Moving toward greater things

“We simply must come to a place in our lives where we agree to give up old securities which bind us, or painful memories which harm us, or dashed dreams which discourage us, or heartaching wounds which prevent us from discovering new dreams and from coming into fuller life.” Joyce Rupp

Letting go and moving on is the most difficult thing for many of us to do. I don’t believe there is ever a time in our lives when we ought not be moving away from something and moving into something greater. It might be my Methodist root system at work here, the belief that God calls us towards Christian perfection. There are always stagnant, dead, decaying, ungrateful, self-absorbed quagmires within us, and the church that need new skies, new country to leap around in.

What do Christianity and a mother in labour have in common?

“… unless we suffer like a woman in travail, we shall not succeed in bringing to birth the spirit of salvation in the ground of our heart.” Theophan the Recluse

We sat, six of us men in meeting last evening. We were missing our fellow leader of the fairer sex who might have given us new light on the subject of Christian suffering. The question before us was: “Does God call us to suffering in our ministry?” The answer was – no, not for suffering sake but in order to fulfill the will of God in Christ we will come to suffering somewhere, somehow. On reflection this morning I am wondering if God has not called us to suffering and we ought not skirt the issue. Theophan the Recluse (A bishop in the Russian orthodox church in the 19th Cent.) makes his point that there is no spiritual salvation without suffering akin to a woman giving birth. The longer I am a Christian the more I realize the importance to be transformed into the likeness of Christ. This will often cost me dearly in my pride, my pocket, my reputation, my time, my patience, my breaking point, and my all. This is no doubt what Jesus meant when he said: “You must be born again.”

Unholy perfection

“But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” At the heart of the story (Luke 7, 36-50) that highlights this maxim, the God man is showing up the one who knows they have erred and appreciates the forgiveness compared to the one who knows little of their wrong doing and only their goodness. This creates a tension in the spiritual growth of the Christian. Yes, we are forgiven, we appreciate the forgiveness and then we sin no more as expected and we rejoice in our freedom. The issue is resolved so we think, but how do we continue to love much when the sense of forgiveness has past, the tears have dried up. Does it mean we must continue to remind ourselves of the sinfulness of the past so we can remind ourselves of the forgiveness that brings us to love again? Ought sin be the precondition of our worship and admiration of God? I suppose the essence of Christ’s teaching is that we never reach a place that we say we have made it. The sanctifying road is one of continually recognizing the depravity of our heart, finding freedom, loving much, recognizing it again in other areas of our life, finding freedom, loving much until we reach perfection. But, be warned, if we think we are perfect we cannot love much!