Until now, my (intended) audience has been centered on people who have shared much of my experiences with life and faith. If you’ve read my blog, you’ll note that I have felt challenged to expand my horizons and destroy my preconceptions. Through this process, I have ventured out into territories completely foreign to me and interacted with people I would never have known. These ventures have led to the discovery of new friendships – some of whom are becoming close.
These new friends do not all share my experiences nor do many of them share my faith. Considering this, I realize that I am struggling to develop a nomenclature I can use to clearly communicate through my writing. My typical nomenclature assumes an “insider’s” familiarity with Christian language and ideas.
As is obvious by the lack of posts, my unconscious solution to a missing nomenclature seems to be silence. This has proven to be a horrible solution… its only result has been personal frustration. I love to write and I love to share my observations. I have allowed myself to become paralyzed by my fear of unintentional offense. Now, I have no illusion that there is anything approaching a nomenclature that prevents all unintentional offense, but I do feel obligated to mitigate misunderstanding as best I can. If someone is offended by what I am actually saying – I can live with that.
So, to start… obviously, I’m a Christian – what that means to you and what that means to me has so much baggage that the description is almost devoid of meaning… except that it’s still the best thing I can come up with to concisely identify my perspective in broad strokes. So, what is that perspective? That, as best as I can, I constantly try to pattern my life, my views, and my choices after the life set forth by Jesus Christ in the Christian Bible. This is not to say that I do this perfectly (far from it); however, it is my constant longing and intent to live my life to bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ in all that I do. This should tell you a lot about me (but preconceptions likely prevent clarity).
What you might not know is that my use of the word “Christian” also infers a recognition of my own utter brokenness. I know this is not as obvious, but it is no less true. In fact, I am only a Christian because I realize I am broken. If I weren’t broken, why would I need Jesus… the Person upon whom the entirety of the Bible is focused? If you believe that my need of Christ is a revelation of weakness and a need for a crutch… you are correct. In my broken state, I need far more than a simple crutch… I need a new heart and a new mind.
When you realize your own desperation and brokenness, all of humanity must be viewed in a different light. Haughtiness is immediately challenged by a recognition of your own desperate state. This challenge is an important one as it forces the biblical state of humility – the most Christ-like of all traits. Brokenness should lead one to realize that life’s circumstances can force anyone down a path contrary to reason and that each individual is capable of the most heinous acts of sin given the existence of certain stressors – different for each individual. This forces more than humility – it ridicules any attempt at judging another person as somehow less than you are. Of course, I still struggle with this because I forget I’m broken (which, ironically, proves how desperate my state actually is).
This is not to say I don’t believe in taking responsibility for your actions nor do I believe those who commit crimes should go unpunished. Without the rule of law, we end up with a society ruled by the strongest at the expense of the weakest; however, I believe it is possible (necessary!) to mete out justice without condescension. We can still care about the human being who commits the crime while allowing that they must serve a just sentence. We must not look upon the “criminal” with disdain… for we are simply looking at ourselves when we do. The criminal reminds us of the human condition and how fragile it really is.
As a Christian, I believe that humanity suffers from a deep brokenness – one that can only be solved by the God who created us. Whether you believe that or not does not change what I believe: Jesus Christ came to this earth to “fix” man and bring us back to God. The requirement is to admit our brokenness – our sin – and ask Him to forgive us and, further, rely on Him to help us live for His glory and in His name – loving all of mankind and being speakers and doers of truth.
Hopefully, you see in these writings a man who is staying The Course and pursuing The Path amidst the pitfalls and selfish ways of being a son of Adam. I pray earnestly that my writing would encourage some of you by showing you that this journey - though arduous and sometimes tragic - is a journey of great satisfaction. A satisfaction greater than our greatest imaginings. The trials and refining fire of tribulation are to be recognized as a small shadow of the suffering of our Savior so that we can rejoice, as Peter and the disciples did, to be counted worthy to suffer for the sake of the Name.