Filed under: Networking
Our first things differ from God’s first things. God does not ask us to solve hunger, reverse global climate change, or relieve political strife first. God does not first (primarily) call us to join a church, give to the poor, love our families, live within our means, or tell the neighbors about Christ’s sacrificial love. He does not ask us to start a church first. Nor does he ask us to start networks of churches as a first thing. God’s first call is to know him.
Few of us Christ-following types, however, act accordingly. Most of us–me too, many times–put our driving need for success first, no matter how one defines that elusive term (comfort, friends, marriage, fame, wealth, etc.). We put our desires in front of knowing him deeply enough that we share in his sufferings. To know Christ well and feel deep sorrow over things that make him sad is not something the American church rewards, is it? To live fully exposed before his all-encompassing presence does not seem to be valued. Or maybe it is, so long as that exposure does not reveal itself publicly, yes? In public, we put forward a good face, a stiff upper lip, a positive front inherited from our British masters, no doubt.
I wonder, do Christians talk more honestly about Jesus than we talk honestly to him? Do we reveal our priorities when we act like everything is fun and fine when in fact, many of us are very near “. . . losing all hope” (Ps 143:4). Hard to believe that a divinely inspired song writer (psalmist) could admit to losing all hope, isn’t it? But he did exactly that in the aforementioned, 3,000-year-old hymn. Hopeless? How can that be? Honest, that’s how.
He–the song writer–realized that the only path to real and lasting peace runs through the deep weeds of hopelessness. One must abandon all hope in him-or-herself and answer that first call to know God. And then, God will make himself known. If the abandon continues, the knowing grows deep, and the man or woman grows wise.
Our priorities rob us of God’s peace. His priority is immeasurable peace (Jn 14). Our choices determine our impotence in a mad world. His choice creates order out of chaos (Gen 1). Sorrow, defeat, questioning, betrayal, doubt–these are the experiences Christ uses to draw us near.
