New Life: Victims and Water Sampling

I had a wonderful time with an old friend last night. We spoke about many things, but I especially want to remember these two:

1) VICTIMHOOD

It is part of our fallenness to presume that we are victims and so fixate on our own sacrifices. But salvation comes when we quit looking at ourselves, and focus on Christ, the Perfect Victim who gave the only sacrifice that really matters. This is the only way to escape the tomb of self, and receive His new life.

2) WATER SAMPLING

My friend has had it up to here with what she calls "water samplers," those who stand on the edge of the Water of Life and refuse to drink it, or dive in, but instead are content merely to analyze it.

She has a point. Following Christ is not just an act of ratio, of discursive reason; God has created us to be creatures with intellectus. Our intuition is a gift to be received and celebrated, and not supressed. The Christian life is not meant to be lived in the third person, but first person. And first person plural.

But Satan is pleased whenever we miss the Mark, and fasten to the extremes. Just like we need to actually take the plunge, so we need to be doing regular checks to make sure the lake we are jumping into isn't a pool of toxic waste. So it is just as dangerous to be a daredevil as to be a water sampler.

In our fallenness we are fascinated with these extremes, and the Enemy delights in tricking us into mistaking them for faithfulness. Lord, as we rebel against the deficiencies of modernism, let us not overshoot your Mark and land in the excesses of postmodernism.