Broken and Tired
October 7, 2016
Broken and tired - that's how I feel lately. Broken by the abundance of injustice, insensitivity, abuse, oppression, and fear. Tired of shoddy arguments and comforts that make us feel warm and fuzzy but that have absolutely no logical or rational basis, or that have the skeleton of logic but that are crippled by fallacies all around. We have lost the ability to have any sort of meaningful conversation on relevant issues, because we make arguments with emotions - fuzzy mush that makes us feel good but does not transform or redeem us. Because we make arguments without emotions, and so we potentially 'win' the argument but lose the man because we have not touched the heart and soul, or really listened to the cry of the broken. Because our 'conversations' are really just us wanting to be heard, and not to hear and understand those who are different from us. And this isn't a problem with the 'them' in our heads - 'oh those liberals', 'oh those conservatives' - no, the problem is with all of us - with me and with you, regardless of degrees, education, partisanship, race, location, or gender. I am saddened by how we as Christians have failed the most - from both the left and the right.
1. 'Why do we want to kill all the broken people?' I loved this from Just Mercy (highly, highly recommend this book). We kill the broken, the unlovable, the stupid, and who we deem to be unredeemable by ignoring them, dismissing them, and vilifying them. And at our worst, we even sentence them to death. But when I read this line, I thought of one thing - 'Jesus died for the broken'.
2. 'That's how Jesus would want it'. I see this in people's reflections/responses. Personally, I'd be terrified to say this. But it seems we as Christians in America have become comfortable and confident with the idea that our convictions are Christ's convictions. Really? Because I'll be honest, I am not so immersed in prayer and Bible reading and the Holy Spirit's presence that I can make such a statement. But our motto is that what we think Jesus would do is what Jesus would do. But do we really know how Jesus would want it? Throughout the New Testament and even the early church, Jesus never ceased to surprise. The 'unclean'? Let them come to Jesus. The religious elite? They are in the dangers of hellfire. God - powerful and majestic - ready to take the throne and destroy the unrighteous? No, God in the form of man, experiencing all the pains, hunger, and tragedies that come with being human - a God who dies and suffers for the unrighteous. If we think we have Jesus and 'what Jesus would do' figured out, we're all going to be in for a great surprise one day. No one's got the full picture - not the liberal and not the conservative - 'we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God'. I personally think that one day before God, we who think we love better than those 'conservatives' will realize we didn't, and we who think we followed the Bible more faithfully than those 'liberals' will realize we didn't. So do we do nothing? No, I think we need to hold our convictions and act by them with fear and trembling, not the confidence bordering on arrogance and insensitivity that is so rampant today, and not with the self-righteous attitude that just serves to vilify. We act by convictions with a heart that breaks because in today's PC culture, no matter the conviction, someone gets hurt. We pray for mercy and wisdom from God because we know that what we have done will never be the most loving or Biblically faithful solution in this broken and hurting world. And we keep immersing ourselves in God's word because so many of today's abuses by the church on the right and the left are due to how we shape the Bible to fit us, rather than allowing ourselves to be shaped by the Word of God.
My prayer in the midst of feeling broken and incredibly weary -
Broken and tired - that's how I feel lately. Broken by the abundance of injustice, insensitivity, abuse, oppression, and fear. Tired of shoddy arguments and comforts that make us feel warm and fuzzy but that have absolutely no logical or rational basis, or that have the skeleton of logic but that are crippled by fallacies all around. We have lost the ability to have any sort of meaningful conversation on relevant issues, because we make arguments with emotions - fuzzy mush that makes us feel good but does not transform or redeem us. Because we make arguments without emotions, and so we potentially 'win' the argument but lose the man because we have not touched the heart and soul, or really listened to the cry of the broken. Because our 'conversations' are really just us wanting to be heard, and not to hear and understand those who are different from us. And this isn't a problem with the 'them' in our heads - 'oh those liberals', 'oh those conservatives' - no, the problem is with all of us - with me and with you, regardless of degrees, education, partisanship, race, location, or gender. I am saddened by how we as Christians have failed the most - from both the left and the right.
1. 'Why do we want to kill all the broken people?' I loved this from Just Mercy (highly, highly recommend this book). We kill the broken, the unlovable, the stupid, and who we deem to be unredeemable by ignoring them, dismissing them, and vilifying them. And at our worst, we even sentence them to death. But when I read this line, I thought of one thing - 'Jesus died for the broken'.
But Christ did not die for the good and beautiful. It is easy enough to die for the good and beautiful; the hard thing is to die for the miserable and corrupt... (Silence)But we don't live by that. Who lives by that? Isn't that too lofty? It's too dumb and irrational to do so. But that's because we forget that we are the broken, the ugly, the miserable, and the corrupt. I am. You are. Not 'them'. If we could only come face to face with that truth that we cover with excuses of 'but I am not as bad as him', we would realize the magnitude of what Christ did for us, and there is no way that that mercy and grace would not transform us to want the same for others.
2. 'That's how Jesus would want it'. I see this in people's reflections/responses. Personally, I'd be terrified to say this. But it seems we as Christians in America have become comfortable and confident with the idea that our convictions are Christ's convictions. Really? Because I'll be honest, I am not so immersed in prayer and Bible reading and the Holy Spirit's presence that I can make such a statement. But our motto is that what we think Jesus would do is what Jesus would do. But do we really know how Jesus would want it? Throughout the New Testament and even the early church, Jesus never ceased to surprise. The 'unclean'? Let them come to Jesus. The religious elite? They are in the dangers of hellfire. God - powerful and majestic - ready to take the throne and destroy the unrighteous? No, God in the form of man, experiencing all the pains, hunger, and tragedies that come with being human - a God who dies and suffers for the unrighteous. If we think we have Jesus and 'what Jesus would do' figured out, we're all going to be in for a great surprise one day. No one's got the full picture - not the liberal and not the conservative - 'we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God'. I personally think that one day before God, we who think we love better than those 'conservatives' will realize we didn't, and we who think we followed the Bible more faithfully than those 'liberals' will realize we didn't. So do we do nothing? No, I think we need to hold our convictions and act by them with fear and trembling, not the confidence bordering on arrogance and insensitivity that is so rampant today, and not with the self-righteous attitude that just serves to vilify. We act by convictions with a heart that breaks because in today's PC culture, no matter the conviction, someone gets hurt. We pray for mercy and wisdom from God because we know that what we have done will never be the most loving or Biblically faithful solution in this broken and hurting world. And we keep immersing ourselves in God's word because so many of today's abuses by the church on the right and the left are due to how we shape the Bible to fit us, rather than allowing ourselves to be shaped by the Word of God.
My prayer in the midst of feeling broken and incredibly weary -
... let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! (Amos 5:24)How desperate and thirsty are we as a nation for justice and righteousness?
Comments
Post a Comment