Christ Is More: A Conversation about Joy and Faith

Why is Christianity worth integrating into my life when I'm fine as I am?

The greatest argument against this unanswered question is this

Christ is more:

Everything and anything we can and will base our lives off of is finite and will die away with us. Seasons come and go. Money is spent and must be earned by the work of human hands. Human hands fail everyday. Fail to love, fail to touch, fail to work by choice or by circumstance. We fail. All created things will fail. Even if the chances are low. Even when our lives are air-conditioned to the perfect degree of happiness, the thermostat can break any day and when it does we will be miserable as we swelter in the shelter of our own purposelessness. Which means our happiness was based on empty promises in the first place. We believed the things we thought would satisfy us would never fail. And if they do, in our lifetimes, we are proved utterly wrong, until we run to the newest lie that enraptures us in its facade of invincibility. Or we die asleep to the looming reality watching us above our heads.

The only exception to this is the belief in a god who will never fail to satisfy, who will endure forever, and who is all-powerful.
In many ways, it's easier to have faith, so that you have some some sort of security when  the resources of happiness are depleted and our world is shaken to its very foundations.
Although having faith does make things easier, it is no way a cop- out to reality. Unlike an attitude of unrealistic, untethered optimism, much like that criticized in Candide, that everything happens for a reason with no questions asked, the Gospel makes room for our pain, considering Christ feels it with us and walked in our shoes. Some pain is utterly unreasonable. Not only can we trust that our God has a greater plan, but also that our loving Father knows how we feel, is with us in the midst of it and will lovingly walk with us every step of the way- our constant help in trouble.
Having faith also doesn't necessarily makes our lives safer, If we trust and believe that God loves us and will ultimately bring us joy, should we choose to trust him, we cheerfully give up the tight control we have on our thermostats. We have to be prepared to give up the things we love in order to love him. Should God choose to lead Peter to walk on the water, Peter won't have the safety of land, but he will have confidence in the love of God, more constant than the shifting of continents. All God is and all God plans for is for our good and his glory- that we may know him for who he is. And who is he? Who is God? God is Christ. Christ is more. More than perfectly monitored lives guaranteed to satisfy our hunger for true joy until they don't. More than the the finite promises of the things we love, and more satisfying than the the things we crave. More than unrealistic optimism. More than a warm cradle of safety. More than enough.

For believers and nonbelievers, this song has stuck a chord with many people, including me, whether they walked out believing in Christ or not, after listening. And, it's also just good music.

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”- C.S. Lewis

Don't Give Up

The voice of failure is louder than your cheap advice
Never giving up is not an option
If I don't try, I can't fail
Success is overrated

"You're not God", she says
My blatant inadequacies a daily reminder
Unsatisfactory, unworthy, incapable of paying my bill
Denying who is my ransom
A living oxymoron

Ransom carries a heavy load on his back
Endures the race for me
Success is overrated
Grace is undermined

Psalms

Find me on rainy days with soft crowning frizz

Cracked weary hands pressed against cool glass windows 

Searching searching searching for my lover

He saunters across hissing clouds of precipitating spitfire nonchalantly

Italian suits would be incinerated through the heat of his glory

His wear is of majesty and splendor

Great worldly men sprawl before him in submissive terror

Kings of majestic purple now are clothed in  white surrender with soiled yellow stain

Words flounce their syllables and in one orchestrated cadence cease to breathe in total silence

When he exhales the planets are swept to the far end of the universe
When he breathes in he consumes everything in one swift zip
Only lonely nonexistence remains when he’s through
Nothing is constant


When I was in elementary school, I was a pistol. I relished in the disapproval of others and lived to bear my own unique flag of pride and arrogance. Despite my veneer, I was probably ten times more insecure then than I am now. Then, I wore a mask of confident self-identity to hide who I was. Now I just try to remain invulnerable.  Ever so slowly, the  accumulated words of disapproval,  gossip and light bullying took deep root as verbal cuts dug their way deeper and deeper into my mental skin, penetrating my hardened facade. I've become increasingly more and more antisocial this year. As someone who once naturally gravitated towards lonely awkward teenagers and did her best to make them feel welcome, I have become the lonely awkward teenager, who despite the most extensive of efforts refuses to feel welcome. While most kids are coming out of their shell, I am exploring mine more and more, a dark cave that echoes, dark,cold and humid- a whole new world of undiscovered biosphere. Funny how a strand of Ebola was traced back to a cave in Africa. Hmm... 
1 As the deer pants for streams of water,

I read my Bible a lot. Not to feel good about myself for being such a "good Christian". But because I literally go insane otherwise. For someone who naturally and deeply bases her worth and value on of her performance and never finds rest in her achievements (no matter how much crummy advice people give me), it is a necessity for me to affirm the message of grace I so deeply claim to believe in, which releases me from my bondage of performance and fleeting pleasures that never truly satisfy me. Grace liberates me to love God and others, as I was created to, joyfully. And so, in this season of isolation, I find myself in Psalms, a large book filled with raw feelings and inexpressible groanings and inconceivable anguish and uncontainable joy, laced together by the promises of God, from the moaning of exiles in a foreign land to the wisdom of kings. The authentic, intimate words of people living out their faith in the Creator through the mercy, strength, kindness, and compassion he bestows upon them. Many times, his greatest mercies to them are allowing them to walk through the deepest waters of sorrow for a season, or maybe even a lifetime,  under the promise that one day they will come home to him, where they belong, day by day, granting them just enough strength to make it through until tomorrow. 
Psalms includes the prayers of David, a king, after God confronts him for cheating on his wife with another woman, whose body he impregnates and whose husband he deliberately kills, as he repents and mourns. In the lifespan of the same man, are songs of joy written  as he delighted in the laws of his god that he loved so much and walked so closely to. More closely than any human-crafted relationship is the intimacy with him who provides the very bonds that hold our atoms together. 
And so as I go about through a season of isolation and difficulty, these words don't just stare blankly back at me from the page of my mom's old NIV Bible. These words are alive and tangible as the God of the universe continues to be enough for his people, no matter what does or doesn't come... 
Psalm 42
For the director of music. A maskil of the Sons of Korah.

    so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember
    as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
    under the protection of the Mighty One[d]
with shouts of joy and praise
    among the festive throng.
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.
6 My soul is downcast within me;
    therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
    the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
    in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
    have swept over me.
8 By day the Lord directs his love,
    at night his song is with me—
    a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God my Rock,
    “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
    oppressed by the enemy?”
10 My bones suffer mortal agony
    as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”
11 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,

    my Savior and my God.

The Gospel Unpacked.

From a biblical standpoint, whether we believe it as truth or reject it completely, we aren't good people. Decent grades, hard work, and being nice doesn't get you into heaven. Going to mass twice a year doesn't save you and Christianity isn't a cultural heirloom that's passed down from our ancestors, and only pulled from the attic when a relative dies and we want comfort by knowing they're in a better place. What our culture has taught us is not what the Bible teaches us. And whether you will acknowledge it or not, at least don't base your arguments off of the ignorance of a religion-obsessed culture that really knows nothing about God. Period. 

            So what does the Bible say? We were created to know God and synonymously love him. He doesn't tell us to obey his commands for the sake of being excellent or for earning righteousness or for being good moral people. He tells us to obey his commands, because by doing so, we will know him more, and love him more. In the words of C.S. Lewis in That Hideous Strength, "'... you do not fail in obedience through lack of love, but have lost love, because you never attempted obedience.'" Paraphrasing Kari Jobe, the more we seek him, the more we find him. The more we find him, the more we love him. That's what we were created to be- lovers of God.
            There are massive amounts of good people that don't love God. Which means there are massive amounts of people that are living apart from him. God doesn't come with you at birth like a belly button. He isn't naturally available to us. The wages of sin is death. Living apart from God is living in sin. Which means most of us are the living dead, merely surviving, roaming across the earth, chasing the pursuits of whatever our opinion the knowledge of good and evil is, and even more tragically, are also believing the lie that God is okay with this. God isn't okay with his creation worshiping nonexistent idols that didn't make them. God is not only just in upholding the laws he made to govern all life, but he is also jealous for us. Jealous, much like how one would be when they know their spouse is cheating on them... Not jealous of us, jealous for us...
            God doesn't have any of the sinful qualities humans have. He isn't on the same level as us. When we disobey him and follow our own will instead of his, believing we have found new life and freedom, God isn't upset with us because he has a superiority complex or feels threatened. He's upset because he sees value and worth in us, and he wants us to come home. He is angry at us for a time, but he ultimately grieves at our condition. He mourns at our depravity, because he wants us to be his. Not because he needs us but because he wants us...
            And because he wanted to be with us, and we could never get to him on our own, he made himself completely vulnerable to his creation. Most rulers will do anything and everything to preserve their dominance and power, but he lowered himself and left both behind. We can't say he doesn't know what we're going through, because he was one of us. He mastered his flesh and was obedient to the laws he created in every way, because we never could on our own. And then he died as a sacrifice for us, so our sin and brokenness would never separate us from him again. Afterwards, he rose, and conquered the grave, so we may not be slaves to sin and death anymore, and we may live as a new creation. He adopted his enemies as sons and daughters. He loved the people that killed him. He redeemed us that we might be reconciled to him.
            Grace is fully necessary, because without it, we are much like roaches in the pristine house of God. Unwanted and not belonging, small and powerless to save ourselves, wretched and disgusting because of our sin. With grace, we are children of God, clothed in dignity and righteousness from Christ, that makes us fully and unconditionally his. We are never alone. We are fully known and loved. Totally satisfied. Whole and healed. Fulfilled as we are now who we were created to be.
            I always encourage everyone, whether they have known God for years or they have never known him at all to do the same thing. Commit to seeking God for a period of time to find out if he is all he says he is. If you find him, continue to seek him. And if you love him, never stop seeking him.

Romans 5:9-11 (NIV)
⁹ Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! ¹⁰ For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! ¹¹ Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Idolatry: What do you worship?

I idolize myself. I idolize my thoughts to the point that I am paralyzed be fear and so debilitated I don't even want to try anymore. I idolize my feelings to the extreme that I am willing to tear down the ones that I claim to love in order to get my way. I idolize what people say about me so much that I will edit, modify, cut and paste the best parts of myself in order to please others, in fear they will disapprove of me. I idolize the compliments I'm given to the degree that if I'm anything less than smart, or funny, or nice, or a good writer, or someone who always knows exactly what to say, that any and every time I fail to be these things, I hide myself away for fear who I really am will be revealed and no one will ever love me. I idolize what I do so much, that every time I fail, living seems like the hardest option. I idolize my distractions from my inadequacy and I am restless and dissatisfied without them. 

"And God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."- Genesis 1:27

Considering that we were created much like our creator, it isn't such a far-fetched idea that as soon as we take our eyes off of him that we think we are him. Whenever anyone preaches on idolatry, they shoot straight to Romans 1:18-32, which gives an in-depth analysis on the corruption, futility, and wickedness of the world, and God's prolonged wrath against them. More poignantly though, how they worshiped the created rather than their creator (v. 25), whom they were made to worship. They worshiped their sexuality, their money, their achievements, etc., and in essence themselves. 

In a world where sovereignty of self is so valued, where chasing your dreams, finding your identity and doing what you want has always been taught as good and right, Romans isn’t so ancient and irrelevant as we may assume. And although chasing your dreams or finding who you are isn’t immoral in nature, it is treasonous and adulterous, in heart when made an ultimate priority, over he who we were made to love and adore above all else.

Because ultimately God wants our hearts. He wants to be all we think about and he wants to be included in everything we do. He wants to be our everything. No part of our lives should be hidden from his fold. And if it seems like that is too much to ask for, it may put into perspective to remember that we are already giving all of ourselves to something or someone else- an idol. And they most likely didn’t make us, walk in our shoes, die to bring us to themselves, and give everything of themselves in order to have us. Because even if it isn’t God, we all worship something. And it will ask for everything. The only difference is that God asks, already having given everything for us. When I think about that, I seem a lot less magnificent. 

Introduction

Theo: a given name, deriving from the Greek word Theos which means god

(Wikipedia)

Analysis:  a careful study of something to learn about its parts, what they do, and how they are related to each other

: an explanation of the nature and meaning of something

(Merriam-Webster)

This is a blog dedicated to the exploration of God and who he is, and how that fits into the context the lives of his people, based off of biblical roots. Stay tuned for posts that will stir your thoughts. :)