It seems like everyone around me lately wants to hear a gospel of optimism and good times ahead, how God is going to make each of us individually happy and fulfilled. Soon, and very soon, here right now. Maybe its Lent, maybe its me, but I'm not seeing that gospel in Scripture. Instead, I hear "take up your cross." "We're going to Jerusalem." "I must die and rise again."
I have a bleak sort of hope, hope that someday everything will be set straight; but I'm not expecting it anytime soon. That's probably a lack of faith on my part, but there you have it.
For me, the good news is not that God is going to conform to my desires, but that through Christ, I can be conformed to Him. "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done." It doesn't say a whole lot there about my will.
I'm coming to think this perspective may have a lot to do with the generation I'm from. Many of my students and others younger than me have a negative notion of conforming to any standard or Person outside of themselves. Is this perhaps because of rampant metaphysical, epistemological and moral relativism which is engulfing us, and leading to their general skepticism ?
But for me, the good news is that now, when I find myself doing things I'd rather not do, and in the future, when I find myself in places I'd rather not be, I can be joyous, even if I'm not happy.
Earlier in my walk, I encountered the "Victorious Christian Life" folks, and knew I couldn't travel with them. Pain is real, not an illusion. Now I am encountering the "Jesus Loves Me Too Much to Hurt Me" crowd, and I can't go that way either. Sin is real, and it can't be ignored.
Jesus isn't a "nice guy." He isn't a tame lion. He is a surgeon. And--in order to heal--surgeons slice into living flesh.
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