Good Friday Personality Quiz!

I would expect that nowadays just about everyone has done at least one personality quiz.  I’ve done several – lately they seem to be part of just about every management course.  Completing them, you usually wind up with a 4 part score (I’m apparently a "7313" BTW) or with a description (Beaver, Lion, Otter, Retriever). 

All that is well and good – it tells us who we’re perceived to be by others.  But I think we’d be much better off as individuals if we understood who we are before God.  And being sinners saved only by grace, we ought to see ourselves as one of the characters at the cross of Jesus Christ.

Pilate – you ‘wash your hands’ of responsibility, believing that the issues God presents to you are other people’s problems and not something for you to speak into or to participate in.  You distain absolutes (“What is truth?”) and see yourself as being the right proper ruler of your life.  You’ll do what is asked of you only under pressure and always with an tint of passive-aggressive behavior (John 19:19).

Soldier – you’re just doing what’s asked of you, but you’ll take whatever you can get along the way.  Really you’d rather play games than face what’s actually going on.  You see life’s little blessings as given to you by chance rather than grace (John 19:24).  You’re just marching through life as others have demanded of you and you're not really concerned with the issues of the day – they’re for other people to sort out.

Jesus’ mother – you’re heartbroken at what you see and the injustice of the world.  Both injustice to others and injustice to yourself.  But you feel helpless, so most of the time you just stand and watch, mired in your pity and grief.  (John 19:25) But God has always been gracious to you - so you trust Him to provide even when it doesn’t seem possible.

Joseph of Arimathea – you know the right thing to do, but usually wait till all the commotion is done so you can do it secretly, because you dare not step into the light and let everyone know what you really believe.  But with a friend at your side you’ll exercise the courage and spend the resources necessary to do even the difficult things no one else wants to do. (John 19:38)

Good Friday is a solemn reminder of who we are before God.  Truth is, we’re probably like one of these people at some seasons of life, and like another at another season.  In life you get to be lots of parts – sometimes by necessity and sometimes by choice.  Unfortunately, some people will try to play “Christ”.  That’s OK (even excellent) if it’s a drama presentation.  But it’s a disaster to play “Christian” in real life because one thing is certain - before God Most High, we’re not like Jesus at all.

Uncertain Times

So yesterday it snowed.  Here we are in the last half of April, and it’s two degrees and snowing.  That’s nice.

It makes you wonder where spring is.  Here in southern Ontario we’d expect to have double digit temperatures by now, and should be eagerly looking forward to planting in just a couple more weeks.  Instead of confirmation of spring we have uncertainty. 

The other day I read a book about expectations.  It wasn't what I expected, and this isn't what I expected either. 

How ironic that the weather reflects physically what is so much in our minds right now.  Uncertainty in the election.  Uncertainty about investments.  Uncertainty in the economy.  Uncertainty about the US dollar.   Uncertainty in Arab nations.  Uncertainty about job decisions.  And you know what?  Uncertainty sucks.

Then in my morning devotions today I read this article by Spurgeon:

“Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord”.  Ex 14:13  “These words contain God’s command to the believer when he is reduced to great straits and brought into extraordinary difficulties.  He cannot retreat; he cannot go forward; he is shut upon the right hand and on the left.  What is he now to do?  The Master’s word to him is ‘stand still’.  It will be well for him if, at such times, he listens only to his Master’s word, for other and evil advisers come with their suggestions. 

Despair whispers, “Lie down and die, give it all up”.  But God would have us put on a cheerful courage, and even in our worst times, rejoice in His love and faithfulness.  Cowardice says, “Retreat; go back to the worldling’s way of action; you cannot play the Christian’s part; it is too difficult; Relinquish your principles.”  But, however much Satan may urge this course upon you, you cannot follow it, if you are a child of God.  His divine fiat has bid thee go from strength to strength, and so thou shalt, and neither death nor hell shall turn thee from thy course.  What if for a while thou art called to stand still; yet this is but to renew they strength for some greater advance in due time.  Precipitancy cries, “Do something; stir yourself; to stand and wait is sheer idleness.”  We must be doing something at once – we must do it, so we thing – instead of looking to the Lord, who will not only so something, but will do everything. 

Presumption boasts, “If the sea be before you, march into it, and expect a miracle.”  But faith listens neither to Presumption, nor to Despair, nor to Cowardice, nor to Precipitancy, but it hears God say, “Stand still,” and immovable as it rock it stands. 

“Stand Still” – keep the posture of an upright man, ready for action, expecting further orders, cheerfully and patiently awaiting the directing voice; and it will not be long ere God shall say to you, as distinctly as Moses said it to the people of Israel, “Go forward.”

 - Spurgeon, quoted by Chas Cowman in “Streams in the Desert”.

I hope that means as much to you as it did to me.

Thought for a Candidate

In a few more weeks we’ll be heading to the polls to elect the next Prime Minister of Canada.  In the last election more than 40% of eligible voters didn’t bother to vote, and that’s too bad, because God by His grace has given us this opportunity to live in a democratic country (at least for now).  And the choice we make will affect every aspect of our lives.  We don’t often think of it that way, but it’s true!   Through taxes the federal government affects our treasure, through governance and laws they affect our talents (for such things dictate what we can and cannot do).  And the next prime minister will be one of only a handful that we experience in our lifetime – forever etched into the canon of history, they govern us for a time. 

Time, talent and treasure – every aspect of our lives touched by this one decision, because this one act of voting puts in place a man or woman to whom is given the right to touch all those aspects of our lives.  So we have to choose wisely.  Not impulsively, not without prudence.  With so much at stake, you’ll want to look closely at the facts and the closer you look, the more confusing your choice appears to be.

Our current prime minister is a conservative.  Yet he runs a 52 Billion dollar deficit, even though spending our way out of recession is an NDP policy.  Ignatieff is a liberal.  Says he’s a man of of the people.  Yet he has a PhD in history, taught at Cambridge, Oxford and Harvard and authored 17 books including “Wealth and Virtue: The Shaping of Classical Political Economy in the Scottish Enlightenment”.   Well, that connects with my world!

“I’m a conservative!”, “I’m a Liberal”, “I’m for the Green Party”.  The labels say simplicity, the facts say complexity!  For each of the candidates is, at the sum of it, a person just like you and me.  And just like you and I, they are full of paradox and mystery.  They do one logical thing and the next you wonder, “Where did that come from?” They say one thing that’s profound and the next goes viral on YouTube.  And that frustrates us because we don’t want them to be complex – we only value complexity in ourselves - want them to be simple – or at least our experience of them to be simple, so that we can apply the labels they’ve given us.  But the more we know of them, the less that simple label seems to fit.

Such is the difficulty we encounter when trying to understand a candidate.  Though it be hard to determine their character and real motives, we struggle to do so anyway – much is at stake.  This person we’re voting for affects our treasure and talent for a time, albeit from a distance.  Now if that’s a worthwhile effort (and I truly hope you know it is), then how much more so should we make an effort to understand our Lord, who grants us our treasure, gives us our talent and creates us our time, and not just for 5 years from a distance, but intimately, all around us, and forever!

Simplicity

“The only simplicity to be trusted is the simplicity found on the far side of complexity.”                                                                                                   - Alfred Whitehead

It occurs to me that when I was 3, life was pretty simple.  You just live.  I didn’t need much to be happy, and I was blissfully ignorant of most everything.  But as I got older I found that life got more and more complex.  Relationships grew beyond immediate family to friends (and some of their families), wife (and her family) children (and their friends).  Co-workers, business acquaintances and their spouses.  Eventually I imagine the kids’ spouses, their kids and their kids friends.  The world itself grew much more complex as I became aware of other nations, cultures, languages, different ideas and the ever increasing exponential curve of technology.  In fact, the technologies I used to write this and you’re using to read it didn’t even exist when I was a teenager (word processing software, laptops, internet, blogs, etc).

Last night in our Bible study small group we were praying for each other, and a couple of our group members were noting that as they grew older they could do less and less, and were remarking on how difficult it is just to get around.  Their world it seems is less complex, not by choice so much as circumstance.  Age alone demands of them that mobility and functionality be let go.  So gifts of helps have to be replaced with the simplicity of prayer.  The gift of giving is replaced by the gift of needing. 

On the far side of life itself is, for those who know Christ as savior, eternal life in glory.  A simple life of just being with God.  Those around me are seeing the value and attractiveness of that seem to increase even as capabilities decrease.  But how much better off we could be if we would just grasp that idea now, in the midst of the complexity.  Perhaps we can’t stop everything or ignore our complex relationships, work and the new technologies being forced upon us.  But we can always make time (at least a bit of time) for the refreshment of just being with God.   A quiet time of prayer, reading His Word and just enjoying His presence. 

Mark 6:30-31 says, “The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.  Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

Yes.  Let’s do that.