What You Really Need This Christmas

Let's face it. According to the wisdom of men and women, Jesus Christ is a religious option, at best, or a delusional opiate for the weak-minded, at worst. But according to Jesus' own words, He is life, rather than a life-boost. Is He wrong? Or maybe a tad over-exagerated? What if, after all is considered, we are the ones over-exagerated? What if we are filling our lives with our diversions trying to feed the vast emptiness that only He could possibly fill? In our daily desperation to leave a mark, make a dent or difference, we have forgotten that these things were originally latched on to create diversions for something much deeper within us. It's a troubling place that usually hits us when things quiet down, lights go off and everyone goes home. Something that is at the core of our being that consistently creeps into our psyche queuing us to quell it...push it way back down...with diversions of our choosing, to keep from getting consumed with it. When it creeps in, it follows with questions like "What is the point to anything?", "What am I really here for?", "Where am I going?", "Is this all there really is?"

Granted, many diversions are commonly considered destructive and taboo, like drugs, reckless permiscuity or violent tendencies. But our diversions aren't always taboos. Sometimes our diversions are good, in and of themselves, but diversions used in the same way as drugs, reckless permescuity or violence. I know that whether or not you admit it, you know that dark void that seems to always threaten to invade in the quiet hours of the night or during desperate times. We all recognize it. We also, whether we admit it or not, divert ourselves away from it with whatever we can use within our grasp. I want to list some of those diversions....not the sorded ones, but the ones most of us identify with. Only after calling into the light, what we whisper to ourselves in the dark, can we deal with the void.

Diversions

Power & Influence
One diversion type is the pursuit of accumulation of power and influence, whether it is to bring thriving commerce to a sleepy suburb or export a worldview halfway across the globe. Immortality is the myth that fuels this diversion. Two of the most successful people in world history, in terms of power and influence, were Alexander of Macedonia and Gaius Octavian Caesar. The first exported his version of sophisticated Mediteranean culture worldwide and the latter, international civility, peace, law and order. Today, their names are hardly recognized by many. Their influence may still be felt today, but in a more anonymous fashion than either ever contemplated. They are peppered throughout history texts and Wikipedia servers, but have become more associated with salad dressing, a less-than-mediocre Oliver Stone movie or the nameless statue in Las Vegas, pointing oblivioulsy at the Boingo Wireless billboard above the boulevard. Their empires are now ruins, advertised in colorful cruise ship excersion brochures browsed by vacationing consultants, paralegals and dental hygenists, not to pay homage to the gods, but to find something completely different than the familiar and mundane of Atlanta, Cincinatti or Dallas. The pursuit of immortality ends in death and memories long forgotten, swallowed up by time and Outlook calendar reminders. With great power comes great responsibility and the position and infuence in and of itself isn't bad. It's our fuel behind gaining the position and influence to manipulate and control that takes a neutral thing and makes it clinical.

Societal Prestige
What is this? It's the membership to the Petroleum Club, New York Athletic Club, officer of the Neighborhood Association, Chamber of Commerce, membership in SBC voting delegation or simply being close friends with Bono. We pine for these things to give our life significance by comparison to other lives. We do that to disguise our bankruptcy and we know it. The fact we all do it is our excuse for not having a problem with any of this, as insane as it all really is. The myth this diversion provides a false sense of importance and being a member of a group also provides the comradery of others in the same boat to aid in the diversion. I wrote about this in a previous post entitled Inner Rings and it doesn't just include our desire to be in those rings, but also our desire to fight against them....or keep them in our psyche, regardless of whether we are in or out of them. One potential argument in favor of membership in these rings could be the good things the rings themselves provide to society. But, outside of church and possibly the Kiwanis or Masons, much of the 'good' is really window dressing for a much more selfish desire, that of being noticed. When the doors to the Petroleum Club are locked, lights go out, and we all head back home, the addictions, hang-ups, neglect, manipulative and abusive relationships are back within sight, assuring us they never really left us...have always been there...just dimmed a bit by the photo ops and mingling around the champaign fountain. Maybe you get up in the night, fix a numbing drink, turn on the television or step outside the garage and smoke a joint, trying to sort things out, waiting for day to come. Depending on how well we have diverted our attention away from reality of the grit and heart of life with the memberships and status, will determine just how desperate we become. There is nothing wrong with the Inner Rings or the memberships, in and of themselves. Our use of these things to hide, deny and divert ourselves from our true condition and from Him is wrong and will catch up with us sooner or later.

Profession
How many times have you said that you work 18 hour days for your family? Do you? How many family members have been sacrificed on the alter of the business or profession? In many homes, the blood may not run as red as the steps to Mayan pyramids in days of old, but the daily sacrifice is probably more efficient and magnified as home computing, PDA's and broadband allow us to ignore the most important people in our lives in the comfort of our living rooms. Of all the diversions I write about, this one strikes me the most. And for many of you reading this, it strikes you as well. Worry about making ends meet is almost always a cop out. We work to keep our minds and schedules busy so we can avoid the questions, the relationships that might force us to adjust our lives or have us deal with things that really need to be dealt with.

Work is an ethic. Even before human beings fell from grace, we were given work. When His Kingdom is consumated, we who have decided to follow Him, will have an entire universe and eternity to fill with creativity and work of our hands and minds to glorify Him. But our popular definition of work is nothing more or less than a form of diversion to keep us away from dealing with ourselves in a proper way. We can justify it, like we think we can justify deifying our families. But what is worse, is that at least family is a higher priority. It makes this diversion almost as clinical as the others.

Family
This is a touchy one. I love my wife and daughter more than anyone else, outside of Jesus Christ. But it's unavoidable to see two strong and sometimes subtle diversions regarding family: 1) Staging or masking happy lives with wide smiles, pretending to be alot more content than you really are, at the expense of your children and 2) Worshipping your children or spouse and the inevitable dissapointment that follows sooner or later. With regards to the first issue, it is almost normal and natural to portray our family as perfect or carefree. We have bought into the myth that disguising our pain and problems with fake smiles and manipulative busy schedules is no different a diversion as the others. It's actually worse because the fact it is family can make us never question it....because it is family and family comes first. Actually, family will not fill the void either. Our children don't need to push their questions, disappointment and pain deep down underneath saccarine smiles. It will become a boiling cauldron and eventually burst forth because life is filled with great things and awful things. Our marriages need to be seen by our children as authentic, rather than contrived, especially when stress is put on the mother and father. How your children deal with real life will be heavily influenced by how well you dealth with it in their youg presence.

Speaking of deifying family, let's take our kids, which leads me to the second problem. They are precious and a huge responsibility for us to raise them as best we can. But even if they never fall into drugs and alcohol or something of the like, they will eventually grow up and leave us. They will start their own lives and families and we will be left and pushed back into a further priority. That is the way it should be. But because that is the way things are, we can't make our children the 'be all end all' for our lives. It has to be even bigger than our children, or else even our decision to pour our life's meaning into our own offspring will bring us to despair. I would imagine the first day of college for such parents would either bring stress on the marriage and lead to divorce, or else a nervous energy to find something big enough to keep things together in the midst of an empty nest. Deifying a spouse isn't any better. If you place your very existence, meaning and purpose into your spouse and they die or leave you, all of your existence, meaning and purpose die or leave with them and then where are you? If you remarry, how does that work out for your new wife or husband? You need something bigger than family and spouse to deal with your emptiness. Otherwise, things that are good in their proper perspective, get perverted and misused.

Politics/Justice
If this isn't a postmodern shibboleth, I don't know what is. It doesn't matter if you are liberal or conservative. Everything is about empowerment, justice, and equality but....without any foundation at all. In fact, any foundation for whatever cause smells so much of a metanarrative or absolute, universal truth, that we almost slap ourselves in the face to keep from falling back on them and then ignore the fact we never have abandoned those things in the first place. We live in an age where we walk around like intellectual schitzophrenics, tipping back and forth between reason and madness in order to keep walking an impossibly fine line between the good life and no objective truth that overarches all our lives. I've read about the progressive humanist movement that culminated in 1919 with it's own Manifesto, only to have it re-written years later, after another world war and holocaust reflecting progression that turned out to be inverted and very deceptive. I read about the third world revolutionaries that fought against oppresive imperialism only to install a madness and cruelty that hasn't been seen since Ghengis Khan. In the wake of Imperial French reign and an American occupation to follow, the likes of Pol Pot arise as an answer, which left millions of bodies rotting on roads, fields and farmland. Even Jean Paul Sartre, who was considered a much cherished father to many of these movements, recanted his own philosophy upon the tragedy that ensued.

But what really gets me, especially after this last election, is that without Jesus Christ, we have no other choice but to bet on the next huge disappointment. We kid ourselves into thinking we have finally chosen hope, vision and progress knowing. But, really, we prefer the risks that have shown us more incompetence, corruption and malice than to face objective truth, real justice from a power transcendent from ourselves and, most importantly, salvation that provides us the grace and power to actualize alot of the rightly placed judgment we have of the mess we are in. Our private definitions of justice and our campaign to empower our brand of justice over others, is the same thing the Nazi's pursued. We haven't re-heated any ovens yet, but we have already begun to tinker and legally redefine quality of life in terms of how much trouble we are on those who would have to take care of us, whether infant or aged. Our sense of justice was originally intrinsic part of our evidence for God. But, as Paul apply stated in Romans 1, instead of giving credit where credit is due, we decided to become stupid, seek our own self-interest and in the process, God has given us exactly what we desired. Our sense of political justice has not filled a void, but has revealed our foolishness.

On the other hand, conservatives wish to use the church to forward their political agenda. It doesn't matter which side I am on. The church is not a means to a political end. And I can promise that if you treat her that way, the worm will turn on you. Just ask Ralph Reed. There is nothing more sad and pathetic than someone who is staunchly conservative yet happens to be Christian. When you replace the eternal spring of life from a committed relationship with Jesus Christ with a political agenda as the main course, then life becomes vaccuous and stale. And when life gets that way, the urge to hide it behind saccarine smiles false contentment and puritanical tendencies kicks up a notch. Any criticism will be met with resistance that comes from a manipulative urge to control what was ultimately in His hands and never controlable by you in the first place. I am a huge fan of Francis Schaeffer, and his work in the late 70's and early 80's using his films and books to promote biblical Christian worldview and principles was awesome and probably added to the huge wave that knocked out a liberal president and congress in 1980. But within a few short years, those who won the battle had begun a slow decent in losing the war by placing the political cart before the horse and using the pulpit as a political means, rather than a source of Good News and reason for a hurting world.

Our Bankrupt Alternatives
Blaise Pascal stated that we all have a God-shaped hole in our center that can only be filled by Him and until we do, we are restless. Augustine of Hippo stated that our hearts are restless until we find rest in Him. Jesus told us that in Him we have rest for our souls, in the midst of living our lives no matter how hard they may be. But we are far too clever for that. I tried to find out how much money Cornell, the US government and private industry and philanthropists have spent on SETI (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence) since it started. I still don't know, but I assume billions is not too big a word for it. The task of SETI was stated by one of it's prophets, Carl Sagan, when he was teaching at Cornell, when he said that all they needed was one single message from outside of our world....just one message. Then we will have the answer to the vexing question of intelligence outside of humanity in our universe. Yet, all the while, Watson and Crick's discovery nearly 25 years earlier had spawned research into DNA in which we have discovered that a single strand of this complex structure contains over 600,000 pages of coded information. Yet SETI waits for pulses from Andromeda....so we can find some evidence of extra-human intelligence. Like Paul called us years ago...fools, with our hearts darkened and dead to the things of God.

Science hasn't disproven the existence of God. It hasn't even made a dent in the argument for God, as can be witnessed in debate after debate. Within the past 40 years, major universities have seen, not the death of God, but a rise in numbers of extraordinary minds forging new fields in Christian thought, whether it be Dallas Willard at USC, Alvin Plantinga at Notre Dame or Richard Swinburne at Cambridge. These men will tell you they stand on the shoulders of giants....those cast aside at the advent of Kant and Darwin, but recently re-earthed and presented again as an alternative to the philosophically bankrupt pursuit of modern naturalism and scientism, resting on both Kant's agnosticism and Darwin's theory of natural selection. And their work has spawned new interest in Christian philosophy, Christian thought in all professional areas.

In the meantime, Discovery Channel, et al, still think the underlying philosophy of verificationism...the theory that even finds itself as the basic, fundamental assumption in Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, is still viable even though it has been debunked and considered shelved for almost 60 years (Einstein's Theory is remarkable and useful in understanding time-space dynamics, but denies the existence of absolute space and time for no other reason than because Einstein was a fan of Ernst Mach and Mach was prophet for empericism/verificationism, which denies anything that isn't verified. It turns out that maybe Lorentz had a better handle on these things after all).

Even the theory of evolution has been retained as superior over intelligent design, even though it's own rationality is undermined by the very theory (no scientific explanation guaranteeing or even improving probabilities of correlation between accurate beliefs and behavior). But the general public (fans of Good Morning America, Oprah and People Magazine) believe this debate has been over for years and the only good Christians are those that don't seriously believe in God as a real knowledge claim.

And yet...violence in schools...political and corporate corruption on unimaginable scales...redefining quality of life at the margins of human development...farming of body parts for profit...divorce, abuse, neglect at all time highs. As technology improves each year, our depravation reaches new heights and technology has turned its attention to hiding our shame than improving our lives. Great minds in research and business come together and cure....baldness and a limp weinee. Homosexuality is being forced on a public that constantly votes against measures to make it equal to hetersexuality...but the broken and torn up lives of spouses, children, mothers and fathers, in the wake of a loved one 'coming out' is totally ignored. And as candidates drone on about nothing, their accumen is weighed in terms of delivery, rather than content. We are adrift on a sea towards nowhere but nowhere gets darker each year. And as it gets darker, our voyeristic interest in famous people's private lives gets more and more accelerated. Someone may know that Madonna and A-Rod say they are just friends, that Jennifer Aniston's year is 2009 or that little Suri Cruise is turning heads in Europe. But that same person may be unaware that their son has tried meth for the first time...that their spouse has been entrusting themselves to a co-worker instead of them or that their daughter's depression is causing her self-mutilation to spiral.

His Kingdom Hasn't Been Slowed

Jesus Christ isn't just the best answer for life. He's the only answer out there. Everything we have come up with has either slowly turned on us or fizzled into oblivion. It all looks clean, happy and together for public consumption. But we all hurt. We all have our secrets that, if they were revealed, we'd be suicidal. We are all hiding behind a mask to keep up appearances. But those broken with nothing left to lose and who have recklessly abandoned themselves to Jesus Christ seem crazy or weak or stupid to us. But they are the heirs of His Kingdom. They know His voice and they follow Him. They don't have it together. They are probably not going to attend the inaugural parties. Many are simply forgotten shadows in a world drunk with ambition and desire. But He knows them, calls them and will make them co-heirs with Jesus. The unwanted, undesirable and hopeless who realize it and have turned over everything they are to Him....whether they be homeless or the CEO...recognize that outside of Him, there is no meaning, no purpose and no value, even to things that should have them.

That's because He created the show, allowed us to stray, then sacrificed more than we will ever know to give us a way back to Him, if we so choose. And once we do that, we can have life....real life, not the facade. And we can begin to truly make a dent in this ugly place. It is happening now. Did you know that last year in Pakistan, more Muslims accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior than ever before? Did you know that churches are exploding in places like Korea, China, Southeast Asia and Africa....and that most of them are preceded by miracles? The Kingdom of God is more active and vibrant in our world now, than it was when the events that took place in the book of Acts. We can't see it because it is too fantastic for our consideration. We have educated ourselves and entertained ourselves into a drunken stupor. The UK, Germany and France have seen Christianity marginalized. But in Bhutan, Pakistan and Thailand Jesus is afoot and taking this world by storm. I realize that this probably will never happen, but mathematically, if you take the rate of conversions to Jesus Christ from 1970 to now and then extend it another 30 years, every living person will be a believer in Jesus Christ as Lord? We live in astounding times, well hidden by our own diversions and foolish thinking.

My Own Conversion

The day I gave everything I was to Jesus Christ, was also the worst day of my entire life. The minute I gave my life to Him, my own son's life slipped through our fingers. For me, I had to be brought to my absolute bare minimum in order to give up my well thought out strategies for survival, desires to become famous or infamous...all my diversions...I gave up what I began working on since I was a little boy when I first experienced the coldness of this life for the first time....laid it down and cried out to Him. But unlike testimonies you hear from many, it was not a day that I mark down as one of gladness. I had new life in Christ and a son to bury. He was born premature and remained very sick for over 9 months. We were in and out of the hospital and the amount of poking, prodding, medicating and cutting they had to do on Jamie was too much for him and he died October 25, 1996. Prior to Jamie's death, I had been reading alot and delving more into Christianity and the Bible. But it was pretty much a veiled mystery to me...far out of reach. It wasn't until early morning of the 25th of October, that He invaded my life, turned on the light switch and became my friend, my teacher and my savior. It was the best day and the worst day. And, yes, as David said, if my son can't come to me, I will go to him. In the meantime, I experience a lifetime of growing and learning from the One who salvaged me 12 years ago and I have never looked back, through thick and flush.

Ever since that day, I have struggled to communicate what He has done for me since then, all the while realizing that unless He invades your life, He will remain a veiled mystery hidden behind all of your diversions, hangups and masks. You have no idea how clever you are. It takes an enormous amount of thinking, strategy and energy to plan out everything from how to keep yourself from getting hurt by others, how to protect what you have, get more and continue to appear content for a watching public. It doesn't matter if your story begins in kindergarten when the bully teased you for the first time, or if you were abandoned by Mom and Dad completely or if the neighborhood kids excluded you from fun and games. At some point, the ugly of this world hits a very young person and the project for protection and significance begins, built entirely on mistrust and self interest. And until we find Jesus Christ at the end of our rope, we continue into the grave.

He told us that He knocks at the door and is ready to enter, if we let Him in. I don't know what you are going through. How could I? But I know you are going through a mess, whether it is of your own making, of someone else's making in which you inheret it or something in between. I want you to know that I understand how hard it is to accept Jesus Christ's message. But after October 25, 1996, I know why it is so hard....and it isn't because it is impossible to believe. It's because it costs too much for us. But after October 25, 1996, I can also tell you that the real cost is in not running to Him now. What may seem to you as a reasonable way of life...is actually a cleverly disguised way to hide pain, disappointment and destructiveness. He offers you real rest....real peace....not the kind you are accustomed to, but peace that is beyond understanding. When you see some of us praising God in the middle of horrible circumstances...we aren't being pollyanish or naive. We recognize that whatever has been taken from us will grow us closer to the One who calls us every day and give us the strength to withstand whatever He has for us to deal with. There is nothing we want more than to be closer to Him and to adjust our lives where He wants us to adjust.

He knocks, just like He has every Christmas before. Open the door, give all you have to Him and realize that this holiday isn't just a religious observance. It is celebration of when God came in human flesh to dwell among men. In Luke 4 He introduces Himself by quoting Isaiah:

"He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

If He hadn't come, we would all be a hopeless bunch.

He loves you more than you will ever know or understand.

He patiently waits for you to open your heart and let Him in.

There is no safer place in this universe, regardless of what your circumstances are.

Merry Christmas!