Between the Almost and the Not Yet

Ask any kid on a car journey about liminal space, and they will stare at you blankly.  But they all know the experience of liminality.  And so do you.  We find ourselves in liminal spaces all the time. How do I know?  Ever asked or answered this question on a road trip? “Are we there yet?” If you have answered with the words, “almost” or “not yet”, you understand the concept of  a liminal space. They are those transitional spaces in our lives that come between the Almost and the Not Yet.  They are transitory spaces.  Places where you cross one threshold but you are not quite to where you are going. 

In a house, we would call them entryways or hallways.  A place, not to stay, but to get from one place to another.  Get trapped in an entryway by someone blocking your entrance and someone behind you wanting to get in and you experience one of life’s teaching moments.  There is nothing quite so awkward as being stuck in a liminal space. An elevator would be another great example of that.  It is used to get from one floor to another, and that is extremely helpful,  but to get stuck in one can suddenly become frightening. Even hanging out in a stairwell of building leaves us feeling out of sorts.  Use it the way it was designed, and it is useful.  Stay there too long and it begins to feel a bit creepy.

In our world today, we find ourselves at that awkward place of liminality.  We are not yet through the pandemic, but almost.  We can see light at the end of the tunnel, and we certainly aren't where we were a year ago, but we aren’t yet back to normal.  That teen with a learner’s permit? Liminal state.  That pursuit of a degree?  Liminal stage of life.  They are phases to pass through but not to stay.  To be in a liminal state means that we are in transition,  moving to another stage, another place or another level. We have left one place and stage, but we have yet to arrive at our new place or stage.  And liminal phases almost always leave us feeling unsettled, unfinished or unresolved. There is something about leaving that liminal place and crossing into a more permanent or resting place that gives us the resolution we crave.

Moving from the kitchen down the hallway to the bedroom gives our purpose fulfillment.  We find sustenance in the kitchen and rest in the bedroom, but the hallway is not a place we typically hang out.  Its main purpose is to be the thoroughfare that gets us from one place to the other.  Necessary, to be sure, but not designed to be a destination.

Consider that one of the greatest liminal spaces for the Christian, that place between the Almost and the Not Yet, is simply called…mortal life.  Consider this: we know we have salvation in Christ as believers, because of what He did for us on the cross, and once we believe, we have left our old life behind,  but the fulfillment of that in its entirety is not yet.  And it won’t be until we cross the portals into heaven. This life, though it has many places of fulfillment and resting and enjoyments, albeit countered by pain, sorrow, loss and death, is really only a liminal space. 

From the womb to the tomb, this journey we are on is not a place we are to crave staying, any more than we would desire to always stand in the foyer or camp out in the hallway.  And even when we arrive at the tomb, it too, in reality, is only a liminal place.  We are, for lack of a better way to view it, stuck between the almost and the not yet.  In fact, according to scripture there are only two ultimate destinations-Heaven or Hell. And that isn’t so much a place as it is a Person. While I believe heaven and hell can be physical locations,  I believe they are more accurately descriptions of either being with Jesus or away from Him.

All through scripture, God continues to remind us that, though we were born here, this is only the hallway to heaven.  He seeks to help us understand that He intentioned more for us in the beginning, and though we blew that plan to pieces through our sin,  through Jesus, God desires to rescue us from our liminal spaces, both physical and mental, and deliver us to a place of true destiny; our ultimate destiny.   A place where we will finally discover in totality, who we really are, and how we can live into that for eternity. To know and be truly known…and totally belong.

That destiny can start here and now.  It is one of purpose and intentionality: to pursue the Creator God in personal relationship, to seek and discover how God has put us together and to utilize those gifts to help others see the futility in seeking anything on this earth as a final destination.  Wealth?  Fleeting.  Power? Fickle and damaging.  Fame? Here today, forgotten tomorrow.  All liminal spaces.  None of them are permanent destinations.  Those who pursue them find, after attaining a certain amount of any or all,  that there is still more of each to seek after.  And even if you could attain all of the money that exists in the world, all of the power that is available and all the fame you possibly could attain, the burning question would still be: Is this all there is?  Now what?

They are the same questions that all seek.  And the answers?  No.  This isn’t all there is.  You have an ultimate destiny and it is found in the person of Jesus Christ. Now what?  Perhaps Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, can answer what we are to be doing until our ultimate Destiny-Jesus, comes to take us to our ultimate home-heaven, as we wait between the Almost and the Not Yet.

Eccl. 12:13    That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty.

Heb. 12:1    Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. ² We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.

Hold on my friends…until the FINALLY HERE arrives.

Godliness with Contentment

Years ago, Russell Conwell told of an ancient Persian, Ali Hafed, who "owned a very large farm that had orchards, grain fields, and gardens... and was a wealthy contented man." One day a wise man from the East told the farmer all about diamonds and how wealthy he would be if he owned a diamond mine. Ali Hafed went to bed that night a poor man--poor because he was discontented. Craving a mine of diamonds, he sold his farm to search for the rare stones. He traveled the world over, finally becoming so poor, broken, and defeated that he committed suicide. One day the man who purchased Ali Hafed's farm led his camel into the garden to drink. As his camel put its nose into the brook, the man saw a flash of light from the sands of the stream. He pulled out a stone that reflected all the hues of the rainbow. The man had discovered the diamond mine of Golcanda, the most magnificent mine in all history. Had Ali Hafed remained at home and dug in his own garden, then instead of death in a strange land, he would have had acres of diamonds.   (G. Sweeting, in Moody Monthly, May, 1988,  p. 95.)

True story.  And we look at Ali Hafed and we say, “Dude, you should have stayed put!”  but almost everyone of us is infected with the same thing.  A lack of contentment with what we have.

If I were to ask you to name three things you wish you had, what would you tell me?  

Now…if I were to ask you for three things you are thankful for, what would you tell me?

Which was easier to come up with?  Why?  Did you know we spend far more time thinking about the things we wish we had than we do being thankful for the things we do have.

Benjamin Franklin once wrote "Being content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor." 

It isn’t about how much you have.  It’s about how you view your circumstances.  The apostle Paul tells us the same thing in his first letter to Timothy and he’s talking to him about people who call themselves Christian teachers who do so for financial gain. 1Timothy ch. 6.  These are men who stirred up debates and controversies, criticizing what they saw, arousing suspicions against ones that called them out, going so far as to talk maliciously about them and trash their characters.  Why?  To seek to show themselves more godly and perhaps even more conservative in order to pull down the big dollars.  Of course that doesn’t happen in our day.  Let’s look at what Paul says. 

1Tim 6:3-11   If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching,  4 he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5 and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.  6   But godliness with contentment is great gain.  7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.  8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.  9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.  10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.  11   But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

Did you notice verse 6?  He’s been talking about all of these things and how men who have been robbed of the truth think that godliness is a means to financial gain.  And then he says: .  6   But godliness with contentment is great gain.

Did he say more stuff was the way to great gain?  Owning more land?  Better cars?  Bigger houses?  No… godliness with contentment.  Let’s take that apart for a minute.

In the original language, the word for godliness is actually two words meaning literally to worship, to be god-fearing and devout, well,well done.  In other words Paul is telling us that the first component to true gain is to worship, be god-fearing and devout, beyond the best of our abilities—that is, we can’t even do it on our own.  It has to be done in us by God.  So we are seeking God continually and seeking to worship Him and follow His ways.   And the second word, contentment, is translated, sufficiency or to be sufficient.  

So Paul says great gain is not found in wordly wealth, but in seeking to worship God and follow His ways while we find our sufficiency in Him.  

Put another way, when we finally understand and believe that God can and will take care of what we need, we will be content and that will show in our worship.  It won’t be about money and things money can buy.  It will be about knowing that God knows you, sees you and hears you and will take care of your needs.  That’s sufficiency.  That’s enough.  That’s contentment.

Tell me: Are you content?

Merry Christmas! GOD CHOSE YOU!!!!

I had an epiphany in Wal-Mart the other day.  It occurred to me, standing in the Wal-Mart line as I watched the flurry of frantic Christmas activity, that we, as a society,  are celebrating the wrong thing or things at Christmas.  While there is certainly nothing wrong with letting people know how much you care about them through the love language of giving, especially in light of all that a loving God has given us, it occurred to me that our focus, as a society, has turned to a celebration of materialism and capitalism.  This certainly wasn’t the first time that thought has hit me—as I imagine some of you with the “well, duh” expressions on your faces.  But I began to see it in stark contrast to what we should be celebrating and how what we celebrate affects who we are, and our energy levels and even how fulfilled and excited we are about life.  Let me explain.

To most people in our society, Christmas has become all about the perfect material gift for the significant people on your list, and for the stores themselves, it has become a marketing bright spot in a year of otherwise soft sales.  And the game becomes one of seeking the perfect price point.  If the goods are marked too high, people will tend to walk away.  But if they are priced too low it cuts into the profit margins.  And prices are constantly being adjusted to try and regulate a good flow of merchandise.  And so the two have merged as a celebration in their own right.  For the consumer, it is buying the perfect gift at the right price and for the merchant, it comes in keeping the flow of merchandise moving to maximize profits and the bottom line, so that the fourth quarter earnings can be posted much higher thereby driving your stock prices up. And the more Christmas becomes about the gifts and the profit-margins, the more tired and disgruntled we feel, and the less joy and energy we feel.  That focus on Christmas actually sucks the life out of us.  It reduces us to a mentality of quantifying how important we are by how much stuff we get. 

If we get something exotic or expensive given to us, then we assume we have great worth because much was spent.  Likewise, if we don’t get much, we assume we aren’t worth much.  And for those with little to spend, the uneven financial ground, that we are so keenly aware of all throughout the year, is merely exacerbated and seen in starker contrast because those with little, see those with much, purchasing expensive gifts and they wish THEY could buy more for their loved ones.  And instead of leaving Wal-Mart excited about what they have been able to purchase, they leave disappointed and discouraged and drained—the life sucked out of them, and the wealthy leave Wal-Mart with an air of superiority because they are able to afford more—well actually, many of the wealthy wouldn’t be caught dead shopping Wal-Mart—but you get my point.  But here’s the rub.  

Many of the poor are actually grateful for what they receive for Christmas, while many of the rich only pretend to be.  Or they may be excited at first, but because they get so much, it quickly loses it’s appeal and special-ness and fades into the landscape of all the other stuff they have and within just a few weeks, many forget that they ever received it.  I know...it gets really confusing...and sometimes even maddening.

May I suggest a different focus?   What we really celebrate, or should celebrate at Christmas, is that God chooses us. He comes tenderly as one of us and makes the gigantic step of choosing to love us, choosing to take all of what he has, all of what he holds, and offers it to us in a relationship.   Now that’s energizing isn’t it?  That’s exciting.  And no matter what your socio-economic background, that is still more than any of us will ever have in the material world. 

Think of that—God chose YOU!  He made the gigantic step of choosing to love YOU, choosing to take all of what He has, all of what He holds, and he offers it to YOU in a relationship.  Is that worth celebrating?  That doesn’t leave the drained or disappointed feelings that materialism subjects us to.  That can be energized every single day for the rest of your life!  And that’s the point.  God chose YOU to be in relationship with Him so that He could impart LIFE and ENERGY to YOU.  

For all of the junk that we have to wade through down here—for all of things that can turn life sour, or disappointing or discouraging, or even hopeless, you need to know that Jesus, the Word, capital W, is the right answer.  In a mixed-up world with a mixed-up society celebrating Christmas in a mixed-up way, Jesus continues to be the right answer.  I would submit that it is only through understanding the Word, incarnate,  that is, Jesus in the flesh, that we can begin to see where we fit into the whole scheme of things and then, finding our rightful place, we can begin to live life with a  purpose and an aliveness that has eluded us while we spend our time in the Wal-Mart line.

Thomas A Kempis wrote: A wise lover values not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver.    

Merry Christmas!  GOD CHOSE YOU!

Never Enough!

One of the most common things I hear as an opening line whenever kids come into to talk to me is, “Pastor Don, I’m so stressed I don’t know what to do.”

In our current society, we push kids, we hurry kids, we sign them up for all sorts of things…and think that it is never enough.  We expect them to be good at EVERYTHING…instead of taking their natural abilities into account.  We push and push for grades.  We enroll them in soccer and t-ball and gymnastics and dance and football and martial arts and we expect them to get all A’s in all subjects.  But what we are really doing is saying, in essence, “you will never be good enough unless you can produce the results.”  Or as one parent put it: “I’m paying the money so you better show me that I’m not wasting it.”  What’s the message there?  My money is very important to me.  I’m going to use some of it to help you develop…but don’t waste my money.  And the implied message is…if you don’t become good at it, you have failed me, and my money, and that is totally unacceptable.

Who says that everyone has to be good at everything?  What if, when they make a C in a class, you ask them what they are really good at and encourage them to pursue that?  What if you told them a C was good enough for an area they were not gifted in, while you encouraged them to pursue what they were gifted in?

What ever happened to individuality?  Instead, we want them to be good at everything…even when we are not!  We want them to make all A’s!  And we’ve gotten them to buy into the notion that unless they do, they will be a failure.

Help me finish these statements: You have to get good grades so that… (you can get into a good college)  You have to get into a good college so that…(you can get a good job)  You have to get a good job so that…(you can make lots of money)  You have to make lots of money so that…(you can be successful and happy).  Where did we get that?

From the world’s system of doing things.   So we put pressure on them to get good grades so ultimately they can be happy.  And what we really are doing is telling them that happiness is a station they can one day arrive at instead of a manner of traveling.  Which flies directly in the face of what God wants to develop in them.  God is more interested in their holiness than He is their happiness.  He wants to develop their character more than He does their bank accounts.  He wants them to find true joy in serving others.  But we short-circuit that in the lives of teens by elevating education and advanced degrees and people with money over serving God with passion.

Don’t misunderstand me.  There is nothing wrong with having an education and advanced degrees.  There is nothing wrong with being wealthy.  But if that is what we are telling kids will bring them happiness, then we have flat out sold them a lie.  And at what cost?  They have more stress in their lives than they can handle and we heap more and more on them telling them they have to do these things to what?  Climb the world’s social and economic ladders.  We tell them that what they are doing is never enough.

God designed that education and advanced degrees and even our wordly wealth all be used to honor Him.  Not some artificial socio-economic structure that we’ve bought into.  But there is something more inherently dangerous in this “never enough” message. 

This attitude carries over into their spiritual life as well.  We portray God as saying…you will never be good enough…but you better produce anyway.  Read your Bible.  Pray.  Witness.  Become a vegan.  Learn to preach.  Do good deeds for others.  Give Bible Studies.  Serve at the church. Get up at 4:30 every morning, exercise, never eat Twinkies (but Little Debbie’s are ok) and if you’re diligent, you just might make it.  But please understand…no matter what you do, it won’t be good enough.

And most will look at us and say, “Then why should I try?”  And we basically say, “Because that’s what God has called good little Christian boys and girls to do!  So do it!”

And we often make it harder than it should be.  

Why do we do that?   It’s perhaps because sometimes we get confused ourselves.  We sometimes don’t feel like we are good enough or are doing enough to make it into the kingdom. Let’s examine that for a few moments.

There used to be taught a theology, that unfortunately still lingers, that went something like this.  First of all, when you accept Christ, he forgives and cleanses you and imputes His righteousness to you.  That’s called Justification.  So far, they are on track.  No problem until we start looking at the “now what?” question.  After I accept Christ, now what?  

This line of theology goes that what happens next is that each day, Christ righteousness will come all the way down and meet you where you are and cover your inadequacies, but that He expects you to grow, so that each day, as you grow, Christ will need to cover less and less, until you have actually grown up to meet Him and you have perfectly reproduced the character of Christ.  This line of thought continues that at the end of time, when Christ stands up and makes His pronouncement about being holy, etc., you will need to stand without a mediator for a time, so you will need to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect, in order to make it to heaven.  If not, you are out of the pool and under the curse.

Sounds a little scary, but it also sounds plausible, so let’s examine it a little more closely.  If I tried to live a Christian life under that system, I would soon become very frustrated.  The frustration would come because I still come up against my sins and my sinful nature again and again, and it would seem that I may never reach the goal, no matter how hard I try.  As a matter of fact, when I really get honest, I realize that I will never  reach the goal!  No matter what I do, it will never be enough.  And the natural reaction would be to give up in defeat before I ever got started good.

But what does this theology do with Christ’s words in Matthew 11: 28?  "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.   29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.   30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Where is the easy yoke and the light burden?  Living under this theology is heavy and defeating.  As a matter of fact, it’s a lie because it puts the emphasis on what I have to do instead of on Christ.  It actually puts me and my works in competition with Christ and His sacrifice for me. The fact is, I will always be in need of Christ and His grace.  Always! Anytime a theology becomes more dependent on me, instead of Jesus, I need to put it aside.

John 14:6   Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 6:37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.

See, I may never have enough, do enough, or be enough to make it on my own, but it’s not about me. It’s about Jesus.  Now THAT is Good News!!!