The Hard & Good Narrow Path

My buddy and I are back into the swing of our mountain-biking. This is not rail trail stuff. Real mountains, rocks, danger. Fun, true fun. Where the ride is real, not some video game where you can get blown to bits and then eat corn chips. If you fall, it hurts. Yet, as your ride, it is a rush of exhilaration. Constantly assessing the path and making adjustments. Last year, as we wound down because of the encroaching cold, it was a good thing since I had taken several bad wipe outs, each worse that the one before. My helmet got cracked, I got another concussion, and it was best to put the bike away for the season. Not bad though for a couple of post-50 dudes.

To switch gears for a bit, I know my last couple of blog posts about alcohol and the use of violence don't fit the Left or Right Faith paradigm. With the abstention of alcohol issue, I came down hard on that teetotaler position because it is Legalism underneath. And, Legalism is deadly. We do no favors if we abstain in an attempt to be righteous. Moderate alcohol consumption in the Bible is not sin. It is a good thing. We don't help Muslims and Observant Jews if we eschew bacon in an attempt to curry their confidence. We actually harm them by legitimizing externalism, when in fact the issue is the waywardness of the human heart which can only be addressed from the inside out.

It is not good to throw our freedom as Christians in their faces arrogantly, but is far worse to be two-faced an inconsistent to our beliefs on the basis of who we might offend. We can't win if we look duplicitous. The world will always find fault with Christian freedom. It is too good to be true in their worldview. Religion in their book is an austere thing. Based on the work of man. In saying this, I am fully aware of licentiousness, where we want to dig into sin with our devil horns and fly away from the consequences with angels wings. Twice-condemned, and leads to the darkest and hottest pit of Hell. Throwing the blood of the Son of God underfoot as we pant after evil.  

With the use of violence, I critiqued both Militarism and Pacifism.

Militarism because it believes that humanity can be bombed into line and obedience. Physical punishment should always be the last option rather than the first response. We want, in the over-ruse of our military, to not own up to what we have done historically to create our current messes around the world. Obliterate our guilt in the hail of gunfire. Reconciliation is hard and costly and demands repentance.  

Pacifism, because it is a patently antinomian response to evil on a societal level. Individual Christians can decide as a matter of conscience to lay aside their rights when abused by evil. That is a legitimate response, and even the biblical response. Where the Pacifist over-reaches is when he or she posits that Jesus demands that our society operate on this premise which has been shown to inculcate anarchy and horrific dangers historically. People acting abusively to another must be addressed jurisdictionally.

Post-Modernists Evangelicals typically process Constantine's edict of Christendom to be an evil thing. This is naive.It was a mixed bag for sure but let us not romanticize Caesar's civilization where it was legal and moral for parents to kill their post-womb children, where one could be crucified for perceived threats to the Empire, and a host of other harsh and heavy-handed sword bearing by the magistrate. The Pacifist has to discard almost the entire Old Testament in regards to the lawful use of the limited expression of violence by the Civil Government to quell evil that was not only permitted by God but commanded. King Saul was removed by God specifically for not killing Agag the Amalekite, among other offenses, which directly contradicted God's edict. We Modernists get queasy with a God who does this but it is the biblical record and we had better deal with it straight-up.

We can't put God in the either-or-box.

We must try, with wisdom, to form a biblical perspective based on the whole counsel of God, not just the parts we dig. Grace, like the mountain-biking trail, is not safe. The Law are the borders, and we must negotiate the rocks, often at the speed of real life, and not in some multiple choice exam where answers are easy and go in a grade-book, disassociated from real life and real issues. When I was 17, I had an existential crisis on a magnitude hard to describe. I didn't know who I was and what I believed. It may sound like some adolescent pseudo-event but is was as real as a heart attack or cancer. I wondered why I should continue to go on living if all that happened was by doing so, I prolonged the pain of living and only delayed dying.

I promised myself that if I got out of it--and I am still working through this understanding with fear and trembling--that I would no longer follow group-think no matter what stripe it was. I would think for myself and try to base my ideas of life on what was True, not convenient. This posture can obviously lead to the echo chamber of ego where I tell myself that I must be one of the few who ride the bike of life this way and I shouldn't be so self-affirming. Yet God has humbled me and continues to do so daily. My job as a school counselor consistently puts my wisdom to the test where I have to consider the big picture--what is good for the kids I serve--no matter whether it is something convenient or easier for me.

For example, we are working on schedules right now and I spend an enormous amount of time over the summer figuring out what seems best for my individual students. I do so through a ton of communication with the students and the parents. It would be easy for me to slack and just slap the schedules together. Instead, I attempt to make them as good as I can, because if I was a student and a parent, I would want the school counselor to do so for me. Easy or good enough is the enemy of the best. Not perfect mind you, because the Idol of Perfectionism is a demanding goddess (yes, I think women struggle more with this than men, for we have other sins). Perfectionism requires perpetual sacrifice and is never, and I mean never, satisfied. All the giving just establishes higher expectations and at some point the soul collapses under the weight of want.

I have been there, trust me. And, I am not embracing this Idol ever again. Ever. Christ came to die for sinners, not just to make up the difference between our righteousness and His. Instead, He rode that trail to Calvary perfectly and replaced our failure-ridden ride for His. Rather remarkable really...and really good news. It was bloody, and violent, and harder than we will ever know. But is was good.