The “What Now” Syndrome

Kingdom Grace’s latest post, Work in Progress, got me to thinking about the trouble with thinking outside the box.

We Christians are basically handed a modern-traditional model of church life and experience when we are saved. Henceforth and forevermore we’re expected to participate in church as we know it. Some of us wake up and realize that church-as-we-know-it is not church-as-it-could-be.

Some dear friends of ours left the institution and discovered they weren’t sure what to replace it with. I think that’s the trouble with courage: Once you choose to walk another path you’ve got to live with the consequences.

I couldn’t have guessed how difficult it would be finding people who shared the same vision. I naïvely thought a bunch of people would gather around me to celebrate this beautiful “otherness” and we would live happily ever after. But what really happened is that I pulled the plug on the show and have been left to wonder where my family and I fit.

In the meantime I’ve got a bunch of pastor friends who are quite happy with church-in-a-box (CIAB) and have no desire to change. A greater number of my friends and family are sticking with CIAB and see no need to do anything else. “Why would we change?” is the typical attitude.

Word on the street (I don’t have statistics to indicate this is true or false) is that a lot of people are not happy with CIAB. The blogosphere seems to indicate that there are quite a number of people who long for something more meaningful than a once a week Christian performance.

So what now? Where do those go who have few outside-the-box connections? Here are some ideas:

Embrace the Father. Jesus came to set us free from ourselves… from the curse of sin… from petty entrapments. My spiritual life has benefited greatly from embracing, by faith, the finished work of Christ and just resting in my Father’s love. Jesus said “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (NIV, John 6:29).

The best thing we can do in or outside the four walls is rest in the finished work of Christ, foster a love for our Father, and experience the work of His Spirit. Ultimately, salvation and the saved life comes from His hand and not our best efforts.

Forgive. If you’ve been burned by church people, as I have, forgive. What does this really mean? We aren’t to pretend we were never offended. We shouldn’t give abusers a free pass to abuse others. There should be, whenever possible, confrontation and the desire for change. But when abusers and an abusive system won’t change we’ve got to move on. Leave them in the care of our good Father.

Forgiveness means putting the offense back in the hands of the Lord as many times as it is necessary. Forgiveness won’t always be one-prayer-and-done. Allow yourself to grieve. Give yourself space to heal. You’ll bleed, scab up, pick the scab, bleed, and heal little by little. When you’re done, you’ll likely be left with a scar. Jacob had his limp and you can have your scar(s).

Enjoy the small graces. Bob Bennett, my all-time favorite guitar/lyricist/guy, wrote the following in his song Small Graces:

Cheerful greetings unexpected
Shared by strangers on the run,
For when the sky is clouded over
Still the promise of the sun

Is in the small graces,
The little moments when the miracles come.
These are the small graces,
Small graces pointing me to the larger ones.

I’m trying to remember that little things are big things in the kingdom of God. It is truly an upside-down kingdom. We’ll never know how significant the little things or how insignificant the big things were on earth until we get to heaven. Remember the widow’s mite.

Live in the moment. Today is the only day you and I have right now. I’m trying to live in the now. This moment in the only moment that I can do anything. Fretting about the future or the past doesn’t get me any closer to my goals. This is basically what Jesus said. Today is the only day we’ve got. Thankfully it’s a good day.

Circumstances are not an indication of Father’s love. “What can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord?” Nada. Nothing.

One of the most significant illuminations I’ve experiences is moving away from a circumstance-driven conception of God’s love. When bad stuff happens (which it regularly does) I try to remember that it in no way indicates God doesn’t love me. I’m going to be OK regardless of my circumstances. Father’s love is not so shallow that it goes away when difficulty comes my way.

I am in no way a health and wealth believer. Remember Job. He stuck by God through thick and thin. More importantly, God stuck with him even though he couldn’t see it. Our faith isn’t a circumstantial faith. It is a forever faith.

Wait and see what happens. People ask me how I’m doing. Sometimes I say, “I’m not sure how things are going to turn out but I’m good today.” Present circumstances are no indication of future success or failure. In other words, there is lots of time to succeed. And if I don’t succeed on earth, heaven is the ultimate indication of success and that battle is already won. By Jesus.

I’ve done a lot of rambling here. While we may still be seeking a community of faith outside CIAB, we have reason to keep moving foreword. Our Father’s love alone gives us reason to hope. The “What Now” Syndrome should lead us to rest in the things we already know.

Remember Dory’s advice: “Just keep swimming.”