Stu's Blog

Now or Later?

Today’s reading from “The Imitation of Christ”¹ suggests:

Whatever I can desire or imagine for my own comfort I look for not here but hereafter.

Dan Kimball says one of the common complaints he hears from those who like Jesus but not the church² is how Christians rail on about the afterlife. It’s all about getting to heaven. I do look forward to the next life but also believe that I’m called into a new way of life right now and that this life is not devoid of joy. It is true that this life has hardship and pain but I can’t go so far as to say that there is no comfort nor any delight whatsoever in this life.

For if I alone should have all the world’s comforts and could enjoy all its delights, it is certain that they could not long endure. Therefore, my soul, you cannot enjoy full consolation or perfect delight except in God, the Consoler of the poor and the Helper of the humble. Wait a little, my soul, wait for the divine promise and you will have an abundance of all good things in heaven.

True enough. At least for me, one day this present life will cease, along with it all the joys and sorrows as I presently experience them.

If you desire these present things too much, you will lose those which are everlasting and heavenly. Use temporal things but desire eternal things. You cannot be satisfied with any temporal goods because you were not created to enjoy them.

What! Was God’s creation not good?³ We’re we not given stewardship of creation to care for and enjoy?⁴ Is this life and all of creation a prison doomed to destruction that we must escape? This thinking leads to the concept that we are saved for heaven rather than for God. I think rather that we are being called into a new way of life that includes both now and later.

Bumblebee part two

Just for fun, a couple more. Thanks to Matt for pointing me to the brass ensemble. Now that’s what I mean by teamwork!

Engaging the Culture

You never know what might happen if you engage the culture. I’ve been thinking a lot about why evangelical conservative Christians don’t engage the culture more. I think there’s a lot of fear that holds us back. It might be dangerous. Others might disapprove. We might have been trained to avoid possible morally compromising situations. We were taught to “abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thess. 5:22). The NIV renders it “avoid every kind of evil,” KJV says “abstain from all appearance of evil,” and for some of us it has morphed to “avoid every appearance of evil,” or “flee from the appearance of evil.” This is what I was taught. The last two are not a proper translation as far as I know, but none the less became guiding principles for many of us. The meaning becomes: “The world is a dangerous place. Stay away.” From this it’s an easy step to: “Come into the church. It’s safe here.” The only problem is that it’s pretty hard to be missional if you’re bound tightly to the institution of the church. You actually have to get out and engage the culture.

I’ve been making forays into the culture. It might look a bit wild to those inside the Christian sub culture. See this video of an evening on the terrace at University of Madison.

The fellow dancing is one of the professors at the university. He was not a hippie nor was he at all inebriated. He was definatly having a good time. We had a nice chat after the set. I also chatted with another professor, a hair stylist who enjoys hang gliding and sky diving, and a bunch of other people who I’d never meet inside a church. There were about 1500 people out on the terrace that night. I’m thinking more and more about how I must be more missional and must therefore intentionally make forays into the culture. By the way, it was a lovely evening.

Never Was Heard and the Skies Are Cloudy All Day

Couldn’t help myself… Today’s reading has Thomas à Kempis imagining a conversation between Christ and a disciple.

I shall teach you those things which are right and pleasing to Me. Consider your sins with great displeasure and sorrow, and never think yourself to be someone because of your good works. You are truly a sinner. You are subject to many passions and entangled in them. Of yourself you always tend to nothing. You fall quickly, are quickly overcome, quickly troubled, and quickly undone. You have nothing in which you can glory, but you have many things for which you should think yourself vile, for you are much weaker than you can comprehend. ¹

And so on, etc., etc., etc. I am determined to get to the end of this book, but this is pretty depressing stuff. I question how helpful it is to engage in extended self scrutiny and abasement. This is essentially omphaloskepsis in search of sanctification.

An Encouraging Word

No wonder people like Joel Olstein. I’m continuing my slog through “The Imitation of Christ” and today’s reading offers this:

Consider your sins with great displeasure and sorrow, and never think yourself to be someone because of your good works. You are truly a sinner. You are subject to many passions and entangled in them. Of yourself you always tend to nothing. You fall quickly, are quickly overcome, quickly troubled, and quickly undone. You have nothing in which you can glory, but you have many things for which you should think yourself vile, for you are much weaker than you can comprehend.¹

Perhaps you prefer:

When you are tempted to get discouraged, remind yourself that according to God’s word, your future is getting brighter; you are on your way to a new level of glory. You may think you’ve got a long way to go, but you need to look back at how far you’ve already come. You may not be everything you want to be but atleast you can thank God that you’re not what you used to be.²

Or this:

Be more splendid, more extraordinary. Use every moment to fill yourself up.³

Me? I’ll go with this:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Rom 15:13 ESV)