Three Lessons From Professional Hockey

Those who know me, know I don't much like professional hockey.  The reason is the same for why I don't like any blood sport: it is barbaric to place money and entertainment before life--particularly human life.  Professional hockey is a classic example of this; it is not about tactics and skillful playing, but brawling, bloodletting, and indirectly, killing.

In a recent edition of Lab Reporter (of all sources), Ashley Peterson discusses the rising cases of brain damage among pro hockey players (Lab Reporter 2013 (4), 32-33).  These brain injuries, which usually don't manifest until years after they first occurred and are not detectable with current technology, often result in premature death.  Case in point is the recent demise of Derek Boogaard at the tender age of 28 years.

I'm not here to rant against blood sports, though.  Ashley's expose on the state of professional hockey affords three glimpses into the human condition.  We can learn three lessons about ourselves from the discussions around the problems stemming from violence in hockey.  It is these problems I want to briefly address here because they clearly illustrate why we all need a Savior.

First of all, fallen humanity thrives on what it sees as power.  Even though faced with mounting evidence of the lethal ramifications of aggression in hockey, the promoters are reluctant to completely do away with the fighting.  As Ashley reports,

"However, as long as rough action sells tickets, a major change to totally eliminate fighting in the NHL may still be a ways off."

You see, even though we all talk about the value of human life, tolerance, peace, and all such noble causes, we secretly value power more.  Money is power.  And if we are not making money at the expense of human life, we are doling it out so we can vicariously beat up those in our lives we want to see bloodied--if not killed; indeed, it is becoming less and less satisfying for people to pay others to burn their personal effigies for them; this is why we are hearing of more and more cases of post-game violence among the spectators.  Blood sports are and have always been a legal outlet for our hate.  This present world believes hate is power.  The incentive of hate is death or the threat of death; and the currency of hate is money.

Therefore, people value power because they see power as both a means to promote hate and to protect themselves from hate.  They want to promote hate--although they deny this--because it is hoped this will produce more power for themselves. They want protection, because to be king-of-the-hill ultimately comes down to survival. And if they lack the innate gifts to achieve such power on their own, they buy it.

Secondly, we easily blind ourselves to the clear facts in order to get what we want, which is, of course, power (see above).  I laughed aloud when I read in Ashley's article,

"Specifically, researchers presented new findings in support of the elimination of fighting [i.e., in hockey], suggesting that repeated punches to the head can cause the most serious injury.  While there is still no irrefutable evidence that fighting results in brain damage, many experts continue to press the issue."

Really?  Do we really need insurmountable evidence before we believe hitting someone repeatedly in the head will cause brain damage?  Are we really that stupid? Of course we are; but it is a self-imposed stupidity for the sake of power; and for this reason we will always question the data, no matter how irrefutable it might be.  Fallen humanity is--despite its protestations to the contrary--comprised of liars. And sadly, these liars have long ago believed their own lies.

Finally, we discover we cannot really protect ourselves from ourselves.  Ashley points out the fact that recent NHL legislation against blindside checks actually resulted in more concussions.  Furthermore--as I suspect we have been seeing in Pro football--implementing better protective gear actually emboldens the players to take more risks, which means more aggression.  Rules and armor will never overcome our thirst for power.  Truly, it has been said by someone, "Necessity is the mother of invention."

The last point locates the core of the fallen human condition: the human heart.  All I have discussed here flows from a heart of selfish-ambition and conceit.  For this reason, all the analyses, good intentions, and legislation will never bring peace to our world.  Until the human heart is changed to see what true power is and then act in it, we will continue to slit each other's throats, and congratulate ourselves in the process.

We will never possess such changed hearts until we completely surrender ourselves to our Creator; because only He knows what real power is and can give us the wisdom to possess it.  The true power which I speak is love.

God's answer to the human condition was for Himself to take on humanity as His son, Jesus the Christ, walk among us in perfect love, and take upon Himself, as an act of true love, all the so-called power this world can muster in defense and validation of itself, and sacrificially die.  But then prove the world's power to be powerless against the true power of love, by raising Jesus to eternal life as transformed humanity; so that now, if we surrender ourselves completely by faith to the living Christ, we will possess His heart of love as He lives within us by His spirit; we will become transformed humanity together in Christ and live forever in the power of his love, which is true lasting peace.

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders.  And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.  He will reign on David's throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.  The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this." (Is. 9:6-7) [NIV]

Through three lessons from the NHL we have found ourselves severely wanting; and therefore from them we hopefully come to see our need for our Savior, Jesus the Christ, who is God with us.



 

Why am I so tired? (Part 2)

[Please don't read the following unless you have read the preceding post.]


We become tired any time we do anything, because work requires energy.  Not all fatigue defeats us, though. When we work hard at something flowing from our inherent strengths, the fatigue we feel actually exhilarates us.

My friend wasn't speaking of this kind of fatigue, however.  He wants more than anything to strive for his Lord Jesus, yet frequently finds himself feeling defeated at the end of the day.  This is why he asked me, "Why am I so tired?"

There are, of course, many reasons one could address in answering my friend's dilemma, but I would like to suggest three common reasons for the demoralizing fatigue my friend so desperately wants to overcome.

Firstly, when we walk with Christ we can often become burdened down with guilt.  We are well aware of the fact we all too often fall short of Holy-Love; and we worry we are rapidly using up the grace God has allotted us.  Consequently, we begin wringing our hands, pace, and fret that God will drop us from His roster unless we straighten up and fly right.  We work even harder to make up for our infractions, and fail again.  Before long we are exhausted and defeated under a heavy weight of guilt.

This guilt-based fatigue happens because we have misunderstood the Gospel of Christ.  Jesus took on all our guilt--past, present, and future--and paid for it once and for all by dying on the cross.  There is no longer any condemnation for anyone who is in Christ. We are forgiven when we stand in Christ by faith.  There is no limit to the mercy He will afford us.  Yes, we will fail; and yes, God's Spirit within us will help us  recognize our failures--not to discourage or shame us, but to awaken us to the new life we have in Christ.  Instead of becoming defeated by guilt, we become invigorated by the wisdom we gain through our failures, because our eyes see more clearly in the light of God's forgiveness.  Truly, in Christ we are freed from the burden of guilt.

Secondly, we tend to exhaust ourselves by  constantly second-guessing, modifying, mitigating, or down-right ignoring what the Holy Spirit tells us to do; instead of simply obeying by the grace He provides, we labor to find loop holes to the Spirit's simple instructions.  The fatigue I am talking about here is of the same ilk as experienced when we tell a lie and don't fess up.  The first lie soon begets a second and then a third, and we find ourselves embroiled in a complex chess game of manipulations, intrigues, and moves and counter-moves; just trying to keep it all spinning wears us out.  In the same way, when we override the Spirit's direction, we collapse under a heavy load of consequences; and our futile attempts to manage these consequences to our best advantage quickly incapacitates us.

Christ frees us from the burden of trying to figure it all out for ourselves--to find wisdom on our own. God's sight is always 20/20; we simply don't have the wherewithal to craft lenses thick enough to correct for our lack of wisdom.  Jesus frees us by lighting our path; we now see through His eyes. All we have to do is to trust Him by stepping where He tells us to step.

Thirdly, we tend to defeat ourselves by thinking walking with Christ is the same as keeping some grand New Year's resolution to ourselves. We tell ourselves, "I've got to be like Jesus," so we proceed to lay out our stratagems,disciplines, and rules.  Unfortunately, we soon find ourselves defeated by our inherent inadequacies.

The good news of the Gospel of Christ is it is God who does and must change us.  No longer are we fettered by our weaknesses, but we are being renewed in the perfect adequacy of Christ.  In ourselves we only find tortuous paths to death; in Christ we find life, and life to the fullest.  God is transforming us as we drink from the well of the eternal spring of Holy-Love gushing within us through His Holy Spirit.

There is an inescapable fatigue in following Christ, but it need not defeat us.  The fatigue I mean comes from persecution.  Persecution is resistance to the Truth of Christ; and we encounter persecution both from within and from outside of ourselves.  To suggest this persecution isn't exhausting would be a lie. But the truth of the gospel of Christ is Jesus suffered every persecution we face, and even the ultimate persecution of death by crucifixion.

In Christ, then, we are freed from having to bear this persecution alone. In the same way Jesus upheld Peter back to the boat through the torrent raging around them in the middle of the lake, He will uphold us through the terrors of this life.  And in the same way Jesus quelled the storm after returning Peter safely to the boat, the day is coming when Jesus will bring eternal Shalom for all who are standing in Him.  This hope is a sure comfort in our afflictions.

My friend asked me what this all looks like practically. Certainly when we can, we should read the Scriptures, which is God's revelation to us.  We should also not forsake His assembly; God often brings His wisdom, comfort, and strength through our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.  We also need to find designated times to engage in focused prayer to God.  All these things must be done.  But there are times in life when we simply don't have access to them.  The beauty of the Gospel of Christ is Jesus is always within us.  Therefore we can and should be always chatting with our Lord; in work or play or anytime, we need to be talking with God as an active listener--thanking Him, questioning Him, seeking guidance from Him in everything, and celebrating the fallout of His love both to us and to others.  It is as the Holy Spirit teaches us through St. Paul:

"Always rejoice, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (I Thess. 5:16-18)

In this way we are no longer taxed by the demands of Holy-Love because we are already entrusting ourselves fully to the sure power of Christ.  We find rest as we continually stand in Christ's righteousness.  And the fatigue we experience no longer defeats us but invigorates us as we confidently pursue God's purposes for us.

What Paul says next summarizes this present post much better than I can:

"Don't extinguish the Spirit, do not treat prophecies with contempt. But examine all things; hold fast to what is good. Stay away from every form of evil.  And may the God of peace Himself make you completely holy and may your spirit and soul and body be kept entirely blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He who calls you is trustworthy, and he will in fact do this." (I Thess. 5:19-24)[NET].

Why am I so tired? (Part 1)

The Sermon on the Mount is the Law fulfilled in Christ.  Jesus perfectly practiced both the letter of the Law and the purpose/meaning the letter of the Law points to.  The purpose/meaning behind the Law is like the flesh covering the bones; it is love filling and energizing holiness and being energized by holiness.  It is God's righteousness.

What we must understand is unless we conform to this fulfilled Law--this righteousness of God--we absolutely will not stand in God's Kingdom.  Jesus teaches us very clearly,

"For I say to you (plural), unless your righteousness far exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you (plural) will absolutely not enter into the kingdom of the heavens." (Matt. 5:20)

If we understand righteousness as obeying the Law according to any standard outside of Love, we are neither standing with Christ in God's kingdom, nor will we ever so stand with Him in God's glory.  The Law of which Jesus speaks is the ten commandments; because the ten commandments are the necessary but not sufficient measure of the Law of God's righteousness that is love. For the Holy Spirit teaches us through the Apostle John,

"The one claiming, 'I have known Him,' and is not obeying His commandments, is a liar, and the Truth is not in him or her.  But whoever obeys His word, truly the love of God has been perfected in him or her, by this we know that we are in Him." (I John 2:4-5)

Therefore, Jesus unpacks Holy-Love (my concise term for the compass of fulfilled Law) for us through His Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7).  The latter serves to illustrate for us who dwell with Him in His kingdom (i.e., His disciples) what the Holy-Love looks like.  Because Jesus perfectly conformed to Holy-Love, we too can conform to Holy-Love if we live in Christ.  Not only can we conform to Holy-Love in Christ, we absolutely must do so; otherwise, we are not truly walking with Christ in His kingdom, TODAY--that is, we are not true Christians.

Immediately upon hearing this, our first reaction is God has given us an even harder set of rules than before to try to follow, and we become exhausted before we even start; we quickly feel defeated.  A fellow parishioner approached me recently explaining he understands the mandate of Holy-Love but is worn out by what it requires in practice.  "Why am I so tired?" he asked me.

I can relate.  But I also know this fatigue my friend is experiencing doesn't seem to jibe with what Jesus would later teach,

"Come to Me everyone who is toiling and has been loaded down, and I will give you (plural) rest.  Take up my yoke upon you (plural) and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you (plural) will find rest for your souls;  For My yoke is good--kindly--not pressing, and My burden is light." (Matt. 11:28-30)

Does Jesus contradict Himself?  By no means, and this is good news for us.

The yoke of a Rabbi was his example for how to fulfill God's righteousness; and a Rabbi's disciples would do absolutely everything their Rabbi did, to the letter--that is, they would be yoked to their Rabbi.  Jesus' yoke is the final word on fulfilling God's righteousness (above).  And even though Holy-Love appears daunting--and it is, because it runs counter to everything this world holds dear--Holy-Love is nevertheless the only way to the peace of God that is Shalom--the perfect rest of God's kingdom; Jesus promises us this is true.  And we can go to the bank on Jesus' promises.

The reason He promises His yoke is light lies at the heart of the Gospel of Christ--the Good News for all who are believing in Him. Next week, I will answer my friend's impassioned question by explaining what I mean by this.  For now, I think I have given us quite enough to chaw on.

See you next week.

The Legend of Tom Turkey

There was this bird.  He was big as birds come, and quite a lot smarter than most would give him credit. He wasn't much to look at, though.  Some might say he was born old--not in the precocious sense or in terms of wisdom, just in the prunish way an old man would appear after living out his eighty years in Death Valley.  The bird's name was Tom.

Tom didn't live alone. Actually, he lived among quite a large flock.  Trouble was, old Tom felt quite alone.  The other birds ignored him; nothing Tom did seemed to alter this sad situation, either.  It got so bad Tom concluded he had an image problem, and he decided to do something about it.

Being the brightest bulb of the bunch, Tom tried to gain notoriety through his strengths.  He set up an old pail he found lying around, stood up on it, cleared his throat, and read his paper on the quantum implications of farm life.  No one listened and no one cared; before long, old Tom was really alone.

Undeterred, Tom tore his tee-shirt, lit up a cigarette butt Farmer Brown had dropped on the ground, and yelled through the wire to the girl on the other side, "STELLA!"  She promptly closed the window.

Next, Tom started listening to Bing Crosby records; and after fashioning a pipe from a corn cob, he began crooning to the chics.  I can't tell you their reaction, because this blog is G-rated.

Then one afternoon Farmer Brown came on the scene carrying an ax.  Tom thought the only way to impress the gang is if he acted tough.  So Tom courageously approached the surprised Farmer Brown and with his best bravado, said, "You talking to me?  I say, are YOU talking to me?"  Tom looked around to see if this would finally cause everyone to notice him; but it didn't.  The onlookers just went on with their fowl business.  Tom didn't have much time to regret this, because Farmer Brown called Tom's bluff.  The next day at about two o'clock--after the football game had ended--the Brown family lined the dinner table and gave Tom the respect he had long sought in life.  Only now, when is was too late to do Tom any good, did those gathered around Tom shout in one accord, "Oh, what a magnificent bird!"

The moral of this tale is it's hard to soar like a turkey in a yard full of chickens.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Out of Creation

This week I experienced a conflation (i.e., fusing--sorry, I need to get out more often) of three media inputs (two books and a movie).  I just finished Gerald Schroeder's The Science of God.  This is an excellent book for anyone who wants to understand the proper relationships between science and the Bible.  Dr. Schroeder does a bang up job of explaining difficult scientific concepts to the uninitiated--a rare talent, indeed.  He goes a long way to show how neither the Bible nor science can prove the existence of God; but shows how the more science learns, the more difficult it becomes for it to deny the existence of God.  Dr. Schroeder does an excellent job of exegesis of the first chapter of Genesis, which alone is worth the price of the book.  And even though I concur with much of Schroeder's theology, I find him stumbling over the stumbling stone of Christ.  It may not be his intention, but after reading his book, I came away with the feeling that if humankind studies the universe long enough, humankind will find the Shalom with God--that is, justice will eventually come with our understanding of creation. Putting it another way, my impression is Dr. Schroeder is suggesting--and I could be misinterpreting him--we can find peace through creation.

I got to thinking about this because of something Dr. Wolterstorff said in his book Journey Toward Justice, which I had finished before reading Dr. Schroeder's book and therefore is the second member of my three media conflation.  As if commenting on what I believe Dr. Schroeder was advocating, here is what Dr. Wolterstorff said,

"Fundamental to modernity is a blending and secularizing of the story lines of Scripture in such a way that there is thought to be good ground within the natural order for expecting that society will someday be liberated from injustice and we will all flourish until we die full of years.  A few scientists have even speculated that a  technology will eventually be discovered that halts aging, thereby eliminating death due to old age.  Those who successfully dodge fatal accidents will retain the vigor, the agility, the curiosity,the libido, of a twenty-five-year-old.

This is optimism grounded in creation, not hope grounded in God." [N. P. Wolterstorff, Journey Toward Justice. Baker Academic (2013), p. 235.]

He is absolutely correct.  It is true we lack knowledge, or more importantly, we lack wisdom needed to bring Shalom.  But we cannot find this wisdom in creation because to believe so assumes the problem is only our ignorance; it's not.  There is something more fundamental blocking Shalom than just our ignorance. Here is where the third source of input to my week came in.

Every so often my wife and I hold a 50's Sci-Fi movie night at our home.  She usually purchases theatre style boxed candies such as Milk Duds, Junior Mints, and the like.  She also pops popping corn and doles it out to the guests in miniature pop corn containers reminiscent of the day.  We always start with a Loonie Toons cartoon, and then watch the main feature. Well, this weekend we had friends over for a double-feature.  We began with Porky Pig and Daffy Duck in The Ducksters and followed up with The Thing and Forbidden Planet.  It was after watching Forbidden Planet this present blog came together--the conflation I have been alluding to.

The story-line of Forbidden Planet is the discovery of a planet once occupied by the Krell.  The Krell had lived millions of years prior to the time of the story and had evolved their society over a couple of million years through technological and scientific advancement into a state of Shalom.  However, when they looked to eliminate all instrumentality from their existence (i.e., operate purely mentally) they rediscovered the truth that despite all their advancement there still remained deep in the core of their psyche, the id.  The id is of course the remnant of animal barbarism left over from their evolution from the primitive--or so says Freud. For this reason the Krell ended up destroying themselves, leaving only a powerful yet powerless technology for posterity.

The story of the Krell steers us to the fundamental barrier I mentioned above.  The barrier is the fact--despite popular belief to the contrary--humankind is not basically good, rather humankind is basically evil.  But this evil did not arise in us because of our primitive roots; even Dr. Schroeder asserts this fact by recognizing that humankind differs from their ancestors by virtue of the fact that God breathed His image into them.  No, humankind became evil because it chose to disengage itself from God who is the only source of goodness because only He is good.  The hubris of Adam and Eve was they could be good--that is, they could muster up the wisdom to keep Shalom--from within themselves--from creation.

Do you hear what I heard from these three seemingly disparate pieces of media?  Evil entered into humankind and therefore into the world because we believed we could find wisdom through creation! The revelation shines a whole new light on what Paul meant in his letter to the Romans:

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes--His eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made.  So people are without excuse.  For although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or give Him thanks, but became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles." [Rom. 1:18-23 (NET)]

And justice continues to elude us because we continue to believe we will find Shalom through creation; it just isn't so, because such wisdom only resides in God.

Our only hope to Shalom we all seek is to reestablish the intimate relationship with God we were created to have and indeed must therefore have to truly live, which is Shalom.  And only God could make this possible for us because our evil blinds us to the truth.  And God has accomplished this through His son Jesus the Christ.  Failure to recognize this final and absolutely necessary piece to the puzzle of restored humankind is the stumbling block I mentioned earlier.

If we want to find the wisdom Dr. Schroeder recognizes we need, we must as Dr. Wolterstorff so beautifully explains move out of creation, because we are inherently evil as the Krell learned too late for their civilization.  To find Shalom we must leap out of creation and into the loving arms of Jesus--into the new creation that is His eternal kingdom.

 

Should We Forgive an Unrepentant Person?

I am finishing up Nicholas P. Wolterstorff's freshly minted book, Journey Toward Justice.  It has been a challenging book for me--particularly in the categories of rights and forgiveness.  For this reason it is a good book, and certainly one I would recommend.

Professor Wolterstorff addresses an issue near and dear to all of us who care anything about relationships, I think; the topic is forgiveness.  I broached this subject in my own book, A Final Word on LOVE, so I was interested in his perspective, especially in light of the broader context of justice.

We all think about forgiveness frequently because life unfortunately is made up of events leading to either our need to forgive someone, or our need to be forgiven.  Some of us will harbor bitterness towards others, and that is that.  What Wolterstorff or I have to say on the matter will likely matter little to those of that persuasion.  But the rest of us see a value to forgiveness--if only a self-interested one--that is, we know bitterness eats the embittered soul alive; and forgiveness is a good vaccine against such cancer.

As a Christian, I know God fully expects me to forgive others.  Indeed, Jesus leaves no room in this:

"For if you forgive people their trespasses, your Father in Heaven will also forgive you.  If you don't forgive people (their trespasses), neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." [Matt. 6:14,15]

The Greek construction here is quite emphatic.  Jesus is saying if the front end statement (protasis) is true (i.e., if you forgive others...) then the end statement (apodosis) will always be the case (God will forgive you).  The corollary is therefore also emphatically meant: If I don't forgive others, then God will not forgive me.

Wolterstorff would stand on this; yet he and many others I know also believe you cannot, nor should not forgive someone who hasn't repented.  He quotes Luke 17:3-4 as showing even Jesus invoking repentance as a necessary condition for our decision to forgive someone.  He argues that even though Jesus clearly teaches us to love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us and do not repay evil for evil but evil with good, Jesus never teaches us to forgive our enemy. Wolterstorff further argues God doesn't forgive us if we don't repent--that is, the necessary but not sufficient condition of receiving God's forgiveness is our repentance.

In practical terms, Wolterstorff believes if we forgive someone who doesn't repent, we are in effect saying his or her immoral action against us isn't really immoral; in fact, it doesn't matter, at all. Wolterstorff says the following of forgiving Hurbert, who has refused to repent of his deed against him:

"I submit that this is both to demean myself and to insult Hubert by refusing to treat him and what he did with full moral seriousness." [N.P. Wolterstorff Journey Toward Justice. Baker Academic (2013): p. 215]

I must confess, the good Professor almost had me convinced.  But I cannot accept his argument.  I cannot because I do not think any human being can love his enemy without forgiving his enemy.  An enemy is an enemy because they wrong us and continue to do so with no remorse.  How can anyone love such a person without forgiving him, when love requires fundamentally to treat the other person for his good because of his inherent worth (i.e., Wolterstorff's proper definition of human rights)--irrespective of his actions and disposition?  I ask again: How can we repay his evil with good, if we haven't forgiven him?  After all, forgivenness is to let go any obligation the other person might own us. How can we possibility love someone while still holding an account against the person?

I suppose it is theoretically possible for a person to pigeon-hole his complaints against someone, so he or she can treat the person as if those complaints don't really exist, and therefore love the other person without forgiving him.  But such a thing just doesn't jibe with what I know of human nature.  If I don't forgive someone, I will be embittered towards the person.  I may be able to keep my bitterness in check by not beating him up, or slashing his tires, but I will harbor bitterness against him.  The problem is our understanding of the love God calls us to.  Love is not only avoiding hurting the person in some outward sense, but in any sense.  And harboring bitterness--whether acted upon, or not--is hurting the person and therefore not loving the person.  This is what Jesus meant when He equated murder with anger (Matt. 5:21-26).  Certainly it is wrong to murder someone; yet if we harbor unresolved anger (unforgiveness) toward someone we will eventually murder them, either physically, emotionally, or politically; and therefore if we cling to our unforgiveness, we have already murdered our offenders.  Bitterness is an unavoidable consequence of not forgiving someone.  And bitterness is contrary to love.

The present world system sees the only way for people to face their actions is to force them to live the consequences of their actions.  Therefore, if I forgive an unrepentant person--so the argument goes--he or she will not have to live the consequences of his or her actions (i.e., whatever our unforgiveness delivers the offender).  This makes sense to us because we are children of this world system; its logic is hardwired into us.  But God is calling us to His kingdom system.  And even though it may seem counter-intuitive, the only real hope of our offenders coming to face their offenses is if they see true love expressed to them--regardless of their current disposition.  This is how Jesus brought us to see our Sin; Jesus loved us with the supreme act of mercy and forgiveness by dying on the cross--even though He was perfectly innocent.

If I follow the world's method, I submit the offender will rarely if ever come to face his or her own demons because he or she will be too preoccupied with either taking revenge against me for my unforgiveness, or proving why he or she had been justified in wronging me in the first place.  But, if I respond according to the methods of God's kingdom, the offender has a good chance of seeing his or her faults, and--guess what--will likely come to repentance.  Not always, of course.  But I don't love someone only because I expect or demand the right response, rather because I hope for the right response--this is the real beauty and promise of God's kingdom. Besides, I am not responsible with what an unrepentant offender does or does not do with my forgiveness; that is between him or her and God.

Therefore, I must always forgive people, regardless of whether they are repentant or not.

A Birdseye View

I love to look at aerial photos of marathons.  You might think I feel this way because I'm inspired by a mass of humanity striving towards a goal.  I suppose I should, but that's not the reason.  Besides, it's a race; so even though they are in mass moving toward a prize, they are competing with each other--not exactly a model of cooperative human achievement.  However, I suppose at any given race there are those whose sole objective is to win at all costs, and those running to prove something to themselves or others who might be watching them, and those who are running simply to give meaning to all the long hours of exercise and training.  For most people involved, the marathon is a social event and therefore a good picture of the human community.  This is good, and I doff my hat to them, but it is not what it is about these birds eye view glimpses of these meets that captures my imagination.

What I think about when looking at these pictures is how each one of those dots of color is a person. And as such, each one comes with his or her own life.  Each one has dreams, ambitions, loves, hates, fears, pasts, secrets, hurts, gifts, joys, and heartaches.  All of them have sandwiched themselves together--perhaps for the first and last time--and then separate according to ability.  At the end of the day, most will have crossed the finished line.  The winner will carry his or her reward home; the rest will mark off the experience with a joy of accomplishment, a bested time, or a charlie horse.  And some had earlier dropped out along the way.  But flying high above them, I don't know them or their outcomes; I only see tiny figurines.  And I marvel how this is only a small sampling of the human race--past, present, and future.  I'm struck by an indescribable sense of wonder.

There is, of course, another perspective of this spectacle.  I'm reminded of the scene in the movie The Third Man, where Harry Lime is talking with his best friend while riding in a gondola on a Ferris wheel. Harry's friend had learned of Lime's nefarious activities of killing little children through a black marketing scam.  Lime justifies himself by asking his friend if he had the chance to make ten or twenty thousand dollars, but it would mean some of those dots moving around below would have to disappear, wouldn't he do it?  Therefore some people looking at the same aerial photo I am don't see persons, they see opportunities to advance themselves.  The grim truth is even if they were to come face to face with some of those dots, they will still see them as objects.  How else can you explain the long history of exploitation, murder, and betrayal?

Fortunately for all of us, God does not see us this way.  The really amazing thing about looking at that aerial picture is it is in one sense exactly how God sees us.  God sees us as a collective--as a community--and smiles broadly because He created us to be a community with Him; this is what is meant by the kingdom of God. It is the wonderful gift of Christ that we can be a community of people who love each other--mutually supporting each other for the benefit of the other so the created purpose of God's kingdom is accomplished.  God wants His kingdom to be unified, and has accomplished this in Christ--such a picture of beauty for us to contemplate.

Yet God is not only interested in the collective; God cherishes each individual as if each one were the only one.  When God looks down and sees the sea of dots, He sees persons.  And not only does He see them as persons, He knows each one of those dots intimately in every way, even much more than the persons know themselves.  And this knowledge is not just analytical on God's part, but the result of a deep abiding investment of love for each person because He has ascribed great worth to each of them. This is perhaps the most beautiful thing of all: "what is man that you are mindful of him..." says the Psalmist.  Do you now begin to understand how much God loves you?

Even though from God's birds eye view you might think you are but a mere speck to Him. Think again; you are a precious child He longs to embrace with love that is life forever.