There are a number of jokes that have been circulating the internet and are in little gift books. They are always titled something like, “You know you’re _______ if you’ve ever…”, “You know you’re a pastor if…”, or “You know you’re from Chicago if…” or even, “You know you’re a redneck if…” One of my favorites talks about how you can identify where a driver is from.
You’ll hear preachers talk about love and how God loves us. But what is love? I wonder if as Christians we would be happier, more joyful and more at peace if we understood what love really is. We’re told that God is love. We’re told that we’re supposed to love one another as Christ loved us. If you’re like me, you might be asking, does that mean I should die on a cross like He did?
I know right now that we exist in a world where there is much that has gone wrong. There is poverty, starvation, rape, murder, war, disaster and disease that is ripping through the entire world pulling it apart, atom by atom. I understand that this world will never be as it was originally made—as it was intended.
In it, C.S. Lewis paints a story about a bunch of people who are awaiting a bus in the dismal town of hell that will take them to the plains of heaven. Once arriving in a world more real then our own, these people find that the grass hurts their feet, and that they appear as shadowy ghosts and that the inhabitants of heaven are so bright and jovial that many of these ghostly visitors refuse to give up their selfish grudges, twisted loves, self righteousness and bitterness from their past to enjoy eternal joy. Here are some of my favorite quotes and thoughts from the book…
There are a lot of people who have opinions on who Jesus was. Some say that He is a good teacher, others say that He is a prophet or a profound philosopher. There are those who state that Jesus is God. One way or another Jesus has been the most talked about man who has ever lived. There are more debates on who Jesus really was, more books written revolving around His life than any other man who has ever lived. Jesus Himself stated He was one with the Father and that He is one with God Himself.
If you close your eyes, you can almost sense Philip’s excitement. He had just found the long-awaited Messiah. He had seen Him with his own eyes. In pure joyful anticipation he runs to find his friend, Nathaniel, and exclaims, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” (John 1:45) It had only been a little bit earlier when Philip had met Jesus and had heard the words from the Messiah’s mouth, “Come, and you will see.”
“It is for a very different reason that religion cannot occupy the whole of life in the sense of excluding all natural activities. For, of course, in some sense, it must occupy the whole of life. There is no question of a compromise between the claims of God and the claims of culture, or politics, or anything else.” (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, pgs. 53-54)
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Why do we keep looking to our own fulfillment to gage whether we are living up to our purpose in life? Would not the author of life be a better judge of whether or not we are doing what we were designed to do? Perhaps when our happiness is rooted in the happiness of God we would find fulfillment. Oh that we would seek to not just understand the heart of God but that we would ask Him to give us His heart. Oh that we would imitate Him in every way and in every step.
Now, the numerous parallels and similarities between this song and the seventh chapter of the epistle of Romans written almost two-thousand years ago astound me. This seemingly secular (pagan) band and God’s word both agree about a common human experience–it is an experience I believe the evangelical Christian world refers to as “sin”. Should I throw this song in the recycle bin on my desktop because it never references God or Jesus, and doesn’t leave much room for hope in being redeemed from the nagging plague of sin? I don’t think so.