On Earth, As it is in Heaven

This past week has found me with a lot more time on my hands to reflect, think, and rest. The one thing that I realize to great degree, is how hollow and empty my life often seems. I really believe that at least a part of this feeling, however, is a combination of lack of sleep and stress. I was recently reading an article from The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) entitled Ignore the Alarm, Kids, its thesis statement conveniently included in the first sentence: “Depriving children of as little as 30 minutes sleep can significantly reduce their alertness, brain activity and concentration the next day, researchers have found.” What applies to children, also applies to adults.

Regardless, however, of how or why such feelings often seem to crop up in my world, I still try to discipline myself to pray regularly and ask God to help me deal with my feelings. Many times, I believe, it as James 4:2 bears out: “Ye do not have, because ye ask not.” For many of us, we look to everything other than God to try to satisfy the discontent we feel inside. Yet, whether we feel particularly close to Him at any given moment or not, He is always there, gently sustaining us, even as we turn away from Him. It is not that we mean to exclude Him, simply that we do not always think to include Him. Yet He desires to march ahead of us to fight the very battles we often wish we could hide from Him. He is no stranger to our vices as well as our virtues. But what saddens Him the most perhaps, is when we are less than honest and we try to hide from Him the things He already knows so well. He is the very power that accompanies us everywhere we go, but we do not see with His spiritual eyes, as He longs for us to be able to do.

If we could but for a moment look upon our world with the same spiritual eyes from which our Heavenly Father peers upon all of His creation, we would understand many things, love a great deal more than we do, and see ourselves for who we really are. We don’t often realize the power of even the simplest of our words, for good or for ill. I was relating this very point to Jonathan last week with a very simple, but effective illustration.

Working in a turkey factory as I do, the boredom level can reach agonizing levels at times. Try as you might to keep your mind on higher things and to use this time to think, pray, and participate in edifying conversation, it just doesn’t always seem to work. One thing that many of us do to alleviate the boredom level is to throw bits of skin and meat at one another, which is obviously against the company rules. When someone begins to throw meat in this fashion, he or she often becomes the center of attention, for what else is there to look at for long in a place like that? No less true here than anywhere else, if there is one thing we human beings all need, it is to be wanted, to be liked, to feel appreciated: most people revel in attention.

To demonstrate very tangibly to Jonathan just one example of how much we influence others, I pointed to a friend of ours across the line from us. He was cutting his bird somewhat lethargically, minding his own business, being quiet and somewhat pensive. I told Jonathan, “See ________ over there? He is being quiet, not at all stirred up. Now then, watch this: I have the perfect example.” Picking up a small piece of meat, I hurled it at him, landing it on his smock. Within seconds, he was animated into action, the center of attention, a performer on a stage because others found his antics amusing. Simply put, I was controlling his actions by a simple impish gesture and a bit of attention. Turning to Jonathan, I then said, “We underestimate the power we hold over people—we can choose to use this power for good or for ill.” About that time, our half of the line stopped and we went to break, but I pray that my somewhat disrespectful object lesson did not fail to accomplish the purpose for which it was intended.

We all care what others think about us, more so than what many of us would admit, even to ourselves. No one is immune to this desire. A pastor, for instance, may seem like a very solid and grounded spiritual leader, and for that matter, he may well be. But don’t think for a minute that inside it doesn’t sting or smart when someone criticizes his sermon or makes an unkind remark about him. He may wrestle with himself before God, but the fact of the matter is that we were never intended to exist in a vacuum: we were made for love. Love is not a solo act; love exists in relationship, and relationship can only exist in community. Here in America in particular, with all of our emphasis on freedom and personal autonomy, we devalue the role of community in our lives. But we were created for one another—to be interdependent even as we are Christ-dependent—and this is precisely why we care what others think about us, precisely why we want to be liked. Let us not see this as a negative thing, but rather let it show us all the more the reason why the Golden Rule—to do unto others as we would have them do unto us—is so important. To devalue another human being is to devalue ourselves; to devalue another human being is ultimately to devalue God. Beyond this, very often to the degree we devalue another behind their back is the degree others will devalue us; even on earth, we are often measured by the measure we adopt for ourselves.

The very reason we do understand the Golden Rule is because we all know what it is to hurt, to feel, and to care and care deeply. We very much know what it feels like to be snubbed or to feel abandoned or excluded. Let us never resort to using these tactics on others to try to make ourselves feel better, for we will never, ever gain what we seek by devaluing ourselves or another. We are important in God’s eyes—all people are infinitely valuable to God. To not respect another human, to not show him or her love, is like slapping God’s face and shows just how ignorant we remain to the King of the universe. Again I say, anytime we demean or devalue another, we demean and devalue ourselves and the God in whose image we have been created.

When we begin to see how motivated we are to gain recognition and acceptance from others, when we begin to realize how deep is our craving to be well-liked, let us turn the lens around and realize a great truth. If all human beings feel this way, then our little acts of kindness toward others can literally change the world. We too hold the power within our fingertips to shape the world; in fact, we are actively shaping it every day, whether for good or for ill, regardless if we realize it or not.

In what way do you shape your world? Do you recognize that you hold the same power over others that they hold over you? What do you choose to do with this recognition? Do you find your confidence and resolve crumbling? Are you weak? Or do you stand strong for the things that matter most in life, shining the light of love and shaking the salt of truth?

If you find your confidence and resolve melt when you are in the company of other people, then ask your Heavenly Father to help you. Remember James 4:2 which tells us that we do not have because we do not ask; it also tells us that we do not have because we ask amiss, for the wrong motives or reasons. Do you want to be an agent of change in your world? Would you like to make a positive difference in the lives of those around you? Do you wish you were not so easily controlled and influenced by the pressure to conform? Surrender control of this area of your life to Christ and invite Him to flow through you. Ask Him to give you the confidence, the clarity of insight, the wisdom, the courage, the conviction, and the passion to buck weakness, reticence, and cowardice and become who you have always been created to be. Inside of you, man or woman of God, is a leader: a man or a woman capable of shaping and molding the world for the glory of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is not about might or power, but about God’s Spirit and our daily surrender to this empowering Source.

There are times, however, when even very good things can come in and crowd out this dynamic relationship we cherish with the Triune God. Pure and undefiled religion, as James reminds us, is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world (James 1:27). This pure religion flows from the heart of the Father—which is love—and must itself remain unspotted by the corruption of the world while yet being an effective agent of change and beacon of light within it. Salt cannot lose it saltiness nor light its radiance if either is to be of any use; we are the light in the darkness, shining in it, though not of it. If, however, we attempt to practice such “religion,” however seemingly good, divorced from the love of Christ, we will soon lose our way for we will have lost touch with the purpose behind it all: we will have lost our ability to love fully even as we are fully loved. I was particularly intrigued by a section of the Winter 2003 newsletter penned by Father Laurence Freeman, OSB (since removed from the Web). While I have not thought through the full extent of his words and reserve the right to disagree with particular aspects of his sentiments, I did find this idea to be of especial interest:

This final sentence quoted here reminds me further of one Lewis articulated in Mere Christianity:

The bottom line is that without completely surrendering our lives to the Lordship of Christ and daily trusting and obeying Him, we soon can lose our way, thinking we are very good when in fact we are getting worse and worse. Being a Christian is not about being a nice person (though being a Christian is very likely going to make a man or woman nicer); being a Christian is all about service to our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus the King.

We do not have more of God in our lives, because we do not ask. We unintentionally exclude Him due to our own thoughtlessness or carelessness, perhaps partly because we always feel so stressed and busy. But He yearns to have us all for Himself. He does not want our time so much, nor our money, nor our talents, nor our intellect: He wants us. We are valuable because He has deemed us valuable, because we have been created in His image and He sees intrinsic worth and value in our being, not so much in our doing. Doing flows out of being, not the other way around, something our performance oriented society would do well to learn. We reward behavior and performance and therefore people work hard to behave and perform so that they will have worth. Worth does not come from behavior and performance, however; behavior and performance flow out of being: worth is found in simply being human, created in the image of God.

Another thing we can fail to understand is that because all things have been created by God, all things point to Him. Natural revelation through nature and relationships, be they Christian or not, all point back to God. We can learn about God in every situation life brings our way; we can learn to see God on the subway, on the bus, in a train, driving in our car, while at work, school, or play. God goes with us everywhere we go and the world is His own—stained, strained, and polluted as we may have made it, it is still His own. When I go to the grocery store, He is there, walking down the aisle in the faces I meet, hiding behind the sacks of flour and corn meal. If I am thrown in jail, He is there, in the inmates who have been created in His image. To be sure, we may see Him as if in a glass darkly, but He is still nonetheless there. But if we are ever to recognize His face in these unlikely places, we will have to learn to get to know Him face to face by spending time with Him. It is prayer that fosters this ability to see with the eyes of love: to see the unseen spiritual dimension that empowers and animates our own.

It is as though we were to take a trip down Hollywood Boulevard one day. As we enter into Studio Lot B, we see the ropes by which the actor is sailing over the rooftops of buildings that, from our present view, we see are little more than painted cardboard. We see behind the scenes today; we see the world that holds this land of magic and tinsel together. It is no longer the actor who effortlessly runs up the side of the building who we respect, but rather the rope and the skill of the technicians who wield it that we appreciate this day. So too, we are so often deceived by the everyday events around us. We do not see the unseen ropes that hold this world together. We do not see through the rigid cardboard props that intimidate us in the faces around us. We see the man or woman of God and we stand in awe, yet we do not see the rope that sustains him or her nor the Technician who wields it. We live in a straw world because we fail to see the Master who sits behind all things. Once we see the Master, we now have context for the straw, which becomes the beautiful bedding on which His head rested that first Christmas morning. Everything is made new, transformed, redeemed. All things are contingent on, and relative to, God our Lord and Maker.

I pray this day that God the Father gives you a vision of the world as it really is: a world that has its pain and its sorrow, but a world which is nonetheless created by Him and therefore good. After the disobedience of Adam and Eve, God never revoked what He said about His creation being good, only that there were logical consequences to be expected when mankind attempted to usurp the throne and shape the world into his own finite image without recognizing Whose image he is called upon to impress on the things around him. There is nothing wrong with shaping the world according to our image, so long as we remember Whose image we have been shapen in—when we shape things in our image, recognizing it has been given us by God, we are shaping the world according to His image, and thus participating in the creative act with our Maker. Let us be good stewards of the earth and the people that inhabit it.

Let our minds be filled with wisdom, our hearts be filled with love, and our mouths be filled with laud and praise. Fear, doubt, insecurity: these are manmade constructs and are only as real as we make them. In our Father’s economy these things do not exist except in a mind not fully aware of, and filled with, His glory. There will be no doubt, fear, and insecurity in heaven, for there is no doubt, fear, and insecurity in God. To the degree that we have Him in our lives at any given moment is the degree to which these things are forced to dislodge their falsehood from our minds; to the degree that we possess the mind of Christ is the degree to which we will have heaven here on earth. Perfect love drives out all fear, doubt, and insecurity.

Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the glory, and the honor, and the power forever. Amen.

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

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