SoulThirst

[Note: This was written earlier in the afternoon, but due to a power outage, I didn’t get to post it till now]

It's been a few days... thought I'd share with you some thoughts/reflections from my morning reading/meditation (since a Chinese Bible study group has all but confined me to my room & office)

A few years ago (Josh Koh remembers this), Larry Crabb came out with a couple books: Connecting and The Safest Place on Earth, both talking about spiritual community. It relates somewhat with Josh Lin's message at the youth service this past week (for those of you who remember), about being authentic, and what it means to have authentic spiritual community. Anyway, I had shelved both books for a while, and only recently reopened them because the topic is all of a sudden relevant again.

And just one thought from the opening chapter that caught my attention: that the good in us runs deeper than the bad. The statement is put in this context:
- for us to genuinely have community/fellowship, we need to be willing to connect
- to connect, it takes a willingness to be open, vulnerable, willing to let people into our lives
- but we DON'T do that because we're afraid of what people might find when they get into our lives... all our sin, all our mess
- SO, first we need to connect with God (or rather, allow God to connect to us)
- Part of connecting with God is to realize (in a life-transforming way) that God delights in us, loves us, and has changed us by the power of the Gospel
- with that "real change," we can take it into our relationships with others
(Ok, now to break all that down)

That's a tough thing to believe in, that the good runs deeper than the bad. Evangelical Christians are an odd bunch sometimes. Crabb writes that, in an effort to fight pride, humanism, etc. Christians go the other direction to say that "there is not goodness in our flesh, and all our good deeds is like filthy rags to God, etc. etc." No doubt there is truth in those statements- that our works don't compare to God's holiness. But honestly I grow tired of the constant focus on sin and struggle because it is not fitting for a redeemed Christian.

We forget that Good Friday was not the end; there was Easter Sunday, and Paul himself writes in 1 Corinthians 15 that, without the resurrection, the gospel is meaningless. Remaining at the foot of the cross is a great & glorious thing, and rightfully we should never forget the cross. Yet I find that when we "think about the cross," that usually means:
- how our sin "sent Christ to the cross" (which isn't theologically accurate either)
- how much Christ suffered for us
- how much we deserved to suffer there instead
- how thankful we are that Christ took our punishment
I have to ask... where's the resurrection in all this?. The cross is not the "end" of the story.... The confession of the church is not "Christ died for us," but "He is Risen!" You can't have one without the other.

Asian-Americans have a harder time with this, I think. I see in a lot of Korean churches especially, the emphasis on themes of being unworthy, always needing to repent, recognizing how sinful we are, etc. But I gotta ask:
What runs deeper? Our sin or our goodness?
By "our goodness," I mean the image of God- the image of God was placed in us BEFORE the Fall, before sin entered the human experience. The image of God runs deeper than our sin. The resurrection power of Christ makes it clear that, though we were dead in our sins, now we are made alive in Christ (Romans 6).

Good news, you are not defined by your sin. Yes, we are "sinners," but why have we let that label trap us into thinking that we're "no good"?
When you worship, are you more aware of your sin than you are of God's grace?
Do you define yourself spiritually by "how unworthy you are before God?" or by "the new creation that Christ is now forming us into?" (2 Cor. 5)

Asian students know what all this looks like; we get it from our parents in varying degrees: you're defined by your academic successes and failures; if you didn't get an A, it's because you were not good enough, smart enough, diligent enough. Even when we do succeed, we don't want to "be proud" and so we say "oh, not really" and back away from anything that acknowledges that we're good. We've gotten so used to admitting when we're wrong, that we forget that there's anything good- the image of God within every human being. Whenever we mess up, the first impulse is "repent, repent, repent" and then repent some more. But after all that repenting, there's no celebration... that, having repented, we can move on from that place. We get "stuck" in sin & repentance, and forget to praise.

posted by Andy Chang @ 10:19 PM