City to City Conference (Women): a postlude Part 2

Kathy Keller is irreverent - not towards God, but towards what she calls "pious babble" - the religious jargon of the Christian sub-culture. She is funny, down to earth and, like her husband Tim, delivers hard-hitting truth with understatedness.

She speaks on suffering and the chosen text is Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want." Notice that it is the shepherd who leads the sheep. The shepherd who leads the sheep to green pastures is the same shepherd who leads it through the valley of the shadow of death. He sets up picnic, not by green pastures, but in the presence of its enemies. Probably the highlight of the entire conference came when Kathy recounted her counsellor's advice to her, "He is the good shepherd. You are His sheep. Just bleat!"

One choice quote from John Newton: "If we seem to get no good by attempting to draw near to Him, we may be sure we will get none by keeping away from Him.”

Kathy reminds us that in suffering we rejoice, not in the suffering, but in God who is there in the suffering. God is not immune to suffering.

But C.S. Lewis says "God whispers to us in our pleasures... shouts in our pain." The counterpoint is that prosperity poses a greater danger to our faith. The greatest test comes, she says, when there is no test at all. Can you then desire God just for Himself and not for what he can do? Proverbs 30:8-10 is instructive here, "Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise I may have too much and disown you and say, "Who is the LORD?" Or I may become poor and steal and so dishonour the name of my God."

Kathy says there comes a tipping point in a Christian's life when they trust so much in God's character that their faith is not called into question with every bump in life.  The best way to prepare for suffering is "practise, practise, practise" - borrowing from the joke about how you get to Carnegie Hall. Practise reading his Word, hearing His voice, and speaking His word back to him. Ramp up your prayer life, and bring your heart to him unedited.

This reminds me of something C. Michael Patton of Credo House said, "Having good theology [of suffering] is like exercise. It is preventative. You do exercise before you fall sick. When you are already sick, exercising then is not going to help/ be that much harder." (to the effect of).

I agree with the observation that there is such a "tipping point" in a Christian's life but there is no telling with oneself whether you have reached that point. I think of many saints who have struggled in their very last days with God's goodness. The Biblical warnings against apostasy will always apply to me and a fear of my propensity to wander is ever real. There is great assurance of faith but that assurance is always in Him, which is why Kathy is right - there is no secret to it, just practise, practise, practise.

City to City Conference (Women): Flourishing Faith in Dangerous Places: A postlude Part 1

Today a few hundred women met at Angel Place Recital Hall for a girly chat. That’s right, I was very blessed to have attended the City-to-City Conference for Women with Kathy Keller as keynote speaker. I use the word “chat” intentionally because the subject and the tenor of our conversation was exactly that – intimate, personal, emotionally wrought. The guest speakers each spoke their personal life story – on work, on loss and suffering – their personal testimony was as much a part of the communicated message as well as the Bible teaching. So with hearts resonating with the sweet timber of Chelsea Moon’s voicings to the Lord, and under the warmly lit timber of this hall of refuge midst our city, we settled down to a program that consisted of:

- Bible talk on Romans 5 (Cathy Tucker)

- Work and faith (Kathryn Leary Alsdorf)

- The panel (on suffering)

- Suffering (and prosperity and comfort) (Kathy Keller)

Work and faith (Kathryn Leary Alsdorf)

I particularly wanted to jot down my thoughts Kathryn Leary Alsdorf’s talk (the second of the day) because her topic is one I have been thinking a lot about. What are the dangers of work, she asks. Her points were clearly set out:

Danger 1: We are incompetent or fruitless

Danger 2: The environment is hard

Danger 3: That it’s pointless

Danger 4: That it brings out our “ugly”

This seems to be a fairly comprehensive summary of the struggles of work. And the antidote to each of those dangers...

In response to danger 1: We can fail at our work. We don’t need to prove anything. Our failures do not define us. Therefore we are free to take much greater risks for Christ.

In response to danger 2: We should not be surprised if the work environment is hard because the world is broken. Our task is to go into that brokenness and to join in God’s work in redeeming it.

In response to danger 3: The gospel is the only and perfect antidote to meaninglessness. To be able to join in God’s work of redemption gives us meaning.

This is probably the one issue I struggled most with when I was in the paid workforce – not just the meaninglessness of the inconsequential task I’m made to slave away at 4am in the morning but the bigger task that my small task is connected with that is ultimately also meaningless. (Actually, I just realise that the situation reflects dangers 1, 2 and 3 all wrapped in one.) Kathryn said something quite applicable to me, which is that people often work to get something out of it for themselves – even if it is something as abstract and intangible as meaning – rather than enjoying the work itself.

Calling is something that is realised in retrospect. When you have lived each step of your life in faithfulness to God, you look back and realise that has been your calling. 

In response to danger 4, worship God. We are idol-making factories. If we are not worshipping God, we are worshiping something else. 

The gospel gives us a new story for work, a new vision for work, a new compass for work.

A new story for work. If we don’t know how the story ends, we don’t know how to interpret our present (e.g. missing Malaysian airline plane). But if we know how the story ends, then life is vastly different. And we do know how God’s story ends. That gives us hope, a confidence and assurance of our ending. She aptly used the example of her marriage at aged 58. She had no assurance she was going to get married but if she knew that she was going to get married at 58, that would make a difference to her earlier life wouldn’t it? 

 I like that she explains the bottom of the work issue as a story. Meaning is ephemeral; meaning demands answers. But story is the way God has revealed himself. It is a story that has been completed in Christ (and it’s a rollicking ride up till then) but it is a story that is continually being unfolded, retold, heard, loved, mined for its riches. So the story of work begins in Genesis 1, takes a dramatic turn for the worse in Genesis 3, and ends in Revelations 21.

A new vision for work

Kathryn says, let our imagination and creativity soar to see how we are part of God’s world.

A new compass for work

The difference the gospel makes to work is not just to make us more ethical. We need wisdom. In Matthew 11:28, Jesus says, "Come to me all you who are weary an burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon me and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Why then, isn't it easier? Kathryn challenges us to take off some of the burden of the task.

Flourishing faith is not grabbing the golden ring; it is not control; it is not escape. Flourishing faith is humble. Forgiving. Faithful. Joyful. Loving.

End of part 1.

Happy anniversary

On our sixth wedding anniversary - a little something I wrote for your twenty-seventh birthday recalling our seven years of courtship. Happy anniversary Kirbs!

The first year of love,
Taps on the shoulder –
Hesitates a pause before the song
To grasp at promises unformed
Only to receive its lonesome letters.

The second year of love
Laughs at sour faces.
Soft, like a ripened fig, slits
To find pleasure in a kiss
and reaches for farther places.

The third year of love,
Storms to a truce.
Boxing each within itself
In quietness of a darkened well
And still there is nothing to lose.

The fourth year of love,
How easy it does please.
free them will, unhurried dandelions,
let them pulse to lighter rhythms,
let summer make the peace.

The fifth year of love,
Lingers like little children.
One leaves to find her fame
The other stays to grow his pain
And so both seek a lighter burden.

The sixth year of love
Imagines a way home.
Might it so be defined,
the shape and contours of our time,
or might it go alone?

The seventh year of love
Brings a weighty question.
Yes, yes, a resounding yes!
No tears, no years make less
So loud an affirmation.

The eighth year of love,
He makes one flesh, one vow,
From imperfect then to imperfect now,
most perfect hence – a Son of sons,
a sun that burns where no love runs,
in days of silver and gold and diamond,
to love, like love has just begun.

Back to the future with Jesus

When a person becomes a Christian, we repent of our rebellion against God and accept Christ as our righteousness. From then on, we entrust our lives to Him – our present and our future.

But what about our past? Past events. People. Things that happened to us. Does Jesus lay claim to our past too? Do we have to surrender our past in order to follow him?

What I mean is this. It is not as if God is in the business of doing weird time warps and undoing history that has already occurred – thankfully He will never retract the historical fact of Jesus’ death and resurrection! So the question is less of a practical, and more of a philosophical one – what if our past, everything that has made us what we are today, were to unravel? Sure, we have all done things in the past we would rather forget; but there are also many things we cherish and celebrate. Do we have to give those up too? Would we still praise God?

To illustrate, consider the parable of the rich ruler. When asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’, Jesus answered “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” The rich ruler walked away sad because he had great wealth.

Now imagine if Jesus had gone further, and said, “Not only do I ask you to give up your wealth, but I will erase from your former life everything that has contributed to what you are today.” What of it then?

Recently, I met someone who had lived through homelessness who challenged me deeply about what made me how I am. I thought to myself, what would I do if I were to be turned out onto the street tomorrow, homeless? I think I might manage to get to a Centrelink office and fill in a form. But my ability to do so is not because of some intrinsic virtue on my part. Something in my past, my upbringing, my education, has empowered me to do that. And so I am still hanging onto my own mental resources. I am still worshipping at the altar of the great “I” instead of the great “I Am”! We forget how much of what we are today, is owed to our past. Everyone is indebted for better or worse, to their past.

So I return again to the question: can you give up your past? What if you are not only required to give up a future life of comfort and ease but to give up the privileges of your past? What if you can no longer talk the way you do, think the way you do – and I’m not talking about being afflicted by some terrible disease or trauma in the future – what if you never had the opportunity in the first place? What if you are no longer you – Tommy from middle class Australia but born in the slums to illiterate parents who did not know the importance of reading to children or feeding them nutritious food? What if you were to lose your entire ancestry and heritage? Where is your identity then?

I finally conclude there is only one thing that reaches into our past far enough, past our parents, our grandparents, our ancestors, that is a sure foundation for who you are. Hear the words of St Paul,

“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons thorough Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will. “ (Ephesians 1:4-5)

My answer: God's election. You could be born into any place, any era, any circumstance, but before you were conceived, before any iota of you came to be, you were predestined for adoption as God’s children.

It’s like this. In the movie “Back to the Future 2” (surely a retro film now) Michael J Fox had to travel back in time to make sure his mum got together with his dad so that he could exist. It’s a shaky thing to depend on, isn’t it, our parents getting together. Who our parents are. But our ultimate existence is not shaky if undergirding it is the sovereign creation and election by the Living God of the universe.

Have you ever known expectant couples and thought, ah yes, their child is going to grow up with much love and guidance, because of the values and the character of the parents – whether it’s a boy or girl, able-bodied or disabled, through the vagaries of life, their general trajectory and foundation is sure. Now imagine if your parent is God the Father. No wonder Paul is convinced that “neither death nor life, neither angels’ nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

This same friend I referred to before said, “My job is not my identity, my home is not my identity. Christ is my identity.”

Today I understood a little more of what that means. God’s grace grows a little bigger in my heart. Jesus’ claim over my past extends to more than just forgiveness of my sins. Everything I am I owe to Him alone and for that I must practise thankfulness. He is indeed my present, future and past, and all of it is to be redeemed for His glory.