Trudging the Road of Happy Destiny

In the Big Book of Alcoholic's Anonymous, it says "we shall be with you in the Spirit as you trudge the road of happy destiny."

This phrase has always struck me as entirely insightful and profound. The fellowship of encouragement and support that is the 12-Step community joins with the individual addict on a journey towards a happy and blessed future free from the addictive lifestyle. And what is the nature of that journey? It is described as a "trudge."

Websters says that "to trudge" is "to walk or march steadily and usually laboriously." And "a trudge" is "a long tiring walk."

Of course Bill Wilson, the founder of AA, was a Christian who was influenced by the Oxford Group in formulating the 12-steps. The first three steps are the essential ingredients of conversion. First we have to admit we are sinful. Second, we have to admit that God exists. And third, we must surrender our lives to Him.

But the remaining nine steps are more about the continuing process that we must pursue in order to obtain and maintain freedom from sin and to walk in a deep and life-changing commitment to God. Conversion is the easy part. The difficult part is the "trudge," the long tiring walk that is our daily life.

Of course, this is true of the Christian life in general. Turning over our lives to God so that we are now "born again" is the easy part. But walking out our faith through the painful trials of daily life is the hard part.

Jesus says that those who would follow Him must "pick up their cross daily and follow him." Put another way, we must look at the example of Jesus' trudge and imitate Him.

Jesus laid aside the "self-directed life" and took up the "God-directed life" when he picked up the old rugged cross. True discipleship means picking up the symbolic cross given to us and following His example of obedient submission to the Father. He trudged the entire Via Dolorosa to Calvary. And even beyond Calvary. You could say, to hell and back again. A trudge that brought him to the place of Happy Destiny at the right hand of God.

As the writer of Hebrews says: "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart" (Heb. 12: 2-3).

Is life hard? Don't lose heart. Join with us in the Spirit as we all trudge the road of happy destiny together.

The Beatitudes

Jesus began his longest discourse in Matthew's Gospel with what we call, "The Beatitudes."

"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven..." (Matt. 5: 3).

This list of kingdom proverbs is unusual for Jesus, who normally taught using parables. Each of the eight (some say nine, counting vv. 11-12 as separate from vs. 10) begins with the pronouncement of kingdom blessing.

"Blessed" means "joyfully favored by God." Those who are blessed now stand in the joyous shalom enjoyed by all the people of God who are under God's kingdom rule. Thus, for some reason, Jesus is saying that those who are "poor in spirit" actually stand in a state of blessedness.

The conventional Jewish wisdom was that it was those who felt powerful, together and confident who stood under God's blessing. Poverty was a sign of being cursed, not blessed. Spiritual pride was a sign of blessing.

Not all riches were seen as bringing blessing. The tax collectors may have been materially rich, but they were also "poor in spirit." They might be rich, but they could not feel pride before God.

Thus the story that Jesus tells in Luke 18: 9-14 about "The Pharisee and The Tax Collector." The Pharisee has done his religious duty and is able to confidently thank God for the holiness he has achieved. The Tax Collector cannot even look up towards God because of the shame he feels. Between the two, he is the one who is indeed "poor in spirit." And the punchline of this parable is that it is the Tax Collector, the one who is poor-in-spirit, who goes home justified before God.

Simon and Garfunkel wrote the song, "Blessed," inspired by the Beatitudes. "Blessed are the sat upon, spat upon, ratted on..."

Read through the list to understand the attitude of the one who is truly blessed in God's kingdom:
•  The poor in spirit--
(those who realize that they have nothing in themselves and need God's salvation);
•  The mourners--
(those who let go of their own agenda to take up their cross);
•  The meek--
(those who don't act out of ambition and lust for power, but learn to serve humbly);
•  The hungry/thirsty for righteousness--
(those in touch with their desire for godliness);
•  The merciful--
(those who care for others who are needy, rather than simply look out for self);
•  The pure in heart--
(those with a single mind focused on God with no hidden agendas);
•  The peacemakers--
(those who sew peace in relationships rather than stirring up strife);
•  The persecuted--
(those who accept the scorn of the world out of love for Christ).

The Beatitudes were revolutionary for Jesus' time. It was not the prideful and arrogant leaders of temples and palaces and commerce who were entering into the kingdom. It was "the sat upon, the spat upon, the ratted on." They heard with joy the promise of blessedness and came streaming into the kingdom.

How about you? Are you in touch with your own poverty of spirit? Reach out in humble dependence on him. If you do, you will be blessed and the kingdom of heaven will be yours.

Reaching The Shallows and Going Deep

I started reading an interesting book recently--The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains, by Nicholas Carr. The premise is interesting.

One of the features of the human brain is "plasticity"--that means that our brains are capable of adapting, as they respond to constant stimulus. The nature of that stimulus has a huge impact on how our brains develop. And one of the major ways that our brains are stimulated has to do with information technology.

For instance, when the printing press was invented--a major information technology change-- the way that people received information resulted in a change to how brains developed. Rather than listening to information being spoken, the written word became accessible to the common person and then reading became the primary mode of learning. Perhaps the democratic revolutions that followed were inevitable results of the explosion of the printed page.

We are in the middle of a major information technology revolution. First computer technology, but then more importantly, online connectivity and smart phones have changed the way we receive information. We are constantly being bombarded with information in bursts--email, web pages, texts, tweets, Facebook, YouTube--and often a message of very few words are accompanied by compelling graphics and videos.

One of the results of the information technology revolution is a change in the way our brains operate. For instance, rather than reading books the way we used to, many young people are beginning to "scan" the pages of a book, their brains looking for pertinent information, like scanning a web page. The result is a shallower understanding of the topic.

Another implication has to do with how we relate to one another. Intimacy seems to have become public. Facebook pages, constant texting (and sexting) results in a kind of pseudo-intimacy in the public sphere.

All of this has implications for those of us who are seeking to bring the eternal Gospel of the Kingdom to a new generation.

One of the most important parables in Mark's Gospel is that of the Sower and the Seed. The Gospel message is broadcast into the culture and falls on four kinds of "hearers" that are compared to four types of soil. Some sewn along the path are so shallow that the enemy snatches it away before it can sprout. Some sewn in rocky soil begin to seed, but once again, the shallow nature of the soil results in instant withering of the roots. Some sewn among thorns and the cares of the world (could this be likened to the constant "noise" of the technology revolution?) choke out the plant. Only a few are sewn in good soil that takes in the message and it is able to root deeply. (Read Mark 4: 1-20).

The punchline of the parable is: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Mark 4: 9). Perhaps a paraphrase would be, "Pay attention to how you listen to the Word."

I believe that the Evangelical church in America has a problem with "The Shallows." We have spent so much time learning how to "relate" to people in a shallow culture that we have sometimes made our message shallow. But we are called to be counter-cultural in so many ways. To be a disciple of Jesus is to go deep. You cannot be a follower of the Son of God in a casual, shallow way.

This has incredible implications for how we preach the Gospel and how we make disciples. A disciple must take the time to allow the message to sink deeply into the soil of their lives so that the full implications of the message have their intended transforming affect. This is why solitude, silence, meditation, contemplative prayer and study are necessary for the life of discipleship.

As we seek to communicate our message in a shallow world, we must learn to use the tools of modern technology to reach a new, online, wired generation. But let us also call people to break out of the shallows and go deep--listening attentively and thinking intently and being transformed into true apprentices of Jesus.