Our world

If contemplation were the real cause of devotion, it should follow that the higher the matter of our contemplation the greater the devotion it begot.  But the opposite is the case.  For it frequently happens that greater devotion is aroused by the contemplation of the Passion of Christ and of the other mysteries of His Sacred Humanity than by meditation upon the Divine excellences.  - Thomas Aquinas

To know me is to know that I have three sons.  They are all boy.  Each one is brilliant in his own right.  Not a one of them is (at this point) overtly athletic or musical, though their interests are broad and healthy.   They love the same TV shows.  Yet with all of this commonality they are remarkably and distinctly individuals.  Their tastes for food, skills, aptitude, personalities, demonstration of affection - they are individuals.

They love their mom and me very much.  They know about some of my "achievements."  I.e. I graduated seminary, I'm an officer in the Air Force, and by my profile I am identical to Tom Cruise (in all honesty no one has noticed that last bit but me).  But, concerning those kinds of things my boys really don't care.  Not once has one of my boys said, "Father, your service to our nation is exemplary, your academic achievements inspiring, and, BTW, how do you remain so humble with such a rugged jaw-line?"  As they become men some of those things will matter to them.  But not today.

Today Ethan is impressed when I get on the floor and wrestle.  Seth knows he is loved when I tickle him and chase him around the house.  Joel prefers for us to read together or engage in a slightly more sophisticated level of play like a bike ride or soccer practice.  He is getting to an age where he shows some interest in my work, but even still, he needs me to enter his world more than he desires to enter mine.

So it is with us.  Our Father's achievements are incomprehensible.  So far out of our field of experience that we struggle to ask intelligent questions about His universe.  Most of His attributes are explained by theologians with words that begin with "omni" - ultimate or unlimited.  We delve into those things to a degree through study and contemplation.  We may think we are entering His world, but in reality our ability in those spheres is less than miniscule.  To understand Him we need Him to enter ours.

And so He did.  In the person of Jesus Christ God put on flesh and came down to where we live.  If we were five year old boys he would wrestle with us.  If we were two He would tickle us.  If we were seven He'd peddle with us to the soccer park.  He entered our world.  Maybe you are poor; He was born in a cave.  Maybe you suffer; He was crucified.  Maybe you are distressed; He sweat blood.  Maybe you have been betrayed; He was friends with Judas.  Maybe you get frustrated with subordinates; He employed Peter.

Because He came to our world we are able to ascend into His, but only as He lifts us up.  Only as our minds are enlightened.  We are amazed by those attributes that start with omni - He is omni-present, everywhere at once.  We are impressed philosophically, staggered intellectually, but are we moved?  Is our devotion deeper?  Does the omnipresence of God shake us to love our neighbor more?  Probably not.  Omnipresence doesn't mean much to a mortal.  But presence does.  He stepped out of omnipresence to be present.  He came to our world and stretches us into His a little at a time.  Thank God that He did.  Thank God that He left His Spirit so that He is still present with us.  Thank God that one day we will outgrow this world and be forever with Him in His.

Two kinds of fraud

A few years ago I read an article in Time, or was it People... Newsweek maybe?  Any way, it was about anxiety and the things that cause it and my reference to it will clearly be less than precise.  Point is, as far as I remember, the #1 cause for anxiety in men is the fear that they will be discovered to be a fraud.

Now there are frauds and then there are frauds!  I am thoroughly enjoying my read through Wyoming Range War which tells the story of the infamous invasion of Johnson County in 1892.  One of the predominant characters thus far is Sherif Frank Canton.  An iron willed, heavy fisted kind of guy that boasted of "always getting his man."  For 50 pages the reader follows Canton's pursuit of bad guys, learns a bit about his political career, and grows to understand his reputation as a relentless enforcer of the letter of the law.  Then, in the middle of a story that isn't even about him we're thrown a humdinger of a curve ball - "For one thing, he wasn't even Frank Canton.  That was an alias that he made up when fled from Texas... in fact, all of his family history was made up.  It is no exaggeration to say that his entire life was a lie.  The truth was that Frank Canton was Joe Horner, a fugitive from Texas with an extensive criminal history there."  These crimes ranged from assault, to cattle theft, to breaking out of jail, to murder.  Jumping from that life and landing in a two-term Sherif gig - I'd have to label Frank Canton / Joe Horner as a fraud's fraud.

Imagine the exhausting existence it would be to live life with a skeleton in your closet big enough to make a paleontologist drool.  Imagine what it would be like to live with a consent fear of being discovered a fraud.  Problem is, I am a fraud.  And so are you.  As a Christian I am here to represent Christ.  I am so unlike Him.  I sin, I fear, I manipulate, I boast, I retaliate, I regret, I plot, and that is just some of what I do.  Let's not talk about what I don't do.  Yet somehow in me and through me is manifested the hands and feet of the Spirit of Christ.  How?

This is where my fraudulent activity comes in.  As suggested by the title I believe there are two types of frauds.  I vacillate between the two quite consistently.  The first is the arrogant fraud.  I am that guy when I get up, go for a jog, eat a bowl of Wheaties, go to the office, check my e-mail, have a walk-in counselee, and try to help this person because, after all, I'm the pastor so I must have the answers.  At that moment I'm just Eli, pretending to be a representative of my King whom I haven't even spoken to today.  I'm an arrogant fraud trying to offer something I simply don't posses.

The other fraud we can call the legitimate fraud, or the sanctified fraud, or the honest fraud.  I'm that guy when, by God's grace, I get up and open my Bible.  Prayerfully I allow the Spirit to use the words to chisel off my sin, sand down the rough edges of pride, and wash me clean of those troublesome stains of personal agenda.  From this well-spring I minister to my family as they begin to wake up until I'm on my way out the door.  I sit at my desk looking out the window at my town in need of Christ's love.  When a fellow-sinner comes in for a visit I lead them to the One with the answers they need.  They thank me for help, because, after all I'm the pastor so I must have the answers.  I don't, but it's okay, because I'm a legit fraud, who knows it, and knows the only One in the universe who is no fraud.

The difference sounds so simple because it is.  But that simple difference changes lives.  It breaks paradigms and cancels sin.  In Acts it "turned the world upside down."  It removes the weight of anxiety because the legitimate fraud has nothing to hide.  There is no skeleton in his closet because he drags it out into the middle of the floor and says, "look, I'm just like you.  A sinner in need of God's grace.  Let's explore that grace together."

So, Time, or Newsweek, or whoever you are... I wish you knew the solution to our universal problem before you ran that article.  Since Adam's sin we are a race of frauds.  That needn't drive us to anxiety but to our knees.  To the cross.  To the One who's legitimacy is accredited to our account, not fraudulently, but lavishly.  Which kind of fraud are you today?