In pursuit of significant insignificance

Hi.  It's been a while, I know, and I am hoping some of you are "still out there".

I was asked today by a good friend and mentor why I had not blogged in a while.  The two main reasons have been plain busy-ness and plain discouragement.  And yet I am learning how precious the lessons are when we are facing our own incapability.  Some of those lessons are just too personal to share out loud; some are too dear; but all are worth declaring: To God be the glory!

One such lesson was summarized in a powerful teaching session by Jerrell Jobe of Palm Valley Church last Wednesday, September 15 ( http://www.palmvalleychurch.com/experience/newcommunity/).  He masterfully described how God has designed the cosmos and then uniquely prepared earth so it could uniquely sustain life.  Think about the originality of our planet!  And the application point:  He designed you and I for a specific purpose as well....

In my own pursuit for that God-designed purpose, I have made one or two radical moves lately.  Leaving a salaried position to pursue a call to "a place I will show you" (see Abram in Genesis 12) is not usually the way to earn social admiration points.  No doubt some have thought something to the degree of, "why would he jeopardize his family like that?"  It's one thing to think that and not know the circumstances of our calling, but if one does know and still asks, it reveals how deeply ingrained our Biblical worldview has been tainted by our cultural prejudices.  What do I mean?

Today Kristi and I talked briefly at lunch about the "prosperity gospel".  Are you familiar with it?  You probably are, and the immediate thing that comes to mind is typically something along the lines of, "If you pray and believe enough, you can claim any possession as yours and, eventually, it will be yours."  Most of us sneer at this so-called Christian teaching; some positivists see the silver lining and are encouraged by the absolute-faith-in-God it can inspire, but regardless, this is typically what we consider to be the "prosperity gospel":  Believe God for all things happy and you will see the day!

But what if that definition is FAR too narrow?  What if, just maybe, most of us in the West are ensnared by the prosperity gospel and don't even know it?  What if the un-Biblical teaching of prosperity-for-all has unwittingly defined the course of our own lives?  Let me give you a few examples:

- When you are a one-car family, has God promised you will have a second car?  Did God promise you a car that would never break down?   Or even owning a car at all? 

- When space is getting tight in your 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1280 square foot house, has God promised more space?  If so, what is an adequate but not extravagant spiritually acceptable size?  Has God even promised you will keep the house you have??

- When we begin to unpack the contents of what we were created for, and see some major changes need to be made, are we guided by bottom-line thinking or by a process of call and obedience?

- When that step of obedience means we may never see our name in lights, do we question the wisdom of it?

- And have we inoculated ourselves by the 10% Rule in terms of our time, passions, energy, and finances (with a little extra giving added on top from time to time), to the point where we become sole masters of the other 90%? 

I recently read a fascinating, and challenging, take on the Tithe being an Old Testament rule that has been manipulated and used as a tool that actually dilutes our New Testament covenant, but that will serve as content for a later post....

So what am I getting at?  To you, to me, to anyone wanting to follow and demonstrate the way of Christ, let's be careful that we're not sneering at prosperity gospel false-doctrines while living one out right under our very noses.  Let's be sure we're asking GOD what He has promised, specifically, to us and what He has not.  Let's make sure we're asking GOD to direct our steps - if you signed up for that journey - and to repent for any self-direction we have imposed upon our destiny and slapped the label, God willed-it on it ourselves.

The ultimate error in prosperity-gospel thinking is that we become the determiners of what is good and best for us and for, in our own minds, the Kingdom.  ALL of that is being challenged right now.  And while it's not a very pretty place to be sometimes, it is a very necessary stop along the Journey. 

I join in the words of Jeremiah the prophet, lamenting for his and his people's rebellion:

"I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own;
it is not for man to direct his steps.
Correct me, LORD, but only in justice -
not in your anger, lest you reduce me to nothing."      

May we find significance in God's very real, and very specific purposes for us, even though we are truly in the grand scheme of things, insignificant.  And if we have made the mistake of calling some of our own shots and labeling them "the will of God", may He correct us in justice, not in wrath, lest He reduce us to nothing.