1 Corinthians 3:21-23  So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future–all are yours,  and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

Recently, a friend asked me what I had been reading. I replied that I had just finished Gordon MacDonald’s fantasy, The Princess and the Goblin. To which he replied, “Wasn’t he an Arminian?”  I replied that actually George was a universalist (everyone is saved in the end).  End of conversation.  It’s funny how we can quickly label someone and subconsciously use it to imply that his/her insights are not worth reading or considering or even enjoying.

Human nature is such, according to Dr. Timothy Keller, that we take our “doctrinal differences and endow them with moral significance in order to feel superior to others.”  I am of the Reformed tradition and love to meditate upon the sovereignty of God in all things, including our salvation. However, the conviction of having the “right” understanding of scripture can create personalities that are more known for what they are against than what they are for.

This quote by Gordon Fee has really helped me understand this…

The Corinthian error is an easy one to repeat [I am of...etc]. Not only do we all have normal tendencies to turn natural preferences into exclusive ones, but in our fallenness we also tend to consider ourselves “wise” enough to inform God through whom he may minister to his people.  Our slogans take the from of “I am of the Presbyterians,” of “of the Pentecostals,”  or “of the Roman Catholics.”  Or they may take ideological forms:  ” I am of the liberals,” or “of the evangelicals,” or “of the fundamentalists.”   And these are also used as weapons: “Oh, he’s a fundamentalist, you know.”  Which means that we no longer need to listen to him, since his ideology has determined his overall value as a spokesman for God.  It is hardly possible in a day like ours that one will not have denominational, theological, or ideological preferences.   The difficulty lies in allowing that it might really be true that” all things are ours” including those whom we think God would do better to be without. But God is full of surprises; and he may choose to minister to us from the “strangest’ of sources, if we were but more truly “in Christ” and therefore free in him to learn and to love.

This does not mean that one should not be discriminating; after all, Paul has no patience for that teaching in Corinth which had abandoned the pure gospel of Christ. But to be “of Christ” is also to be free from the tyrannies of one’s own narrowness, free to learn even from those with whom one may disagree…. Gordon Fee, NICNT 1 Corinthians.

Walking is a perpetual state of imbalance. It is a recurring prevention or “catching” ourselves from falling. We step forward with our right foot and just before we fall precariously forward our left foot takes the initiative and prevents the disastrous results of the right foot. Even though it becomes second nature, without this fluid state of imbalance, we could only stand still. Interesting…. You can’t move forward without becoming imbalanced first…

I noted in a previous post that there are those who may take exception to some of my posts. I stated it is not my goal to present a balanced view. The reason, in my puny mind is simple: I don’t recall ever being motivated by anyone who presented me a balanced approach to anything of consequence (nothing like a steak dinner over veggie delight!). Trying to portray every perspective on a portrait, besides taking a consuming amount of words and work, may create an image that could be quite unrealistic, much like a Pablo Picasso painting with two eyes on the same side of the face! In an effort to present a balanced perspective of reality, a view from all sides, we may only get a gruesome caricature!

Again, I know there are exceptions to this. That is not my point. Here it is: I believe we do just fine balancing out others’ viewpoints. It’s second nature. What we need occasionally is a voice that challenges us to stretch beyond our inherent nature to “stand still”; that motivates us to take that first step towards another, more radical -and perhaps godly - direction. Many times the balanced perspective is really not taking a position on anything. It’s safe, but not without its risks.

Perhaps it may help to share with you the words of the One who always speaks the truth…

Jesus said you are only satisfied if you hunger and thirst for righteousness. In the words of Peter Kreeft: This is the Lord’s one requirement: to be a saint, that is, a fanatic; to love one thing infinitely; to put all our eggs in his basket; to seek the one pearl of great price.

Fanaticism? Is it? What would your portrait look like if you loved this one thing infinitely?

Kreeft again: It is not that we don’t admire holiness, we don’t admire the passion for holiness. It is the pursuit that we resent in others. The radicalness. We may talk about righteousness all the time, but pursuing it is another thing altogether.  We always have reasons, legitimate reasons …

A passion for anything other than righteousness will not satisfy us here on earth or in eternity.  Yet, as CS Lewis wrote, we are far too satisfied with other things.

So we have the option to respond with “but we know…” perhaps add our “balance” to His words… The upshot according to John will be a Laodicean “niceness.” I don’t recommend this. Jesus didn’t present the exceptions to his own words…  for that I am truly grateful, because He challenges me to take another step of risk towards His direction. What would Western Christianity look like if we took another step Christ’s direction and risked a little imbalance?

The Revolutionary War was erupting.   After a long siege, George Washington had managed to take Boston from the British in March 1776.   As the British evacuated Boston in 120 ships with over 11,000 people placed on board, several loyalists gathered at the rail of one of the ships and expressed confidence that they would be returning soon in triumph. A prominent Boston merchant, George Erving, turned and said solemnly, “Gentlemen, not one of you will see that place again.”   (1776, David McCullough)

This reminds me of the hope (I should call it something… for it is not really hope but a “backward glance”) that lingers in each of us (or maybe just us old folks)  for the return of the “good ol’ days.”  We call it Nostalgia.  I cannot think of a potentially more destructive and paralyzing “look.”.  And it can militate against all true biblical hope which is always focused on the future and promise….

I had a friend growing up through high school; my next door neighbor.  In order to avoid a public hearing scheduled for a drunk driving charge (mine, my friend was far too smart to get caught), we took off and for our junior summer, hitchhiked around the country.  That trip was hell for me.  For my friend, it was “heaven.”  The result…. I got saved and he became froze to the past like Hans Solo in Carbon Freezing.  25 years later, we got together and talked about our lives.  He was still frozen… Remarkably, what contrasted him from me was simply this: He looked back at that trip and said it was the high watermark of his life and he has lived ever since trying to “get it back.”  I reflected and gained insight.   The difference between him and me was the direction of our “look.”   In 1973 my life was transformed by Jesus Christ.  In “hope I was saved” and no longer was I held bondage to the past, but God gave me the forward look.  My friend,  still with the “backward glance,”  continues to try and “get it back.”

The truth is that nothing in this earth can finally satisfy us.  Much can make us content for a time, but nothing can fill us to the brim.  Not the past especially.  As Mark Twain spoke, “It’s characteristically human to remember a lot of things that never happened.”  and so my friend.  (Thanks Cornelius Platinga Jr.)

Let us take to heart the words of Erving:  Gentlemen, not one of your will ever see that place again…  The British never returned to Boston.  Neither can we return to the past, our hope is eternal and in that hope, we are changed and inflicted with Joy!  “Forgetting the past and reaching forward to the future and what lies ahead.”  Paul

As J.R.R. Tolkien put it…. Our final joy lies “beyond the walls of the world,”

(some will “take exception” to this. There are good memories, I know.  And there are always exceptions.  God’s faithfulness in our past is a powerful foundation and affirmation of His future Grace in our lives. My goal is to disclose the hopeless type of “backward glance” that leads to depression, guilt, resentment and anger in the present.   I will make a post about “taking exception” later, but you will have to wait. )

The movie Second Hand Lions is a tale about two old guys who have lived a life of adventure but no one knows it because they have been gone for decades.  Mystery shrouds their lives and all their relatives are guessing as to who and what they are.   The two gentlemen feel like “second hand lions”:  used up and of no general use any more to society, so they have decided to just “fade away.”   However a young nephew gets deposited on their doorstep and slowly they begin to realize they DO have something to impart and the adventure begins again as the young man learns who these two really were and ARE.

This blog is perhaps my expression of lessons learned in my life.  I pray that those who are in the autumn of their years make take hope and not believe that they are “second hand lions.”    Those of us who have lived over 50 years have much to give and those in their early years have much to learn.

Here is my favorite quote from the movie….  Uncle Hub confronts a group of young “roughneck” teenagers who treat him rudely and disrespectfully as he eats his ribs at the local diner….

I’m Hub McCann. I’ve fought in two World Wars and countless smaller ones on three continents. I led thousands of men into battle with everything from horses and swords to artillery and tanks. I’ve seen the headwaters of the Nile, and tribes of natives no white man had ever seen before. I’ve won and lost a dozen fortunes, KILLED MANY MEN and loved only one woman with a passion a FLEA like you could never begin to understand. That’s who I am. NOW, GO HOME, BOY!

Then as the group of teenage hoods attempt to “teach him a lesson” with their knives, he promptly beats them up.  He then takes them home with him, feeds them, and gives them a mentoring speech he gives to all young men. They go home changed….

May the old men of this life, those with true wisdom, begin to teach those who follow after.  There is much to be learned from Perspective and experience that can save young men from the mistakes and errors we have made….