don't
ask, we have not because we do not utilize what God has already provided.
And we have no means, no community, to know what those resources might be.
Since we looked two weeks at the toothpicks and broken
pieces, I'm assuming that this is
going to be a much longer series than the one article noted above. Therefore,
this week let us look briefly at the bigger picture. The organization of the
world and creation from God's perspective. From God's perspective, it is all
about His love for His highest
creation, mankind. This love includes not only His chosen people, the saints, but also the vilest pagan
sinner who ever walked the earth. The Hitler's and other tyrants, do reflect
God's glory in the ultimate sense, even though their actions do not enter into
the mind of God.
I also want to begin with God's love because I really don't
know the outcome of some of the articles that we may discover. I do know
however, no matter what the words
may say, it all makes some sense to God in His unfolding plan of redemption,
which overlays a world of repetitive seasons and unforeseen chaos. Randomness
does not exist to God, we just perceive such, because we are incapable of understanding the complexity of the
events.
As bizarre as it may sound, most of us would be better
served by living our lives in the perceived chaos of God's perfectly
controlled universe, than to live our lives in the perceived order that we try
so hard to achieve and to understand.
"This just doesn't make any sense to me God!"
Well praise the Lord, beyond your common sense understanding, the love of God
for each of us can be truly shown. Since, I have no other reference I would
like to spend a few paragraphs relating some of my childhood experiences,
something I now am only beginning to understand, or more to the point, to fully
appreciate.
Something I knew, but never fully apprehended while he
was alive, was just how great a gift was my own natural father. When I count
all the guys (and gals) I know that their father was never there for them, or
were in some other ways disfunctional
(drugs, booze, self indulgence and a whole host of sins), I was truly
blessed by God.
My dad was a school principal. When I graduated from high
school the local paper wrote and
article about his twelve years as my principal and conversely my twelve years
as his subject. If I remember correctly this unusual occurrence was picked
up by the news wire services and
served as back page fillers in many papers across the country, including what
my mom called the "big city" (Seattle).
I never perceived that within the school setting that he
never treated me any differently than any other of his hundreds of children,
but I really doubt that was the case. He was a strong disciplinarian in school
and at home. So much so that I never had the guts to test his limits. His arms
were as big as my calves. In that respect, I never had many of the same rules
that many of my friends had. I could stay out as late as I wanted, provided I
was capable of doing what was on the family agenda on the weekends. That meant
both Saturday and Sunday mornings. Those obligations were to be carried out
without complaint period. By the time I got to high school, I had learned that
it was much better to go home and get a good nights sleep, than to face the a
possible impending wrath of God's representative.
When I was a senior in high school, both my best friend
Roger and I had dates for our school carnival. Roger was driving his mother's
hot V-8 Plymouth, with a straight stick. I had my parents Buick, similar
engine, automatic transmission. As kids of that age sometimes do, somehow we
ended up out at the local quarter mile strip on the deserted country road.
Finally, we would actually see, whose parents had the hottest car. Besides, we
had a couple of girls to impress with our coolness.
Since this was a serious race, I put my foot on the brake
as I revved the Buick's motor to high rpm's. A the appropriate starting time,
Roger headed down the strip heard this pop, and saw the car's linear
speedometer turn over what I perceived a number of times. The car did not move,
the car could not move.
We all piled into Roger's car and took the girls home.
Then Roger took me to my place. I remember him asking if I wanted him to stay,
just in case. I responded, "I got myself into this, I am going to have to
face the consequences myself." With that he quickly sped out of sight.
Taking a deep breath, I slowly walked up the front porch steps
As I climbed the front steps, my father opened the door
and ask, "Where's the car?"
I responded something like, "Uh, ah, duh, sniff, Uh,
ah duh, sniff, sniff, out in Greenwood."
"What's wrong with it?
"I don't know, uh ah duh, sniff, sniff, sniff, it
won't go."
I don't remember the rest of the conversation, because at
that time he put is arm around my shoulder and sort of hugged me into the house
and said, "Well, I guess we better go get it."
With that, he called and got the local tow truck driver
out of bed and together the three of us went out retrieve the Buick, with as I
learned later, two broken rear axles.
The only other thing he ever said to be about it, was the
following Monday, when we found out the damages, "Son, how do you plan on
paying for this?"
We worked out a long time payment plan, tapping most of
my allowance.
Unconditional love. It works behind the scenes, most of
the time without being even noticed except in the time of crisis. After that,
my dad and my father became my papa. I don't believe I called him papa much too
his face, for I had gained much more respect for him through that trial in my
life than I could ever articulate.
Looking back on other things in my life, I wish there
were times when he and my mom would have said, "Son, I thing this is a
stupid idea." But that never happened. In that regard, I would say that my
papa and my mom were not perfect. But in that same way, I could say to my Heavenly Father, my Papa God,
"Why did you let me do such a awful thing, or why did you let me be hurt
so badly."
As I write this, my dads' question returns to me,
"Son, how do you plan on paying for this?"
With God, all the allowance I could ever give would not
pay the price for my redemption from myself and my sin. The only way I can
begin to understand that concept
at all, is to acquire a wealth of righteousness beyond my own abilities,
because I blow it so badly, so many times. Without that concept of the law
written in the Word of God and in my conscience, justification, redemption,
propitiation, are just words used to promote a religious concept, that I can
not understand just within my own understanding of reality.
True reality, that overrides all the mundane turmoil and
chaotic seasons of this life, is the love of God that provides a peace beyond
our understanding. Our choice is whether accept that love offered alone through
Jesus Christ, or to try to get the funds to fix our broken axles on our own.
The truth of the matter is that not everyone will make
that choice to allow Christ to set us free from our bondage of the will, as
Luther said. And again, even with our best theological arguments and reasoning
we do not begin to comprehend this love of God. But this one thing I do know,
is that to receive the freedom that God's love gives us and not be willing to
help others by using our gifts, within the community of God the church, the
body of Christ, and to the larger community of human society makes a mockery of
that gift. To say we don't know how to do it, just points to our own
shallowness and our fear to share (to give) our lives in service of others.
We have no community, because we fear that others, our
holy brothers and sisters, and our more worldly friends. will find out that we
are not the saints we like to portray in church and in the world. As the
consequence, the church loses its power, ts grace, and most importantly its
love. The love of God!
When I returned from the Pastor's conference, the whole
createleaders domain had passed
away. As best I can recollect the facts, the original domain listing company
did not notify me that it needed to be renewed and as a consequence it passed
on,to be reborn some three days later within my new web hosting company.
My laptop is currently undergoing a similar
transformation. There came an error on the hard disk as I tried to perform a
system upgrade. All I know now for a fact is that it will be fixed for a price,
perhaps losing some files.
Through all this and some other turmoil that you don't
need to know about, the Lord seems to be moving. This, after a very long
desert, or wilderness time. Please intercede as we move towards developing a
mechanism (hopefully more than just
programs) to teach and foster the sense of community within the church,
concurrent with leadership training and facilities to bring these needs to
life.