God's Trustworthy Mysteries

The other day, I found a book about moral philosophy and curiously browsed through it. It didn’t take long before I got irritated at the authors’ blatant disregard for authority. They argued that an authority is not a reliable source for learning how to be moral. They pointed to the Bible as an example. Due to their confusion about the historical-cultural context of the passages quoted, they didn’t give any legitimacy to the God of the Bible’s authority in moral matters. They think that just because an authority says something is right or wrong doesn’t mean it is truly right or wrong. To them, reason is the true test for determining the legitimacy of what is believed to be moral. 

This is the problem with humanity; apart from the revelation of the Holy Spirit (see John 16:13; Eph. 3:5b), none of us can acknowledge the authority of God in our lives. We simply become ignorant of anything divinely authoritative and live lives that deviate from his will. Left to our own devices, we can never understand that God’s authority is a good thing and something we can trust.

For us Christians, the necessity of trusting God’s authority in revelation is something that many of us have forgotten, or at least ignored. The New Testament exudes a mysterious aspect of God’s plan of revelation in various places, which often state that Jesus is the agent through which God’s mysteries are understood (Rom. 16:25; Eph. 1:9; 3:4; Col. 2:2). Before Christ, much of God’s plan (especially as it pertained to Gentiles; Eph. 3:6) was hidden from the people of God (Luke 10:21-24; Eph. 3:5). Before such revelation, the people of God were called to trust God’s authority because he was God (Isa. 55:8-9).

It’s important to understand that God has always had his reasons for what he reveals and what he doesn't reveal. He has the proper authority for his methods. Similar to the ways in which he mysteriously allows evil to happen (Gen. 50:20; cf., 2 Cor. 4:17), God dictates what we know and what we don’t know. For instance, there was a reason God didn’t want Adam and Eve to know good and evil (Gen. 2:16-17). God planned for them to live innocently without the knowledge of good and evil because (I surmise) that moral knowledge would have incited them to sin (this is perhaps Paul’s reasoning in Rom. 7:7-12). Similarly, the concealment of the purpose of Christ from the people of the Old Testament (Luke 10:21-24) and the concealment of the reality that Gentiles would be members of the same body as Jews (Eph. 3:4-6) both served purposes which only God could fully know.

God’s ways will always be above ours (Isa. 55:8-9) and we may never know the answers to many questions we pose. If that’s true, then why do we think it’s a copout to defer to God's authority in ambiguous and confusing matters of life? Why do we think it’s bad when we don’t have an answer to skeptics of the faith? Granted, Peter does tell us to have an answer for those who wonder why we have the hope that we do (1 Pet. 3:15), but we still need to trust God to give us those answers (Matt 10:19-20). If we don’t know something about the ways of God, it’s not a victory for unbelievers (if it’s ever been about winning and losing anyway), since God will eventually provide the right knowledge we need, even if the answers are not what we or the skeptics expect. Christians who don’t have the answers needn’t fret since God will always provide the right answers at the right time for the particular situation.

The single, overriding principle behind the solution to this debacle of our unknowing is the foundational trustworthiness of God. Christian life has always been about God. Since the beginning of our very existence--our very universe--it’s been about God. The dependency of humanity on God is quite a humiliating reality, but it is one a wise person accepts, especially in matters of life’s mysteries. Dependent humans must always trust a dependable God if they are to receive what they need.

We must not exchange our trust in God for our desire for answers. Job demanded to be answered by God, and what did he get? He got four full chapters of unnerving rhetorical monologue (Job 38-41) that completely humiliated him and put him in his proper place (Job 42:1-6). How many of us would like to see God respond to our complaints in such an unnerving way? Wouldn’t we rather live in obedience to him and trust him to provide what we need at the proper times? 

Whatever mysteries that life may hand to us, we can trust God to give us what we need to know at the proper time. What we may want to know is whole different matter, and God knows that. Our wants are trivial and they change with maturity, but our needs always remain the same. Our need for the proper revelation is always constant. God is our ever trustworthy parent, who will always look out for us and tell us what we need to know for the matter at hand despite our nervous confusion. He has the proper authority for his methods.

Love Will Always Surprise Us

I know the topic of love is such a common one, but I think it’s common because it’s so immensely powerful. The reason so many of us talk and sing about it is because of it’s ability to make us risk life. Surely, to say anything about the topic is begging it to be drowned out by the rest of what has already been said about it. 

But perhaps that is the problem after all.

The problem with love is that it has become severely hackneyed. The constant reminders of its effects and power by those around us, by those singing the love songs and by those in spheres of influence have turned the most powerful, collective human force into a cliche. Worse yet, the banality, or cliche, of love has made all its lesser forms appear to be all that love has to offer.

And yet, love still finds ways to weed out our stagnant attitudes of resignation; it always finds new ways to call us to risk living life. 

Personally, love surprised me when I sat staring at my newborn son. I could not shake the sense that a new force had now merged into my personal story when we locked eyes. No amount of parenting classes, no amount of time, no amount of counsel from the experienced can prepare a man to look upon his first child. As I stared into his searching eyes, my mind failed to grasp the source of his power, which imprisoned me in a hopeless spiral of emotion. He entrapped me just as a finite mind is entrapped when contemplating eternity. Love was at work and no amount of assertions to the contrary could make me disbelieve it.

Love tends to jump out at us when we least expect it, and for those who think that love has passed them by, it’s wise to remember that love is not weak enough to avoid us. We must trust love to find us and do its work with us. Like God, who covertly sneaks around looking for ways to rouse us to risk life and trust people with our hearts, love covertly implements its tactics against the lonely and downhearted. 

Despite living in a world where the constant drumming of love has made the term hackneyed, I believe that love is still more powerful than the most disarming of numbing spells. True love always finds a loophole in this world of overuse--and misuse--of love.  

Speaking of True Love...

The Apostle John tells us plainly that “God is love” (1 John 4:8b). If God is love, then anything pertaining to genuine love ventures into his territory. The statement is loaded with simplicity that tempts us to underestimate its potency, but we must not mistake simplicity for deficiency. It is simple because it says all it can say; God encompasses all that love is. What more is there to say? Knowing more of God is to know more of love. 

Dabbling with love is sure to incite God’s love, which is risky. It is the most serious risk anyone can make because God is never unwilling to do what is necessary. God will always seek to craft us into better human beings, which will require pain. Yet to live in a risk-filled life of love is exactly what we all crave. Further, God is the one who implanted the desire of a love-filled life within us. Despite what the inner voices say, it is good to desire love. 

We are thus faced with a question: dabble with God’s love and experience the most risk-filled life with him, or strive to live without love and experience a mundane existence, trying to catch a smile occasionally. The choice begs our response daily.

Although the world attempts to dilute its power and misinterpret it, love is able to stare the world in the face and smile because God is its definition, and the world is no match for God. People will overuse the term and misuse its power, but God never will. We are at war, but God is still in control. God is still love and true love is still controlled by God. In that fact we have comfort. Love will find us and surprise us.

The power of love is that it will always be love, regardless of how far we may drift away from it. Despite it being hackneyed, love still exists in a world that has never been more needful of its resolute definition.

Evil, Meet Good, Your Worst Enemy

There is one truth that confounds me more and more as I grow older, and that is the reality of evil. Bad things do not lessen in intensity; they only grow. This is especially true to a maturing mind, for as one grows older, more implications are found in evil deeds. 

For instance, when one is young, seeing the story of a murder on TV comes across as confusing, but when one is older, it comes across as tragically demoralizing. Evil may still confound and confuse maturing people, but I think that its impact on society and ourselves is the chief concern of a maturing person. It’s hard to not take evil to heart.

I hate how this world enjoys draining good people dry. 

Then again, it makes me wonder: am I included in the evil I see? I may like to think of myself as a “good person,” but am I capable of evil? Of course I am.

I may not be out among the riffraff, but I can certainly contribute to the evil I see if I would simply fail to do what is right. Every time I fail, evil prevails. 

Every time a murderer fails to rethink their decision to kill, evil prevails. Every time a thief fails to stop stealing, evil prevails.

So it’s not so much about the increase of evil; it’s about the decrease of good. When we do good, evil loses.

It doesn’t help, though, that so much evil is done by others. We may be able to keep ourselves relatively “good,” but how can we compete with everyone who does evil? How can we stop a killer who has the means to do harm to those we love? How can we diminish the evil in others?

Is nihilism the only response to this reality?

“This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:17-18)

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Rom. 8:18)

Are these passages of hope the answer to our problems?

They seem so groundless. How can we verify their validity and certainty?

Well, we can’t verify them because if we could, there would be no need for faith. In some strange plan, God desires us to come to him and trust him by faith alone--without the conviction of proof. Does that negate the hope for the goodness of Heaven that awaits us beyond the evil world in which we live? Certainly not!

How can it? If we truly believe that this evil that we despair of now will pale in comparison to the eternal good that awaits us, how can it negate our hope?

How can a temporary pain negate the joys of eternal goodness?

As we continue to witness the evil that plagues the world, I think it’s wise to remember that the future hope of Heaven is available to those who trust God. The power of evil pales in comparison to the power of Jesus. Likewise, the reward that faith in him brings diminishes the failures of this evil world. 

When we fail, we let evil win, but we know that one day failure will no longer be an option. So why focus on failure? What good will come from constantly focusing on failure? 

So I ask again, how can we diminish the evil in others? 

We must meet evil with good. Of course, when we do good, there is no guarantee that evil will not find us, but at least we will meet that evil with good. After all, one act of goodness might be all a person needs to see to turn from their evil. Maybe in some way, our doing good will affect others, but even so, what matters is how we respond to such evil, not how they respond to us. 

Changing people should never be our goal. Our goal should be to introduce them to a freeing Goodness that is far more appetizing than the evil that entraps them.

What else is there for a good person to do in the face of evil than to be good? God has always been good, and he calls us to be good as well. We will fail, yes, but like I said before, it’s not about our failures. What matters is how much we love the good and reject the evil. Our failures cannot overwhelm God’s goodness, which is what ultimately matters.

We can trust God to do the good thing, even if we are prone to despair of the evil around us and in us. Our future is in his hands, and it would be wise to remember that his goodness is the only way in which we can access it. Entering into Heaven is not up to our lack of failures. We may feel undeserving of the glorious future that awaits us in Heaven, but our own self-perceptions are nullified in the presence of God’s perceptions. 

He says, “Welcome,” and it is wise to accept it. We may not feel deserving of such a welcome, but he welcomes us nonetheless. No more evil will plague us, and no more failures will entrap us. What we despair of now will not even be in the picture!

I want to live with my eyes on the future goodness that awaits and continue to meet evil with good--despite the cost. Let’s show people God, the Goodness that is more appetizing than evil.

The Pigeon Holes of Fame and Notoriety: How Do You View Famous Sinners?

Here’s something to think about:

Fame or notoriety? 

Most people would choose fame. Most people would want glory. There are, of course, the rare few who aspire to be recognized for evil. Generally, though, positive fame is what appeals to people.

Why do I ask?

Well, look in the newspapers or watch the news for one day. I invite you to look at the people highlighted in the media and try to imagine how it must be for them to be in that state of recognition, whether the recognition is for something evil or something good that they have done. Would they see themselves the same way that we do? Would God see them the same way that we see them?

As soon as a face appears on TV with the caption, “convicted abuser” below it, we subtly--and not-so-subtly--demarcate the figure’s identity within impassable walls of notoriety. People who do bad things and are recognized for it will always find it hard to erase the smear of notoriety.

Then, there are those whom we adore and admire. For instance, we just celebrated MLK day. We see a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. and we instantly recognize him as someone admirable and attribute a certain “glory” to him, and rightly so, for people like him are worthy of emulation. 

The point, though, is that it is so easy to demarcate people into boundaries and leave them there without a second guess. When the media presents us with various figures, we plug them into pigeon holes and subtly assume that the media has exhausted all there is to know about them. We say, “Oh, he’s the one who murdered his wife,” and “Yeah, she’s the one who murdered her children.” 

Why do assume that a person’s worst deeds--or their best deeds--are what identify them?

When we see the pictures and names of criminals, they are forever “criminals” in our minds.

When we see the pictures and names of our favorite celebrities, they are forever hallowed in our minds...that is, until they become a “criminal,” or “sinner.” Celebrities and idols who turn sour have a tendency to be forever lost to us.  

Tiger Woods, Barry Bonds, Lance Armstrong, Paula Deen, Mel Gibson, and Charlie Sheen are a few who come to my mind. They have all suffered the fall from fame to notoriety. 

Why is it so hard to remove stains from a famous person? How come we can never see them the same again?

I wonder how we would feel if we were in their shoes?

The collective consciousness of our society traps the sins of famous people in a perpetual display. Due to this, the mere mention of a famous ‘sinner’ immediately ushers in contempt. The bars of society that lock people away from redemption are too strong. No matter how much progress a famous sinner will make in life, they will always be “that one who....” They will always find it hard to attain the collective forgiveness of society.

Why is it that we admire celebrities and find it hard to remember our admiration once they “sin”? Isn’t it obvious that everyone sins and that these people happened to be the ones who were publicly recognized for it?

What if all of our misdeeds were made public? What if every ill thought of every person was printed in the local paper? 

I think we need to think twice about how we view others and their deeds and misdeeds.

To make matters worse, there are people who we only know because of their misdeeds. Those who I think of are Osama Bin Laden, Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Adam Lanza, Casey Anthony, Fred Phelps, Aileen Wuornos, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Charles Manson, etc. How can we possibly think of these people as “good”? They are forever “villains” in our minds because they have always been presented to us as such.

Am I condoning their sins? Of course not. I am not talking about their misdeeds, I am talking about our tendency to hold contempt towards them and assume that our contempt is completely justified. Aren’t we justified in having these attitudes of contempt towards these “bad” people? After all, they have sinned a great deal...

But what would God say?

Are these people entirely unredeemable? 

I invite us all to take a second look at people we admire and people we abhor. There is more to those people than our automatic assumptions towards them. They are human beings who are no less perfect than ourselves. We cannot exalt fellow human beings to the level of worship, nor can we condemn them to the level of satanic abhorrence. Everyone is on the same page; it’s just that some of us have been publicly recognized for our actions and words while the rest of us haven’t--yet.

Are those who have murderous thoughts better off than those who have actually murdered? Do those who keep their sinful desires to themselves have a different kind of sinful heart than those who have actually acted on their sinful desires? 

“Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.” (Rom. 2:1)

We are all sinful.

I think we need to start trying to see things the way God sees them. It takes effort, and it’s impossible without God’s help, but that is exactly why we have God’s help. 

We are all on the same page, regardless of what the media and society like to feast on.

What Do We Gain by Wearing Masks?

We stood at the counter, talking to the barista. She was an outgoing conversationalist with an explosive willingness to make friends. In the midst of small-talk, she dropped a ball on us.

“You guys are Christians, aren’t you?”

We had not talked about God, Jesus or the Church, nor had we talked about abortion, homosexuality, Duck Dynasty, or any other topic that would make a Christian stand out. We were being ourselves, and for some reason, she noticed something different.

“You always come in here and are so happy and friendly! I love when you all come!” She said.

The real shock, though, was the glimpse of how much of ourselves that others notice. This sounds like a dumb question with an obvious answer, but how often do we remind ourselves that we’re being watched?

Do we sometimes manipulate ourselves to appear better? 

I think it’s tempting to have a disconnect between our private lives and our public lives when we are ashamed of our private lives. This is when facades becomes so tempting. If we don’t like something in us, we like to conceal it with something else--something more pleasing for others. We then parade ourselves as someone else and hide behind the mask as if life is a perpetual Halloween for adults.  

I hate wearing masks. It’s safe and it’s a way to make friends, but I don’t like it at all. I hate my own masks that tempt me daily, and I wish I could dispose of them, but they still remain in the closet of my life, itching to be worn. 

It’s hard to be vulnerable and open, even to those who love us. How can we live vulnerably in the presence of others when we can barely accept our own private selves? Once again, the answer is Jesus. The masks we wear are invisible to the eyes of God, and Jesus looks past our facades. He knows our bluff and our true selves when others only see the mask. 

What do we think that we gain by hiding ourselves when God doesn’t even believe our disguises? We may seek the approval of those around us, but what about the One who seeks to dwell inside of us? Our friends and acquaintances will never know us like God, and that is good because God is filled with true, genuine love; we don't need to fear ulterior motives with him.

Jesus said, “Come to me.” He didn’t say, “Come to me only if you can get your act together....” He sees us as we are and yet he reconciled us to himself without any regrets. He took us, along with our masks, so that we may eventually learn to live without them. Like a counselor, he is patient and willing to work with us to surrender the facades. 

If we already have someone who loves us that much, what drives us to still cling to masks? Why do we care what others think when we already have all that we need with Jesus? 

We all carry masks, but God invites us to throw them off and forget about them. He is the only person who doesn’t get offended by our deepest secrets, so let’s trust him by being vulnerable. No one else can care or love as much as he does.

We can’t let our own relational aspirations replace Christ's love. Wearing masks destroys his love in us, and in doing so, consider our masks to be more effective at meeting our needs.

Why not live with Christ and accept his willingness to work with us as we are? What's wrong with simply letting our own skin be our skin? I don’t want more masks so I can make more friends; I want no masks so I can make real friends. We already have a friend in Jesus, who laughs at our masks because he sees them for what they are: a futile attempt at life. He sees us and loves us. 

Although masks will always haunt and tempt us, the more we can learn to revel in Christ’s love, the more we will see masks as futile attempts at a satisfying life.