Bible the best of the best Solutions III: Presence

Too much Christianity in the West concerns itself with doing or not doing, with purpose and goals, with getting the job done, with the end result, with the bottom line. I am not saying these things are not important (they are!). The point I am wanting to make though, is that unless these things flow out of a living, loving relationship with God, they will always, at some level be toxic. And this is true both for the givers and the receivers.

To say this another way, we will not operate in the world with Christ like love and compassion, unless we are in the ongoing process of receiving these things from Him. I am talking about intimacy with God, with experiencing His ongoing loving presence poured out into our lives. We cannot give away what we have not received. Paul is talking about this in 1 Corinthians 13:3 when he says “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing." The bottom line here, is that in order to be whole and to operate out of that wholeness, we need to know and feel loved by God. It is in His presence that our “love tanks” keep getting filled up. It is in His presence that we become whole and find enough love to keep giving it away to this wicked and hurting world. And He wants that far more than we do!

My son, disillusioned with the academic scene told me “They are just a bunch of people trying desperately to impress each other with how brilliant they all are.” There is a lot of truth in his observation. But it's not just in the University, or in the business world, it's in the Church too. Far too many of us operate out of a need to to be admired, or a need to be heard, a need to have a following, a need to be in control, a need to be seen to be successful. When these things drive us we tend to look more towards building up our ministry, than we do towards advancing the Kingdom. People become projects, and perhaps this is a big part of why so many people have been hurt by Church! Nobody want to be a project!

We are all wounded at some level or other, and we all operate out of that woundedness, and when we do we wound others even as we try to help them. We need to enter into a Christ centered recovery where we will be becoming more and more whole. A huge part of the problem is our collective identity crisis. We have forgotten who we are. If you ask someone "And who are you," they will likely tell you what they do for a living. 'I am a teacher', 'I am a business man', 'I am a Lawyer' etc., etc., etc. But this is what they do, not who they are. We are human beings, not human doings. I was like this for most of my Christian life (40 years this fall!), I took my identity from what I was doing for the Lord. In essence I was a Christian workaholic, desperate to find my place and acceptance within the Christian community.

All this flowed out of my woundedness. The most noticeable wounding centered arround the separation from the daughter I loved desperately, and more so because of the separation. It became who I was. You could not even begin to understand me until you knew the pain I carried for her every day. It was a wounded father, unable to properly father his child. It affected my whole life, it affected my relationships, my work, my every waking hour. It debilitated me, and in the end brought me to a nervous breakdown. That was both good and bad. Of course breakdowns are not good in and of themselves, but it was the vehicle that God used to get behind all my self defenses and to bring me to Himself.

Your situation may not be (or have been) as extreme as mine, but still we are all wounded, and we all carry our wounds with us. We bring them into our relationships, and they warp them. We need to get our hearts healed. It's what He wants. He was sent to heal the broken hearted (Isaiah 61:1). Until then, often without knowing it, we do operate out of our woundedness. And when we do this we poison our relationships, as we consciously or unconsciously expect and/or demand others meet the deep seated needs that only God can meet. But others have needs too, and the mutual demands and/or expectations can too easily spiral out of control. When they do, we end up empty, disillusioned and, if we are not very careful, bitter.

This scenario works itself spouse to spouse, parent to child, boss to employee and friend to friend. It is a wonder we have any functional relationships at all, as our society becomes sicker and sicker, as it moves further and further from God. We probably know at some level that we are wounded, but I believe that most of us don't have a clue just how wounded we are. We wear masks to hide the pain and the emptiness, sometimes even from ourselves. “There is no use complaining, nobody wants to listen”, so we push the pain down, and pretend that we are “fine” or “not bad.” But the reality is that far too many of us live lives of quiet desperation.

I have been saying that the Bible points us to the best solutions to life. In answer to our hopes, expectations and demands to have our needs met we read “And my God shall supply all of your needs according to His riches in Glory” (Philippians 4:19). The “and” is important here. We must not take verses out of context. Paul had been talking about how he learned the secret of being content in any and every situation (4:12), how to access the peace of God that passes all understanding (4:9 and context) and how to live a joy filled life that is not dependent on circumstances (the whole epistle).

Paul is in prison as he writes, so this not just some pie in the sky theory that does not work, it is something he lives. In fact, the whole letter resounds with joy, but it's not just this. The Philippians had seen first hand that Paul lives what he is teaching. After they had been severely flogged, thrown into prison and their feet put into stocks, he (and Silas) were praying and singing hymns to God at midnight (Acts 16:23-25). So just what was the secret he was taking about in 4:12? In chapter 3 of this same epistle, Paul tells us of the things that hindered him, and of the things he gained when he surrendered them to Christ. The things that hinder us can even look good. Paul had been depending on his Race, his Education, his Theology, (the equivalent of) his Denomination, his Zeal for God, his (self) Righteousness (Philippians 3:4-6). But, what he formerly put his trust in, he now thinks of as poop (3:8 KJV dung). These “good things” were the very thing that got in the way of gaining the “surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (3:8) and from knowing “Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings” (3:10).

The power of His resurrected life in us, is part of what I was talking about in the last post, but what is the fellowship of His sufferings all about? They say that there is no friendship like those of men who become buddies in the midst of battle. And make no mistake about it, we are in the midst of a spiritual war to the death with the enemies of our souls. When be begin to fully realize this, we see that everything that happens, has the potential to either draw us closer to Christ, or to drive us from Him. We choose, and with His help it can be the second of these two options. In particular if (again with His help), we radically follow the teaching of Christ, and abide in Him in His presence (John 15) then we will be drawn into real and tangible fellowship with Him. In this place, in His embrace, we become free indeed (John 8:36), we receive comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-5), peace (Phil 4: 7) grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16) etc., etc., etc.

In His high priestly prayer, speaking to the Father, Jesus describes the life of the age (everlasting and abundant life) as “knowing You the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John17:3). What He is saying is that freedom, the abundant life and the Kingdom is all about knowing God. Too often we have make it about knowing about God, but it is in His embrace that our hearts are healed. It is in His embrace that we come to know who we are (precious sons and daughters of the living God). God wants to “pour out His love into our hearts” (Romans 5:5). We are meant to experience this, and it is all found in His presence. The hymn writer wrote about this when he talked about being “lost in wonder love and praise”. To settle for anything less than this, is to short change ourselves.

There are many things that hinder. Like with Paul it can be the “good things”, or it can be the bad things (our sin). But whatever things keeps you and I from knowing Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering, they are dung, whether we acknowledge it or not. His presence is everything. In his presence there is healing, in His presence there is joy, in His presence there is peace, and hope and grace and blessings and love. Yes, the Bible points to the best solution, and the best solution is Him, His presence. The Psalmist puts it this way “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). Why do not more people see it, and/or enter into it? Jesus Himself puts it this way “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:39,40).

Healing, wholeness and fullness of life is not found in religion, it is found in Him, the One who created us for Himself so that we could be with Him for ever (Colossians 1:16). John Arnott has a neat way of putting all of this in perspective. He describes our journey as having three aspects/phases: the inward journey, the upward journey and the outward journey. The inward journey has to do with getting our hearts healed. This takes place progressively and supremely as we enter into the upward journey (talking about relationship with Him). When we incorporate these things, then our participation in the outward journey, the passion to share Him and to bring in His kingdom, will be a lot more fruitful. And it will be a lot less toxic than if we start the outward journey without the ongoing process of simultaneously and progressively entering the inward and the upward components. It is His intention that what we do flows out of who we are in Him. When we do, we do not need to find our self worth in the approval of others, or in what we do. When we do, we start the process of operating out of His wholeness in us rather than out of our unhealed woundedness. When we do, we start to experience “joy unspeakable and full of Glory” (1 Peter 1:8).

Prayer: Father it says in Your word that we love, because You first loved us (1 John 4:19 NIV). What this means is that our capacity to love at all comes from You. In particular I need You to help me to love You. Pour out Your love in my heart today, so that I may love You and others as you would have me to do. Father please show me what You need to take away that hinders me loving You with all that I am and have, and please give me what I need to love You as You deserve. Abba, Daddy come and fill me now. In Jesus Name Amen!