Author: Ryan Harbidge

In the wake of Americas latest worst mass shooting in history, this time in Los Vegas, there has been the initial response of shock, horror and crushing sadness. And there should be. After all this is an incomprehensible tragedy. Precious lives have been senselessly stolen from loved ones. This should never be!

And then we have the very predictable secondary responses: The left screams, “America needs more gun control!” while the right stampedes to the nearest gun shop to buy more guns. Both sides have lost the plot of the story of what it means to be fully human. Less guns will not cure Americas problem with violence, more guns will not protect you from more violence. Both represent a myopic ideology. No America, you have a bigger problem. Your whole civilization is built on and dependant upon violence and exploitation. It has been that way since day one and has only gotten worse. The cure to the problem has nothing to do with more gun control. It has nothing to do with attempting to legislate morality. The cure is something that will take a complete change in your way of thinking.

America, you are not a Christian nation.

You have never been a Christian nation.

Never.

What does it mean to be a Christian? The term was originally a derogatory one used of the followers of “The Way” in the first century by the Romans. It means “little Christs.” The violent, powerful empire of the time was confused and disgusted by the counter intuitive lifestyle of the early church who lived according to the example of Jesus. While Rome killed, tortured, mocked and persecuted the followers of the Way, the Christians responded as their master did. With non-violence, with love, with forgiveness. After all, Jesus is the one who contradicted Moses of the Old Testament, telling them (in Matthew 5:38-48 NASBS)
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

He didn’t just say these things either. He lived by them and died by them. Jesus, the perfect representation of God the Father allowed violent people to torture and kill Him, and forgave them as they did so, giving us the most vivid demonstration of Gods heart toward us. That He would rather die forgiving us than to respond to us with violence and hatred.

What would it look like, for you to be a Christian nation America? Instead of spending billions upon billions of dollars “bombing the shit” out of your enemies, why don’t you take that money and send civilians instead of soldiers to your enemies to inflict upon them acts of love and compassion. Why don’t you use that money to help the needy and destitute among your own people. Why don’t you use your vast resources to bring hope and healing? Violence only breeds more violence. The most vicious weapon you have that will destroy the cycle of violence is the very one that Jesus Himself used—forgiveness.

When Jesus was asked the question by a Jewish lawyer, “What is the most important commandment under the law?” He responded by saying, “Love your God with all of your heart and love your neighbour as your self.” In other words, proper worship and social justice. America, is this what you are known for? Or do you perhaps have more of a world wide reputation for your military machine?

“But”, you say, “we need our military might! Otherwise our enemies will destroy us.” Yes, maybe your enemies would destroy you. Love makes you vulnerable. But maybe, just maybe you could heed the advise of Abraham Lincoln who would destroy an enemy by making him his friend. Friends don’t destroy friends. Here’s some advice: Money talks. Look on your dollar bill and see if it still says “In God We Trust”.

The vociferous call of the Christ to repentance, the call to forgiveness and non-violence still resonates throughout the millennia, and still you manage to drown it out with your worship teams in your mega churches and in your prayers asking God to bless you as you send your young men and women overseas to bring acts of violence to people who need forgiveness. These mass shootings are simply a symptom and a natural result of a society built upon the shaky foundation of violence and hatred. The violence will simply grow larger every time you respond to it with more violence. The only way to end this is repentance—a change in how you think. Its time to embrace the way of Christ. Its time to be the kingdom of God. Its time to become a Christian nation.

 

The pain drags you into a black hole of despair. It seems like there is no escape, that life will never be good ever again. It sucks the life out of you, drains you of energy. You can’t even find the strength to get out of bed any more. There’s no point anyway. God where are you? Are you punishing me for something? What have I done to deserve this?

The pain can come from many things. Sickness of the body, sickness of the mind, a friend who has betrayed you, a spouse that has abused you, even a child who defies you and refuses to make decisions that will bring her the bright future you want for her. The financial pain of not having the money for the necessities of life for you and your dependants.

Pain is inescapable in this world. We all experience it in one way or another. What is the point of it? Are we simply put here to feel pain throughout our days and then go to the grave in misery? Or is there a greater purpose? Can beauty come out of pain?

In this picture there are two very different pieces of wood. The top one is a cabinet door which I am refinishing for a client. It is made from #1 grade maple. From a tree which had ideal growing conditions. There are no knots or flaws. It is perfect.

The bottom piece is going to be a new coffee bar for my house. It is made from a piece of Douglass fir which grew under harsh conditions in the Canadian Rockies. It is full of knots and imperfections, some of which I have inlaid turquoise. Which piece is more beautiful? I think the bottom one.

God doesn’t bring us pain. Pain is the result of living in the system of sin we are all born into. We were made to be dependant on God, living in the flow of perfect love. When we resist that flow of love, when we do not receive God’s love, when we do not love others with our actions, we bring pain on ourselves an those around us.

God is a craftsman, a true artist who is able to take imperfect lives, wounded and broken from pain and make them beautiful. I’m learning to trust God more and more as I see the results of painful things in my life. I can start to see the artwork He is creating with it. I am able to understand and help others who are going through the hard things I’ve experienced. There is still some pain which I do not yet see how it will be made beautiful, but I trust the divine artist that some day He will indeed turn my pain into beauty. Thank you Jesus!

How many times have you actually thought about your name? Why is it connected to you as a person? Why do you respond to that particular sequence of sounds? Does your name have meaning, or is it a word which just rolled off of your parents tongues just right and they decided to call you that? Names have great meaning in some places of the world. I think we have lost that element in North American culture and are truly missing out on something good.

God is referred to by many names throughout scripture. For example: Elohim (Creator mighty and strong), El Shaddai (many breasted one), Jehovah Jireh (The Lord will provide), Yahweh Rapha (The Lord who heals), among many others. All of these many names describe something that God does, or perhaps a part of His character, but fall rather short in telling us who He really is. In the third chapter of Exodus, Moses is asking God for His name so that he might tell the Israelites who had sent him to deliver them from Egypt. God gives him the most mysterious and yet His most complete name.

“I Am Who I AM”.

What kind of a name is that? Seems kind of vague at first glance until you realize the implication of this name.

In John 8:12, Jesus claims to be the “light of the world”. What does light have to do with it? It’s like this: No one can actually see light. It is because of light that we can see what is around us. Sight has no meaning outside of the context of light. If there is no light, you simply cannot see anything. You may as well not even have eyes.

When God announces Himself as “I AM”, He is saying not so much that He exists, but rather, that He IS existence. Existence has no meaning outside of the context of God.

In John 8:56-59, Jesus says, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM.” Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.”

Jesus claims to be God. He claims to be existence. The apostle Paul confirms this and expands on the astounding implications of this amazing claim. Colossians 1:16-20. “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

All things exist specifically in the Christ of the God-head and He has reconciled all things to Himself, making peace from the worst imaginable display of human violence? What kind of God is this? What does this say of His essence? All of the names of God describe different characteristics which God has, but fall short of describing the most important thing. His essence. The very thing which defines who He is and what drives everything He does.

And then John comes out and says it in 1John 4:8. God is love. Not “God loves”, as in just another characteristic. God IS LOVE. This is His very essence.

What does “love” mean though? The word “love” has, like our own names, become all but meaningless. The language the New Testament was written in, Koine Greek has three words with different meanings which have all been sloppily rendered into the one english word “love”.
-Eros: Means to desire for sensual fulfillment.
-Phileo: To be a friend, to have affection for or personal attachment to. To feel sentimental towards.
-Agape: (And this is the word from which we get “God is love”). This is unconditional, other thinking, self emptying love. The kind of action where you put someone else’s needs, desires and well being ahead of your own, no matter how nice or nasty that person is.

The implications of this are HUGE! This is God’s very essence! This is the essence of existence Himself! And all that exists needs to be seen within the context of the One who is existence, who is love. This changes the way you see God. This changes the way you read the Bible. This changes the way you live!

All that exists was created to exist within the flow of Agape love. Which explains the pain, the hurt, the brokenness we see in the world. If I use a fine china teacup to drive a 3.5” spike into a 2X4, I’m going to end up with a broken teacup. It simply was not designed to be a hammer anymore than we were designed to live independently of God’s flow of love. If you live in such a way that you resist God’s love to you, or you withhold that love to others around you, there will be brokenness, there will be sickness. The Bible calls this sin. When we understand and embrace the reality that the One who is existence is love, there is no more fear, no more selfish pride, no more hatred, no more greed as there is no more scarcity. Being alive just became more meaningful. Let’s surrender to to the One who is existence, who is love. Freely receiving His love and passing it on to everyone else around us. This is how we were designed to live. This is the only way we can find healing and be truly alive!

One of my fondest childhood memories is going to my maternal grandparents house on a Saturday morning, watching cartoons and enjoying a meal of waffles covered with nanking cherry syrup. Homemade of course, with the cherries picked from my grandparents own yard. I’ve always loved the taste of nanking cherry syrup and have missed it and craved it for well over twenty years now.

My grandparents sold their house back in the early 1990’s, leaving those treasured cherry bushes behind. I suppose my grandma could have still made the syrup, harvesting those bright red berries from some other source, but truthfully she was just plain tired of cooking and baking in her old age. She finally passed away back in 2014 at the ripe old age of 93.

Alas, my hopes of tasting nanking cherry syrup again was gone. Now I loved my grandmother dearly for more reasons than just her culinary skills, but lets face it. No one can make food like grandma can. She was the master. And I had no idea where I could procure nanking cherries anyhow.

My wife and I bought our house almost eighteen years ago. One big selling feature of the property, besides it being something we could actually afford to buy, was its large yard, plentiful trees and bushes. For many years I have noticed that many of my bushes produce red berries. I have always wondered what kind of bushes they are and if the berries are edible or not. I had never tried to eat any for fear that they could be poisonous.

About this time last year we had a gathering of friends in our yard, enjoying food, laughter and silly stories around our fire pit. That year, it had been an unusually rainy spring and summer. Resulting from this, the bushes were drooping with plump red berries. I mentioned in conversation that I had always been curious as to what kind of berries I had growing all over my yard. One of my friends, to my horror, plucked a berry off of a nearby bush and popped it into his mouth. He chewed thoughtfully as I watched in anticipation with my hand reaching for my phone, anticipating a 911 call.

He spit out a pit and announced that it was a nanking cherry bush.

Could it be true? A nanking cherry bush in my very own yard? It was true indeed. I was astonished and overjoyed! That which I had craved for so many years had been in my possession all along. I went looking around my property and discovered much to my delight that I had not just one, but four nanking cherry bushes in my back yard.

All of these years, I had desired the sweet syrup made from these berries, but was deprived of them. For seventeen years I was surrounded by a wealth of nanking cherries, but did not enjoy them. I had not believed. They were always mine, but I could not enjoy the reality of what was mine until I believed in what they were.

The cherries were harvested the very next day, and to my delight, I discovered that my dear wife makes nanking cherry syrup just like grandma did!

1 Peter 1:3 NASBS
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

All that you have craved deep down inside has been in your possession all along. You are forgiven. You are included. You are loved. You belong. It has been done for you without any effort of yours or permission from you. You cannot enjoy it until you believe.

Believe it, enjoy it, live it. It’s yours!

 

Recently there was a story in the local newspaper about a body that was found on a construction site in a nearby town. Turns out a 21 year old man killed his own father and buried his body on the job site. The young man was predictably charged with second degree murder. He was also charged with an “indignity to a body.” This seems a little bit strange to me. Allow me to explain: Presumably the “indignity” was the means of disposal. I can understand maybe a littering charge, I mean who really wants to be tripping over over pop cans, empty milk shake cups…and dead bodies when you are out for a walk. Its just unpleasant. But indignity to a body? Really? I have a hard time believing that the former occupant of the dead body really cared about how it was disposed of by the time the “indignity” happened. Its an empty shell. Its not a person anymore.

Do you ever wonder why it is illegal to cause indignity to a dead body, and yet it is perfectly legal and even encouraged in our society to cause indignity to a living human soul? I think that perhaps this was the causation that precipitated the the murder which lead to the indignity to the body in the first place. Genesis 2:7 NASBS
[7] Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

In the Genesis account of God creating mankind we see God breathing His life into us, animating us…making us alive. In the previous chapter Genesis 1:26, God had decided to make mankind in His very image for the purpose of relationship. The created with the uncreated. There is something special about being a human. We have been given an inherent dignity.

I’m just guessing here, but I think it would be safe to say that this young man and his father had for a long time, traded indignities to each other’s souls. They had likely each forgotten as most of us do what our true identity is—that we are all created with dignity. That each one of us is a one of a kind masterpiece created by the divine artist. And they reinforced a false identity of each other to each other. Anger grew and turned into violence which brought death, guilt, shame and “indignity to the body”.

How many times every day do we look at someone else and see them as common, less than ourselves, maybe just a pain in the ass? Do you look down on the person in disgust who just inconvenienced you by doing something stupid? Do you mutter under your breath when you see that homeless person, that it’s there own damn fault for being in that situation, that they could have made better life decisions? How about that annoying family member or coworker you just don’t like. Do run them down in your thoughts and words? Yes, these words are an elbow in my own ribs. Like all of us, I forget the value of people much too easily and one reason I write the stuff I write is to remind myself of these important truths.

How would the world around you and I look if we recognized the dignity of every person around us. If whenever we saw another human, we would pause and look at them in awe and wonder of their uniqueness and irreplaceable value as one handcrafted by the Divine artist Himself? What would the world look like if we treated everyone like that?

God saw that we had, in our imaginations, lost our true identity. He reintroduced the dignity of the human project by becoming human as well. In the “Lords prayer” we hear Jesus praying in Matthew 6:10 NASBS “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.” What is God’s will? It is the same as the greatest commandment, that we love God with all of our heart, soul and mind and love our neighbour as ourselves. God is all about relationship. This is how the world will look around you and I as we recognize human dignity. It would look like the healing of human souls. It would look like heaven on earth.

 

“Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity,” says the author of Ecclesiastes.

Another way to render “vanity” is “meaningless” or “empty”. The authorship of this book has traditionally been attributed to King Solomon, the “wisest man to ever live”. This is a man who had everything. Health, riches, power, peace, good food and drink, and maybe a few too many wives. All this, and he declares that life is meaningless.

What gets you up in the morning? What, if anything gives you reason to say at the end of the day that “this has been a good day”? How can we possibly have meaning when Solomon couldn’t find it?

We Have An Intrinsic Need To Self Actualize

The term “self actualization” was coined by the organismic theorist Kurt Goldstein. “In Goldstein’s view, it is the organism’s master motive, the only real motive: ‘the tendency to actualize itself as fully as possible is the basic drive… the drive of self-actualization.’”

In other words, everyone without exception needs to have a sense of meaning. We need a lasting purpose in life.

Abraham Maslow identified five human needs, starting with our most basic of physiological needs and then continuing on to safety, then love & belonging, then esteem, and at the very top, self actualization. It is very interesting to me that the science of psychology ties together meaning with spirituality. This tells me that there is nothing in the physical realm which in and of itself can provide anyone with real or lasting meaning in life.

Personally, I think that in order for anyone to find any kind of meaning in existence, we need to start to understand the nature of God.

In the 300’s, the Cappadocian fathers were largely responsible for digging into scripture and giving us the non dualistic trinitarian theology that I believe is required for us to understand what God is all about and how we fit into this existence we’ve been thrust into. Though the modern western stream of Christianity largely believes in the basic doctrine of the trinity and gives lip-service to it, we have lost the implications of what this trinitarian God means for us.

In the 400’s Augustine of Hippo infused the dualistic philosophies of Plato and Aristotle into Christianity, and I think we need to go back to the pre-Augustine church in order to see the connection between the trinity and our life’s meaning.

 

There Is No Separation Between God & Man

The biggest lie heard in the western church today is that we are separated from God. This idea comes from a partial reading of Habbakuk 1:13 which says, “Your eyes are too pure to behold evil, and you cannot look on wrongdoing” (NRSV).

Really?

Does God have such a weak stomach that He cannot look upon the mess His own creation has gotten into?

I have a wife and three daughters. One of our favorite family activities over the years has been to go camping in the Rocky Mountains west of Calgary, Alberta. When we were younger and poorer we used a tent to go camping. Eventually we bought our first small camping trailer. It wasn’t much, but it had beds and a small kitchen, and like the previous tent, no washroom.

Now, campgrounds are all equipped with outhouses for folks like our younger selves who don’t have the luxury of bringing the portable washroom facilities that our older, better established selves now enjoy. As a dad with small children, there was something that always bothered me about the outhouses. The hole was just the right size for a small child to fit through. A thought that always went through my mind was, “What if one of my kids fell down there? What would I do?”

I can tell you with certainty. If one of my kids had fallen into an outhouse, I would not look away claiming that my eyes are too pure to look upon such filth. I would find a way to join my child down there in the filth to rescue her. Nothing would stop me. There would be no hesitation.

The second part of that verse from Habbakuk reads, “WHY DO YOU look upon the treacherous, and are silent when the wicked swallow those more righteous than they?” Yes, God does look upon sin. Jesus is God. God became one of us and “jumped into the outhouse” with us so to speak. Nothing can stop Him from rescuing us. Nothing.

Speaking about Jesus, Colossians 1:15-20 reads:

“15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. 19 For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” (NASB)

It’s kind of hard to ignore verse 17. “He is before all things, and IN HIM ALL THINGS HOLD TOGETHER”. Does “all things” really mean that? Indeed, Paul previously detailed what “all things” includes: things in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities—all things.

What are the implications of this? There is no separation between us and God. All are in Christ, whether they know it or not.

Relationship vs Substance

Aristotle taught us that substance was more important than relationship. One thing I really love about being alive in modern time, is how science is dispelling Neoplatonic and Aristotelian philosophies. There are discoveries constantly being made in the various disciplines of quantum physics which prove what Christendom has known for centuries. We live in exciting times!

We know that an atom, the smallest building block of substance or matter is made of three elements. Electrons, protons and neutrons. None of these things are able to form matter individually. They are held together by a relationship which we do not yet understand. Without this relationship, they cannot be held together. If they cannot be held together, there is no substance.

Therefore, Aristotle was wrong. Relationship is not only of greater importance than substance, it is the very reason substance is able to exist. I think that science will yet discover that this relationship which holds these pieces together is found in verse 17.

Like the atom, the Cappadocian fathers tell us that the Godhead is made of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each one an individual person. All have the same substance or essence. If you take the Father by Himself, you would not have God. Same with the Son or the Holy Spirit. They only form God together, held together by relationship. We know what that relationship is. It is love.

1 John tells us repeatedly that “God is love”. It is not just another characteristic of God, otherwise John would have said, “God loves”. This is the very essence of God. What does this love look like though? How is it expressed? Is it kind of like, “I love camping, or I love my motorcycle?” Or is it something more meaningful?

The greek word for this love is “Agape” which essentially means an “other thinking, unconditional” love. It is a love that no matter what another person does to you or says to you, you accept and love them anyway. You think of them before yourself.

How is this love expressed? The concept of how love is expressed is found throughout scripture, but is best described in Philippians 2:5-7, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus who although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but EMPTIED HIMSELF, taking the form of a bond-servant and being made in the likeness of men.” (NASB).

The greek word for this is “Kenosis”. The Cappadocian fathers imagined this kenotic love within the trinity to be like a dance. The Father empties Himself of love into the Son, the Son empties Himself of love into the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit empties herself of love into the Father.

Some have objected to the term, “emptying”, like, “how can the Father be empty of love?” The answer to that is that He can’t. Think of the water cycle. Imagine a major river like the Mississippi, for example. It is constantly emptying itself into the ocean. It is never empty, but always in the process of emptying. The ocean likewise is always emptying into the atmosphere and the atmosphere is always emptying back into the river system. It’s like a dance.

They called it “Perichoresis”.

The Divine Dance

God created mankind and wished to include us in this dance.

The two problems were:

We are created and God is uncreated. We cannot understand God or have a relationship with Him as such.
We fell short by seeking independence, by choosing to have our own knowledge of good and evil over simple trust and surrender.
God solved problem #1 at the incarnation by becoming human. Jesus the Son is unique in the Godhead as He has hypostatic union in that He is forever 100% divine and also 100% human. He became the meeting place for the created and the uncreated to be together.

Problem number #2 was solved at the cross and through the resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15:20-22 says, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam ALL die, so also in Christ ALL will be made alive.” (NASB).

Somehow Christ took our sinful “life” from us (all humanity, not just believers) at the cross and it died with Him. With the resurrection, Christ took His life, His relationship with the Father and shared it with us. So in Christ we have a meeting place. We have one member of the Trinity who is both human and divine, who shares His life with us.

What does this have to do with our self actualization?

We need to come to grips with the reality that our meaning will never come from our jobs, our social status, how much money we have, etc. These are all things and relationships which can certainly bring satisfaction and joy, but are all in the end—temporal. We were created by One who is love, for the purpose of sharing in this love. We are to live, allowing God to fill us with His love, and we in turn are to unselfishly, thinking of others instead of ourselves, allow that very love to be emptied into the lives of those around us, only to be constantly filled again with Gods unending love.

Might I suggest that this kind of life, engaging in the dance, God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven by us, in a way, is heaven?

Might I also suggest that those who reject God’s love, or maybe take in His love and horde it unselfishly for themselves are living in a kind of hell?

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 says, “If i speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, i have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” (NASB).

Conclusion

Let’s bring this into our everyday lives. If I go to my job and don’t do my best work for the sake of my customer, participating in the flow of love, it is meaningless. If I remain faithful to my wife out of obligation and my own sense of moral pride, but don’t let the love of God flowing through me touch her life, it is meaningless. If I go to a restaurant enjoying top quality service, food and drink, but am rude to the servers, withholding God’s love from their lives, it too becomes meaningless.

Wherever I go, if the lives of others are not better because of my involvement in them in some way, I think that perhaps, I have fallen short of engaging in this dance of God. I love the way Francois DuToit words 1 Cor. 16:14 in the Mirror Bible, “Agape is your genesis. Loving everyone around you is what you are all about. (Our love for one another is awakened by God’s love for us.)”

How do I fix this then when I fall short? Is there a step by step program I can follow to be a better Christian?

The church has too often been guilty of telling us that we need to just obey, spend more time at church, read the Bible more, etc., in order to have a deep relationship with God. That is backwards thinking. God is not after our obedience nor our spiritual busyness. He is after relationship with us. Obedience is simply a natural byproduct of relationship.

With perfect relationship powered by kenotic love, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil has no place in our lives. We don’t desire it. We only desire the tree of life. God’s love will indeed flow into the lives of others through us.

There is only one step: surrender.

This is the gospel which Jesus taught. The gospel is not the vapid soteriological escapism which is so prevalent in the western church today. It is not about uttering magic words a.k.a. the “sinners prayer” so that we can be forgiven by a god who’s pretty ticked off with us so that we won’t be tortured forever in the afterlife.

The gospel is knowing that we are already forgiven by a God who scandalously loves us, who has already, objectively included us in the relationship of the trinity. It is about having meaning in the here and now…and also in the afterlife. Our self actualization is found in the great dance. We are meant to live as a child, in complete surrender and dependence upon our loving Abba. We are also meant to participate in spreading that love to everyone around us.

Imagine a world where everyone lives like that with perfect meaning in their lives?

That will be heaven on earth. Let’s start with the world around us!