5-minute read
Louie Giglio (a preacher guy I’ve been listening to for the last thirty years) gave a talk that says more than I could say in a little blog post. So, given the option between reading what I’ve written here, and watching Louie’s talk, can I implore you to watch Louie’s talk? It had an incredible impact on me this last weekend.
(And look! It’s all cued up!)
*****
This season will end.
It will.
We don’t know when and we don’t know how, but it will end.
And on the other side we’re all going to have to face something.
Yes, we’ll have to face a new economy, new health rules, new societal norms, etc…
But the something I’m referring to that we’ll have to face is…
Us.
You.
Me.
It’s the people we will be on the other side of all of… this.
To my brain, it seems like there are four different outcomes for each of us after all this is said and done.
These outcomes aren’t about income, savings, physical health, or job status.
These outcomes are about us… as human beings… living here on earth.
This may be simplified, but here’s what I think they are:
Outcome #1: This season destroys you. Whatever happens during this time makes you angry, bitter, morose, and—ultimately—drives you away from God. For a time… or for good.
Outcome #2: You endure. You grit your teeth, keep your head down, do what you gotta do, and then when it’s all over… you’re back where you were before all of this started. Pretty much… the same person.
Outcome #3: You enjoy the benefits of personal growth! This season was hard, but it taught you to slow down… to focus on what matters… to do crafts with your kids at home… to express yourself creatively, finally writing a song or a short story… to connect with people in ways you didn’t expect… to get in shape because you took up running (though I’d keep that quiet as a lot of people are doing the opposite, spending 90% of their time within 100 feet of their pantry)… you figure out how to spend more, concentrated time with your spouse. So, at the end of this season, you feel like you have a few more tools in your personal tool bag that will help you live a better, more empowered life.
Outcome #4: You experience a profound change in your relationship with God, drawing close to Him, reminding yourself He is God and humans (like you, like me) are not, that He’s loving—even when it doesn’t feel or seem like it—and that Jesus is the best thing to ever happen to the world. You rest in Him, listen to Him, talk to Him, find peace in Him, go… to… Him.
Sadly, my gut is that the kind of thing that will get the most action on social media is Outcome #3. This is what we hear about on Facebook and Twitter and see pics of on Instagram.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with Outcome #3.
What’s wrong with growing as a human? Getting better at teaching your kids? Connecting with people when the barriers are high? Checking in on other humans? Serving people? Being creative?
Nothing!
Unless… #3 comes at the cost of #4.
Or, put another way: #3 is good… but #4 is transcendent and eternal… so #3 should only come after #4… or as an outcome of #4… or as a way, way, way, way, way, way lower priority than #4.
Many of the items in Outcome #3 will fade. Right?
I mean… think of Christmastime…
*****
During the Christmas season, so many of us experience that whole Charles Dickensian world of human kindness, goodwill, and cheer.
We pass each other and smile!
There’s a kindness in the air that’s almost palatable.
In general, people are slower, more focused on relationships, eager to extend some grace… stop and ask how people are doing…
It’s so wonderful and rich, most of us think, “I wish the world—and my attitude toward the world—was like this all year long!”
But then… it’s not.
We go back to normal.
We live like we did back before Thanksgiving… kinda short with people, seeing people as means to an end… connecting with others when we can.
It’s a season— a great one!—but it’s just that: a season. And seasons last. And if outcomes of those seasons last, well… those outcomes don’t mean very much.
Our personal growth outcomes from the season we’re in may be great… but they’re probably not going to last all that long, will they? Most of us will go back to fast-paced living, occasionally connecting with our spouses and kids as time allows, walking past strangers with maybe a nod, but not a “Hi!” and we’ll just… go… back… to how… we were… before. (At least for the most part.)
But Outcome #4 is different.
Outcome #4 has profound implications for our lives and for the lives of the people around us… because it has to do with us—finite beings—and our permanent, eternal relationships with infinite God.
Comparing Outcome #3 to Outcome #4 is like comparing a single, well-chosen word to the entire works of Shakespeare. (Though even that comparison is weak because Shakespeare only wrote so much… and the story of God is everlasting.)
*****
So, what can we do?
To begin, we have to recognize that this season is going to end… and it’s an opportunity.
This season will end. It will. We know it will. That means we each only have so much time to (forgive the phrase) take advantage of this odd, unique season.
We also have to see it as an opportunity. There’s a silly—and mostly false—belief that the Chinese character for “crisis” is “danger plus opportunity.” That’s not really true… but the idea behind it is smart. This crisis we’re in is dangerous—it is. But there’s also an opportunity embedded in this crisis. There’s an opportunity for us to not settle for Option #3 (or 1 or 2 for that matter) and push toward the bigger, deeper Option #4.
In that talk I mentioned at the beginning of this (why aren’t you watching it right now?!), Giglio talks about how, in this season, God is calling. He’s calling each and every one of us. And we all have a choice: we can take His call… or we can “screen His call.”
(“Screen God’s call”! I love that metaphor!)
Screening God’s call means we realize He wants us to draw close to Him… but we ignore Him… and focus on all those good things… but not on the great things… the profound things… the life-altering things.
We also need to recognize we (in the words of John Mark Comer) have a tendency to “want the Kingdom, but not the King.” That means that, in our culture, we love the Kingdom things God wants to bring—personal growth, kindness to others, generosity, goodness, etc.—but we’re very, very hesitant to desire the King. We want what comes from walking with Jesus, but this idea of Jesus as Lord—someone we would bow down and worship and submit to?—that’s not what we want.
This is the time (as Giglio says) to bow.
To worship.
To come before the God of the Universe with some fear and trembling…
But also with eyes that are seeking the deep, abiding, amazing, life-altering love only He can give.
It’s a time to not just come to Him with, “Fix this! Save this! Work on this!”-type requests (though those are all great!), but with an attitude that says, “You’re the Lord. I want your lordship in my life. I want to be wooed by your love for me and forever changed.”
Bowing is hard—especially in our self-made, humanistic culture—but bowing and worshipping Jesus is the best thing we can do… for us, our families, our spouses, our friendships.
(As a bonus, I’d also encourage you to limit your news intake. News is a liar. Not that it doesn’t tell the truth, but our souls are tempted to let it lie to us by reading good news as, “Hey! Everything’s going to be okay!” and bad news as “Oh no! All is lost!” Those are lies. What’s really going to make everything okay is our relationship with Jesus. And what’s really going to make us totally lost is us walking away from Him. Those are true realities. Everything else is temporary.)
This is a time of Spiritual Awakening…
But this time won’t… last.
It’s a season.
And to borrow a phrase from John Piper, God doesn’t want us wasting this season.
Don’t waste this season.
There’s an opportunity here…
An opportunity to move past anger and bitterness… past simple endurance… and even past just growing personally…
Into letting God radically affect our lives and turn our worlds completely upside-down.
“We can ignore […] pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
-From C.S. Lewis’ “The Problem of Pain”
And, again: 20 Inches to Mercy