Over the past few days I’ve found myself wondering what it really means to call myself a disciple of Jesus Christ; imperfect or otherwise. So often we Christians reduce discipleship into good behavior. I’m not suggesting that there isn’t an element of obedience within discipleship; however, I recognize that it can’t all be about behavior. An unbeliever can do nice things for other people. A pagan can be a good citizen and a wonderful parent. An atheist can be an upstanding member of the community. What is it then that separates the disciple of Christ from everyone else? If not behavior or good deeds, what is it that makes a disciple of Christ different? If Christ died for everyone, and everyone is capable of good (as well as bad) behavior, we are left with only one option; belief. It is belief that separates the disciple of Christ from the unbelievers. As His disciples, we believe, that Christ was who He claimed to be. We believe that Christ was both God and man and that He died for our sins and was powerfully resurrected three days later. We believe that Christ is currently with the Father and that someday He shall return.

If it is belief that separates the disciple from the unbeliever, what happens when we no longer live like we truly believe in Jesus?

We have hit critical mass in the western Christian world. Study the news for a few days to see what kind of impression Christ’s “disciples” are leaving on the world. Televangelists are hitting everyone up for money. Priests are abusing children. Preachers are turning away from the Gospel of Christ to preach a gospel of the world. In our attempt to make Scripture palatable to the unbeliever, we have turned our backs on the Bible. We live in a world that values pluralism and relativity and we have sought that world’s opinion over the approval of our Master. There is so much popular culture within the church that they are virtually indistinguishable. The church is like the small child who underestimates the ocean’s tide and finds himself dangerously far from the beach. We have drifted so far out that we can barely see our Father. At this distance, the face of our Lord and Savior blurs in with the crowd.

What then can we do? First, we must ask ourselves if we truly believe. Are we Christians because we truly believe or do we just go to church because that’s what Americans are supposed to do? Does Christ really reign supreme in our lives or do we use Him to support our pet causes or our favorite politician? Have you sought out a pastor who uses Scripture as the basis of his sermons? I’m not asking if your pastor mentions the Bible. Rather, does he begin with the Bible and throughout his sermon teach it in a way that reproves, rebukes, and encourages? Or does he preach a different gospel and occasionally use Scripture to back up what he is saying?

Many of have fallen into a snare that we can’t even see. We call ourselves disciples yet we have no clue what it means to truly disciple Christ; however, it isn’t too late. We have a gracious God who has communicated to us through Scripture. There is still time for us to study the Bible and press the global reset button on our discipleship. But to learn what discipleship truly is we must go to the Word.

The word discipleship(s) occurs in the New Testament over two hundred times. It comes from the Greek word mathetes. It is defined as a learner or pupil. It can be argued that we are all disciples of someone. We have all learned how to live our lives from someone. It may be our parents, our school teachers, our friends, or even reality television. We all disciple someone.

In the case of Christians, we have chosen to learn from Jesus Christ. We have chosen Christ as out Master because He is worthy. This choice is of vital importance. Matthew 10:25 says that if your master is called Beezlebub, those who follow him will be called even worse. Not only was the name Beezlebub another name for Satan, it was also the name of the Chaldean dung god. Roughly translated this means that if the master you choose is a piece of crap, you’ll be an even bigger piece of crap! Jesus is worthy of our discipleship. We can rest assured that our choice of Jesus as Master is well placed.

Once we’ve chosen Jesus, the Bible also teaches us how that choice should be demonstrated in our lives. Based on Scripture, we can create a profile of the perfect disciple of Christ:

• First, the perfect disciple recognizes that he is not above his master (Mat 10:24). The perfect disciple must maintain a humble spirit and continually recognize his master’s authority over his life.
• The perfect disciple must love his master above all other things including his wife, parents, children, brothers, sisters, and even himself (Luke 14:26). If one of these people is standing between us and Christ, we must hate them as compared to our feelings for Christ. Many people have a problem with the prospect of loving Christ more than their family. I can relate. I love my wife more than I love oxygen. There have been times in my life when my children were what inspired me to keep going. However, if I truly believe in Jesus, than I have to believe that He will teach me the best way to relate to and love my family. The perfect disciple puts Christ first and allows all other relationships to fall into order.
• The perfect disciple must be willing to carry heavy burdens in her pursuit of Christ (Luke 14:27). The perfect disciple isn’t perfect because she has never suffered. Rather, she is perfect because she follows Christ in the midst of her storm regardless of how difficult it is. She carries her own cross in pursuit of Christ.
• The perfect disciple is willing to give up all that he has to follow Christ (Luke 14:33). Discipleship to Christ is the most valuable part of the perfect disciple’s life. Think of your most valued possession or relationship. Imagine what it is that you treasure the most in your life. The perfect disciple would give that treasured item up in a heartbeat to continue in discipleship to Christ.

This concept of the perfect disciple seems a little daunting. After all, if any of us were capable of being the “perfect” disciple to Christ we probably wouldn’t be visiting a blog titled “The Imperfect Disciples!” We can take heart, however, in that we serve a gracious and merciful God. The apostle Paul likened our discipleship to a marathon. I’m going to liken it to something a little different. In southern Ohio there is an annual bicycle event called the Tour of the Scioto River Valley (TOSRV). Every year, on Mother’s Day weekend, cyclist set out from Columbus in central Ohio and pedal all the way to the Ohio River. The next day, these crazy cyclists make the return trip totaling over two miles by the end of the weekend. All of us that live along the TOSRV’s route find great amusement in those cyclists that get lost along the way. They may all set out from the same point and with the same destination, but there are always a few that get lost along the way and find themselves way off course. This is how our discipleship works. We all begin with a belief that Christ is a Master worthy of discipleship. Along the way, some of us get lost. We may not pedal as fast as the other disciples. We may not all be prepared physically and emotionally for the trip, however, we all have to cross the same hills. It takes effort. We may even have to get off of the bike and walk. However, if we strive to keep Christ as our master and to make our discipleship to Him our most important relationship, we will all reach the river!

There may never be a “perfect” disciple to Jesus Christ. Peter’s belief faltered. Thomas doubted. Paul referred to himself as the chief of all sinners. The point is that even Lance Armstrong crashes his bike every once in awhile! Thankfully, Scripture teaches that discipleship to Christ is a process.  Luke 6:40 says that when we are fully trained we will look like our master. We are all still in training, however, if we all profess to believe that discipleship is a journey worth taking, we must begin by making the right decisions now. We must begin by evaluating ourselves and living as if we truly believe Christ is our Lord.

For without belief we are no different than anyone else.

Todd has written extensively on this site about grace. It has gotten me thinking about the nature of grace more often lately and it occurs to me that the idea of divine grace freaks most of us out.

Let me explain. A few years ago, I was passing out free water at a church outreach. It was during a street basketball tournament in the middle of summer when the temperature was approaching triple digits. Here I am with my shopping cart full of water bottles on the hottest day of the year and I had a seriously hard time giving them away! There were no strings attached. I wasn’t preaching at anyone or passing out tracts … I was simply trying to pass out free water. It became obvious right off the bat that the idea of accepting a free bottle of water from a stranger made people highly uncomfortable. Those that did take the water tried repeatedly to pay me or trade something for the drink. Once people realized what I was doing, there were even some that would hurry to the opposite side of the street to avoid being offered a drink.

People couldn’t understand why some stranger was offering them a free drink. They had to offer money for the water to make themselves feel better about taking it because they knew they hadn’t done anything to deserve it. In the back of their minds, I think they were wondering if there was something wrong with me for offering the water in the first place.

If free water freaked people out that much, how much does the concept of free grace (not to mention a Savior who died for them) freak them out. I think grace makes people as highly uncomfortable as my water did on that hot day. We know we don’t deserve it, but we try anyway. We try to trade our works for God’s grace only to realize later it isn’t a fair trade. I think we may even wonder at times what is wrong with the God who would offer His grace to miscreants like us in the first place. Often times, we reject His grace and replace it with false gods that don’t make us so uncomfortable. We would rather fool ourselves into believing in false gods than accept free grace from the true, living God …. we’re crossing to the other side of the street to avoid Him.

I noticed something when passing out water that applies here. There were three categories of people who had no problem accepting my water. Those that knew me took it quickly. They recognized I wasn’t some freak wandering the streets for no reason. They would take the water and chit-chat for a little bit with ease. They second group of people who took my water were the ones who were really thirsty. The ones that had just come off the basketball courts and were on the verge of passing out from heat exhaustion. Their need outweighed any uncomfortable feelings they had about accepting my water. They had to take the water to keep from passing out! The third group of people that accepted my water without a second thought were little kids. There were even some kids who came back for seconds and thirds … they recognized the value of free water on a hot day without worry because their lives hadn’t taught them to be suspicious of things that came with no cost.

If we approached God’s grace in the same way as these people approached my water, I think it would help us be less uncomfortable. First, we should get to know God a little more. Spend time with Him in conversation. Pray to Him and listen to Him. Secondly, we should recognize our thirst. We should realize that without His grace we’re going to die! We need His grace more than we need water on a hot day. Finally, we should approach Him like little children. Jesus himself said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” – (Matthew 18:3 NIV).

Perhaps then, God’s grace wouldn’t make us so uncomfortable.

The question at hand seems simple, basic, and banal even on some level.  And that is certainly true as the question, ‘How do I love and not hate?’ is all of those things and more.  This question and our response to it is a central theme of our walk with Christ.  The reason for this is simple enough.  As the single biggest hurdle humanity faces is well, other humans.  How well we respond to the treatment of the ‘other’ is a vital issue.  Humanity usually clears this hurdle with room to spare in good times or when the treatment from the ‘other’ is either to our liking or not of a deleterious nature.

The problem comes in when times are tough, or the treatment from the ‘other’ is not to our liking.  The problem is exacerbated when those who would be ‘the enemy’ take to this role in any meaningful measure.  The vast majority of humanity responds to tough times with determined tough resolve, and similarly to harsh treatment with harshness in kind.  The response to ‘the enemy’ is usually much, much worse.  This response is endemic to the fallen sin nature and as such is the normal inclination of humanity.

With this normative human state being understood, the problem for the Christian is much more complicated.  It occurs when the individual disciple interfaces with the teaching of Jesus on this issue.  Jesus contends our response should be the polar opposite of our natural inclination.  He contends our response to tough times isn’t toughness, but rather generosity.  He contends our response to harshness isn’t harshness in kind, but rather gentleness.  He contends our response to hatred and violence is peace and love.

These contentions of Christ are so radical and so out of step with the normative state of humanity that they are nothing short of a paradigm shift.  Love those that hate you.  Bless those that curse you.  Those two statements alone are difficult in the extreme to implement.  In the heat of the moment, the struggle to respond in kind to hate filled vitriol or venomous anger is a definite internal conflict of the highest order.  In my case, it nearly causes a stroke in me as I struggle to not repay evil for evil.  And most of Christianity, me included, handles this conflict poorly; thereby failing the test of character.  In so doing, the world sees the words of Jesus and fails to see them at work in the life of the average Christian.

This creates a fundamental disconnect between what we should aspire to be as Christians and where we currently dwell.  This disconnect leads many to believe that Christians are hypocrites, espousing Jesus, but unable walk out the faith they claim to have accepted.  On some level, this is true, and I am just as guilty of this as any.

The question becomes, how do I live out these commitments on this subject?  How do I walk out a life characterized by love, generosity, and peace in a fallen world?  How do I deny the basal instincts of my humanity and respond with the traits Jesus claims we should?  What does love instead of hate look like in application?  What does it amount to?  Where is the entry point for a life lived like this?

It begins in the depth of relationship with Jesus.  If we are only wading in this relationship in a lip service fire insurance expression of faith, then one should expect to at best only be able to respond in a wading faith fashion to these dilemmas.  If our desire is to erase the hypocritical disconnect, then our relationship with Jesus must be fully immersed.  It is only in doing so, that we will be able to access the love instead of hate response paradigm.  It is only in allowing our walk with Jesus to transmute, transform, and transmogrify the totality of the thing we call self.

This is a tall order to be sure.  It however doesn’t require harder work on our part.  In fact, no amount of work on our part will ever transform us.  No increase in Bible study, or devotional time, (although important to be sure), will carry out the transmutation that has to occur.

What is required is encapsulated in a single word; surrender.  We need, I need, to give up and surrender.  We need to realize that we can’t study long enough, can’t pray hard enough, can’t spend enough time in devotional study, or worship with enough ferocity to manage this.  All those things are important, but they can’t force of their own volition the fundamental change that’s required.  In short, we can’t earn enough points on our power to get this to happen.  We can’t make it happen under of our own strength of will.

We have to realize that the process only starts and works when we are surrendered to it.  It only works when we see this as an adjunct to the grace equation.  It is only in allowing God to flow this grace into us by our surrendering, that we can be transmogrified.  The element isn’t a work we can do by memorizing the principles, Bible passages, or core concepts and doing it on our own.  It works only by setting aside our pride and entering the relationship with Christ in a deep and meaningful way akin to a  pauper, a beggar, as one who has nothing of value to merit, to earn, or to purchase the change explicitly stated here.

In accepting this position of humble prostrate similitude, we become pliable in the master’s hands.  It is only in doing so, that our fundamental core can be remade by the creator.  It is only in doing so, that we can access the different instruction set that comes with this change.  It is only in having our heart remade in the love relationship with our savior and Lord, that we can see the responses that are necessary in each situation.  It is only from this place, that we can consistently walk the extra mile, give sacrificially of our self and life, and take the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune without responding with slings and arrows of our own.  It is only in doing so that we can fulfill the purpose set within our hearts by God.

The problem with answering this question is this.  This is as far as the answer can be taken realistically.  The process for resolving the rest of this is individualized in nature and will take on whatever form God chooses to use for the individual in question.  The God that created individualized snowflake formations is the same God, which wants to radically alter the hearts, minds, and spirits of men.  God works as He wills, and according to His purposes.  If it was possible to just be a better person, and love more and hate less, a dry recitation of the Bible passages, (and trust me there are many), would work to help the disciple in question.  Simple inculcation of principles, concepts, and data is not enough to assist the believer in making this change.  The process God is interested in here, is so much more expansive than that.  It is so much more than just loving more and hating less, even from an external perspective.

It is really about taking up our cross and following him, every day, but not in the manner you might think.  It is about bearing the Yoke of Christ, which Jesus himself said was light and easy, and contained the rest that our souls that we ache for.  It is about being compliant with the work of the spirit in our life that spurs us on to the greater things of the spirit that God has in store for us.  It is about reaching with the help of our creator for the nobler aspirations of our spirit.  It is about being changed by God, and then living out that change each and every day of our lives.  It isn’t easy, but it is what we’ve been called to.  It is the faith that we’ve chosen to live.  And it is only by allowing God to carry us that it can ever work even to the smallest degree.

I am sorry that there isn’t an easy answer to this question.  I am sorry that there isn’t a secret formula to resolving the dilemma expressed in the question.  I am sorry that there isn’t a short-cut to loving more and hating less.  The answer is a heart fully surrendered to our maker, living out a love relationship with him.  It is in the context of this relationship that we become different people.  It is only in living out this commitment that the external things matter less, and the things of God matter more.  It is only when we realize that loving the creation is equivalent to loving God and ourselves that we find the bridge across the chasm of the disconnect.

We need to become different people.  And only God can realize this change for us.

Recently National Public Radio began airing a series of essays during various parts of their programming day called “This I believe”. This series allowed a wide array of people some famous, some not to read an essay about the one thing that they believe in passionately. Colin Powell’s essay was about his belief in public service. Robert Reisch’s essay was on the need for government intervention in general. They even aired several heart touching essays one from the mother of an autistic child, and another from a formerly homeless person. I have often wondered while listening to these essays in my car either going to or coming from work, what my “This I believe” essay would be about if I ever wrote. What follows is the outgrowth of that wondering.

This I believe. I believe in almighty God. I know that simple sentence might seem small, dated or cliché, but it is the one true thing that I believe in more than anything else. I believe in the God that hovered over the waters looking into the soon to be heavens and spoke, “LET THERE BE LIGHT!” I believe in the God that created something that he called GOOD in man on the first try. I believe in the God that flung the stars into their orbits by the simple spoken declaration of will. I believe in the God that provided this perfect place for us to dwell, it might not be the Garden of Eden (thank you Eve.),but it sure beats the heck out of Jupiter (especially this time of year).

I believe in the mighty God that we see displayed in the Bible. The God of creation we see at work when he performed the amazing act of will that was creation in six days. I believe in the God of Holiness who could not abide the fall of man in the garden, the time of the flood, or in Sodom. I believe in the God of compassion who acted to part the Red Sea, provided the ram to spare Issac, and ravens to feed Elijah in the wilderness. I believe in the God of mercy that relented and gave Hezekiah, currently on his death bed twenty more years of life. I believe in the God of forgiveness that we find for the murderer in Moses, the adulterer in David, the liar in Abram, and the weakness in Peter.

I further believe that this God has not wandered off to some more interesting bauble or is somehow uninterested in the affairs of men. I don’t believe in an inattentive maker that created everything we see and hear and then somehow became more interested in playing the back nine at Augusta, because as God he gets an awesome tee time. I believe in an active interventionist God. The God that intervened to save his people in Egypt still exists. The God that sought out the confrontation with his people at Mount Carmel still exists. The God that sent his people into slavery not once but twice in an effort to bring them back into a right relationship with him still exists. The God that placed a Queen in the right place at the right time to save her people from genocide still does that very thing. The God that placed a sea of flaming chariots around his prophet to protect him from those who would blindly seek his destruction still works that way. I believe in the God that placed an angel in Balaam’s path to kill him if he failed to heed the warnings of a talking ass.

I know all of this to be true, because God has provided mercy and compassion in my life countless times. Through amazing mercy I found the path out of alcoholism. Had this path not materialized when it did, I would either be a mindless gibbering idiot or dead. God granted me mercy when I fell asleep at the wheel of my Beretta for thirty or so miles in the desert at seventy plus miles an hour without incident. This same God drove me into the wilderness by joining the Navy which was the equivalent of slavery. He brought me home again without any lasting scars at the end of my tour.

God saved my life when I was hit with high voltage power of the active sonar system of the submarine when I made a mistake in doing a voltage check. This mistake drove me across the torpedo room of the submarine like a rag doll in the gaping maw of a rabid dog. Luckily this knocked me unconscious either from the force of the electricity or from the blow to my head as I smacked the business end of torpedo. I laid there in a crumpled heap with a smoking beard and everyone wondered when I came around how I survived.

This same God blessed me beyond measure with my wife. He has taught me what it really means to love unconditionally as I have taken on the role of both husband and father. I didn’t earn any of this. I don’t deserve any of this by any means. I have been and continue to be the fortunate and grateful recipient of his mercy and favor.

So the issue of my belief all boils down to this simple set of statements. I believe that the power that turned on the sun still resides in the very being of God. The mercy that granted Adam and Eve clothing still resides in the arms of God. The compassion that parted the Red Sea still resides in the hands of God. The forgiveness that was experienced by the thief on the cross still resides in the mouth of God. If we as Christians had but mustard seed sized faith in the God we profess to believe in, imagine the things that could be accomplished. God stands at the door waiting for us to seek him, He stands at the door of our faith waiting for us to be the hands and feet of his mercy and grace.

I was recently confronted with a problem.  The problem was fundamentally a simple one.  I had an imperfect understanding of Grace.  And to be more specific I had only a theoretical understanding of the subject.  I could explain the theory of grace adequately enough, but had little if any real understanding of it.  I could explain it as a mechanical process from Biblical texts, but couldn’t exposit it in the most useful form application.

This is in part due to several factors.  The most prominent of which being the faith tradition I was fetched up in had little use for grace.  This fundamentalist wing of the Church of Christ was more about a ‘turn or burn’, ‘repent or be sent’, ‘I am a worm-like’ expression of Christianity.  The subject of Grace was all too Baptist for this group.  And as such was glossed over in order to make was for the more meaty parts of their theology.  I don’t say this as some sort of condemnation of them.

I got a very good grounding in my faith from them.  I just wish that they had made more room for Grace is all.  I wish they would have been less a rules based form of Christianity.  I also wish that it had been a more organic form that held Grace in higher regard.  I wish the focus would have given me a better grounding in application of this subject.

Some of my lacking in this area comes from a disconnect that I just recently discovered.  Grace is not a human concept at all.  It is an entirely divine one that the fallen human state of carnality neither has room for or the ability to grasp hold of in any meaningful fashion.  This disconnect leads us away from grace and into places inhabited by things the finite mortal condition more easily and readily assimilates.  The nature of this fundamental disconnect does lead us away from the majestic and amazing side of our creator though.  And we tend to gravitate toward a rules and works based form of faith instead.

Grace at its basic and generic form is unmerited favor.  And in looking at this subject, I had to accept that this is the basal definition, (which any Christian can cite verbatim), but it felt too ambiguous and overly broad.  It felt at first to be so much so that it was functionally meaningless.  Under that definition any act of God could be construed as an act of Grace.

I hit upon a solution to my definitional dilemma not long ago.  I was reading up on a computer programming concept when I had a personal eureka moment.  In reading about polymorphism I discovered something amazing.  This concept in computer science is a fundamental one.  In polymorphism an instance of an object derives the baseline properties, functions, and methods from its parent object.  An example of this is a car.  It is a member of the vehicle class from which it inherits all of its basic principles.

The ‘a-ha’ part happened when I realized that the definition wasn’t too broad at all.  Grace is a super-type from which everything else is derived.  Nearly every act of God flows from the Grace super-type into the appropriate polymorphic sub-type.  A good example of this would be God’s grace flowing through the forgiveness sub-type into the individual instance.  In this fashion it obviates sin and reconciles the individual to God.

In real terms, this means that it is all about Grace.  The Bible from Genesis to maps is about Grace.  The polymorphic sub-types change, but the purpose, focus, and definition remains Grace.  That realization sent me spinning for awhile.  It means that provision is a form of Grace.  It means that forgiveness is a form of Grace.  It means revelation is a form of Grace.  In truth, I had to accept that there wasn’t an aspect of God in the spectrum that an individual interfaces with directly or otherwise, that doesn’t bear the imprint of the Grace super-type.

Sorting through this it began to dawn on me, that Grace was the central theme of a life of faith.  How we interact with it, how we deal with it, what we do with it, defines the full measure of the Christian walk.  If we accept grace as just the sales hook that God is obligated to provide as a method of providing entrance into Christianity and have no other functional use for it after that, then we have failed to grasp the most crucial element of the life of faith.  Then we have failed to take hold of the item provided by God to sustain us in our earthly journey.

The Perspective Problem

A problem that I faced and many Christians face on the grace question relates directly to perspective.  The modern framework that man has imposed upon all aspects of Christianity has a particularly negative imprint on our understanding of Grace.  This framework includes a mechanistic mindset that tries to reduce everything it encounters to a dry recitation of principles and concepts.  The application of this framework upon the subject of Grace has a particularly pernicious outcome.

The mechanistic modern perspective is the equivalent of food preservation through dehydration.  This helpful if you are talking about peaches or apricots, but if you are talking about Grace not so much.  You see this mindset removes everything that isn’t vital to the equation in order to preserve it or make it palatable for mass consumption.  With Grace the whole thing is essential and no reduction is realistically possible.  Largely as grace is a divine concept and any reduction conceptually is a process that removes God.  Did this stop the modern reductionists?  Of course not, they carried out their modern reduction on grace and left humanity in a sad shape.

The process left us with an unconnected and disjointed understanding of Grace.  It removed the polymorphic nature of Grace.  Essentially all that was left was an overly broad definition.  The definition only then becomes useful in attempting to convert people into Christianity as its broader implications, import, and conceptualizations are lost.  The rich tapestry woven throughout the Bible that is grace is lost, and concepts that are fundamentally an aspect of grace, become independent structures.

Forgiveness, providence, revelation all appear to be individual components of God’s character when in reality they are plants that grow from the fertile soil of grace.  They each produce a different type of fruit when their work comes to fruition.  In reality, without their connection to grace and subsequently to the heart of God, they simply wouldn’t exist.

Another problem with the mechanistic perspective occurs when we read Biblical examples of grace.  This framework attempts to in outline form graph the equation of grace.  And that only works for the elements of the equation that are observable from the text.  These events in narration end up capturing the who, what, when, and where effectively.  Rarely are these graphs able to explain the why.  Rarely if ever are they able to capture the divine side of the equation.  This leads to a place that I found myself in where I could describe the event in vivid detail, but couldn’t make an adequate application of it.

This feeds out incomplete understanding of Grace.  This conundrum forces us into the rules and works perspective that I discussed earlier.  It robs us of the beauty, the majesty, and the pageantry of God working upon the creation through the tool of grace.  To some degree, it becomes necessary to embrace the mystery of God to embrace an organic perspective of Grace.  This is because so much of the equation is shrouded from view in the heart, mind, and body of God.

An outsider looking upon this sees a fickle and capricious child.  God moves and acts where he chooses, and when he chooses.  In some cases mercy and love are abundant and in others it is totally absent.  This whimsy of action by God leads many to be left with a gnawingly fearful response to God.  Will God act in the manner I need in the circumstance in question is a difficult question for anyone to answer.

Rather than probe this whimsy, rather than embrace, (or be embraced by) the mystery of God, the reductionists have reduced grace to a sub-one sentence sound byte.  The sound byte is devoid of problem areas.  It has no thorny edges to it.  There are no advanced theological concepts in it.  It is soft pabulum for a soft society.

In doing so Grace fundamentally loses its meaning.  If Grace isn’t tied to the mystery of God, if we make no effort to explain what looks to the outsider as capricious whimsy topped off with a petty vengeful streak, then we as a community of faith have failed.  If grace remains a sound byte for us, then it will never become real.  If grace remains a concept that is only applicable to use as a sales pitch at conversion, then we have fundamentally missed the nature of grace.

The real conundrum for me has been in unpacking grace.  It has been in moving beyond the sound byte understanding of it.  It has been in laying hold of Grace as a central tenet / theme of the Bible.  And it revolved around a single question which has nagged me for sometime.  It is a question that an arbitrator or mediator might pose.  It is:

More Questions

“If Grace is more than unmerited favor, if it is more than reductionist pabulum, if it is the central mechanism by which God interfaces with his creation, then how do I make it real?”

Many questions flowed out of this one.  Ultimately though this question is what pre-occupied my consciousness.  What does a grace like this look like, act like, smell like, taste like?  How does it feel?  What is its impact?  Is the import of this grace the same as the reductionist view only that it is properly categorized?

I was left with a single answer to all my questioning; experience.  God calls us to come and taste and see that the fruit of his vineyard is good.  It boiled down to putting myself in a position to experience his Grace.  In doing so I have found that all of the other questions were answered.  I experienced the present reality of a living God.  This happened through a plethora of ways, forms, and manners.

The primary linkage to all of these forms was found in understanding two things.

1. It isn’t about me.
2. It is about God.

I was forced to accept that God’s grace while packaged for individualized application isn’t necessarily about the individual. By that I mean that God’s grace was tailored to my needs at the moment of experience.  It was however not about me per say.  It was about God being God.  It was about God being true to his nature.  It was about the divine creator being omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.  I probably could spend the rest of my life unpacking the last sentence.  Let me say that God’s grace is always sufficient.  It is always on time.  And it always takes the form needed at the moment it’s applied.  God being God knows what is needed, when it is needed most, and what form it will need to take on in application.

Therein lays the most root problem.  It is God’s tool, it is God’s vehicle, and it is God’s mechanism.  This side of heaven we know so little of God, the merest fraction of the creator really.  Our lack of knowledge and understanding hampers our ability to functionally grasp grace.  This lacking doesn’t mean that we don’t need to, and it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try.  It means that as humans we can only use what little faith we have been given to trust in our creator’s ability to be the creator, and to have hope that grace will show up when we need it.  We just have to be looking for it.

I stand now at what seems to be a conclusion of a process of self-discovery.  More accurately put, it is the conclusion of the beginning phase of this process.  I am forced to admit that there is still much that I don’t understand.  There is still much that remains mysterious to me.  I find myself at a place of grasping the following statement:

God is always about the business of interacting with his creation through the vehicle of Grace.  And it is always about Grace!