In All Circumstances
Brian McLaren highlights how gratefulness is a recurring theme in the Gospels:
Jesus makes it clear that a life lived to fulfill God’s dream for creation will involve suffering. But even here, Jesus implies that there is reason for gratitude. You see it in the Beatitudes, Jesus’s eightfold way of happiness (Matthew 5:3–12). There is a blessing in poverty, he says; to the degree you miss out on the never-enough system, you partake of God’s dream. There is a blessing in the pain of loss, because in your grief you experience God’s comfort. There is blessing in being unsatisfied about the injustice in our world, he says; as God’s justice comes more and more, you will feel more and more fulfilled….
With these counterintuitive sayings and others like them, Jesus enrolls us in advanced classes in the school of gratitude. He shows us the disadvantages of advantages, and the advantages of disadvantages. He will make this paradox most dramatic through his own death; his suffering and crucifixion will eventually bring hope and freedom to all humanity, hope and freedom that could come no other way. Here is the deepest lesson of gratitude, then. We are to be grateful not just in the good times, but also in the bad times; to be grateful not just in plenty, but also in need; to maintain thankfulness not just in laughter, but also through tears and sorrow. One of Jesus’s followers says that we should even rejoice in trials, because through trials come patience, character, wisdom (James 1:2–3). And another says, “I have learned to be content with whatever I have” (Philippians 4:11), so he can instruct, “Give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
The words “in all circumstances” shouldn’t be confused with “for all circumstances,” of course. But neither should they be thinned to mean “in easy circumstances.” Even in pain, we can find a place of gratitude, a place where alongside the agony of loss we still count and appreciate what remains….
You may lose a loved one, or facet after facet of your physical health, but you can still be grateful for what you have left. And what if you lose more, and more, and more, if bad goes to worse? Perhaps at some point, all of us are reduced to despair, but my hunch is—and I hope I never need to prove this in my own life, but I may, any of us may—having lost everything, one may still be able to hold on to one’s attitude, one’s practiced habit of gratitude, of turning to God in Job-like agony and saying, “For this breath, thanks. For this tear, thanks. For this memory of something I used to enjoy but have now lost, thanks. For this ability not simply to rage over what has been taken, but to celebrate what was once given, thanks.”
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| Unity vs. Uniformity. Skye Jethani |
 Where God’s Spirit is present, you will find a community that transcends differences. People will be bound to each other in a way that makes no earthly sense. The ordinary bonds of unity, like culture, politics, class, or ethnicity, will be insufficient to explain what connects the people of Christ. In his church, enemies will be friends, divisions will be mended, hatreds will be healed, and offenses will be overcome.Where God’s Spirit is not present, however, a “Christian” community will accept a counterfeit kind of connection; a perception of unity that comes by forcibly eliminating all differences. What human efforts produce is mere uniformity where external behaviors, appearances, and preferences do not deviate. In such communities, everyone thinks the same, speaks the same, prefers the same music, and pursues the same goals. In other words, human power alone can produce a community that would probably exist even without the supernatural presence of God’s Spirit, and it may even be an effective organization—but it would not be a church. As A.W. Tozer said, “One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team.”A few years ago, I was passing through Frankfurt Airport in Germany. In the middle of the terminals were large glass boxes, about eight feet square, with a door. Above each box was a sign that said, “CAMEL.” They were smoking chambers sponsored by Camel cigarettes. Smokers were crammed inside like animals in a zoo exhibit, while other travelers stopped, pointed, and even took pictures of the strange humans on display in the smoke-filled habitats.A church built on human uniformity rather than the Spirit’s unity is like those smoking chambers. At first glance, these churches appear to be a tight community of people all committed to the same activity. Look more closely, however, and churches without the Spirit’s power are just a group of strangers who gather occasionally in a box, blow smoke at each other, and appear very odd to those on the outside.When the Spirit builds a church, on the other hand, it is possible to experience far more than just uniformity. The Spirit fosters a unity that rests far deeper than conformity to social, cultural, and behavioral preferences. It’s a oneness rooted in communion with Jesus himself. Again, A.W. Tozer captures the truth well:“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.” DAILY SCRIPTURE EPHESIANS 4:1-6 JOHN 17:20-23 WEEKLY PRAYER From William Laud (1573 – 1645) Most gracious Father, we most humbly beseech you for your holy church. Fill it with all truth; in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purge it; where it is in error, direct it; where anything is amiss, reform it; where it is right, strengthen and confirm it; where it is in need, furnish it; where it is divided and torn apart, make up its breaches, O holy One of Israel. Amen. |
