Archive | October, 2013

Hope in Suffering

“God is not playing a game with you.  You are not some pawn in some cosmic game.  HE is in you … Your hope is not manufactured by your skill or ingenuity.  It is the living God living in You.”

If you are suffering and grasping to find hope, this sermon from my pastor last Sunday is beautiful and hopeful.

Thoughts on “Real Complementarians”

Rachel Held Evans’ post last week generated a lot of discussion on the perceived problems among those who identify as complementarians.

“The problem with accurately portraying what complementarians believe about ‘biblical womanhood’ is that complementarians do not agree on what they believe about ‘biblical womanhood.'” 

I’m not attempting to refute Rachel’s blog post. But I’d like to engage it and go in a different direction – orthogonal, if you will.

I deeply value many things complementarian leaders over the years have brought to my own growth in Christ and subsequently to my ministry to others. In particular, I am blessed by leaders who have argued against writing off words such as submit and respect as instructions for a particular culture in the 1st century without relevance for today. We lose so much more of the Word than we gain in personal freedom when we adopt that approach, in my humble opinion. My life and ministry would be very different, much less in my opinion, had I not valued the word submit in my own life.

My husband talked with me in the early days of my blog about staying vulnerable and honest about my personal struggles in relationship with God rather than getting caught up in larger evangelical debate (and I do note the irony in this post). Though I loved debate and wanted to put my two cents into big discussions among evangelical leaders, I took his concerns and direction seriously in part because a group of men and women in the 1970’s decided to teach on the value of male leadership in Christian homes. My husband didn’t demand that I submit. He never bought into the manly-man caricature of Biblical manhood espoused in some circles of complementarian thought. He simply shared with me his vision of what would be good long term for my ministry to women and what he thought women on the ground would most benefit from hearing. Because I valued the word submit as an instruction that is a lamp for my feet along a rocky, tricky path, I listened to his vision and put it in practice. Over time, I bought into it at the deepest level personally, and now, it is the guiding principle for me when I’m trying to decide what to write about. I have around 3,000 subscribers to this blog. Many of those readers write to me regularly, affirming without realizing it this wisdom my husband shared with me years ago.

I explained all this to make this point – I value the word submit (while understanding its limitations) in part because of the influence of this group of believers who banded together decades ago to teach on this topic. I also value what I do in my home as a wife and mom in part due to them. They banded together around the idea of complementary genders, teaching on the value of each gender using their differences to bring glory to God. I have a strong disagreement with some of the presuppositions they brought to that discussion, yet I see movement on that issue which encourages me. Nevertheless, their original burdens and concerns had some strong points. Without a doubt, when you downplay distinctiveness in the genders, you miss aspects of the beauty of the full image of God, and this is the hallmark of those who identify themselves as complementarians.

When discussing complementary but not identical genders, we should note that characteristics of gender form a bell curve. They are not binary, where either you are or you aren’t reflecting your gender. Some leaders have missed that in how they present the value of complementary genders, and they leave little room for overlap. That’s unfortunate and confusing for their listeners. Nevertheless, it is to the benefit of the entire Body of Christ that the global Church values the different things complementary genders bring to our understanding of the fullness of the character of God.

Yet, Rachel raises some good points, which the discussion in internet-controversy land doesn’t address very well. We keep going to caricatures, and we don’t engage with each other using our best representations. We find the worst examples of our perceived opponent, and we debate those. But a movement is defined by the thing on which those adhering to it agree. It is those places that we should have our discussion and debate. There is obvious self correction going on among those who identify as complementarians. The values shared by old school complementarians and those who identify with the new wave are better places to focus for a fruitful debate/discussion.

Rachel says this:

It’s ironic that some complementarains have criticized A Year of Biblical Womanhood for employing an inconsistent hermeneutic without seeming to realize that this was exactly what I intended to do with the project.

This is interesting to know. If I understand correctly, Rachel is attempting to show that complementarians have inconsistent modes of interpretation by using an inconsistent method of interpretation herself.

… My point is that, despite insistent claims that they simply follow the “clear teachings of the Bible,” complementarians themselves are not in total agreement on what those teachings are. And despite all these references to a patently obvious and consistent hermeneutic regarding biblical manhood and womanhood, complementarians have failed to produce it.  

Here is the strong disagreement I have with Rachel. There IS a clear hermeneutic. Here is an explanation adapted from The Gospel-Centered Woman, aptly subtitled, Understanding Biblical Womanhood through the Lens of the Gospel.

I knew early on in my wrestling over Scripture that I did not want to rely on myself to determine what was and was not relevant for me today. It seemed foolish for me to choose to accept the parts of the Bible that I liked and reject the parts I did not. Thankfully, the Bible did not leave me as an orphan to navigate that on my own. The Bible is the best commentary on itself, and we are wise to examine the various things it reveals to us about itself. 

At times, God wrote out His revelation of Himself in the form of stories. Sometimes, He used clear commands and instructions. Within those clear commands and instructions, God gave universal truths for all cultures and all times along with instructions that played a specific role for a finite period of time. How does Scripture reveal what parts were for a particular time and what parts transcend time or culture? Most believers agree that not all parts of Scripture should be literally followed today, as evidenced by the fact that no modern Christian group offers animal sacrifices. However, beyond animal sacrifices, there are divergent perspectives within the larger evangelical movement on how we know what is required for today, especially in terms of application to women. It is tempting for me to rely on my own cultural understanding as the basis for what does and does not apply to me in Scripture. But the Bible transcends cultural context. The Bible claims to be living. It claims to be trustworthy for the long haul. It speaks to events that occurred well before it was first written and to those that will occur long after it was completed. Most of all, it claims that each human writer was ultimately carried by the Holy Spirit to say what God Himself, not the human writer, inspired them to say (2 Peter 1:20-21). 

The most important insight the Bible gives us for understanding itself is that Jesus’ life and death fulfilled the Old Testament Law. Jesus teaches in Luke 24 that all of the Law and Prophets pointed to Him. In Matthew 5: 17, Jesus says,  “ Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” He states this previous to His death and reinforces an impossible standard, that we need to keep the Law better than the Pharisees. After His death, Paul teaches that Jesus alone was the only one who could keep the Law as God intended, and His death marked the great exchange where we are now counted as having kept the Law as Jesus did. Christ is the “end of the Law” for all who believe in Him, according to Paul. 

The Law served several purposes. It served to show civilization what God values. We value the dignity of human life, care of the poor, fidelity in marriage, fairness in business dealings, social justice, and so forth because God first showed us through the Law that He cared about such things. Also, the Law showed from multiple different angles both our need for a Savior and what He would look like when He comes. The Law also served to give humans at the dawn of civilization basic guidelines toward health and safety. Old Testament laws should not be written off, ignored, or abolished. Instead, Jesus fulfilled them. He brought them to completion, and their purpose is concluded. Much of the books of Galatians and Hebrews are spent exploring this point. 

Combining these principles for reading Scripture, we get a clearer picture of how to receive the Word on any subject, especially the topic of biblical womanhood. We start in Genesis 1 and 2 where God states in perfection that every woman is an image bearer of God reflecting especially His strong help and advocacy for His children. From there, I recommend studying Ephesians, where Paul lays out our spiritual inheritance via the gospel as the key to once again being the “imitators of God” that He created us to be (Ephesians 5:1). In between, the Old Testament Law pointed toward Christ and was fulfilled in Him. Proverbs 31 gives insight, wisdom, and understanding (not law), which is best received under the press of the Holy Spirit who helps us apply it in ways that are actually wise in our own lives as opposed to the conclusions some may espouse when they try to convict us in place of the Spirit. The New Testament reaffirms the summary moral code of the Ten Commandments. Jesus even intensifies it in His Sermon on the Mount. The essence is summed up in the Greatest Command and Golden Rule. Much of the epistles then flesh out what such love looks like in the New Covenant, and we can trust those instructions even as we wrestle with the Holy Spirit to understand and apply them.

The problem isn’t that there isn’t a consistent hermeneutic that leads to complementarian conclusions. The problem is that 1000 different people can use this consistent hermeneutic and STILL HAVE DISAGREEMENT. But is that really a problem? This seems a straw man. Complementarians disagree on some points. So what?! Most complementarians don’t get TOO worked up over these disagreements because there is a doctrine that gives us perspective on such disagreements – the priesthood of believers. Christians for centuries have believed that the individual believer is ultimately the one convicted by the Spirit as He applies the Word to their own heart. We can all agree on the perspicuity of “Thou shalt not kill.” But when Paul says a woman “should not exercise authority over a man,” it simply is not as clear, and our convictions on the priesthood of believers influences how we interact on areas of disagreement.

It’s clear among complementarians that women should not be elders. But deacons? There’s room for debate there.

We believe the command for wives to submit is for all women in all cultures. Yet, the limits of that submission are up for debate. I know what my limits are, but I have to be careful in projecting the ways the Spirit convicts me onto others.

We value a woman’s role in the home, yet we debate how to present its value to others without putting undue weights around women.

Of course Christians who generally agree about the value of distinct genders aren’t going to completely agree on all applications for all cultures for all times! This is Rachel’s main focus of both her book and her recent blog post. And I just don’t understand it. Because we don’t agree on all application it then discounts all parts on which we generally do agree?!

However, I lay much of the fault for the ongoing debate this straw man has caused at the feet of complementarians who have not thoughtfully and respectfully engaged others on the topic. We have too often engaged with suspicion and defensiveness. Those two things cripple the ability to have a genuine discussion on the topic. If you can’t talk about this without defensiveness, please don’t talk about it, because defensiveness is an anti-gospel response mode that pushes away the very people leaders want to influence. 

I’ll attempt to respond to a few of Rachel’s specific questions from her blog post.

“Is Proverbs 31 really meant to be interpreted prescriptively, or does its poetic format suggest it should be interpreted as a celebration of women rather than a to-do list for them?” 

No, it’s not meant to be interpreted prescriptively. It’s wisdom literature. People who interpret it prescriptively are generally poorly taught and would do well to better study hermeneutics.

“If it is “unbiblical” for women to  teach or assume leadership over men why are women like Deborah, Huldah, Miriam, Priscilla, Phoebe, and Junia praised in Scripture for doing just that?” 

This is one of the debatable ones. Leaders who identify in the complementarian camp have various views of what this should look like practically, but most use Deborah and Phoebe as helpful Scriptural commentary on what this does and does not mean. Priesthood of the believers.

‘Why is “wives submit to your husbands” taken more seriously than “submit one to another.” And if every biblical instance of these instructions for husbands and wives is either preceded or followed by instructions for slaves to obey their masters, (verses that have historically been used to support slavery), might it be prudent to consider the spirit of these instructions in their Greco-Roman context rather than literally applying the letter?’

 I’m not familiar with complementarians who don’t value “submit one to another” though I’m sure there are some. “Wives submit” is an intensifier to “submit to one another,” but the second means nothing without understanding and deeply valuing the first. Everyone in the Body of Christ is called to submit.

“Why are Paul’s instructions regarding Corinthian women wearing head coverings dismissed as cultural and specific to a unique audience, while his instructions regarding Ephesian women teaching the Ephesian church considered universally and timelessly prescriptive?”   

I hear you. I personally keep my hair moderately long (the passage says a woman’s hair is given as a covering) because I could not reconcile this Scripture with my hermeneutic otherwise. But I don’t talk about it publicly (doh!) because it’s my own personal conviction based on my own wrestling with the Spirit over the Word. Priesthood of the believer again.

“Is a single-income household with a father who goes to work and a mother who stays home really the only way to honor God? Is this really a ‘biblical’ concept or does it impose modern Western cultural assumptions onto the text? Can Christians support such teachings when such a lifestyle is out-of-reach for many of the world’s poor, to whom Jesus first brought the gospel? And what about singles and non-parents?”

Of course it’s not the only way to honor God. This is not consistently held among complementarians. Driscoll trumpeted this in his early years of ministry. But there originally was a legitimate issue he was addressing, not among women helping their families this way but among the men who exploited their willingness to do so. But as leaders jumped on his bandwagon, they sloppily talked about the real issue, painting a caricature of manhood that has caused legitimate push back.

“How does the teaching that women are to be subordinate to their husbands in sex square with 1 Corinthians 7, which says the opposite?  And if this sort of mutuality and equality is celebrated in such an intimate context, why not extend it into every area of life?”

This is a low blow on Rachel’s part. Jared Wilson corrected himself on this, in part because of push back from men and women associated with The Gospel Coalition.

“John Piper cites the first half of 1 Timothy 2:12 (“a woman should not have authority”) as universally applicable, but disregards the second half (“she must be quiet”) by encouraging women like Beth Moore to continue speaking.  If the first half of 1 Timothy 2 is so crucial to the complementarian hierarchal construct, why is the second half, (along with the silence command in 1 Corinthians 14:34) essentially ignored?  Why is that complementarian women are forbidden from assuming leadership in churches, and yet permitted to speak?”

I need to do more research, but Piper seems pretty consistent here. He believes, as do I, that this teaching with authority reflects the discussion in I Timothy on elder qualifications. It’s not limiting women from speaking. It’s limiting women from having the role of elder.

‘And where on earth in Scripture does it teach that “real men” are  “heterosexual, win-a-fight, punch-you-in-the-nose dudes” who don’t do the laundry or allow their boys to play with dolls? If all men are “hardwired” one way and all women are “hardwired” another way, why don’t we all fit into these stereotypes? Does the Bible really perpetuate these stereotypes?’   

No, the Bible does not perpetuate that stereotype. Jesus busts that stereotype in two. While some loud leaders like to use such sensational language, this does not uniformly characterize the view of complementarian leaders with whom I interact.

That concludes my meager attempt at non-defensive engagement on the subject. Again, it’s wise to characterize a movement by the best elements of it with which adherents most agree. In terms of complementarian thought, this element is that God created complementing genders, different but overlapping, to reflect the fullness of Himself. And that heart of complementarian thought is beautiful and to be valued.

What Lesson in Suffering?

I wrote earlier this week on Job’s words of faith, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” One of the great vexations of such slaying is the constant inward questioning (and sometimes outward questioning by others as in Job’s case) of why this is happening to you. Why won’t God let me get pregnant? Why won’t God heal my child? Why did her husband stay and mine leave? Why did that woman get married to a great guy but I am left lingering in my loneliness? What is wrong with me?! Is it disobedience on my part? Is there some hidden sin of which I need to repent? Is there some lesson I need to learn? If so, then I need to figure out what it is so I can go ahead and learn it! 

Certainly, there are consequences to sin, and self-examination with repentance is healthy in most any circumstance. But Job’s example shows us that these types of questions, which often badger us in the midst of long term suffering, miss the entire point of what’s truly going on. The answer to why in Job’s case was simply the importance of God’s testimony in the heavenly realm. There was no lesson that Job needed to learn that led to him being chosen for suffering (though he certainly did learn some valuable lessons along the way). There was no flaw God was trying to correct and no sin of which God was leading him to repent. No, it was just God’s testimony in the heavenly realm. It was completely about silencing Satan and none about Job’s flaws or inadequacies.

This is illustrated well in another story in which God clearly allows suffering – the raising of Lazarus in John 11.

John 11 1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 

5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. … 

17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. … 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

There are many intriguing facets of this story of suffering and redemption. I note in particular the wording of verses 5-6. Jesus loved them. I get that. But the connecting word “so” seems out of place. He loved them SO He didn’t go to heal Lazarus?! That seems contradictory, yet that is exactly what the text says. We know from the end of the story what God revealed to them about Himself, that Jesus was not just someone who also believed in resurrection with them but was the actual One who holds life in His hand! By the end of the story, His love is clear – certainly because He healed Lazarus, but also because He showed Himself to be much, much bigger than they had understood to that point. 

Like the story of Job, nothing in John 11 is about Mary or Martha needing to do more (or to do less). God isn’t chastising Martha for not being more of a student like Mary or Mary for not being a servant like Martha. He’s not punishing them for asking for His help. He’s not teaching them to ask for it more. He’s just revealing something of Himself. And it was a beautiful thing for them all to know.

My take away for my own suffering is simple. Suffering isn’t about punishing me. It’s probably not much about sanctifying me – rooting out unknown sins and replacing them with more righteous behavior – though I will likely grow in grace through suffering. Yet Satan accuses me. He prompts me to self-examine well past what is healthy and God-honoring, leaving me plagued with thoughts of my own inadequacies and failures. In reality, what God most likely wants me to learn is just that He is good, and He gives life. In the meantime, I am best served simply resting in His arms until redemption breaks forth in the storm of my own struggles.

Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Though He Slay Me

Though He slay me. What powerful words Job speaks in Job 13:15. Who says this kind of thing?! What codependent weakling still proclaims trust in the one who orchestrates his death?! Though God stabs me in the back, still I will trust Him?!

This is exactly what Job models for us, and it is what God clearly preserves in His Word for our instruction—trusting God even when He stabs us in the back. Receiving it not as betrayal – “Et tu, Brute?!” – but receiving it in faith, with trust.

Suffering purifies our faith …

1 Peter 1:7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

… and no one in Scripture evidences a faith that is purer than Job’s in the moment that he utters that famous phrase. When every piece of life in which he could trust was stripped away, along with every view of God that makes Him about us and our comfort, Job STILL. HAD. FAITH.

He gives and takes away, says Job. Blessed be the name of God. Anyone who has suffered deeply recognizes this moment in their journey. When you realize that God really is going to let your worst fears be realized. It really is going to be as bad as you imagined, or maybe actually worse. And you choose faith. You do not turn away from Him. You even praise Him in the midst of the pain. Those who have been there tell me that their choice seemed to be made for them. Where else could they go, as Peter says in John 6? Only Jesus has the words of life.

Consider Mary running to Jesus knowing that He could have healed Lazarus before he died. Consider Jesus too, who deliberately stayed away from Mary until after Lazarus died knowing that He was compounding their grief, even weeping with them Himself in their distress. Yet He did so to show something more wonderful about Himself than anything any of His disciples had experienced thus far. There was a joy on the other side of their suffering, but they had to walk through it to get there.

Sometimes it feels like God walks up and stabs me in the back. He doesn’t do what I know He could do. He doesn’t do the things that I want Him to do, things that I know from His Word He too should want. Why does He instruct me to want His kingdom to come and His will to be done and then seem to hold His hand when I ask for those things in my own life? Job’s words echo again and again in my heart. Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. These words are deeply relevant in that moment of suffering when you understand that He is indeed going to allow your child to die, your husband to leave, or your world to fall apart.

Most of all, Job’s words echo in Jesus’ in the garden of Gethsemane. Though You slay me, Jesus says, yet will I trust in You. In that bleakest moment of suffering when we are faced with our God allowing our worst fears to come true, we are joined by the Man of Sorrows, His Son, well acquainted with grief. Jesus models for us endurance in suffering. More importantly His perfect suffering made the way for our own suffering to have redemptive purpose. He endured the cross and despised its shame for the joy set before him (Hebrews 12:2). This too is our calling in suffering. Oddly enough, it is also our empowerment in such suffering. Even when it seems that God stabs us in the back, there is joy to be had in the distance, in relationship with the very One who slays us.

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 

Hebrews 12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Matthew 26:39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

Don’t Stop. Keep Going.

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill

This quote showed up in my twitter feed last week. It reminds me of two Bible words with which I have a love/hate relationship – perseverance and endurance. These are two of the most precious, important instructions in the Christian vocabulary. Yet they are some of the hardest as well. My best friend talked with me about these words after her husband left her for another woman. She had to uproot her life to begin again in a new state. She said that, day after day, her mantra was just to do the next thing. To take one step, then the next step, and then the next step in what felt like a never ending slog through a waist deep river rushing against her. Eventually (after 8 years or so), she slogged through the worst of it. She didn’t emerge onto completely dry land with no struggles, but she certainly has emerged into a new season of life of much more peace and fewer intense struggles.  Most of all, she has seen redemption and healing in key relationships.

Persevere! It’s the best of advice. It’s the hardest of struggles. I long at times to curl up in the fetal position in bed. Yet, I have to buck it up and go volunteer in my son’s classroom. I’d rather drink myself to oblivion, but instead I need to make a lesson plan for a math class I’m teaching the next day. Some days, just getting up and taking the next step is the most profound expression of faith we can do.

Romans 5:3-4 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 

1 Peter 2:19-20 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.

The marathon of whatever trial you are facing will certainly one day end. In the meantime, lessons from earthly marathons are helpful. I learned some lessons about endurance while running a … cough … 5k. Ok. I know some of you are big runners who put my tiny little 5k to shame. But my two little 5k’s put to shame everything I did physically the first 40 years of my life. So there. I trained and built up from being able to run 10 feet to being able to run 2.5 miles. But no part of those miles when training was easy, and the last mile of the 5k beyond what I had practiced before was mindnumbing. It was just the sound of my shoe hitting the pavement and letting my breath out, over and over again. Don’t stop jogging. Keep moving. Don’t stop. Keep going. Don’t stop. Keep going. I imagine that feeling is greatly intensified for those in 10k’s or true marathons.

The thing about our Christian walk is that few of us know if we are in a 5k, a 10k, or a full blown 26 mile marathon. I know I will not be disappointed when I see Jesus face to face for the first time in heaven. Whatever I had to endure on earth, I know I will not have regrets over the long term trials God allowed in my life. But that’s the marathon. That’s Dietrich Bonhoeffer praying psalms to himself as he walks naked to his death in a Nazi concentration camp. There was no ultimate physical rescue for him in this first life, though he walked with supreme confidence of his rescue in the next. But for many of my friends, rescue does come, at least in part, in this life. I have two friends in particular who went through brutal seasons in their marriages who have both emerged from those seasons with resolution and healing – one after a divorce not of her own choosing and one still married and serving God with her husband. Those are the shorter runs – the ones with earthly resolutions. I love to read and hear about believers who have been rescued in this life – from sin, from sickness, from death, from bankruptcy. When I am struggling to endure as I wait for redemption in parts of my own life, I seek out stories of redemption in others’ families, churches, or ministries. To me, such stories of redemption are like the cups of cold water runners receive from the sidelines in their long distance run.

Most of all, I am able to endure because of the One who endured before me, who endured FOR me.

Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

This is the thing that empowers me to keep going – that Jesus kept going for me. He endured the shame of the cross for a joy on the other side, and He’s surrounded us as we run along in our own marathon of suffering with a cloud of witnesses who have gone on before us who now stand cheering us on from the sidelines. The picture God gives us in Hebrews 12 of this marathon is beautiful! The greatest aspect of this inspiring picture is that it moves me from seeing myself slogging alone against a swollen river to seeing myself running together in community, with Christ and with those who have gone on before me. I am cheered on by the community of believers. Those living. Those dead. We rejoice together in the redemption they have already experienced, and we endure together with those still longing for redemption to draw nigh in all aspects of their lives.

Life Becomes More Simple

Life is complicated. All day, every day, I feel overwhelmed by a myriad of contradictory options. God calls me to do this. But He also calls me to do that. My family needs this. But my family also needs that. Community and culture press me to do this. But community and culture also press me to do that. How do I reconcile seemingly conflicting Biblical, family, and community obligations?

Have you ever noticed the simplicity of the legal code and list of obligations in the Garden of Eden? In sinless perfection, only one law was needed. Life was so simple. But the moment Adam and Eve sinned, the rules began to multiply. Sin complicated the world in every way — physically, socially, and emotionally. It terribly complicated our relationship with God, yet Jesus came and made the way again for us to have free, bold access to God the Father without the complications of the temple system.

In Matthew 22, Jesus further simplifies our sin-complicated lives with His answer to the Pharisee’s question, “… which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus answers, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind … and the second is like it … love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two laws hang all of the others, says Jesus.

When I feel battered by the complications of life in a fallen world, I love to go back to these words of Jesus. They are Jesus’ answer to the chaos brought about by the fall. And meditating on these words never fails to give me clarity on what obeying God in the moment looks like when my other efforts to determine what I should and should not do fail.

Lord, life becomes more simple 
When all I seek is You, 
When walking in Your Spirit Is all that I pursue, 
When knowing You are with me 
Is all the light I need, 
When all my heart is hungry 
For You to shape and lead. 
Lord, life is filled with beauty 
When I am filled with You, 
When You, so kind and patient, 
Have made me caring, too. 
When I am free to love You 
And look to You alone, 
Then life has found its sunlight, 
And hope has found its home. 
Lord Jesus, Sun of Heaven, 
Its temple and its light, 
Life’s goal and its beginning, 
Love’s length and depth and height; 
Lord, teach my heart to listen 
And rest in simple truth, 
To know life’s sweetest pleasure: 
To know and worship You.
(Ken Bible)

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:25-26, ESV)