Renovating the Heart & Our Surroundings - Heaven on Earth

Search For Alternatives to Authentic Contentment
From the time of Constantine, 300 years into church history, up to the 30 Year's War, the church had control and constantly abused Christianity through cruelty and non-compassion equating Church positions to God's will out of neurotic need to control everyone and everything. Instead of listening to Jeremiah's cry that the human heart is desparately wicked and deceitful, whether ordained or lay person, we decided to look under other rocks for answers, considering Christianity itself, rather than the unrenovated human heart, as unacceptable and the source of discontent. The frantic search for an adequate alternative on a cultural level began. The Scottish philosopher David Hume and German Immanuel Kant provided the revolution that changed thinking so that everything else would follow....and it did. But instead of improving our lot, Europe produced Napolean, the Terror and endless revolutions that reflected more blood and chaos than the religious wars just 200 years earlier.

In the United States, the highest bastions of our culture rejected a Christian consensus around the late 1800's. The roots of our rejection of Christianity as a culture goes farther back...into the 18th century. Princeston, for example, once a bastion of Christian education, at one time led by Jonathon Edwards, had turned away from biblical Christianity in favor of Kantian-Hegelian revolution in Europe and embraced the dichotomy between sacred and secular, then emphasized the latter, holding to a strict empericism, at the expense of the former. Before long, universities all over the United States, which started as religious organizations, became secular. Theology moved from being the Queen of Sciences, to a discipline of study under the Department of Humanities. Like good city planners designing sewage systems clearly know, things tend to flow downstream and our culture is no exception. By the early 20th century, philosophy had embraced logical positivism and reduced reality to language and science, with science being a specialized language of study. A young Ludwig Wittgenstein, brilliant thinker, had published his Tractictus and started a movement that would eventually be rejected in philosophical circles, even though still embraced by modern science in terms of cosmology, biology and chemistry.

The Armory Art Exhibit of 1913 began to prepare the hoi poloi in the United States for the impact of Kantian-Hegelian revolution in artistic expression. Da Da, Duchamp and others had introduced modern art to America. I am not being critical of the art and actually am intrigued by much of it. Regardless, Duchamp's ready-mades almost feel like visual representations Wittgenstien's Tractictus displayed before me. Jackson Pollock's random art is interesting but is based on his rejection of any rhyme or reason, preferring pure randomness over design. Music began to embrace it too. The music of John Cage in the early 20th century reminds me of alot of Brian Eno's music in the 1980's. Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus were key in bridging philosophy with arts, through literature. Their existentialism is the authority and basis for almost all of Hollywood's movies. If you want to know where Robert Zemekis was going when he ended Castaway with Tom Hanks standing in the middle of an intersection somewhere in rural Texas, or the conversation between mother and son at the end of Pleasantville, read Sartre's Being and Nothingness or Camus' The Stranger. Rock and Roll was born out of existentialism, and now uses the the absolute teaching of an untethered free will of choice to tether us to more than chains. Art appeals to our pain and our sentimentality. Its lyrics and music finds resonance with our own personal experience and without any authority in our lives outside of our own will, we end up worshipping that feeling and fuelling the entire process. Our children learn from us that our decisions are based on our feelings and the reasons for our decisions. Art, in many respects, reinforces this message. Not always, but the undercurrent of much art, regardless of its manifestation, comes from this energy.

But most folks are too busy surviving and raising families during this time and still have a Christian understanding of reality in the 1930's and 1940's to even know much about Da Da, analytical philosophy or reductionism. However, the next step down is politics. When the same thinking moves into politics, everyone registered to vote is fair game. FDR provided the face and voice of comfort for a desparate nation. Even though all of his efforts failed to provide recovery for us, the timing of a second world war and the end of a downward economic cycle started by speculation of the 1920's, had all of us looking for a new Savior and new Church to pick us back up and get us going again. That new savior was the President and the that new Church was the federal government. By the 1970's, political movements for just about any area of life sprang up, all vying to contribute as ministries to the new church. The idea of government replacing more traditional institutions began to grow. The government was now our school master. The government was now our social engineer. The greed for money was the fuel that helped this idea take off. I still believe the reason liberalism triumphed last November is because a large portion of American voters are too young to remember the malaise and hopelessness of the 1970's. But even on the conservative side, the answer is still government, just less government. The only advantage conservatives have politically is that it's more economically atuned than the old liberal model that we have embraced of recent. But despite that advantage, it is still looking for another Reagan and reflecting the deeper problem in our culture.

The last stage is sports and reality entertainment. With the advent of cable television, satellite, computer gaming and other technological advances, we have now added another absorption into another venue. The university chapel has been replaced by the grid iron. Self-improvement has been replaced with an XBOX high score. And news has become gossip with interests more in American Idol or Brittany Spears than with human slave trade around the world, abuse within orphanages in eastern Europe or mercy killings in the Middle East. The latter topics seem to big and dark for us to handle, so we ignore them for distractions.

And the biggest argument against Christianity has unwittingly turned out to be Christians. Take away the religious talk, religious activities, we look just no different than the rest of the world, much of the time...myself included. We consent to certain truths and then pretend that we live them out when in fact, we are only trying to manage them with others. Even the SBC, of which I belong, decided to fight for biblical inerrency in the denomination, which is a good thing, ended up with victors strutting and preening in pridefulness and self-righteousness....not knowing how to do ministry unless there was a controversy to get embroiled. But that is the good side of evangelicalism in America. Much of the other denominations went the way of the do do bird and became not much more than political organizations, accepting a godliness but denying it's power, as Paul stated long ago. Today, we either get a political stump speech from the pulpit or a ministry on the right that is solely defined by its differences with other ministries.

By the way, I represent much of these characterizations. So don't consider this one more self-righteous diatribe against the decay of Western Civilization. I find it much easier to bury myself into work than to work on my relationships with family and friends. I would rather lose myself in a Coldplay album or Cohen Brother's movie than deal with my inner-demons. I find it easier to condemn than to forgive. But I recognize all my failures and frailties in those around me too and because I am a nerd, I happen to know how we all got here. And art, sports and politics are not bad things. I am more artistically inclined, than mathematically inclined (even though not very talented in either area) and enjoy these things. I am not suggesting these things are bad, but our search for some sort of ease of a deep discontent ends up with us taking a thing or concept that is good in and of itself, and making it into a shiny golden calf.

Renovating the Heart Through Intentional Apprenticeship in Jesus

We live from our heart. Whether we admit it or not, that is our center. That is where our discontent, satisfaction, aspirations and fears come from. Because science now rejects any non-physical entities, we are 'educated' in believing we have no spirit or soul. We are merely DNA and as Richard Dawkins has written, DNA doesn't care, it just is. But teaching that doesn't make it so, and our souls began to search in vane for anything to help ease our discontent with life, in the wake of bankrupt alternatives. Even if we reject Jesus as our Lord and Savior, our souls require us to pour our existence into something until it becomes our identity. And because we are told to deny the soul's existence, we are left to reaching into non-rational, fringe outlets to find some sort of answers...whether it is infatuation with ghost trackers, human potential, or even politics, art and sports, whatever we decide to love, we pour everything we are into it and become it. Our spirits are formed one way or the other.

Romans 12:1 talks of transforming our minds through the renovation of our hearts....to no longer be conformed to the structure of our age. What does he mean by that? How do you do such a thing? I was not a very consistent non-believer and after coming to Christ in 1996, have seemed to find more emphasis on my inconsistencies and failures now, than the improvements. As a result, any talk of spiritual formation, disciplines, etc., made me wince as a Christian. If the Gospel was not about the A+ I have been given in Christ, despite my actual performance on the exam, then I am doomed. But through trying to wrestle with grace, biblical texts and teachings of others even when I balked or discounted it out of a fear of legalism, I think I am finally beginning to see endless possibilities with me by being His apprentice, and therefore endless possibilites for our culture as a whole, through clear biblical teachings.

I have a bench press and weights in my garage. I realized after my initial attempts at getting healthy back a few years ago, that I couldn't walk in to a gym after 15 years and bench 200 lbs. In fact, even though it was light, I had to begin with an empty bar, then add more, then add more, then add more. I had to work at it and I had to be intentional about it. Likewise, I am a consultant, but I wasn't born one. I didn't simply go out after graduation and became a resource for issues within the industry in which I work. I had to work at it...practice, read, step out...and sometimes fail at it. These examples reflect a larger reality regarding my spirit or heart. My circumstances and choices have determined my soul. And that has not ended up a good thing. But I represent the entire human race. We are all spiritually formed people. But just as sewage goes downhill, natural human abilities do not automatically migrate towards the good. Two ways of seeing human nature is to say that humans are basically good people, at heart, as Anne Frank wrote before her execution. But if we are naturally good, how come we have created thousands of institutions to protect us from one another? If we are good, why have laws, signed and notarized contracts or even mundane things like ticket stubs? We migrate naturally towards the bad and have to work to be good. The other way of seeing human nature is to take the scientific naturalism approach or postmodern approach and say there is no such thing as a human nature. But if that is true, then why live and act as if there is a nature to us and one that needs to be either fostered, guarded, encouraged or discouraged? It's an important question with regards to character.

Speaking of character...it is not walking through 12 feet of mud to fight off the bad guys and save the village. Character is what you do without thinking. It's what flows from your center without managing it at all, just as determining what a glass is filled with when you bump into it, our hearts reveal our character. And our character, without Jesus Christ, is either explicitly self-oriented or implicitely self-oriented....we either admit to our living for ourselves or we pretend to be selfless when we are not, and that usually is telling by the same person's flight towards self-righteousness and condemnation. This is the heart of Jesus' teaching...'from out of the heart, the mouth speaks..." When pressure is applied, what kind of person am I? What sort of character do I have when the heat gets turned up? Do I resemble Christ? And if I don't (and many times I do not), this brings up a scary proposition...are my choices becoming explicitly evil or faking goodness? If so, what hope do I have?

Without Jesus, none. That's why He is the way, truth and life. Only through accepting His atoning sacrifice can I have the grace for forgiveness of all my mess, past, present and future. But only through taking His yoke, intentionally learning from Him and becoming an apprentice of Jesus Christ, can I move forward with where I am with my mind, soul and body, and step forward in His power and grace, knowing that failure is a part of the process. I can intentionally follow Him, learn from Him and intentionally try to think, speak and act the way He would if He were me and not worry about falling down. That is the only way I can truly get better without faking it or simply abandoning the project. Grace is more than what provides unconditional acceptance no matter what you have done. Grace is also the resource He gives in His power to actually change you from the inside out. How?

What Spiritual Transformation Is Not And Is...

Well, I have learned the hard way that Jesus' yoke is not trying to pull myself up with my own bootstraps. One pastor was quoted as saying that sometimes you deny yourself food to teach your body that it is not in control. That's not going to work, regardless of all its bravado, because the reference of power is the pastor saying it. No. I can't do that. No one can, without falling into the self-deception of faking it all. The things I can do are simple...pray....constantly. Seeking His face in every moment of my life...reading His word and asking Him to change my mind on everything we disagree...and denying myself of things my body or mind desires...whether it is food or having the last word...these things I can do. What happens next is the part that isn't me. What happens next is that His Spirit, cooperating with mine, changes me...changes my character, bit by bit, so that I actually form a character that is more like Him. Sometimes that is done through intentional means like the ones I mentioned. Sometimes it is through soveriengly orchestrated events and circumstances used to bring up things way down deep that otherwise would not be dealt with. And sometimes the process is no fun. But I will tell you this...nothing beats the comfort of knowing He is at work in me, even when everything else around me is blowing apart at the seams.

When focusing on the invisible activities going on deep within my heart, I begin to see more of what He is doing around me. And instead of a gloom and doom, I begin to get excited about the possibilities. He replaces even my composure with joy, even in the midst of alot of what appears to be chaos. I can see His possibilities instead of only focusing on our impossibilities. This is His Kingdom. And the exciting part is that since the first century, the revolution has begun, mercifully involves me and you, and will end up where everything will be under His dominion. Every glimpse of joy, excitement and contentment I may have brushed up against 25 years ago or even last week, is nothing more than a clue to an eternal existence with a joy and contentment that goes beyond explanation.

And what happens next is that we become agents of change. Forget Obama. Christ's followers are the true agents of change and always have been. The church's abuses exist, but usually at the expense of hiding all the incredible transformations our world has experienced having Christ and His Bride within our midst. Our nation will find no hope in Obama. He has no idea what he is doing. Our nation will find no hope in a republican presidential candidate in 2012. Our only hope is a society of people, changed one person at a time, until our numbers are great enough to create a nation where, as the prophet Amos stated, 'justice roles down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.' Corrupted souls...those that have not placed confidence in the Son and intentionally took up apprenticeship, will stand in the way of that stream and those who have engaged in the project of spiritual transformation will stand in the way of the sewage that naturally flows downstream of the untransformed human heart...and will either fight it or die trying. And, contrary to the perception I have had of the church, and sometimes even promoted by the church, being a follower of Christ is not a lifeless, colorless, boring and stale existence. It is full of drama, excitement and anticipation of what happens next.

A Real Stimulus Package For Our Times

Maybe then, we can search ourselves and truly find the reasons for our economic stress, rather than ignorantly transferring blame on Bush or Congress. We will finally admit that we acted foolishly over the past 20 years, lived beyond our means in order to fill a hole that wouldn't be filled, and we have ended up leverageing our great-great-great grandchildren in order to try to sustain a feeling we experienced in a song, or a trip to the beach with friends. Rather than expecting an instantaneous change or faking our success, we will actively engage on seeking His wisdom and grace to begin the project of changing our character. Just like we can't naturally walk out onto a clay court and beat Andre Aggassi, we can't naturally walk out and expect good character or believe our genes inherently contain our good character or that our characters will automatically become like that of all our religious friends (sometimes not a good idea in the first place)....in fact, it will reveal our intentional self-deception of trying to save our lives only to lose them, rather than laying them down to Him, in order to discover it in full.

I have not made it to the mountaintop. In fact, I am still in the muck. But I know now...the good news is that we can try, fail and try again and not get discouraged because our focus is not so much on the results as it is on Him and He is in the result business...not us. Our hurts, despair and restless desires to fill our lives with some alternative, when what we really need is Him, all will fade when we want Him, ask for His help and then hear the soft sound of sandled feet bring us to Him and as He embraces us, we might shed tears, but His love and grace will change us and life will never be the same. Politics, sports, philosophy and art cannot do this. Neither can our works and righteous deeds (Isaiah told us God considers our righteous deeds as used toilet paper, in the Hebrew). He offers life and life to the fullest....not just a home in heaven, but heaven here, in the midst of a broken world so that instead of managing all our relationships with others out of a realization of being damaged goods...we get excited about how He will use us as agents of change to watch this broken world conform more and more to His Kingdom. I can bank on this. You can bank on this. This is real confidence. Drop all the expectations, results and control issues at His feet and begin a new, full life in His rest and comfort. You'll not only see our lives change, but is probably the only economic policy that exists to get us out of the circumstances we brought on ourselves in our restless efforts to fill a bottomless pit. He is calling you right now. What are you waiting for?