Good or Bad?

Philosophers much smarter than I have long argued about whether people are inherently
good or bad.

I think the answer is ‘yes’. Human beings as God first made us were good. We reflected only characteristics of God (His communicable attributes). We were made perfect, God’s original dream was or us to be good and holy.

Then the Fall. The dream was tarnished by sin. We became a fallen broken people. Only one person has lived who was perfect and that was Jesus. The rest of us are sinful, but the good things of God have not been fully squeezed out of us, and the memory of being good and holy is not, however unconsciously, wholly forgotten by our souls.

So while I once only reflected God’s creation, now I have diminished in that respect and taken on sinful dimensions as well. Pride has taken root within me. I am neither as full as God created me nor as pure. I am broken.

Yet by God’s grace I am sanctified. There is great mystery in this, because I am and I am being transformed.

It is true that evil still lurks within me, pride still dwells inside me. I am fallen and I am sanctified. It is like living in two different dimensions. Jesus when he first met Simon Peter (John 1:40-42), did not see him as a fisherman, but as a pillar of his Church. He did not evaluate him by his sinful self, but by the dreams God had created Peter for, the same dreams that Jesus had come to redeem by his death. Jesus saw Simon according to his true identity, as God had originally made him to be, and so renamed him "Peter."

That is the paradigm I try to operate within. Not the perspective of seeing what is plainly before me living in the reality of who I am, but choosing to live by the identity which Christ is calling me to. I am choosing Peter over Simon, to see myself not as I have been but as I am being transformed. Also I am striving to see others not as they are, but by the identity and the potential that God has created them for and made possible through redemption.

So people are born fallen, broken, apt to evil, but by Jesus’ work of redemption we are able and becoming and to operate in the goodness that God first created us for.

A realization

Something I should have realized a long time ago:

Living for God and seeing his kingdom advanced on earth is not equal to ministry

immortality lost

We've all heard the stereotype that high school and college students think they are invincible and immortal. At what point does reality set in?

After contemplating my own mortality and my growing awareness of it, I have concluded that this change in mentality is not really age related. As you get older you do not suddenly realize that you are capable of being hurt. The root of our awareness of mortality is health insurance.

I could do anything, not worry about it, do whatever, until I started having to actively pay for something that tells me I will get sick and die. It is not wisdom with age that taught me, but the debt I owe to this company which profits from my frailty that has brought the revelation of my own mortality.

The Memory of Eden

We were created to be with God, to worship God; to love and be loved by God. We were perfectly connected to Him through whom we had life, love, peace, joy, fulfillment, contentment, all things. We were naked before God; we knew and were fully known.

Then came our fall from grace and this pure and perfect relationship with our Creator was destroyed. How could we who are sinful approach He who is Holy?

But the memory of Eden still echoes in my heart.

I long for you God. I yearn from the depths of my soul to be with God, to be in his presence, to hear his voice. The Lord speaks my name and like Lazarus I come out of the grave that has held me. Try as I may to numb or ignore my desires, we were made to be with God. The memory cannot be erased from my soul.

By grace I am reconciled to God. I am sanctified and am being sanctified.

Each day I seek to live as an exile returning to Eden . . .
to remember that I'm going home.

Cutting Corners

Our society has some weird perceptions about time. I fall into them all the time. We will do all kinds of crazy things to cut corners in really insignificant or absurd ways. We will drive aggressively, cut-people off, to save a couple of seconds in transit time, and then waste a couple minutes on facebook.