SCL #871 - At least faith
If it were up to me, you’d be allowed to board an airplane based on how fast you took your shoes off in the security line. Clock a good time? You’re on the plane first! Slowly unlace waist high boots? You’ll board last.
It would be like the Olympics of airport security. And it would be awesome.
These are the kind of things I think about when I fly. If you follow me on twitter, and you really should, you know all of this. You know that last Saturday I tweeted about the four year old next to me who shook his sippy cup like he had just won the NBA Championship. Milk flew on my book and my face. It was a scene man, a real scene.
Eventually the flight attendant stepped in when the kid made a play for the fire extinguisher and the bullhorn. Party time!
But that kid wasn’t even the most interesting thing that happened on that flight. There was an officer in the army sitting on the other side of me. He was flying back to Afghanistan and said something that really surprised me. I asked him what was one of the biggest misconceptions about Afghanistan and here’s what he told me:
“We statistically lose more 18-25 year old soldiers when they go home for R&R than we do in combat in the field.”
That surprised me. If you asked me which was more dangerous, being in the middle of an armed conflict in Afghanistan or going home for a few weeks of rest and relaxation, I’d pick the first option. But the more the army officer explained it, the more it made sense.
“What sometimes happens is that you have folks that go back home after being out of the country for months at a time. They’re flush with cash, haven’t been in a lot of social situations lately and think they’re out of danger.”
They buy motorcycles and crash them. They make crazy financial situations that wreck them. They get in DUIs. In a million different ways they make the kind of mistakes that can ruin you. All at home. All on vacation.
The more I listened to him, the more the story started to sound familiar. In fact, I think we do a similar thing with our faith sometimes.
We all know the “neon sins” we’re not supposed to do. We all know the big things we should avoid like the plague. Adultery, murder, money laundering, robbing banks, chances are if I suggested we shouldn’t do those things you’d agree. There’s nothing groundbreaking about that. But sometimes we play the “at least game.”
My friend reminded me of this a few years ago. I told him I felt like I was struggling with some lust issues. I told him I was feeling pretty wrecked by some decisions I was making. In the middle of our conversation he said,
“Yeah, but at least you’re not sleeping with hookers.”
That’s true, I wasn’t sleeping with hookers. I was avoiding some neon sins in my life. I wasn’t involved in prostitution. I was staying away from the combat zone types of sins, the at war in Afghanistan type of dangers. I was escaping the trenches in my life on the battlefield of my heart.
But I was dying on vacation.
I might not have been sleeping with hookers, but I was slowly wearing myself away with lust and pornography. My death might not have been dramatic or extreme, like a rocket-propelled grenade from an enemy, but it was happening nonetheless. My faith had grown weak and comfortable. I wasn’t growing, I wasn’t being renewed, I was a adrift. And I don’t want that.
I don’t want “at least” faith.
I don’t want to find somebody who is worse off than me in order to feel better about me.
I don’t want to prepare and train and fight hard against the big enemies of my life, only to die in the middle of an ordinary weekday, during an ordinary vacation.
The battlefield is a scary place. We’re constantly reminded of that as pastors and friends alike give in to big terrifying foes. But in our desire to prepare for the battlefield bruises, in our focus on the big, loud, neon sins in our lives, let’s not lose sight of the little things.
Let’s let go of “at least” faith.
Let’s not die on vacation.
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On a separate note, humanity can be rather sickening. We can all have done right but everything still goes wrong. No man is perfect, no man can be perfect, because what is ultimately the overall good can still damage others. Utilitarianism is pathetic.
I target the institution of love as defined as man, in particular romantic love. A few months ago, I wrote an entry in a little green book I happen to have. It contains some thoughts about why in heaven, marriages are abolished and why it is said in the Bible it is better to remain single, though one does not do wrong by marrying.
In summary, I made the point that romantic love can never be perfect. Only agape love can fill that spot. I wont go into the details why I said that but perhaps you would know yourself. I'd hate to bring in econs right now but it fits so well so whatever, think about non-excludability and non-rivalry.
Thats for romantic love. Regarding regular relationships between one another, sometimes we all just keep failing each other's expectations. The closest friends I have are probably those I have quarreled with the most.
When will we stop picking on each other and come to fully recognise we are all inherently flawed beyond belief?
Pretty much never. I believe there have been people who have gotten close, but never. As much as we understand that we are all sinners saved by grace and in comparison to God the extent of our deviation from the Ideal puts us along the same line as terrorists and criminals, we still cannot tolerate one another.
Problem is, we all have that one thing that we feel so strongly about, and then we have people who are flawed in just that aspect. Chaos ensues.
Honestly, its probably easier to love your enemy than to love a friend.
I desire utopia, but any man made utopia only breaks down into dystopia (annoyingly, I kinda got this from bioshock, why are games part of this too). I desire peace. I desire a society whereby we wouldnt get into mindless conflicts that are meaningless.
Annoyingly, I also feel incompetent in that I cannot bring my thoughts across to another. I cannot say to them 'look, here exactly is where you are wrong' even though I do know, because perhaps that is one area I am especially sensitive of.
All the same, others cannot say that to me when it comes to something that I am oblivious to. We cannot do this because we are unable to appreciate the points of view of others, we are unable to comprehend what they are saying.
I can count the number of times I have attempted to stop people from doing stupid things, failed, and realised that my fixing even though it is correct, doesnt help because others cannot appreciate why it is true.
Which is why, at the end all things fade away, but faith, hope and love will prevail.
But evidently we all suck at those three, no matter how good we think we are, we are far from what is needed to ensure that all is done right.
This world is screwed. Everything is meaningless. With the fall of man, we have lost what it means to truly live, and to recover it awaits heaven. Upon the face of this earth, we have a wondrous glimpse, but it will nevertheless remain a glimpse. This message rings of pessimism but its hauntingly true.
Perhaps we shall end on a more optimistic state, a point that I also personally believe to be very true. Even though the world is messed up, we still have to live, and since we still have to live, we will live well. We will live right. Though times will come where people fail us, where differences are irreconcilable, we will not falter. The history of man has shown us to be much greater, to be able to triumph over all.
And not only so, with God on our side, life is worth the living. Abundant life begins now, and even though it doesnt begin to compare with the heavenly realms, the little bit perhaps will be more than enough to go through every day of a world heading towards destruction.
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