You, Too

God portrays Himself amongst us as an Eastern potentate, a sort of nomad sheikh. With that image is a certain kind of baggage about the nature of things. It portrays how He deals with us and how we should deal with each other. So far as we are concerned, this is the fundamental nature of moral reality in our universe. This is the optimum; it’s how we are wired. It is the very nature of human existence. For each of us, our best grasp of life in this realm of existence is striving to serve God as a feudal family member or household servant.

Included in this approach is the recognition that things are not static, that the whole universe is literally very much alive in its own right. If we don’t see it that way, we will fail to understand critical elements in God’s revelation, as He commands us to treat His Creation in terms of something alive with His divine character. Further, it is we who are fallen, while the rest of Creation is not fallen. Yet God has placed us in dominion over His Creation, so that our fallen nature is a painful imposition over Creation. Redemption can be characterized in part as learning how to exercise dominion in this world as God intended and giving the rest of Creation a break from our miserable thrashing.

An Eastern feudal servant is responsible for keeping track of his or her domain. That domain is delivered under certain terms, with certain limits and a distinct mission to occupy and make it profitable for the glory of our divine Sheikh. We represent His interests and are personally responsible to Him.

There are times when, in the process of doing this in my own life, I must go out and see where the boundaries are in the domain God delivered to me. That imagery applies on many levels and one of the most critical is recognizing who you are in terms of how you will go about God’s business. Yesterday was such a day of boundary inspection. Part of the artistry here is learning to recognize when a change in the boundary lines is the work of God versus when it represents a challenge to God’s divine authority. If you can’t embrace the serious need for being tested, you can’t improve your service. Our Sheikh remains ever mysterious and inscrutable in some of His purpose in moving things around and waiting for us to catch onto it.

In other words, there is no harm in going back and making sure you understand that this old thing is no longer appropriate, but that one is. And this new thing is to be added, but those things are a distraction. No other human can say what should drive you to go out and test the boundaries again, and whether it’s a waste of time.

This business of stretching out the virtual parish to cover new ways of sharing has shifted significantly from my original ideas. I was headed in the right direction but had a very normal tendency to stop too long at transitory points along the way. I just imagine that if God told me everything that was afoot, I’d mess up my chance to participate because I haven’t walked through the fire enough times to shed all the flammable junk. So I push through certain ideas until they run into stone walls and stop moving. “Okay, we got that out of the way.”

The point here is not the tentative answers at which I have arrived for today, but the underlying process. Indeed, that’s the whole point of sharing my faith, because human accomplishment was never that important. It’s all just a tool for His glory. What most Western minds keep failing to grasp is how paramount is that underlying process. Divine redemption is the process of growing an appetite for God’s favor by pursuing His glory, not the collection of things we do along the path. How He uses each of us is cool, but that He uses us is the thing we celebrate with each other. If He uses me and something about my story draws you, then you already understand as much as you need. You’ll understand that He wants to use you, too.

By no means would you be responsible to me for satisfying my inner visions in how you mark out your boundaries. Look past my foibles and follies, because there are plenty of them. See the merciful and mighty hand of God at work in me and realize He calls you into His service, as well.