Back In The Saddle

Hey all, it's been longer than I promised...I humbly apologize. I'd like to discuss an idea that I recently discussed with my pastor over breakfast, and that is the idea that we have paradigms in our Christian lives. Due to our fallen state, I believe that our view of who God is and what God values is largely influence by what we value and what we want to believe.

The example in my life is that I was raised in a conservative Christian home, was taught traditional concepts, and was able to defend them relatively well. My values were that of my parents and leaders at church, and I never really questioned things that were taught to me. The next paradigm in my life happened when, at college, I was exposed to professors whose sole desire in their teaching seemed to be to "stir the pot" and make me question the things that I had taken for granted as truth. My view of how to live the Christian life had moved from believing what I taught as "rules" to testing what was or was not "against the rules." The prime example of this is in alcohol. It's a touchy subject for many in the church today, but I've gotta say I'm willing to step on a few toes through this blog. I was raised that drinking was wrong, even if the words said the contrary. When I experienced this second paradigm in my life, I began to examine the issue for myself, and have come to the conclusion that NOWHERE in the Bible does it say that a Christian should not drink. Scripture seems very clear that we are not to be drunkards nor are we to be enslaved to anything other than our Master. Based on this new learning, I am not opposed to drinking, and occasionally do just that. This is how my second paradigm is (hopefully) ending:

I was discussing this whole topic with my pastor this week (yes, I know you read that earlier) and when I put to him this third idea, he reminded me of The Matrix...good for a laugh. Many of you have now heard me talk about the book of Hebrews, specifically chapters 11 and 12, well I'm hoping that those two chapters are beginning to be the basis of the third paradigm of my spiritual worldview. In chapter 11, the writer talks about acting in faith, and proceeds to spend almost the entire chapter giving examples of people who acted faithfully in the Old Testament-people who chose to delay gratification by enduring here on earth for the sake of a greater reward in Heaven. Then chapter 12 begins, and I quote (hopefully...I'm doing this from memory): "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us run with endurance the race set before us, putting aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles; fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame, and took his place at the right hand of the Father."

The race set before us...so many times Scripture refers to our Christian life as a path, a walk, a journey, or a race. All of these things convey movement, a destination, but how often do we live in a manner that reflects this? The downfall of my first two paradigms of life is this: if my Christian life is a path and there are things on my left and on my right which are not what I want (sin, ineffectiveness, the list is probably limitless), then to fixate on what is or is not against the rules is most likely to backpedal off the other side of the path. I'm reminded of the movie Spider-man, and the scene where Peter Parker is chasing the man who shot and killed his uncle. In the top of the warehouse, Peter confronts the man who is so scared of what is in front of him that he neglects the window behind and backs out, to his demise. I believe that we as Christians often do the same thing with sin or any of those other issues I mentioned above. We fixate so much on that which we want to avoid that we lose track of where we actually want to be going. Fixing our eyes on Jesus...it's like when we learn to drive; if you look at the tree on the right, you're going to drive into that tree-if you look at the cars in the other lane, you're going to go into their lane, but if you "fix your eyes" down there road where you want to go, you will head right there.

So in relation to "the rules" from my first two paradigms, my pastor looked at me and said, "What if the rules don't matter anymore?" To which I responded, "What if there is no spoon?" (there's your laugh) Now I'm not saying that there is no absolute truth, nor am I saying that sin is no longer sin; there is still a right and a wrong, but I believe that much more important than following the rules (salvation by works?) is moving towards the goal. Our goal is Christ, as He is the only one who has ever done this whole "living" thing the way we're supposed to do it. As we learn more about Christ, our goal should be to imitate our Savior more and more, NOT to run down the checklist of rules to make sure we can still do what we want to do.

That's my two cents worth for this post, I'd like to leave you with this: as we look to share God's love with everyone, remember Paul's words from 1 Cor. 9. "I have become all things to all men, so that by all possible means I might save some...Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly, I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached, I may not be disqualified from the prize."