A Double Funeral (WR)

In my last blog (Faith is Useless) I made the point that many of us don’t really obey.  (Read it if you wanna know what I’m talking about).  We don’t really exercise faith at times, and maybe, just maybe, you identified with that.  It’s possible that now or some point in the future you will find yourself with the realization that you should be exercising your faith in Christ, but you’re falling short of that.

If so, as I questioned at the end of the last blog, “Ok, so I don’t have the faith to obey like I know I’m supposed to.  How can I fix that?”  (<- an="" br="" exact="" not="" quote="">
Well there are a myriad of individual reasons, but I think for the most part they boil down to a small root cause.

Fear.

“Um, excuse me Matt, but I’m not afraid.”  Well you’re either really in a good place or a lying to yourself.  Bear with me and openly consider if this applies to you, and if it doesn’t let it roll on off… but if it does…you can begin to face and conquer it.

What would you do if you were not afraid?  Often fear is manifested in excuses, many of which I spoke about previously.

The thing it seems we fear most is failure.

We fear, because we feel a risk is involved.  It might have different looks, but often we fear failure at attaining some desired result.  But that is usually as a result of an inaccurate view of what failure looks like.

We often don’t obey, because we fear the consequences might not turn out “favorable” for us, or, if we’re more “selfless,” for what we THINK God wants.  But God wants us to obey, more than He wants us to be efficient or achieve things thru our obedience.

 The success in life isn’t in how “well” we do things, although we should do all things heartily as unto the Lord.  However, we do them to the best of our abilities with a heart for HIM, not for how many people respond positively, or how many lives we save (physically, emotionally, or spiritually).  Because, as I heard a man say recently in a church service hear in South Africa, “We need servants, more than we need heroes.”

We shouldn’t make a god of our good deeds and intentions, there is already a God, and there’s no room to magnify anything else, even if those things are done for Him.  But when we let fear of circumstances push us from obedience, a lot of the time it is because we’ve got that whole part out of balance.

So you might say, “Okay… I’m afraid.  I’m letting fear stop me from obedience.  Where does it come from?

How can I overcome the fear associated with the risk of failing?

I’d venture to say it’s because ultimately we perceive the risk to be real because we have a lack of perspective.

We live with a perspective that doesn’t extend far, if at all, beyond the borders of our pride.

Pride, in itself, is lacking in perspective.  It’s self-centered, and we too often adopt it as the lens of our lives and filter our decisions through it.  Pride is a monger of our perspective, in spite of having such a narrow vision.  We trap ourselves into trying to view a tremendous and grand world and plan with a tiny miniscule lens.

(NOT PICTURED >>>> ANYTHING)

What else is pride?  Pride is the inventor of fear.  It creates fear to protect itself.  Pride is the enemy living within us that confines us, that keeps us susceptible to an even greater extent to the schemes of “the evil one.”

In fact, what we fear in life isn’t failure, it’s the feeling that failing brings.  It’s our pride that takes the painful hit if we don’t succeed by the standards we perceive to be valid, and it’s our pride that keeps us from risking.

We should shun fear, but it’s a symptom of a greater disease, pride.  It is our pride that builds the tiny box in which we live in.  This tiny “Matrix,” in which we operate, is run by pride, because pride seeks control, because pride fears being out of control.  That’s a lot of “becauses,” but the point is it’s easier to control a tiny world.

We must be freed from the prison of pride, to a grander perspective; a perspective closer to a God-sized viewpoint that doesn’t need to see a return on investment on love and obedience, a perspective that doesn’t live with an orphaned and fearful heart.

So we need new perspective?  Well, what things should we include in this new perspective?

There are the obvious theological principles of God as a Father, Healer, Protector, Lord, Savior, Guide, and an assortment of other things.  But all those are things that any significant time spent in church or around “church folk” would have already taught you countless times.  That’s not to downplay those things.  They are indeed vital.  Cliché’s often come to be for a very real reason.

But what’s something else we can be left to metaphorically chew on?

Obedience is the success of life.  We often don’t attempt because we feel like our attempt will not result in the achievement we seek, but what we miss is that achievement is the attempt.  The greatest achievement is faith in Christ acted out as obedience, namely as love.  So too, one of the greatest miracles is a heart that seeks God’s way and not its own, even when it is otherwise afraid of the outcome.

It’s often been said that without risk, there is no love.  And to a degree, within our miniscule perspective, that carries some wisdom with it.  But that is a short-sighted view disguised as brilliant truth, as the wisdom of man often is.  Obedience is something that cannot be taken, it’s a heart turned to action, and action already completed.  That thing can’t be undone, not even by a hateful response, simple unrequited love, or even death itself.

Oddly enough we don’t love other people for their sake.  When we have this heart we indirectly love for our sake, because we feel as If we are doing them some massive favor and thus… should feel bubbly and proud of ourselves.  This type of love and obedience only goes as far as the appreciation of others will carry us, and maybe a bit further if our own “martyred” spirit will lead us to believe we’ve been extra Holy.

We love others, even in the crazy, difficult, messy situations, because we were first loved by our Savior, Creator, and Lord.  Our service is not a matter we should carry as if a merit badge, but rather a joyful and thankful response at being forgiven a debt that could never be repaid.  Or we could treat our service  like a child who is proud at the chance his or her father gives her to help work on a household project.

The Father doesn’t need us, but we GET TO be a part of His plan.

And when we are, we bring Him glory.  This isn’t some hokey, “Upward” Christianity where every well-intentioned person wins.  After all, the intentions must be properly guided from a perspective filled with His spirit, rather than a simple do-gooder’s heart.  That sort of understanding to properly aim good intentions comes from consistent time scripture, prayer, and Godly council.  Understandably, this is a life-long journey, all the more reason to get on the way now.

And getting on with it is exactly what we can do if we are freed from the prison of our pride-filled perspective.  To be such, is to be free to give of time and/or money, ask for help, quit that addiction, or whatever manifestation of love and obedience of our Savior presents itself.  To live in this way is to be free to persevere in the face of PERCEIVED failure, regardless of the likelihood of it repeating itself yet again.  This is the type of perseverance that produces character and hope.

And isn’t that what we all want to at least some degree?

Be free to fail, because even when you do, you can then realize that it was never failure at all.  And as you do this you are free to give birth to love.  And your pride and your fear can die together.

It’ll be great, we can have a double funeral.