Tuesday, 23 October 2007
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Give it all???? C'mon now, get serious
So what if I gave it all? Jesus did. He took the time to come down to Earth and play on the board He created with a word. If it was your game, what would you play. If you play Sim games on the computer, do you aspire to be the janitor? Do your ambitions take you to be a farmer? Or would you be Lord God Emperor of all you survey!!!! Your armies would shake the ground with their shuffling and their arrows would blot out the sun (sorry, shameless 300 Spartans quote, I couldn't help it)!!! And, this might reveal something truthful about our character, about our philosophies, about our values. Whether out of blood lust or compensating for our own insecurities, we are likely to play the game from a perspective of power. Serfs bowing at our feet as we wage war and pronounce edicts. But what about God? When He entered his "Sim" game, what do we learn about his nature? Salt of the Earth? Born of hard working, honest folk. Raised using his hands, producing tangible goods, nursing blisters on his hands. Suffering the results of sin he never committed. Do you wonder if any of his woodworking still exists? Does someone still have a chair made with hands yet to be pierced? I digress. Then God had a chance to teach us how hard labor and a good work ethic can make you wealthy and powerful in your community... but he didn't take it. What He had accumulated, he gave up, wandering amongst those who needed him. Not proclaiming laws, but proclaiming the Kingdom, healing hurts, exorcising demons. His reward for His efforts was pain, humiliation, maltreatment, and death. This is our example. Sell all you have, give it to the poor, and follow me.
Well, surely He didn't mean everyone. Just, well, other people who need that to keep focused, to avoid the temptations that I have under control... right???? Obviously we don't know God's will other than that we be obedient and faithful servants to one another, using the talents given to bring more wealth to the master, and greatfully accepting His reward as it is metted out. I believe, however, that the more things we accumulate, accepting that things are not inherently bad, only the covetousness of the things, the further we diminish our dependence on God. Whether conscious or not, having a house, having cars, clothes, bank accounts, all are safety nets against the things of this world. I think God wishes to be our safety net. I don't know that this means everyone must be homeless, roaming about preaching. But I know that if God honors our hearts, then he surely will look at what things are precious to our heart. We really must choose, what uses of our time, what uses of our resources are important to us, vs. being important to God. It may not be a salvational issue, but we are told that people will know we are His by our love, and that one knows a tree by it's fruit. Trees don't hold onto their fruit. They don't use it for their own benefit. It takes energy away from their own growth to produce fruit. Fruit nourishes others, and spreads the essence of the tree to other places.
This is not our Sim game... it is His. We are characters who have been given the instructions, the goal, and the prize before us. In that sense, it's not a very interesting game, because there are no puzzles or mazes to solve. It should be an easy game to win, and an easy method to collect prizes, after all, the homework has been done for us. I guess all that's left is for us to decide we're willing to play by the rules, rather than whine and complain that "wouldn't it be fun if the rules allowed this or that?" Play to win, and if necessary, fight in the shade!!!
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