1/9/2015
Yesterday kicked off the 50 Sundays tour. It was a spontaneous decision and not inaugurated. In fact, it was not how I envisioned a kick-off to be at all. Though, there were tour dates already lined up starting mid-week next week, I felt like I was waiting for a confirmation …some kind of a commitment and sign that never came. It was an ambivalent start to a massive project, whose scope I don’t fully understand. I even drove off in the wrong direction on 250 North with flurries swirling.
What was the catalyst for such a late afternoon decision? After several days of prayer and deep communion with God, I was challenged by something totally inappropriate in question. The rest is too personal. But instead of fighting it I threw my hands quietly up saying to myself…
“Im better than this. My past is passed, ..girl go live and make decisions where I can use my new understanding of where I’m weak, what i can do to change it, and be an example of a Christ centered life.” That and mom was kicking the baby bird out of the nest, with subtle reminders and suggestions.
With that…
The van was packed unexpectedly and quickly. The initial route was drawn in haste. And yet, when I made my first contact for a stay over nearby Roanoke, the couple was so welcoming and helpful, I decided to continue on. As I drove I prayed that the Lord would soon put people and places in my path that would encourage and welcome me in my quest to capture Christian success stories. As I drove, I reflected. What is a Christian success story? How would God see it? Am I one?
Christ’s life is the greatest success story I know. In all religions, he is the only example of a blameless full triumph over the flesh and sin. We all want to be more like him – to follow his example and to share in his mind. I will tell you after consulting with several pastors, that it isn’t how guilty we feel about our mistakes that makes us successful as a Christian. It is the willingness to forgive, and “not do it again,” – to fully realize the reason Christ died for our sins. It’s not so we can be sorry for them, but so that we repent of them and head in a different direction. God is far less interested in whether we feel guilty or sad over something, than getting us to “think and behave differently” for our own salvation so that we don’t keep doing the things that hurt each other. So as I was driving I thought, success is the willingness to change and do what the Lord commands. Keeping Gods law = success, but then it is more than just keeping his laws.
In the Old Testament, we see 1 Kings 2:3 Do what the LORD your God commands and follow his teachings. Obey everything written in the Law of Moses. Then you will be a success, no matter what you do or where you go. In the new testament, Jesus simplifies things. In Matthew 22:36-39, a Pharisee asks Jesus,
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]
Breaking the ten commandments has harsh physical, psychological and spiritual consequences. Even so, human nature loves to test the “shall not’s.” Modern psychology tell us the subconscious mind does not process negatives, it processes images. We all have experienced that when someone says, “don’t look at the pink elephant, for example, that we naturally think of a pink elephant. Thankfully, Jesus made it easier on us in the New Testament, by affirming the positive and desired outcome of living the Ten Commandments. Then, by dying for our sins, he gave us a way to lift ourselves out of guilt and remorse, which keep us emotionally bound to our past actions. So what does this have to do with Christian success stories?
To be a successful Christian, requires more than an adherence to rules. People can shackle themselves to the commandments without ever expressing them. Jesus, did not advocate and empty continuation of what the Law prescribed, but rather *what the Law was pointing to so that there would be true wisdom and true love He came to fulfill the law – to live it, not just obey it. True the Law pointed man toward righteousness, but not to a means of attaining it. Death of an adulterer by stoning, leaves no room for true repentance, and the salvation of ones soul. We show our truth faith and love, by not simply doing something that is commanded because it’s commanded, but because we fully realize and we fully live, the reasons it was commanded. As happened with the Pharisees, the law, and the strict adherence to it, blinded them to seeing the situation in front of them and an opportunity to truly further Gods kingdom.
So, today as I consider Christian success stories for the 50 Sundays project, I don’t just consider those people whose lives appear to follow the Law by rote, but those who truly Love the Lord with all their heart, and put that love into service. I don’t write off those who have stumbled, but rather look for those who are humble, whose quest for severe perfection in themselves and others have long been squelched by healing wisdom in mercy and grace. The quest for severe perfection is an idol of control anyway. The expectation and emotional investment that people will be perfect, causes rude, inconsistent and detached behavior when they or someone fails the expectation.
This morning as I sat drinking coffee with my new Christian friends, discussing all these things and more, Ken said, “It’s because you’ve stumbled yourself that you know what you’re talking about.”
I’m not sure about that. But God does. Thank you Lord.
