You are currently browsing the Bruce Smith weblog archives for the day 31. May 2011.
31. May 2011 by BruceSmith.
SuperHuman Faith?
You have probably heard or heard of the following scenarios. A man walks into the doctor’s office for a routine check up, and walks out with his entire life changed. The diagnosis-terminal. Or, perhaps, its this one: a family, on holiday, traveling with the kids, enjoying life, runs headlong into tragedy on the interstate, major collision, lives lost. Or, perhaps, you’ve heard of the man who lost his job, lost his home, lost his family, lost his will to continue. These, and so many similar events in life, test a soul to its core. What is worse, sometimes those around them, like Job’s accusers, however well intentioned, can inflict more biting pain on the open wounds of these struggling travelers.
Too often, in the church, people buy into the idea that if one is fully serving, fully engaged with God, fully alive in the Spirit, then life will be one victory after another. The poster-child or poster-family for the Christian world, in this culture for sure, has become the proverbial wife-husband-two and a half kids-dog-cat-three car garage-gated community-business mogul-straight white teeth ideal. We have, in too many settings, reduced the true Gospel to the size of a church, the smile of a leader, the number of books sold, and/or the pseudo-Christian-American dream quest. In so doing, we have lost the kind of Christianity spoken of in the scriptures and we have spat upon the majority of human experiences on our planet. In our lust for what we think a select few “blessed” people have attained (a misconception to begin with), we trade super-heroic faith for a smiley feel good experience. Its a farce. Its a cliche to be abandoned. It truly perverts the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and confuses people looking for truth in a tough world.
You may be asking yourself at this juncture, “What is the point of all this?” That’s a good question. Its the question that should be asked, fundamentally, of the Christian life. Is the Christian life about finding a better quality of experience? Is it about the American ideal? Is it about getting all our kids through school, college, and set up for a nice career, unscathed by the harsh realities of life? Is the Gospel a good idea for social gathering, club membership, better dating? What is it about anyway? I sincerely hope, and I have a hunch you do also, that the Gospel is much bigger, far reaching and life transforming than what we see in many Christian circles. The Gospel is bigger than bigger churches, bigger than bigger church budgets, bigger than more well dressed and smiley Sunday attenders, and bigger than a pulpit ordained self-improvement ideology. The Gospel is about radical spiritual, intellectual, personal, and societal revolution. We will never find that reality through three point self-improvement sermons, stronger Christian clicks, and a false theology that suggests to struggling people that if they had their act together life would just come up roses for them.
SuperHuman faith, supernatural faith, consists of seeing God transform lives even as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Remember Psalm 23? This Psalm, the experience of the Old Testament prophets and patriarchs (Jeremiah was known as the Weeping Prophet for example), Jesus’ experience and His own teaching (“In this life you will have great trouble”…), and certainly the experience of the New Testament’s most significant writer, Paul (beaten, shipwrecked, stoned, blinded, left for dead, imprisoned, …), all demonstrate that spiritual vitality exists not in what we know as “blessedness” and problem-free experience, but rather, in intimacy with God, and powerful Spirit-inspired living through our difficulties, some of which may never be removed from our daily lives (again, remember Paul and his thorn in the flesh). Paul, in fact, struggling with illness, lack of provisions, persecution, and more, suggested his goal was not a removal of these realities, but rather, “…for me to live is to know Christ, and for me to die is GAIN…”. Externals are not Christianity. Its what is going on inside.
The crushing distortion of the power-health-wealth teaching of our day is its fundamental contradiction of biblical teaching and everyday reality. As far as I can tell, no one has escaped trouble and everyone still dies at some point. The heroes of faith we all aspire to be (in reputation only, as we refuse the biblical journey toward that goal) lived through immense struggle. Hebrew chapter 11 reminds us of all those giants of faith who never received the promise in full on this side of eternity. A theology which places a false hope for healing, goodness (circumstantial), economic prosperity, and the alleviation of all suffering cannot hope to bring the true Gospel to bear upon those who embrace it. At some point confusion, despair, and abandonment will set in because life does not pan out that way even for the most spiritual. Bad things do happen to God-following people. Always have. Always will.
Such a notion should not be a catalyst for fear-based living. Supernatural faith lives joyfully, knowing that whatever may befall us, God is with us (Romans 8). If you read Romans 8 closely, in fact, you will find that its actually through, as a result of, because of “all these things” that we come to know the God who is for us and who overcomes for us (in us) despite who or what may be against us. We overcome internally, spiritually, no always externally in terms of circumstance.
Think back on those throughout history who have gotten our greatest affection and admiration. Think of those who fought the battles against slavery, have sacrificed to meet the needs of those starving and dying, fought against the tragic march of Hitler and suffered in the camps and died, those who have endured great hardship and yet have called entire cultures to a higher Christian ideal. Some of life’s greatest leaps forward come amidst severe anguish. Paul, David, and Job despaired even unto the point of wanting to die. Yet, God did great things.
And understanding of biblical faith is critical, not only for you and I personally, but for those we come into contact with. What will you tell the husband who is losing a wife to stage 4 cancer? What hope will you provide the father who just lost his son in a drunk driving accident? What comfort will you offer the wife whose husband just ran out on her? Will you tell them to suck it up, be a bigger Christian and smile? I hope not. Yet, the pronouncements, if understood, of too many pulpits, do just that. Faith in these circumstances is not about our desired change of the facts. Faith, here, is about knowing, intimately, the God who has your back in all of this pain, and lavishing in His arms amidst your exhaustion, fear, and tears.
God does still intervene. God does still heal. Miracles do still happen. No doubt. Yet, as is brilliantly clear in the scriptures, He does not always heal. He does not always remove our difficulty. He does not always “fix” things as we understand it. Yet, again, He is IN all things working His majestic will. The thrill, the joy, the victory of true Christian experience is found in knowing HIM, not in knowing comfort. Many people die in comfort and “blessing” apart from a true knowledge of God. A superior 401k, an intact family, a big business, a big church, a perfect body, a healthy body for an ideal number of years, …none of this is a mark of Christian maturity or depth. I’ve known exceedingly shallow “christians” who looked the part, had the checkbook to prove it, and were poster-ready, and they were no more an example of truth and goodness than the man in the moon (is he real?).
Superhuman faith, supernatural faith, Godlike faith, is found in the heart, mind, soul, and spirit of a person. It shines forth with brilliance amidst all we experience in life. The accusers and smiley promise makers will come our way, sometimes hoping to direct us to or bring us to “healing”. They may even be well intentioned at times, though decidedly in need of theological education. Some will tell you its all on you! As if to suggest, perhaps unknowingly, that its not all about God! And it may sound like this, “If you just have enough faith…if you believe enough…” And you can fill in the blank. Need a healing? Its your faith. Need more money? Its your faith. Need that addiction cured? Its your faith? Need anything at all? God is going to give it to you when your faith is just right and you master the technical christian formula.
That, my friend, to put it plainly, is theological bunk. Scripture nor real life support this. Does God desire we worship our health, our bank account, our success, our kids, even our own “faith”, our anything more than Him? Our prayer through everything, good or bad, our passion through it all, should always be a deeper longing and love relationship with Him. Anything else is what the bible calls idolatry. God works in ways we cannot fathom. He brought good in the lives of biblical heroes through great pain. He made Paul a giant of a man while allowing His thorn to remain (maybe blindness which remained from his being knocked off his horse by God and blinded in order for God to get his attention and his heart). Jesus allowed all of his inner circle to die, horrible deaths, in defense of the Gospel, and the result was a Gospel that is still transforming the world.
Keep praying for people’s healing, and your own, but long more for God in them, and you, to be their and your hope and compass. Keep praying for relief for those near you who are struggling, but pray more that God totally transform them by His love as they navigate the waters of life, and that He use their beautiful faith to inspire others as they suffer with grace and joy in Him. Keep praying, single men, for that perfect 10, genius I.Q., Mother Theresa figure of a woman, with a retirement size bank account, who will feed you from her hand daily and meet all your sexual fantasies while singing like an angel and quoting Shakespeare! Uh, don’t expect this one to pan out!! And women, single moms, keep praying for that brilliant, gorgeous, strong, dark, perfect father, E-harmony poster male, with the Ferrari, three homes, chiseled abs and chest, and lust inducing accent. Um, yeah, no, that’s not gonna happen either! You get my drift. I hope.
Superhero faith, the kind that lasts and inspires, is about our love relationship with God, our mustard-seed sized trust in His ability to control our lives, and His rabid all out desire to see us thrive in spirit and in truth. If all the world falls at our feet and we can love Him all the more, wonderful. But don’t count on it. It we lose everything that this world worships and yet have Him, we are most rich.
If you are looking for a faith that is based not on your assumptions and ideas, not upon the vending machine theology of many pulpits in our culture, and not upon the whim of those things written and nestled on bookshelves galore, then turn no further than an exploration of biblical truth. Read the book from cover to cover. Allow the Spirit of God to reach you as you see Him work in the lives of those gone before, and ask Him, as you read, to do the same in you. As recently as this week, I have had conversations with others who have done this very thing, amidst life altering change, and come into a light of truth they have never known before. It is something to behold. It is beautiful. It is Godly. I, for one, want to see more of it.
Let’s press on toward superhuman, supernatural faith.
Grace and Peace,
Bruce Smith
blog.optimuschoice.com
soulstormsite.com
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