The "S" Word

The subject of submission came up recently in one of our Elder Board meetings and we talked briefly about the culture we find ourselves living in today. No one submits anymore. We live independent lives, relying on ourselves and our own intuition to get us through the highs and lows of life. This is not just a phenomena of the younger generation, but applies across all segments of our society. Old or young or in between, we don't put ourselves very often in situations where submission seems desirable or profitable. And yet, shouldn't that be something we cultivate in ourselves out of humility and respect for the wisdom God grants to others?

I include myself in this lack. The very word makes my palms sweaty. Images of being controlled, taken advantage of, misunderstood, rise up in my mind. It's one thing for Mike to submit to a golf pro he's paying, but another thing for me to act on the advice of my friends, family or spouse when it seems counter-intuitive to the usual way I approach my life. Still, there's something freeing in voluntarily giving up my own way of doing something, to be humble and accept the advice when I know the giver is thinking of my best interests. Whether it's in the revising of a poem or in the way I pray about a situation, I am trying to cultivate "experts" to help me grow. It has been an interesting journey for me over the last year to give up some of my freedom and listen to wise counsel and then act on it and see where it takes me.

What reminded me of this today was the thought of the Virginia Tech student who so resoundingly did not submit to authority and well-intentioned advice in his life. When we think we are above the wisdom of others, we leave ourselves terribly open to pain and confusion that might have been avoided. If you look at your life and notice only one voice giving direction to it, I would encourage you to experiment a little. Find an area where you are "stuck" and seek out an expert, and then submit to doing what they suggest. Maybe (like Mike) it's your golf swing, your relationship with a family member, your stale approach to God, but there are surely people you can find who will look at it from a different perspective and give you real help. Ultimately, our expert is Jesus and the wisdom he has for us. If God is the most brilliant being in existence, maybe we should pay a bit more attention to what he is saying to us, both through his word and through the considered opinions of the people he has put in our lives to guide us to him.

Do you submit to the authorities in your life (pastors, counsellors, teachers, parents, friends, small group)? If so, I would love to know if the discipline of submission has taught you new things about yourself and opened up new vistas in those "stuck" places.

Do They Know Us?

When I was a girl, we used to sing a song with the refrain, "And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes they'll know we are Christians by our love." I feel so drawn to that hopeful sentiment. I want people to see Christ in me and in each of my brothers and sisters in the faith. I think that Christians should be in the forefront wherever the need for the compassion of Christ exists: homeless shelters, AIDS ministries, Katrina cleanup, refugee camps. The list of places and people who need the love of Christ is without end. But is this really what the world thinks of first when they hear the word "Christian"? Are we truly known for our kindness, compassion, love and humility?

I read a lot of book reviews, both for business reasons and because I love to read, and there has been a disturbing trend lately in anti-religious book publishing. These books draw distressing conclusions about us as a people of faith, calling us "poison" and worse, "fascists". The case seems to be that many in our nation believe us to be people who are "known" by our intolerance, our active discouragement of dissent, our fomenting of fear, our aggressive politics, and even violence against our perceived enemies. I'll admit I was really shaken by this level of vitriol. I don't mind if people disagree with my beliefs, but these accusations are the opposite of what I consider to be the Way of Christ.

Now let me say I don't see this as being the true state of us as Christians. I know far too many wonderful believers who are serious about being transformed into the likeness of Christ and they will never give up in their pursuit of having Christ formed in them. The elder board hears marvellous stories of people who sacrifice their time, money, and vacations to make a positive difference in the world. Yet, there is enough negative press out there to make me pause and reflect that the ideals of Christ have gotten skewed in the hearts and lives of many.

If someone wants to dismiss us as Christians, let it be for our honesty, humility, charity and goodness. Let it be for our faith beyond reason, for our passion and compassion for justice and the poor. Let it be for the right reasons.

Who speaks for us?

For the record, there is no way for this blog to be anything other than my own opinions and musings. So while I will try to pick a real topic from Elder Board emails, agendas or conversations, the "take" is entirely my own. I hope in the coming months to get some guest bloggers from among the other elders so readers will get a wider range of thinking. I look forward to your questions and comments. Kent encouraged me to be controversial, so here we go: religion and politics. What could be more fun than that?

One of the articles that made the rounds of elder board email recently was one written by Gordon MacDonald of Leadership magazine. He wrote in response to a gathering of influential evangelical christian men who were trying to decide which candidate they would endorse for the 2008 Presidential election. MacDonald was disturbed, as I am, that any group would assume to speak for "us" as Christians, and himself in particular. He came up with his own list of questions which I will link at the bottom of this posting. I don't necessarily think he has asked the same questions that are on my mind, but his point is valid. Who speaks for us? Are Christians in this country a voting bloc? Have we been co opted by one party or the other as a tool for electing their candidate? I shudder at the thought. It may be easier to cast a vote that way, but aren't the issues more complicated than that? Doesn't God expect us to use our great privilege to vote in a way that takes all the things He cares about into account? Is God a one-issue thinker? I don't think so. I think he is a God of the marginalized and forgotten as well as a God who affirms the sanctity of life. He is a God who gave the care and responsibility for the environment and also for the family into our hands. He has personally suffered injustice and torture at the hands of his enemies and hopes we will stand against them and yet he is still the Prince of Peace. If you are still with me, you see that the morality of casting a vote is complicated and colored by the issues that affect not only ourselves as citizens, or us as a Christian community, but the larger world that God gave his very life for. I find, in looking at the possible candidates, that I am going to have a difficult time. None of them holds all the values that I hold dear, addresses the concerns I have in the way I would address them, or expresses their faith in the same manner I do mine. It is going to boil down to some tough compromising and to a great deal of faith that God is at work in the world. But in the end, the vote I cast will be considered, and it will be mine. I bring this up now, way before election time, not because I am particularly political but because since Gordon's article came out two weeks ago I have read two other articles that address a similar concern. So maybe it is timely for us to think about who is speaking for us and whether we like what they are saying.