Laura’s Struggle. Donald Miller had a friend caught in struggle. The youngest daughter of a pastor, she never really “got” faith. But during one particular season of her life, she sensed that God was trying to reveal himself to her. Part of the reason she had not yet believed was because she just wasn’t sure it was true.
Peter’s Confession. One day Jesus was with his disciples, and he asked them who people thought he was. Lots of answers came floating up. But it was Peter who took a risk and said that he believed Jesus was the Christ/Messiah. Jesus celebrated Peter’s confession, and declared that his Church would be built on that foundation of faith in him as the Christ/Messiah. Along with that faith came the power to free people from all sorts of dark struggles they might find themselves in – no darkness was too dark for the Light of the world to overcome.
It’s a Mystery. Faith isn’t blind, really. It is not without great thought, and growing faith requires thoughtfulness to be sure. But we need to come to grips with an arrogance of limitation that permeates our worldview. Somewhere around the time Newton began making great scientific discoveries, people began to define truth as whether or not it was factual, provable scientifically. This narrow definition has been good for much scientific advancement, but it has severely handicapped the way we think about God and faith. Love is true, but can you prove it? Light is true, but can you define it? We live in a world that wants to define things in order to understand, and ultimately in order to control. But love cannot be so easily quantified, and as soon as a person tries to control love, it is lost. God and faith are similarly true, but impossible to define, and this is very good. God is far greater than any definition we can create, leaving us with more mystery than hard facts. But God is true just the same. Laura concluded that Jesus was true, and that faith was real, in spite of her Western tendency to doubt such mysterious realities.
Don’s Fun(damentalist) summer. After spending a summer serving at a Fundamentalist Christian camp, Don and his friends made a pact together to help them stay on the “straight and narrow.” Don kept it up for awhile, but slowly and surely, he failed the resolutions he had made. He was miserable, and angry at everybody around him who was having fun in their lives. Christian faith wasn’t fun via fundamentalism.
Peter’s Shadow Side Comes to Light. Just after Peter made his declaration, Jesus gave a vision-casting talk about what was ahead for him (and them), which included his own death. At this, Peter stepped in and corrected Jesus, assuring him that this was not the way things were going to go. Jesus, in response, reprimanded Peter, pointing out that he was not thinking from God’s perspective, but humanity’s.
Our Internal Struggle. Since we’ve been talking about truth, let’s be honest with ourselves. Aren’t we more like Peter than we would care to admit? Don’t we usually find out the hard way that we are out of step with Jesus? Or am I the only one?
Don Rabbit & Sexy Carrot. Take a minute (literally), and enjoy this high-budget film based on Donald Miller’s cartoon depicting the struggle we find ourselves in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxCmaxWoXdI
Jesus’ Invitation. After the reprimand, Jesus gives a clear statement of how we are to proceed if we want to walk in truth:
Matthew 16:13-26 (The Message)
24-26Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?
May you be honest with yourself about what is true. May you find joy in a real relationship with God. May you, with God’s help, grow in your capacity to follow Jesus as he leads you to true life for yourself and everybody else.
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