What if this is all there is?
This week I'm working on a message for people who are a bit disappointed with life--and perhaps with their experience of God. It's based on the story of Mary Magdalene in John 20:1-18, who was both the first to witness Jesus' resurrection and the first to tell others about it.
I think Mary's story is similar to lots of us who are feeling pessimistic about life right now. We're in a long war, the economy is awful, and the world seems to be getting worse rather than better. Who can blame people for finding answers wherever they can? Sure, we still go to church and fondly remember our spiritual highs from youth camp or college days. But in the real world, it never works that way--we're pretty much on our own to cope with a bad economy, troubled marriage or prodigal kids. We like God, but he's not much help in the real world.
I'm aiming to reach people who might say something like this: My faith in God was like a chapter in my life—a good chapter. But it’s over. I can’t have that kind of simple faith after all that’s gone on in my life.
The message I want to share is that if Jesus Christ is alive, that changes everything from how we think about ourselves to what's possible for our world and our own destiny--even about death. What can I do that will make this real for people so that they can experience hope?
This is a difficult message because it is both obvious and hard to make tangible. Well duh, yeah, I guess if Jesus is alive then heaven is real, yadda yadda. But how do we get that knowledge to become a heartfelt conviction that translates into daily action?
What will make people stop worrying about their mortgage payments and start trusting the God who raises the dead?
How can we get people who are conditioned by everything they know to look for naturalistic solutions to their problems to begin relying on the supernatural--i.e., God.
What will cause people to affirm that Jesus is alive by how they live every day--rather than reciting "He is risen indeed" once or twice a year?
How do we inspire hope in people who never look further than the reach of their own arms?
This is a tough one, gang. Any thoughts?
3 comments:
I wonder if people realize that this experience is common. That a rut or a desert time is to be expected. God is not a cure-all as He is sometimes made out to be.
I think we as church leaders have to start expecting God to show up and stop relying on our own talents and charisma. I don't know that we can argue people back into a deeper faith (not that you implied either of these). But I think we are killing ourselves trying to discover the key to unlocking the hearts and minds of people.
Zach ... I agree that people need to know this is "normal." I've been speaking quite a bit along those lines lately--possibly b/c that mirrors my own faith journey.
I've been wondering, though, whether practical unbelief (agreeing that God has power to act in the world yet living as if he doesn't) has become the new standard.
One of my college professors summed this up with this descriptive phrase, "the applicability of God to all of life." It is very hard to keep from reducing God to just one more item on our agenda. He may even be at the top of our priority list, but until we learn to accept him as ruling over all that is life, and therefore involved in it, then God will still be just a part of our Christianity, and our mortgage payment will be a financial issue with no intersection.
A good friend of mine who has spent the last two years preparing for missionary service overseas recently said to me, "My wife and I are learning to find joy in the chaos of our life, as we see more and more through OUR LACK of control, that GOD is IN control."
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