Payback

Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the LORD. -- Obadiah 1:4

Sometimes I get upset about the state of things.  I see what appears to be the triumph of evil, the destruction of traditional institutions, the family and marriage.  Right and wrong are redefined.   Those who have taken power and authority upon themselves, often by deception and subterfuge, appear to have the upper hand. 

I read elsewhere a little while ago where someone thinks that the problem is that the right people are refusing to step up and take charge.  We are allowing ourselves to be led by the deviant, perverted, deluded, and stupid. 

You know what?  Those are the people who want the job.  I don’t.  I don’t know anyone with a lick of sense who would want to take Hillary Clinton’s place on the Democrat ticket.  The reason sex scandals and corruption are so prevalent among politicians is because that’s more or less the kind of mixed up, twisted, sick individual who is desperate enough to run for political office and lie about anything and everything they have ever done. 

Maybe it is just my personality, but I have a hard time believing that a genuinely good person who understands the truth of the Gospel and trusts God really wants to run the lives of other people.  We know there are times when we must help bear another's burden, offer a hand to one who has stumbled on the way.   We do that out of love and concern, but, as soon as they are on their feet, we are happy to see them making their own decisions and living their life as they choose to the fullest.  There is a huge difference between helping a fallen brother stand on his own and wanting to carry him around – or have him carry you.

I am not against Christians stepping into positions of influence or even positions of secular power if they feel they are called to such.  But a person better be sure he or she is called by God.  It is risky business, and the one who puts a foot on that highway must walk in humility.  But I will leave in your midst a people humble and lowly.  They shall seek refuge in the name of the LORD … they shall do no injustice and speak no lies, nor shall there be found in their mouth a deceitful tongue … and none shall make them afraid. (Zephaniah 3:12-13).   

The world looks bad right now.  It may get worse.  What I know is, though, that the arrogant and the deceitful, the faithless and those who turn from God to seek their own ways will be brought down.

You know, they have gone so far as to try rewriting history, to write God out of it.  They are the ones who will be written out, except, perhaps, as a footnote or to illustrate a cautionary tale.  They look big and they fly high, but they are insignificant, and the higher they fly, the farther they must fall.

Walking the Cross Road

This is why the Father loves Me, because I am laying down My life so I may take it up again. No one takes My life from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from My Father. – John 10:17-18

This is about free will, or maybe it is about more than free will – perhaps it is about the purpose of free will.

Jesus explains Himself to us as the Good Shepherd, the genuine One who loves and cares for the sheep, is willing to lay down His own infinitely valuable life for their sakes. You may not want to think about that first statement too much. This is why the Father loves Me. It sounds dangerous and heretical to me.

That command to lay down our lives that we might take it up again is given to all of us, but are we all free to obey? When the New Testament writers spoke of freedom and liberty, this is what they were talking about – the capacity to lay life down. Christ gives us the freedom to receive the Father’s command and follow it.

Every day – today, for example, I have many things I have to do, as well as some things I’d like to do. The “have to dos” – fixing bugs, finishing designs and documentation, mowing the lawn, etc, would seem to be things I have no choice about if I want to keep my job and not be nagged. Yet in all those activities, I can lay down my life. I will have numerous opportunities today to practice putting aside my own desires for the sake of someone else. Whether it is making my wife happy with a nice-looking yard or helping out a co-worker or taking the pressure off a manager – maybe even causing someone else to get a boost in the company, a raise or a promotion, in all that I do, I can choose to lay down my life.

Honestly, the mistake I often make is doing something because I have to do it. The result is going to be more or less the same. The job is going to get done. What difference does my attitude make? I often complain that I am no better than a slave, that I have no choices in my life, that I never get to do what I want. I always have to do what someone else wants. I never have a minute to myself – which is true some days, aside from the time I get to sleep. I’m a busy person like most everyone else.

Jesus was going to go to the Golgotha. He knew that. He knew He was going to give His life for us. We can argue about whether He struggled with it at Gethsemane, but it is clear that He lay down His life by His own volition. At no point was anyone – it was utterly impossible – going to force Him to hang on a cross.

Before I can walk in the fullness of the Spirit, I have to understand that the same thing is true for me. I do not have to submit any more than Jesus had to. Sometimes the difference between being forced to do something and choosing to do something is pretty subtle, but it is always real. There is not much difference between one side of a knife’s edge and the other, but it is what makes it a knife.

Why should we cultivate that subtlety? I am laying down My life so I may take it up again.