called to be forgiven

Last week in GJM we tackled the question, "What is the purpose of life?" What a question, huh? Try talking through that one in an hour and a half.

Listening to my girls talk, though, was like being transported back in time to so many phases of my life. For all of them, purpose had an awful lot to do with performance -- doing well, not messing up. The greatest joy of this purpose is that God affirms us. We feel important and loved. The greatest sorrow of this purpose is that we fail, and then we are left purposeless. It's a cycle, and it's hard to break. Habits die hard, and the trap of counting works as more than rags is something I will always battle.

For the first time, though, I was able to articulate something that God has been slowly, ever so slowly, teaching me over the years. I will doubtless stumble over my words here, but take comfort in the fact that I was somehow able to spew it out in those minutes of conversation in our church (praise the Holy Spirit!). It's the idea that we are called to be forgiven. In other words, part of our purpose is to be forgiven. It's a state of being, an action that occurred once and covers us eternally. It's a calling and a gift. The ultimate purpose is that God would be made much of; in that, we are called and purposed to find joy in him and make much of him. And joy comes from forgiveness and salvation and reconciliation. And how is it that we so often mistake forgiveness as something we gain and lose based on our actions any given day? Why are we confused?

I think it is, in part, when we're mistaken the person of the ultimate purpose. We so often err in naming ourselves as the ultimate purpose by making Christ's saving act about us and not him. God loves me, and I think that must make me the center of the universe. No -- our lives and our callings are purposed to make much of God first and foremost. We are blessed in that our joy is derived from the very act of making much of God. I'm doing a terrible job of articulating this, but trust me when I say that grasping this changes your life. The confusing mire of actions and sinning and forgiveness and purpose all fall into place when we remove ourselves from the center of the picture of life. I'm still learning and still growing, and the growing isn't growing without the growing pains. As Bruce always used to say, it's about learning that "it's not about me." And that, my friends, is very difficult for this selfish human being to learn.

Gospel Journey: Maui

Gospel Journey: Maui. It's a nine-week reality-show-curriculum purposed to begin conversations between teenagers of vastly different faiths (or non-faiths) about what they believe (or don't believe). They attempt to answer questions like, "Is there a higher power?" and "Why do bad things happen?" Students are highly encouraged to bring friends from different belief systems. Students watch one episode of the reality show (set in, surprise surprise, Maui) each week and then have discussion for over an hour. At least, that's the idea.

Our youth groups (both senior and junior high) began GJM last night. Not many friends came. Try moderating a discussion on the existence of a higher power between a group of Christians. I didn't think it would riveting, anyway. But some intriguing things came to light for me as a leader of four ninth and tenth grade girls.

The first discussion question of the evening was "Which cast character did you identify the most?" Well, my girls didn't exactly answer my question. But what they did say was that they found what a girl named A-Rae said to be the most interesting. A-Rae could best be described as a new ager. She created her own religion because she wasn't satisfied with what she saw or learned at church. Her god is a voluptuous female who bakes cookies. A-Rae does not believe in hell. In her words, "this world is hell enough." If you don't believe while you're alive, you are reincarnated and come back to earth until you finally believe and get to go to heaven.

I know my girls didn't say they identified most strongly with A-Rae. But she was their takeaway. She intrigued them, in a positive way. They did not condemn her or think her beliefs were offensive or even odd. She struck a chord with them. And I can understand why.

Here is what I saw in A-Rae: I saw a girl who desperately wants to reconcile despair and pain with redemption. For many, many people, this life seems more like a mini hell than anything else. How can we compound their pain by telling them that their eternities will be even worse if they don't conform to one way of belief? Doesn't it seem unfair? Isn't that cruel? I think my girls intuitively understood the reason behind A-Rae's belief system and, perhaps without even meaning to, revealed their own questions about this part of Christianity.

The Holy Spirit has a way of bringing specific parts of Scripture in very timely ways. For weeks and weeks now I have been rereading the book of 1 John. This is what came to mind during our discussion about A-Rae at GJM: "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God...God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment..." (1 John 4:15-18)

And by this I realized that we have some fears to confront amongst my girls. Because when the Bible says there is one way to Heaven, and that is through Christ, and someone you know dies who did not belief in Jesus, you're left in a bit of a conundrum. Do I still believe that there is one way to Heaven and accept the pain that that knowledge is bringing me right now? Or am I going to create my own religion of infinite chances? Fear. Reconciling a God of love with justice. Seeing the beauty and majesty of those two characteristics meeting, instead of fearing their collision. I really think that GJM is going to be a good journey for our kids.

Where is my treasure? (The result of a Saturday morning with God.)

Mark 10:17-31

A rich, young ruler asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. He claims to keep all of the Old Testament commandments, but apparently not the most important one of loving God with all his heart. He cannot sell all of his possessions and give to the poor and follow Jesus.

Luke 9:23-24

Following Jesus means denying myself, taking up my cross, and following him. Saving my life is tantamount to losing it, while losing my life for his sake will save it.

Luke 12:23,29-34

Life is more than the temporal -- food, drink, clothes. We are not to worry, for God knows what we need. We are to seek his kingdom, which he desires to give to us. Again we're told to sell our possessions and give to the poor, and in so doing to treasure heavenly, not earthly, things.

Luke 14:25-33

When we come to Christ, we must (by comparison) hate our family and even our own lives and take up our crosses and follow him. We must renounce all, understandign beforehand teh enormity of the cost of this calling.

John 4:31-38

The disciples urge Jesus to eat some food following his conversation with the Samaritan woman by the well. He replies that he has a food of which they do not know. "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work."

John Piper offers much wisdom on this subject in his book Don't Waste Your Life. Where is our treasure? Where is our life? Our peace and hope and joy are not found in success and are not removed by crashing stock markets or lost jobs. Instead, our lives are based upon God and his call to give him glory in what we do and who we are. We are called to be productive and also called to care for the needy. (Think of the Thessalonians, who were told to work and be productive that they could give to others.) We live off a little in order to give and to bless. (I think here of the Macedonians mentioned in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. Though they were poor, they gave beyond all expectations. Paul then tells the Corinthians, "I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need.")

2 Corinthians 9:7-8

We don't give reluctantly but cheerfully, knowing that bountiful sowing brings bountiful reaping. "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work."

(I love this word "sufficiency". It calls me back to earlier in 2 Corinthians, where Paul asks, "Who is sufficient for these things?" and then later replies to himself, "Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit.")