Not Of This World

Every day, I awake or head to sleep and hear the call of the muezzin. It is a haunting call in the mysterious way of one looking at something he is not a part of. This is not my land, and those are not my people. But today there came carolers, the 82nd Airborne Division Band ensemble that visited our corner of the war, wearing santa hats, reindeer antlers, and their uniforms. They played Silent Night, Jingle Bells, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Joy to the World, and O' Come all Ye Faithful. As I sat and listened, I was reminded of the holiday season back home, that you could hear those songs everywhere you go during this time of year. In that moment, I was reminded of who I am, of where I come from.

It is the same with the message of grace, in a moment it transports you, unbidden, to the place where you realize you are transformed. It is for this reason that Paul writes, "Let us not forget...," and "Remember,..." for it is not achievement or judgment we trust in to be changed, but love and grace.

The Second Rainbow.

So, here I am again, evaluating myself and my actions against the concept of sin and righteousness. It is so easy to get sucked back in to the way I've thought in the past. And here comes the cavalry in the form of Calvary. No verbal voice, but the reassuring thought that it wasn't how well I performed before he saved me that saved me. What would be the purpose of caring for how well I did after the fact?

What was it that he changed in me? Was it that he only gave me some capacity to be better than I was? Then I should always be victim to this comparison game. Good news! I am changed because I now see how it was he saved me. Dead to the game of comparing, of needing to eke out some worthiness through trying to establish a positive balance on my performance ledger. That reassuring thought saying how much he loves me to be here in the midst of the recurring doubt, "You are worthy because I am here; my promise to you,"...the second covenant, the second rainbow. 

Rainbows are glorious things. God said he put the bow in the sky, a promise that he would never revisit with a flood to destroy us. Christ, the second rainbow; the promise that he will never revisit with judgment to destroy us, for in Christ, we have been judged already.

Utter Foolishness, Part 2

I can't let this thing go. I was doing another study technique, which is to look at the passages in different versions, because the way we translate things brings out different aspects of what is being said. In the Contemporary English version (CEV), the passage about the thorn has a different flavor.

"Of course, I am now referring to the wonderful things I saw. One of Satan's angels was sent to make me suffer terribly, so that I would not feel too proud. Three times I begged the Lord to make this suffering go away. But he replied, 'My kindness is all you need. My power is strongest when you are weak.' "

When I look at this passage in this version, it suggests that the "thorn" is also a vision of Paul's. 

However, I think that when we equate our own suffering to Paul's "thorn", we're self-righteously suggesting that we've earned the suffering we endure. Which shows just how much we can remain in the performance trap. But perhaps, most importantly, what Paul is describing is that in response to our desire to be free of suffering, it is God's grace that turns our suffering into something powerful.

Utter Foolishness

A recent discussion about Paul's thorn, which he discusses in 2 Corinthians 12, has sparked some thoughts in me. First, which I mentioned in that discussion, was that Paul was portraying foolishness. Foolishness that was intended to speak to the Corinthians about their situation and the bondage they had allowed themselves to be placed in...willingly. The passage also speaks to how much we may have read into the discussion by determining that Paul's mention of a thorn was something we needed to be on the alert for, and that we determined his discussion at that point to be seriously intending to portray that he was more qualified in the flesh than those who opposed him.

I can't pin down the statement on the thorn. On the one hand, the thorn is something that Paul is specifically commenting on, but is it part of his example of foolishness or a comment on that foolishness? On the other hand, I can't imagine that most of the things attributed to be Paul's thorn would fit this passage and its context in the flow of the letter.

When I isolate the foolish pattern of the speech, which is directly related to the boasting, "I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then receive me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting. In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool."

So, in the course of the next set of passages, Paul demonstrates how foolishly we build ourselves up. He builds himself up to say, at the point in question, that he's so great, that God has to take him down a notch to keep him from being conceited and prideful. This is the purpose of the thorn, "I'm so awesome, that God gave me this negative thing in my life to help me to not be conceited about how great I am."

Why, that's not conceited at all! I think Paul is pointing out the height of the false humility that the Corinthians welcomed into their midst from "pious" messengers. As Paul says, "...you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face."

(Scriptures referenced from 2 Cor 11:16-12:10, NIV)

Seeking Validation

What we do in this life often amounts to nothing more than seeking to validate our own self-perceptions. Who I am is not the sum value of what I say and do, who I know, where I hang out, what my job is, what my hobbies are. But that is our perception, so we sometimes find ourselves lost when the things we "knew" about ourselves are no longer "true."

What we believe, where we worship, are very much the same thing; things we seek after to validate our own perceptions that we're good or worthy, that we're loved. In some cases, it is to feel that we're loved, or that we deserve to be loved. The only thing, again, is that Jesus didn't come to validate us.

Big Open-ended Questions

I purchased the Total Transformation program for my family, because my middle son suffers from ADHD. It is supposed to equip parents to be able to deal with the behavioral problems, something that the medical community has yet to do for us, even though they've diagnosed him as having ADHD.

One of the situations the program discusses is to avoid questions that begin with "Why".

"Why did you make that mess?" or, "Why isn't your room cleaned up?"

The program explains that the question why gives the child an opening, an opportunity, a blank check, if you will, to blame someone or something else. It allows the child to deflect the focus from their own behavior and onto someone else's. It allows them to justify their behavior.

I think that, as adults, we've learned to take this and make it more effective by using the question why for ourselves, to distract others from addressing our perceptions; to justify feelings of self-pity.

"Why does this have to happen to me?"

"Why can't I be happy?"