Hard Questions

The older I get, the simpler it gets. Being a follower of Jesus Christ, that is. Because of His death and resurrection, I am forgiven and am being transformed by His persistent Lordship at a far deeper level than any self-help program can reach. Self-help programs fail for the same reason that the Old Testament law failed...both depend upon me to get it right.

The Old Testament law has a lot in common with modern self-help programs, especially when the self-help is taught from the pulpit. They both depend upon my sin-management skills, my "pull myself up by my bootstraps" skills. Some folks have more personal discipline than others and so are better at sin-management, but sin-management won't work in eternity, not even for the very best among us. Fully replacing the sin-nature with God-nature is the only thing that will work in the long long-term.

God's intends to transform His children so completely on the inside that sin-management becomes a thing of the past. Don't get me wrong; I'm not  putting down sin-management. Sin-management is far better than sin run amok. Sin-management is good, but it's not the long-term solution. What God wants for us and from us goes far beyond sin-management. 

(Disclaimer: God works hard to make progress in us during our time in this life, but the truth is that no one will be perfected here and the best of believers will fight aspects of their own fallen nature as long as they're on this side of heaven. So don't think I'm telling you to throw away sin-management! Keep fighting, but in all that fighting, keep being changed by His Spirit from the inside out!)

That said, being totally clean and pure on the inside really is God's goal for us. He wants to do far more than forgive us; He wants to CHANGE us! A person who is 100% clean and pure, free from the inner sin-nature (as Jesus was), will not have to depend upon sin-management.

That, I think, is a big part of what makes the Gospel such Good News. God has taken it upon Himself (through His Son, Jesus Christ) to ransom, cleanse, and transform us so that we may live with Him in unrestrained harmony and rich fellowship forever.

My job is to have faith in what He's done and what He's doing, trust in Him to accomplish His purposes however He sees fit, and surrender to His rule and transforming work in my life as I get busy with whatever He assigns me. He has promised not to leave me the way He finds me now, and that's good news!

A few years ago, the Lord asked me a very hard question, one that put me quite ill at-ease. He said, "Mark, can you trust Me?"  Of course I knew the correct answer to that, but it didn't seem good that He was asking me such a question. My heart raced. What now? What's next on His agenda for me? How bad is this one gonna hurt? There was even a bit of "What does He want from me now?" echoing through my soul. My gut reaction wasn't particularly spiritual, but there it was.

I waited too long to answer, but when I did, I stated the correct "book" answer. "Yes, Lord, I know I can trust You. I've been through too much with You and have learned that lesson." He kept asking the same question for the next few days and I kept giving Him more or less the same answer. Then the questions stopped.

After a few weeks, He asked me an even harder question, one that took me totally by surprise. "Mark, will you trust Me?"  Did He really say that? Yes, I recognized that He had, but I nonetheless had to think about it, think about what He might really be getting at, think about what might be in store. This wasn't about my knowledge of the correct "book" answer. This question, "Will you trust Me?", required me to make an internal vow, one that might be tested in hard, unpleasant, and un-chosen times, times that I would greatly prefer didn't happen.  

It's easy to trust Him when things are smooth and easy. This question was about trusting Him in the ugliest and most disappointing of times. Would I? Could I? He was pushing me to make up my mind ahead of time how I would respond if it all goes south. 

I told Him "Yes, I will trust You. I choose to trust You in the direst of circumstances. I've made up my mind ahead of time." Ahead of time for what, I still don't know. And I realize that my words come cheap; the proof will be in the doing. I will need His sustaining grace when the time comes -- if it comes -- that my trust is pushed to the brink. Overall, though, I'd have to say that these questions really simplified things for me. Do I trust His heart? Do I trust His plans for me? Do I trust His determination to make it all work out right, though I won't see the fullness of what He's doing until I'm past this life?

The answer to all of those is a resounding Yes. That's no sweat as long as things move along fairly easily. But knowing how quickly I can become spiritually short-sighted, I suspect that His grace and persistence will have to help that Yes thrive through the hard times. The Bible tells us that Jesus is the Author and the Finisher of our faith. We start by faith and we walk by faith, but it seems to me now that the further we go down the path with Him, the more faith takes on a quality of simple trust. 

Do I need to have all the answers? Answers are nice, but no, they're not a requirement. Do I need to see clearly what's around the next bend? Nope, because He already does. Do I need a guarantee from Him that everything will be smooth and easy? Not at all. Why? Because...

• I can trust Him to let me know what I need to know when I need to know it. 
• I can trust Him to move me inexorably along the path of transformation He has chosen. 
• I can trust in Him to use it all -- good, bad, and indifferent -- to shape me the way He wants me to be shaped. 
• I can trust in His love and His goodness, no matter how things look and feel in the here and now.

His plans for you and for me don't begin with our earthly birth and end with our earthly death. His plans are only getting started during this life. He has eternity to make up for whatever happens or doesn't happen here, and it won't take Him nearly that long to make it all fade away. In fact, I believe that it will all be quite okay the very moment I step from this life into His presence. 

I think about the end of this age. It's clearly coming and things on this earth will become terribly unpleasant. But should I be worried? No! Whatever He has planned past the constraints of this life will be wonderfully good, no matter how bumpy the ride may be while getting there. 

I can TRUST Him. I CHOOSE to trust Him. It seems to me that a spirit of fear can become involved when a Christian gets too wrapped up in worrying about the approaching end of this age. Armageddon? The 'end times'? Listen, Christian, read your Bible. Let God deal with your trust issues. Armageddon and the 'end times' that make folks so afraid aren't the end of the world or the end of humanity. They are God's planned way of ending the rule of evil in the world. 

What if I'm killed during that period? A lot of Christians will be. But what does it matter whether this body dies of old age, a bullet, a guillotine, or a nuclear blast? It doesn't matter. In all of those events, Believers in the Lord Jesus may experience dying but they won't experience death; they will experience life like they've never experienced it before. That's a discussion that will hopefully get written another day. 

I'm still trying to get my arms fully wrapped around these truths. I don't have it all down yet, but it's about growing, isn't it. In the meantime, let God work on whatever trust issues you may have with Him. Grow in that trust and you'll grow, period.

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A balancing moment, truth in advertising, or whatever: I've put a lot of years into studying the Bible and learning what most folks would consider mainstream theology. That provides the basis for what God is doing in me now. It will really help you to build that same platform in your life. Apply yourself to learning for yourself what the Bible says.