The other night my daughter came into my room just as I was about to fall asleep.  If she comes in the middle of the night, she gets to hop in bed with us for a bit.  If its at the front end of the night we go right on back into her bedroom.  This isn't nesessarily some kind of behavior modification thing as in the middle of the night it takes me a little longer to muster up the energy to take her back to her bed. And, well, daddy likes that his little girl wants to cuddle.  That won't last forever, they get big much too fast.

   This night I asked her what was wrong and she told me that she was scared.  It being the frond end of the night, it was back to her room we went.  Since she was a little girl, we have taught and shown her the "I Love You" sign.  She still can't really do it.  It comes out looking something like the "hook 'em horns"...which we are working hard to break (its pretty close to the middle finger to her Aggieland raised mother), but she's trying hard and she knows what she is trying to do.  As we walked back to her room in the dark, she held both her hands out in front of her making the "I Love You" sign.  I found this pretty curious (and cute) so when we got to her room I asked her why she was holding the "I Love You" sign out in front of her while we walked to her room.  She responded, (in a somewhat you should know this daddy tone) "Because, God is bigger than the boogie-man!"

   This was one of those moments, and their have been a few since she joined our family, where immediately came to mind, "Out of the mouth of babies and infants you have established strength..." (Pslam 8:2, ESV).  The little girl gets it.  What she did is not something her mother or I taught her.  I don't think it is something you can teach a three year old.  Ask yourself, what is faith?  Its the action of belief.  We teach our little girl everyday about Jesus.  How He loves her, How He made her, How he protects her.  We read her books about faith and Christ, we tell her bible stories every night, we sing songs about God...obviously we show her Veggietales.  On her own, she took all that we have taught her and acted on it.

  God is bigger than the boogie man.  The boogie man is scary, bad, evil and he lives in the dark.  Light disperses the dark, and the dark can't stand against it (John 1:5).  The light is Christ (v.4).  God is Love.  When Love goes before us, nothing can stand against us.  What the little girl did was prophetic.  Prophecies in the Bible often were not just monologues given to the prophet by God, but actions of symbolic power directed by God, and executed by the prophet.  Ezekiel laying on his side for 390 days is an example of prophetic action.  It is important to remember that contrary to popular belief, prophecy is not a sort of holy future telling, but rather messages from God to his people.  I don't know if the little girl knew what she was doing, but she was delivering a message from God.

  Yet, as I thought about it later I was struck by another message delivered in her action.  My little girl, that night and always, has always trusted me when I said it was time to go back.  I have never once had to look under her bed, or in her closet, or behind the curtains.  It, moreover, is dark in the hallway to her room.  She braves that not only with me to get back to her room, but to come to me.  What struck me was that the little girl has complete trust that 1.) she can come to me and I will help, and 2.) the simple action of me taking her back to her room means everything is okay, and she doesn't need to be afraid.

  I am an earthly daddy.  The truth is that, try as I may, I cannot protect her from everything in this world.  There are monsters out there that are not imaginary, and are not afraid of daddy's.  Good daddy's don't like to think about that, because good daddy's are ready to viciously defend their children from all-comers.  They are willing to do so unto death.  The idea of a situation where they could fail...is discouraging.  Yet, I am still the one the little girl comes to in the dark, in the middle of the night.  Her trust for me is explicit, her trust in me, as a babe, is immutable.

  My word is enough for her.

  Our relationship has lead her to a conclusion that is inherent in its nature.  The nature of our relationship is of nurture and protection.  All this in spite of when I get frustrated with her, or loose my temper, or hurt her feelings (we have a practice to apologize to our children when we wrong them, to do otherwise really is prideful idiocy.  Because, of this, our girl feels free and has the freedom to express her feelings to us, which gives us a chance to apologize when need be and calmly explain why she is in trouble when an apology is not appropriate.  That's really an aside, call it Ashton's Parenting Tip of the Day).  God, Our Heavenly Father, does not hurt us.  His relationship with us is perfect, even though we stray, and when our faith trembles he is firm (2 Timothy 2:13).  And, yet, all too often I don't get off my bed to go get help from him.  I don't trust him enough to brave the shadows, knowing all I have to do is go to Him, and He will care for me.  I think very few of us do.  The world doesn't seem to function in a way that shows many people do at all.

   I once told my dad that I had concluded that walking the path of faith just means getting back to where we started as kids.  I would give anything to have that purity of trust my little girl has, the one I know I had at one point when I was a kid.  I don't know how that works from a soteriological sense, but I know it is truth.  There was a reason Jesus called the little children unto Him.  It was more than a metaphor to adults about the importance of "child-like faith."  Children get Jesus.  I watch my girl and my boy closely, because their prophetic actions are formed in the depth of God.  And, while it is my responsibility to raise them in the fear and faith of Jesus Christ, to be loving human beings of good character, we are remiss when we neglect to hear the Word of God spoken through the actions of those whose "angels always behold the face of" our Father (Matthew 18:10).
  

The Other Side of God Working

It seems counter intuitive, but when God works, people often do not respond in gratefulness.  What comes to mind when you think of God working in your church or amongst people you know?  Usually, I think we imagine folks getting saved, people getting healed, the oppressed released from their captivity, churches exploding in growth.  In essence, we think of "positive" or even happy things.

The truth, when we read scripture, is that when God works...when miracles happen...not everyone is drawn closer to God.  In fact, often enough, more folks look upon God with hardened hearts than turn their hearts to God.  Starting in Genesis and running all the way to Revelation there are example after example of men and women turning their hearts from God in the midst of His miracles.  Shoot, Adam and Eve literally walked in the midst of the miraculous, and with the One who makes miracles happen, and they still turned their hearts away.

While there are many examples of this human phenomenon, the one I am going to focus on is the Gospel of John, chapter 9.  This is the same story we looked at in the previous post.  In this story, Jesus heals a man who was born blind.  The Bible does not tell us what the blind man's name was.  So, to keep from writing "the blind man," which seems pretentious, awkward, and impersonal, let's go ahead and call the guy Bubba.  I like Bubba.  Good name.  When someone calls you "Bubba," they never are being mean to you.  Even if they are being critical, its not a mean critical.  Its the kind of critical that is in your best interest.  Like, "Hold up there, Bubba.  You don't want to use that blow-torch while standing in that puddle of diesel."  Someone calling you "Bubba" has a sort of paternal, watched over feel.

Anyways, Bubba was born blind.  Jesus tells His disciples about the reason Bubba was blind, and then makes some mud out of His spit which he puts in Bubba's eyes (Sure its gross, but Jesus can put spit-mud in my eyes all day long for whatever reason He wants to and you won't find this guy making a fuss about it), and sends him off to the pool of Siloam to rinse out the mud.  The result is that Bubba, born blind, can see.

It must be a pretty amazing thing to go from being blind, to being able to see.  What I always notice when I read this story, however, is how Bubba seems to take it in stride.  And, I notice how everyone else does not seem to take Bubba's healing in stride.  Bubba returns with sight after doing what Jesus told him to do.  His neighbors are amazed (they freakin' ouuuut) and start debating whether or not Bubba is actually Bubba (the blind guy).  When Bubba finally convinces everyone that he is Bubba who was formerly known as blind, the neighbors ask how he ended up with his sight.  Bubba tells them what happened without embellishing or adding to the story.

Jesus did "A" to me and told me to do "B", so I did "B" and now I can see (no pun intended.)

What comes next is for sure on the list of most idiotic statements found in the Bible.  The folks all ask, "Where  is He?"  Bubba answers, "I don't know."

REALLY?!  I wonder why Bubba didn't know where Jesus was.  Could it be because Jesus sent him off WHILE HE WAS BLIND and went on His own way?  I mean, seriously folks, you give a terrifically sad example to "keep on hearing, but do not understand" (Isaiah 6:8b).  For all you folks who are like, "Ashton, I know you'd be just as stupid as these people if you were there.." to you I respond, "Yes, and I too would deserve to be made fun of."

But, seriously there's an important lesson here.  It is a human tendency to hear only a portion of what is being said, then run with it.  The tendency, moreover, is to question the legitimacy of the miracle.  It was not enough for them to see Bubba with his sight.  They needed to see the one who gave him sight in order to believe.  Consider the complete irrationality of this.  The proof stands before them, but it is not enough for them.  For some people, miracles don't answer questions...they raise more.  We humans are so strong willed.  In the Gospel of John chapter 6 we see an example of how folks can walk with Jesus (literally), see His signs, eat the food he miraculously creates for them, but when push comes to shove it is not enough to keep them from walking away (literally) from Him.  Miracles are not done by God for us.  Miracles, rather, are done by God for Him.

If someone is looking to God for their own pleasure, appeasement, comfort, they will not find Him.  He will not be used or mocked.  Thus, when they see God working, it brings discomfort.  A true working of God reminds everyone, but is for the benefit of the faithful, that God is Who He is and works according to His purposes (Romans 8:28) not ours.  And, if we are poured out for His sake and His glory, then all we can do is rejoice while we remain in the situation we find ourselves in with the hope that we will be found in the resurrection (Philippians 3:8-10).  We are supposed to be citizens of the Kingdom of God.  That is an easy title to take, but do you really take on the role?

The last time God worked, were you humble or mocking?  Did you make excuses for your friends or loved ones who rejected God's work because its more comfortable for you to believe that we all just have a different perspective?  Because, God is clear.  Either you are for Him, or you are against Him.  That doesn't mean we need to judge folks who harden their hearts against God.  It ain't our job.  But, it should affect how we walk through life.  It should affect who our friends are.  It should affect where we go to church.  It should affect our conscious, because easily can we let our own comfort and understanding cause us to be the next ones to resist God's movement.  No one gets salvation unless they partake of Jesus as the bread of life.  When Jesus taught that, a huge crowd of disciples left leaving only twelve (John 6).

Regarding the workings of God, our attitude must be like Peter's in John 6.  "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life..." (John 6:68).  The other attitude is one exhibited by the disciples who left Jesus, who we find earlier in the chapter were more interested in food than anything else (here's an interesting parallel I'll let you look up for yourself, but I think is worth the time.  Philippians 3:18-19).  That is symbolic of their highest priority being their own comfort.  Jesus tells them that even if they saw Him ascending to where He was before, it would not be enough.  It is the Spirit that enables us to know Him.

Remember the phrase "faith like a child?"  Jars of Clay did a song about it.  At the end of the song they play sounds from a playground, and some kid screams "give it back!" which I always thought was an ironic end to a song about childlike faith (its kind of a peaceful song).  Anyways, in a sense my baby loves me because I provide for her.  But, that's not the whole story.  She loves me when I walk in the room even after she has been fed, changed, and played with.  Even at 8 months, I can tell her highest desire is just to spend time with daddy (and mommy).  As a father, I hope this never changes.  I can't imagine what the Heavenly Father feels when He looks at us.  He provides for our needs, which is a working of God, but humanity has made its highest desire what God does for us.  Man's highest desire is not God Himself.  Our hearts are twisted.  And, just because we and the people next to us at church say we're okay, it doesn't mean we are.  Hell (literally, it leads there), its not even biblical to say we're okay.  Paul tells us in Philippians 3 that we have not even attained perfection, though we press on in hope toward it.  Why bring that up?  Because, in over 10 years of ministry and going on 15 years of being a Christian, I have seen time and again the very strong correlation between people whose highest desires are the things God gives them and saying those same people saying "okay."  A weed filled field will only produce so much grain.  Fact.  End of story.  No way around it.

So, the (un)pleasant summary?  God working edifies the faithful, and brings judgment down on the tares (weeds).  It may not be good to pull the tares up in order to protect the wheat, but that doesn't change the fact that the tares are what they are.  The new testament cautions us over and over again to avoid false teachers, prophets, and the ones who follow them.  So, be careful.  Give testimony to the good things God has done in your lives no matter what, let it affect how your light shines, and let no one...by any sort of rationalization or argument...put a bucket over that light or a mute in that horn.

Right Questions, Wrong Choice of Answers...

How many times is the answer to the question not even on the answer sheet?  Forget "black & white" vs "grey area" answers.  Most of the time it seems like we are given a set list of answers to choose from.  This means that we are not necessarily choosing the best answer...just the best one available to us.  Worse, the world spends all of its energy making sure we only know how to answer the question in the proper form.  The great danger may not be so much that some of the answers are wrong...but that we don't know how to realize that the question is being asked incorrectly, to keep us from delving the truth.

When I think of this, I am lead to a story in the Gospel of John, chapter 9, about a man born blind for the glory of the Lord.  Jesus and the disciples are walking past him when the disciples ask Jesus why the man was born blind.  They assumed, much like everyone else then, that the man was blind for somebody's specific sin.  The question they have regards who's sin caused the man to be blind.  Was it a sin of his own, or was it his parents sin?

The Old Testament speaks to this issue in a couple of ways.  Exodus 20:5 and Deuteronomy 5:9, speaking in reference to the worship of any god beside Yahweh, states that God will "visit the iniquity" of the parents on the children and grandchildren up to the third and fourth generation (from the parent down to the great grandchild).  The Bible speaks to the ultimate example of the generational consequence of sin in 1 Corinthians 15:22, "For as in Adam all die; so also in Christ shall all be made alive."

Conversely, Deuteronomy 24:16 says that son's should not be held accountable for their father's sins.  What that means, is that is Daddy Smith knocks over a liquor store, you can't punish Son Smith for it.  Ezekiel 18:20 takes it further reminding us that the son should not be punished for the father's sin, and goes further telling us that each person is responsible for his or her own righteousness or wickedness.  It Son Jones snatches Ole Miss Eula's purse, Father Jones is not to be held responsible for it.  It is Son Jones' sin, therefore the sin remains with him.

The disciples of Jesus probably had these verses and principles in mind when they asked Jesus about the blind man.  Here in lies the issue we are speaking of.  Ultimately, the question that the disciples were asking was, "Why is this guy blind?"  The hiccup is in the answers.  The disciples ask the question assuming the answer will be one of the pre-conceived answers.  Being blind is bad, bad things happen to people who sin, therefore someone sinned and that is why the guy is blind.  The question, going back to the OT quotes we explored is, was this punishment for something he did, or something his parents did.

The disciples question was the right question.  The choice of answers were wrong.  Their answers were more driven by society or their own understanding than anything.  Jesus' answer was, in essence, "None of the Above, explain:"  He answers, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him." (John 9:3).

Let us pause here for a moment to take a practical lesson from this.  As a rule, when you ask God a questions, its probably best to just ask the question.  God doesn't need you to give answer options, because He is going to give you the right answer even if you don't give Him that answer as a choice.  The danger, moreover, is that you might get hung up on your own answers choices, making it more difficult to accept the answer you get.

There was a better answer for the disciples than who's sin caused the man to be blind.  The answer was: "God's Will."  "...that the works of God might be displayed in him" is a so far afield from the choices that disciples gave Jesus, it must have taken them off guard.  You can not really blame the disciples for expecting one of the answers they expected.  They were operating out of the conventional religious wisdom of the day.

We do this all the time.  We assume that if God is working, everything is cup cakes and gravy.  God moving is almost always equated to happy times, hearts being broken for the Lord, and healing.  But, it is also biblically true, that God moving also involves hardening of hearts (Isaiah 6:9-10).  We think that because God does a miracle everyone who sees it will rejoice and follow Him.  When this blind man was healed, a lot of folks...even his parents, did not drop all and follow Jesus.  Its an unpleasant reality, but God working often serves to expose whose hearts are hard as much as it shows who is a true follower of Jesus (More on this in the future).

The disciples question is in some ways designed to maintain the status quo.  The answer choices they give don't really change the way things work.  While, perhaps they are hoping that Jesus...as ultimate authority...would put an end to the discussion, nothing would really change the way anyone looked at the issue.  In our world, discussions like that are designed to keep the argument going in the areas of grey.  When I was in school, at some point I got real annoyed by these kind of conversations.  They have the appearance of depth, religiosity, and importance, but really they are designed to go nowhere.  They skirt the important truth.  They skirt finality.

Jesus' answer brings finality to the question, by avoiding the trap of forced answers.  Its not about the man, its not about the man's parents, its about God and His glory.  Jesus does not deny the truth of sin and its consequences by His answer.  We can't take this and say, "Oh!  Jesus is denying that sin causes bad things in our life."  He is not saying that.  He is, and this is important, shifting focus.  His point is not whose sin caused the man to be blind.  Maybe is was his sin.  Maybe it was his parents.  Maybe it was a result of the general sin humanity finds itself in because of the fall (1 Corinthians 15:22).  Maybe God just made it that way for Jesus' stated purpose.  The point is not about who is responsible for the sin, the point is about God's glory.  God's glory?  In this case, that is equated with God's mercy.

Grace and Mercy as an answer has nothing to do with who is responsible for the sin.  The answer of Grace and Mercy is wholly dependent on God.  Essentially, Jesus' response to the false answer choices of the disciples is "Who Cares who's fault it is?  That's not the point."  While the question, moreover, was a good question, Jesus exposes how the motivation behind our questions can be suspect.  When we ask our questions about the things of God, are we asking with our hearts looking toward God or to ourselves?  Jesus, by His response, not only gives us the answer we truly need, his answer rephrases the question in the correct motivation.

When we ask God questions...about why things happen, or how the Church should be, or social issues...we should be careful to examine our hearts.  Why are we really asking the question?  Are we really interested in the true answer.  If we are not?  Confess, because something is wrong.  Isn't that something?  Don't feel guilty, just get right.  All Jesus wants to share with us is the Truth.  And, that's the point of this story.