Tyrannized by Your Feelings?

 

            Have you noticed how many people appear to be living at the tyranny of their feelings these days? “I’m just not sure how I feel about that.” “If she doesn’t do her fair share, I don’t feel I should have to honor my promise.” “I know it wasn’t right, but I don’t feel anyone should fault me for what I did.”

            God made us in his own image so we would not have to be ruled by our volatile emotions. Sometimes doing the right thing means staying with a commitment after a warm and fuzzy feeling has vanished. And that can range from one’s wedding vows to his word to a friend to a verbal offer about a price.

            It takes holy resolve to escape the enslavement that comes of being tossed about by whim, fancy, or feeling. So think about these options for today.

            Today I will live by faith. I don’t know what lies ahead or what surprises may come to me today. But I know God has promised to be with me to strengthen, guide, and deliver me. By faith, I claim that promise and will live this day in confidence. There is nothing I will face today that God and I cannot handle – together. It isn’t self-confidence that will get me through; it is God-confidence.

            Today I will live in hope. Each day has its own supply of troublesome things, so I need not go borrowing from tomorrow. In fact, I rejoice at the thought of tomorrow because of the promises God has attached to my future. I will not fear failure, for God has promised to work all things for good in the lives of those who love him. I know where my journey ends, and neither life nor death nor anything in all creation can separate me from God’s love extended to me in Christ.

            Today I will live in love. The bane of human existence is a jealous, cynical, hateful spirit. I will not allow those toxic attitudes to dominate my life. Instead, I will consciously imitate Jesus’ example of loving people – even the ones I don’t like – by turning the other cheek and returning good for evil.

            Regardless of how you may feel about certain situations today, you have the marvelous power to choose to live at a higher level. So don’t be ruled by your fickle feelings. God made you for better things.

            “Foolish people tend to follow their own impulses, but those who are wise listen to good counsel” (Proverbs 12:15).

Love Is Not a Brick

             If Jesus and Mohammed were entering a warm building on a freezing-cold day, who should go inside first? If Moses and the Buddha were late to a dinner and there was only one veggie burger left, who would be faster to grab for it and take a bite? Brian McLaren’s latest book has me raising these strange questions.

            Before I dare to suggest a possible answer, let me be clear about my reason for daring to ask this question about primacy, honor, and deference among these notable figures of major world religions. The followers of these spiritual guides have denigrated, bullied, maligned, damned, insulted, bombed, exiled, decapitated, judged, disemboweled, raped, assigned to hell, and otherwise been less than accommodating to one another. As they committed such evil acts, they claimed to be honoring their leaders and serving their religions.

            Even the people who are most distant from all religion and who would tell you in a heartbeat they want nothing to do with it know that these teachers emphasize charity and kindness. They tell their disciples that murder is evil and that force should be used only – if ever – with reluctance and restraint. They quote their leaders’ words to the effect that humans should love each other.

            So why did some Christians adopt a burning cross as their symbol for hatred of blacks, Jews, and Catholics? Why did some Catholics murder Protestants (and vice versa) in Northern Ireland? Why did some Muslims cry “Allah is great!” as they flew jetliners into the Twin Towers? Why are some priests pedophiles, some evangelists thieves and womanizers, some imams advocates of anti-American violence, some . . . You’ve gotten the point by now, haven’t you?

            Love is not a brick. It is not about being first, proving others wrong, and demanding primacy – or else! It is not about violence initiated or retaliation for violence suffered. It is, at least in Christian teaching, about patience, kindness, and restraint. While love rejoices in truth and celebrates what is holy, it does not impose its view of truth by force or coerce what it regards as holy on others.

            Back now to the question about going through the door first or eating the veggie burger. What would happen in those scenarios? My honest best guess is that each would insist on deferring to the other! “Please, go inside and get warm.” “Please, take the food; I insist.” Or, perhaps even better: “We can share this.”

            I am a Christian. I believe Jesus is the Son of God and Redeemer of the World. But I refuse to hate, defame, or mistreat a Muslim, atheist, Jew, Sikh, animist, or miscreant Christian. I believe the Bible’s ethical teachings are correct, but I will not hate, damn, insult, or ill-treat an abortionist, homosexual, or deacon who is having an affair with a Sunday School teacher.

            I see you – whoever you are – as one of God’s wonderful creatures in whom he has invested himself, for whom he has extended himself over time, and for whom he died. You do not have to dress like me, speak my language, or share my beliefs. Not only will I not hate you, but I want to know and understand you.

            Respect for others is neither compromise nor apostasy. It is love.

Faith and Traffic Lights

I heard the apocryphal tale of a good citizen who was being tailgated by a stressed-out woman. The light at the intersection in front of their cars turned yellow. The good citizen did the right thing by stopping at the crosswalk – even though he probably could have beaten the red light by gunning it through the intersection. The second driver wasn’t pleased.

The tailgating woman hit the roof – and her horn. She was screaming in frustration because she had missed her chance to get through the yellow light. As she was still in mid-rant – alternately pounding the steering wheel and gesturing to the fellow in front of her – she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer.

The officer told her to exit her car with her hands up. He put handcuffs on her. He took her to the police station, where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell. After a couple of hours, a police captain approached the cell and opened the door.

The woman was escorted back to the booking desk, where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects. He said, “I’m very sorry for my mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cursing a blue streak. Then I noticed the ‘Choose Life’ license plate holder, the ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ and ‘Follow Me to Sunday School’ bumper stickers, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk. Naturally, I assumed the car couldn’t be yours and that you had stolen it. I made an honest mistake.”

Ouch! Somewhere through the centuries, the idea has gained currency that says we can be Christians in the same way most people are Democrats and Republicans, Rotarians and Lions. We show up for meetings, pay our dues, and wear the insignia. For the most part, however, it is acceptable to be “just like everybody else.” We’re devout Christians on Sunday mornings, but we curse or flirt or cheat or tell racist jokes the other six and a half days of the week.

We have so institutionalized the Christian faith that membership has come to count for conversion. It isn’t just Vito Corleone of “Godfather” fame who could live as a criminal so long as he attended Mass and gave gifts to his church.

If faith is more than self-delusion, it will be reflected in all the routine and ordinary events of life. Even at traffic lights.

Getting Clear about Holiness

      The human vocabulary shapes the human race. The words we choose and the meanings we assign to them become our frame of reference. They build the world we inhabit, and they either empower or limit us for how we live there. The same thing is certainly true of the vocabulary of Christ’s followers.

            A very practical application of this fact can be seen in the common use of the term “holy.” For one thing, I suspect it is a term Christians use more often than non-Christians. My fear is that we use it too narrowly and thus improperly.

            Most of us have been told that the word “holy” means sanctified (not very helpful!) or set apart for God (better). Thus we have been tempted to think in terms of the family china that is “set apart” for special occasions and can’t be set out every single day for just anybody who happens along. And the most specific lifestyle examples of holiness tend to focus on moralistic issues – keeping oneself “separated” from the dark and dirty things of life.

            While I don’t want to deny the element of truth found in that explanation, I do want to claim that represents a narrow and misleading view of holiness.

            When Scripture cites God’s command to “Be holy because I am holy,” we should not think so much of being set apart and kept for special events as we should have visions of engagement, active involvement with life, and connections with people that make their lives better and happier. In other words, I am trying to learn to think of holiness as something active rather than passive, not as a moralistic withdrawal from the world but as redemptive involvement with it.

            Jesus shows the meaning of holiness in his incarnation. Across history, God had been actively engaged in communicating with humans and acting to make the world better. Finally, the divine word was made flesh in Jesus – the Jesus who did not live in a mountain retreat but among people who needed his help.

            Holiness isn’t the rigid moralism of a thousand “don’ts” so much as the infinite “do’s” that can make life better. Jesus explained, for example, that “Do not commit adultery” actually calls us to build wholesome and holy relationships and “Do not bear false witness” has the intent of calling us to be totally honest. So being holy is less about what scared people avoid than what changed people do.

            As a plant worker, student, kindergarten teacher, lawyer, father, neighbor, spouse, or momentary presence in a stranger’s life, your call to holiness is a very practical challenge to make others’ lives better, fuller, happier, and more aware of God’s loving concern for them because you are in their world.

            “As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness” (1 Peter 1:15 MSG).

            A holiness that positively energizes God should do no less for his people.