Option 3: rejocing in trials on the way Home to Heaven

QUICK SYNOPSIS:  I'm not going to give a quick summary this time. You need to read this post in full.

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I was looking back over my last four weeks of posts, trying to figure out what exactly I was wanting to say.  I had it in my heart, but was struggling with the words.  And then it hit me.  So here it is.

What's the whole point of the Bible?

1.     There exists a Supreme Authority, the Triune God, who created us and is thus our master, whether we like it or not.

2.     This Master is a loving, caring One who desires intimacy with His creation.  He feels, He cries, He laughs.  He wants to dance with us, and run with us, and sit and talk with us.  He is the perfect combination, the perfect balance, the perfect mingling of discipline and intimacy.  He really is the complete parent.  It is such a good, pure thing.

3.     He created us to start apart from Him, so that we can enjoy the blessings that come with walking towards Him.  Rather than creating us automatically in a relationship with Him, which could be taken for granted, He wanted us to earn and enjoy the process of drawing closer to Him.  There is a feeling of accomplishment and growth as we take those steps.  Yes, by doing so, it meant that many would not seek Him at all, choosing to go their own way, and this would cause a lot of problems, but the joys of establishing an intimate relationship with Him far, far outweigh the pains of absence from Him.

     (We, both the Lost and the Found, continually do not realize this.  We fail to experience the utter joys that come with being around Him.  Most Christians have begun taking a few steps towards Him, but then stagnate.  And they compare their lot with those who are not taking the journey, and there is not a whole lot of difference.  And so we all question why do this? Is it legit?  And therein lies the problem; we have not gone all the way, and thus we cannot accurately compare the two options: full life with Him or utter absence of Him.  We must continue on before we come to conclusions.)

4.     To reach Him, we must make sacrifices, experience pain and emptiness and be broken.  It is not an easy path, but the rewards (God smiling and feeling honored, us being overwhelmed with grace and love) is more than worth it.  But to leave this dead-end path (that admittedly has some good things on it) we must cross through a tangle of briars, thorns, darkness, emptiness and pain before we can climb up to the higher path of soft but firm paved gold.  It has to get worse before it can get better.  If we want to leave this gray and semi-colored room (with admittedly some good pieces of furniture and toys in it), we must push through a thick, heavy, sticky, barbed, tangled curtain, that takes forever to push through, before we can get to the wide-open, outdoor, full-color, comfortable, exotic place of God.  We have to give up on semi-comforts (that seem very real) before we can experience true comfort.  To pass up the bologna-on-white-bread sandwich with room-temperature water (that admittedly is delicious when we are starving), we must first push that plate away and have nothing, with our stomach growling and the fear setting in that we may starve, before the tender, grilled, spiced chicken, rare Ahi tune, loaded baked potato, soft, warm sweet corn, crispy asparagus and green beans, chilled coleslaw, butter-melting crescent rolls, fine white wine, deep amber beer, succulent pumpkin pie and toasted crème Brule can be set before us.  We have to starve before we can be fully filled.

And what happens is Christians leave the worldly path, head out of the worldly room and give up the bologna sandwich and move into the brangled thicket, the tangled curtains and the strangled hunger.  We give up the few semi-good things that life entices us with and replace it with sacrifice.  The problem is, we get discouraged there.  We sit in our sacrifices and stew.  And the world rightfully thinks we're crazy and wants no part of it.

We need to do two things, that's it.  Just two, vital, life-giving things. 

1. We MUST let the Holy Spirit walk hand-in-hand with us through the sacrifices.  We typically don't do that.  We are indeed Christians, and the Spirit truly lives within us, but we do not actually lean on and receive strength from Him.  We may say that we are trying and the Holy Spirit is simply letting us down, but the actuality is that He is offering help and we are not taking it (either out of pride, ignorance or fear).  Tough words, but true.  IF we walk in step with the Spirit through the tangled mess, an air of change will overtake us.  We will be transformed.  We will not be taken out of the mess; the mess will not be removed from us.  But we will begin to live above our circumstances.  We will find trust and contentment and acceptance.  The mess will cease to bother us. 

  

How can we know that we are enveloped within the cloud of the Holy Spirit?  We will show love to those we don't like.  We will have peace in the midst of strife.  Joy in the midst of loss.  We will cheerfully endure bad and refrain from enforcing what is due us.  We will be looking for ways to be useful to others.  We will be morally good people.  We will be gentle in our response to high-stress situations.  We will retain temperance and moderation in the midst of temptations.  And we will find confidence in God as He finds confidence in us.  He will begin to use us more and more for His Kingdom work.  Galatians 5 lays all this out, and what a picture it paints.

  

2.  As we begin to let the Spirit truly lead is, consistently, and thus live above our circumstances, we can then look ahead to the promised land.  We can begin to trust that Heaven is truly real and truly far greater than this life.  And we will retain hope.  We will 'Hold Onto Positive Expectations'.  We will have a spring in our step and a crooked but sincere smile on the corner of our lips, for one day we will get to come Home.

This is the picture that the Bible paints of what a Christian should be and do and have.  And from time to time, we see one of those Christians.  But they are rare and few and far in-between.  We need more of them.  We need you to step up into that aura and cloud of untouchableness (from the dark powers of the world).  I want to be this!  I want others to be this with me!  Because then, the rest of the Church will be encouraged to follow suit, one by one, and the world at large will simply marvel.  Heads will be turned and tilted in amazement and curiosity. Mouths will be dropped open, and will salivate for the same thing.  We will be salt to the world, creating a thirst for a God-centered, God-supported life, in the midst of the tangled mess between the world and heaven. It can't be done on the world's path. It is simply not possible, not the way God designed it. 

So imagine a world where the entire population leaves the path of sinful ways, and walks together, hand-in-hand, in the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit through the briars and thorns. And for our entire lives, we trudge through the pain and trials, but we rise above them in our attitude, persevering through them. And then one day, we reach the clearing and come out in to the open.  Imagine a world where the entire population pushes away the bologna sandwiches, and clings to the Holy Spirit, smiling through our hunger and emptiness.  And after a time, a full plate of the most mouth-watering food is placed before us and the feast begins.  This is God's Plan.  This is what the Bible is teaching us.

So we each have three basic options: 

1.  Reject the plan and settle on the bologna sandwiches and current dead-end path (with some good on it). 

[All of us need to realize that fame, wealth, sex, independence, etc. are all bologna sandwiches.  They are a slice of the goodness that God offers us.  We shouldn't try to reduce the good feelings that come with such things. We can accept that they do feel good in the moment, but there is something far greater, far purer, far healthier, far more inspiring and edifying, with far more significance beyond those things.  We must refuse to settle on such things as wealth and independence and being liked. We must forego those things before we can receive the greater things.  We must stop thinking that independence, stability and happiness are the best that we can ever hope for.  To do so is to sell God short and miss out on something amazing.]

2.     Trust in God and His plan and forsake the offerings of this world, and choose sacrifice and brokenness, and then grow stagnate and discouraged sitting there, and maybe put one foot in the world's path and one foot in God's trials, trying to have your cake and eat it too.  (By the way, that's called hypocrisy.  I did it for a long time, and sometimes still do it.  And it sucks.)

3.     Trust in God and His plan and forsake the offerings of this world, and choose sacrifice and brokenness, and then lean on the Holy Spirit in very real ways, letting Him guide us and encourage us and empower us to persist through trials, and then bring us to a place of true, excited hope for the one day when this life will fade.

Which do you choose?

I choose option 3. And so I am going to dive into the Bible to see how that works exactly.  If any of you want to walk this journey with me, please let me know.  In the end, if I rely on the Holy Spirit, I will have enough; but that's not what He nor I prefer. We prefer to do this in a group.  A team of adventurers.  So please, I am talking to each of you individually, not generically, let me know if you want to come with us.  We'd love to have you as a partner.  I mean this. 

[On Monday of this week, I sent this post out to about 40 specific people I know, and 8 of them (from 5 different towns, three states) have taken the time to respond and let me know they want in.  So I'm praying about actually starting up an Option 3 group where we informally, prayerfully encourage one another as we rejoice in the trials on our way Home.  So I do really mean this.  If you want to take Option 3, let's do it together, even if it's via blogs and emails and long-distant prayer.  Comment on this post or email me!  shannon@rekindlingministries.com  Let's go on a very tough but very rewarding adventure Home.]