students of jesus

Trends come and trends go. One of the advantages of middle age is watching them go. Take Christian fashion for example: you can recognize a Christian hipster these days by their vintage jackets, skinny jeans, and their in-your-face doubt.

Doubt is all the rage. Articulate and earnest Christians are shedding the fashions of their predecessors by posting their doubts online. It seems to me doubt has become a badge of authenticity among 20 and 30-somethings. Is doubt the new mark of a follower of Jesus? Is it possible we have equated doubt with humility? Believe me—they are two very different things.

It’s worth noting that doubt belongs in the Christian story. Gospel accounts of the resurrection include the doubts of Jesus’ closest followers. As noted in a previous post, doubt does not--and should not--exclude us from worship. Jesus bridged the gulf of open rebellion and sin in order to restore relationship with humanity; a little thing like doubt certainly won’t hold him back. The earliest Christian community followed Jesus’ example and did not reject those who struggled to believe (John 20: 24-31 is an excellent example). Nor can I blame others for expressing their doubts. Honesty trumps mindless conformity. The demand for agreement on certain points of doctrine has damaged people’s faith as much as the open confession of uncertainty.

Yet there are problems with the popularity of doubt in our day. The rush to embrace doubt may be a needed correction within some quarters of Christianity, but it comes with a price. I’d like to suggest six considerations worth keeping on the front burner along side the current dish of doubt simmering today.

Doubt can be the evidence of the Holy Spirit at work. In every generation the essentials of faith become polluted with the non-essentials of Christian culture. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is moving in a new generation of believers to question whether every detail of Evangelical faith is actually required by God. In every age religious expressions are infused with political, social, and intellectual agendas that have no real bearing on the Kingdom of God--we just like to think they do!

Never trust anyone who hasn’t wrestled with doubt. The person who receives the words of Jesus without any questions is someone who hasn’t really heard the words of Jesus. The Son of God is an equal-opportunity offender. Saul of Tarsus was a first-rate Jewish scholar who believed he was doing God’s work by persecuting Christians. After meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus he spent three days, blind and alone, reconsidering everything he previously believed to be God’s will. If Jesus is real, everything changes.

Don’t confuse doubt with seeking. We seek in order to find; sometimes we doubt in order to avoid seeking. Jesus appeared to Thomas because his doubts were reasonable; Thomas responded with the declaration, “my Lord and my God.” God invites us to seek--even to question--yet he assures us he can be found. The witness of scripture and of the centuries is that God reveals himself to those who seek him. Too many people consider doubt an impartial quality, as if doubt is somehow above the fight. Instead, doubt is a method, and like all methods it has its limits. Doubt is a useful tool, but a terrible destination.

Doubt is not the opposite of faith. In his useful book, God in the Dark, Os Guinness points out that unbelief is the opposite of faith. Unbelief is the willful choice to not believe even after the questions have been answered. Doubt can spring from honesty or confusion; unbelief springs from the will. In the final analysis, even our intellect is called to obey.

My doubts are my doubts--they don’t have to be yours. Sometimes the religious establishment can be guilty of a stifling orthodoxy. It’s equally true that the next generation can be guilty of demanding uncertainty of others. I might think your faith is nothing more than Christian superstition but that does not mean I’m called to change your mind. I suspect God is more interested in whether we play nice together than whether we all sign the same creed.

The object of faith is a Person, not a proposition. For twenty-eight years I’ve loved my wife. After twenty-eight years I don’t pretend to understand her! How much more the unfathomable Creator? The book of Job reveals the essence of faith is relationship, not precept. I may doubt my understanding of God, but I trust I will never doubt him.

He is my destination, and I hope my heart is like St. Augustine's, "You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until we find ourselves in you." Peace.

[This is a repost from September of 2010, because it's still true and it's very much on my mind today.]

To carry our own ideas of goodness into the new world of God’s kingdom is to expect his world to conform to ours. Goodness is a fruit of the Spirit, the by-product of a gentle nurturing, perhaps years in the making.

Jesus was careful to separate himself from this world’s idea of goodness. When a young man of substance and power tried to address Jesus politely, addressing him as “Good Teacher,” the Lord shot back, “Why do you call me good? No one is good—except God alone.” Certainly the young man was correct, Jesus was (and is) the Good Teacher, yet Jesus immediately drew a distinction between an earth-bound view of goodness and a heavenly one.

Who could be against goodness? I’m totally in favor of goodness—right up until goodness sits on the throne and orders me to bow. Beware the goodness that takes the crown from the King of kings and demands worship. Beware the goodness of this age, and the wisdom of this age that tries to present a goodness divorced from the humility of worship, instruction, and servanthood. In short, beware when goodness masquerades as God.

"Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you." ~ Mr. Beaver

We repeat these words from C.S. Lewis so often because we still need this message: the living God is dangerously good, while our own ideas of goodness are dangerous in quite another way. It’s not about your version of good, or mine. The wisdom of this age wants to fashion a goodness after its own image, a safe goodness of which we are the judge. Our ideas of goodness may lead us to our doom. The wisdom of this age surpercedes our identity as God’s handiwork with the promise that we will become like God—all we need is the knowledge of good and evil. Never mind what shortcut we take, or the source of this knowledge. When we demand a god who conforms to our view of good and evil, we have made him over in our image.

What if true goodness is more frightening than the bad? When humanity saw true goodness among us, we ushered him to the cross. We employed the powers of government and religion in a vain attempt to muzzle him and continue ordering the world after our own ideas of what is right.

But what is right? What is good? Pilate asked Jesus “What is truth?” In the last hundred years the wisdom of this age has answered that question by concluding there is no such thing. We have moved beyond the question of truth, and we are stuck today on “What is good?” Each of us should tremble if we reach the same result as we did with truth—that we should be be left to choose our own ideas of good.

If we hold non-violence as the highest good, we will make Jesus over again in the image of Gandhi or Dr. King. If we hold personal freedom as the highest good we will fail to see the Law of God as David saw it—sweeter than honey. If we hold family as the highest good we will miss the startling words of our Lord, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.'”

Jesus demonstrates the goodness of humility of the human mind before the glory of God. Goodness is the fruit of walking with the Master of Life, of learning his heart, gaining his mind, and making room for his Spirit. We would be wise to give up our definitions of goodness until his work takes root in us. If we let him he will redefine love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

A few days ago my son, father to his seventeen-month old little girl, texted, “last night Madeline and I went outside and looked at the moon and sang to the stars and let the night breeze tousle our hair. You could see the universe pouring into her eyes. Kids are beautiful.”

When I look at my children I see the beauty and grace of creation. A son and two daughters (and now a granddaughter), they’ve been shaped by the hand of God, kissed to life by his breath. I see decades of life to come: joy and laughter, worry and fear, discovery and rest. I’m a father, a man with limited experience and wisdom, a man filled to overflowing with love for my children but also aware that my cup doesn’t hold nearly enough love to give them all they need.

Then I turn my attention to the perfect parent, the Heavenly Father, and I begin to understand his love and care have no limit. What’s more he has given us everything we need for life and godliness. The DNA of his Spirit contains eternity, buried within us like treasure in a field. He watches and waits for us to discover the wealth.

A famous son once wrote, “God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” ~ Ecclesiastes 3:11 Indeed, the universe is pouring into our eyes. Solomon may have been correct when he wrote these words, but his insight has been superseded by the Incarnation. Jesus revealed that the one who knows us best loves us most: that one insight unlocks the eternity in my heart.

Jesus demonstrated how to seek and find the treasure. He told us the Kingdom of God was within us, and also told us the Kingdom was breaking in from above. His actions and his words demonstrate a beauty Solomon could only glimpse in Ecclesiastes. If it’s true that God has placed eternity in our hearts, then Jesus gave us words for what our hearts already know. When I come to Jesus my heart burns from within because deep calls to deep.

I’m an infant soaking in the night sky. Who needs words—let it pour. It’s the Father’s good pleasure to give me the kingdom.

Here’s one thing I like about Jesus: he doesn’t use big words. I can understand him. Isn’t this cool? The smartest person who ever lived used plain, simple words.

Jesus talks about lost sheep, lost coins and lost sons. He tells me the Father ran to his son and hugged him. I get it: he doesn’t give up on us. Jesus doesn’t dodge the hard questions. He talks about taxes and coins. It’s like listening to NPR except you can follow the conversation.

This is worth thinking about. The same God who made everything and knows everything came to earth and ended up talking about the wind, the flowers of the field and the birds of the air. He isn’t talking down to us, he’s laying it out for us in bright vivid colors. (He rarely used three syllable words like, say, “peacemakers.” We are still having a hard time with that one.)

Poor us. We want to make it hard. We want to know about multiple matrimony and the eschaton. If we make following Jesus about going to the head of the class, only the smart guys will be in charge. The words Systematic Theology are both four syllables. Have you ever tried to read systematic theology?

Here are two sentences from a book I read. They are from a guy who loves Jesus and is really, really smart:

“We have now articulated an alternative to the person-as-thinker and person-as-believer models in the person-as-lover model. We have highlighted four key elements of this model: Human persons are intentional creatures whose fundamental way of ‘intending’ the world is love or desire.”

I think he means we are born to go hard after the things we love. I agree (I think).

Jesus said, “My burden is easy, my yoke is light." I'm so happy he kept it simple.