Hammer on Anvil '

In the gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus exhorts His disciples: "Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me." But then, in Matthew 18, He says, "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

This dichotomy boggles my mind. Death to self versus becoming like little children?

But be assured there is a method in God's seeming madness. Jesus' admonition to become like children came on the heels of the disciples asking Him who would be greatest in the kingdom of heaven. They were still lobbying for a powerful Messiah; a humble one riding on a donkey wasn't what they had in mind.

I like how Matthew Henry's commentary explains this:

Our Lord set a little child before them, solemnly assuring them, that unless they were converted and made like little children, they could not enter his kingdom. Children, when very young, do not desire authority, do not regard outward distinctions, are free from malice, are teachable, and willingly dependent on their parents. It is true that they soon begin to show other dispositions, and other ideas are taught them at an early age; but these are marks of childhood, and render them proper emblems of the lowly minds of true Christians. Surely we need to be daily renewed in the spirit of our minds, that we may become simple and humble, as little children, and willing to be the least of all. 

Okay, now it's starting to look more like self-denial and taking up one's cross. Being like children doesn't necessarily mean being totally carefree. It means having a teachable spirit. It means not jockeying for position or authority or recognition. It means being dependent on your parents to meet your needs.

Where is the freedom in all that? It's in Jesus. He has made provision not only for our sins to be forgiven, but also for us to walk in newness of life. Many of us eagerly embrace that first provision, but may not be as familiar with the second. Instead of living life simply and joyfully as a child of God, we are burdened down with what we deem our "responsibilities" as Christians. We set out, sometimes by sheer willpower, to please God, only to find that we keep failing Him. So we make new resolutions and set out again, redoubling our efforts. And you got it -- we fail yet again.

The freedom, my friends, comes in realizing that we can't do anything to please God. He already knows that, which is why He sent Jesus. He has set us free from the Law (Romans 8). Yet when we try to do things for God in our own flesh, we enslave ourselves to the Law all over again.

God created the Law to convince us of our weakness and inability to fulfill it, so we would finally put our trust completely in God. Watchman Nee, in The Normal Christian Life, uses a drowning man to illustrate this dynamic:

A drowning man cannot be saved until he is utterly exhausted and ceases to make the slightest effort to save himself.

Where are you at this point in your walk with Jesus? Are you striving to please God in your flesh? Many times programs and outreaches and other "church activities" are what keep us away from God. It is easier to DO than to simply BE the child of God He wants you to be.

When we work at being acceptable to God, we deny all that Jesus accomplished on the Cross. Watchman Nee says, "Our every attempt to do His will is a denial of His declaration that we are utterly powerless to do so."

Yes I know -- this flies in the face of much we have been taught. It sounds like deliverance from the Law means we are free from doing what God desires, but of course that is not true. We are free from trying to do His will in our own strength, however. And that, my friends, is true freedom! It means no more striving, no more performing. It means resting in what God has already done for us, once and for all.

On Tuesday morning, after a few days of feeling like poo, Doug got up and went to go pick up his reserved copy of some game called Black Ops 2. It's apparently a big deal and my husband is really into his game right now. And yes, eventually this torrid affair will fizzle and he will go back to talking about the lawn or a new gadget he wants to save for, but for a few days, it's fun to watch a hardworking and incredibly faithful man act like a total kid about something he simply enjoys.

I love it! I love it when my husband gets caught up in a new video game. He gets enthralled. It's adorable. And I am not being factious here. I genuinely love watching grown people get really excited about something in their lives. It can be anything. Needlepoint, gaming, cosplay, barbecue, traveling, Christmas, Halloween, parades, Lord of the Rings, tools, coupons...I dunno, something. I love watching people get excited about something that brings them joy!

Sadly, though, some of us forget to simply enjoy life. We are so busy just living that we forget to notice that life, even when it's ugly, is still oh-so-wonderful.

This is not an opinion shared by most. I remember as I kid my love for all things cute was met with jeers and snide comments. "One day you'll grow up and see that Happy Meal toy is just a gimmick, sweetie," a counselor said to me while we stopped at McDonalds on the way back from a week of church camp. All my friends were ordering huge portions of nasty food. I decided to order a smaller portion with a nice price tag and added bonus - I got a wee Cruella de Vil toy with the food. Neat! Then I had four different people try to tell me how bizarre and immature my choice was. Really? Of course it is, but I was just a kid enjoying some junk for a few minutes. I knew brussels sprouts would be on the dinner table later, but I just wanted for a brief moment to be excited and enjoy the cheap toy and junk food my parents rarely allowed me to get.

A few months back, one of my dearest, best, good friends, Katie (from KatieMade Baked Goods & Confections) came over to bring her tasty baked goods, her brilliant wisdom and her much needed humor for my weary soul. (Oh friends, everyone needs a friend like Katie. She is a friend that makes even the heaviest of hearts rejoice.) In the middle of my over dramatic tangent about something absurd, she points out that I might not be crazy, but I may just be a personality type that is not often understood. She then found a web site and, like a shrink, began to ask me questions on how I feel about various things. Ten minutes later I read the results of a profile for a INFP personality. And let me tell you: It was the closest thing I have ever read to describing me. Way to nail it, Myers Briggs personality test. The weirdest part is that even my oh-so-accurate personality profile references Star Wars. Yes, I can't even get profiled without some nerdy charm. Like I was saying, it's me to a tee.

Anyway, the point is this profile stated something that I have always held dear to my heart as a great resource. Sure, it makes me seem a tad off, or a bit kooky, but I believe God gave me this personality for a reason. The beginning description for an INFP personality type states: "INFPs never seem to lose their sense of wonder. One might say they see life through rose-colored glasses. It's as though they live at the edge of a looking-glass world where mundane objects come to life, where flora and fauna take on near-human qualities."

Whoa. This makes me sound like Alice in Wonderland, but it's the truth. That's how my head feels. I am not all rainbows and butterflies all the time, but I try to keep my head as cotton candy and Disneyland as possible. Now, this does not give me a pass on hurts and fails, but in most cases I can look past the current struggle and find something magnificent.

Children are a lot like that. Despite what is happening around them, children have this inane ability to find something fun, something good, something to hope for, even when things are falling apart.

Last week our family was passing around some stomach funk. My son Indie had been dealing with a brand of tummy yuck for days, and despite the fact he felt gross, he was still up, ready to play and, as he says, "ready for an adventure." And in between jaunts to the toilet, he was still so cheerful.

Oh Pretenders, please find that childlike joy. Let's look for good in things, instead of always being on a witch hunt. That's the point, friends, we can stop searching and planning to see evil around every corner!  And we are supposed to. Philippians 4:8 says,"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things."

Maybe it's time to take your statistics about this sick, sad world, and simply find something enjoyable. I hope that joy is in the Lord, but at this juncture, I will be pleased as punch to see you get excited about Black Ops 2. I just want to see that you are still able to feel, express and extend joy and excitement about something in your life. And the world needs to see that, too.

Oh honey, I get that there are evil things out there. I know there are bad people. I know good people do bad things. I further know that just because we claim to love Jesus won't stop us from being terrible humans sometimes. I know this. But this does not mean we need to stay planted in front of Fox News all day, writhing about how the world has gone to crap. Darlin', the world has been crap since people were put on it. It's nothing new, but the object of our faith is to show light and salt to a world that is so dark, bland and stale. We should try to shed light on the truth and then while adding flavor we will preserve that childlike faith in others. That's not easy, but it's vital.

"If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36).

I am a sinner. I am broken. I have grieved the heart of God far more than I care to admit in my five-plus decades on this planet. At times I feared that my sins were so onerous that I was beyond the reach of redemption.

The Apostle Paul might have wondered the same thing. In 1 Timothy 1:15, he marveled that, "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst." When he experienced the grace of God Cecil B. DeMille style, he realized he was indeed saved, and his zeal to spread the good news to others led him to exclaim, "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" (1 Corinthians 9:16).

Yet the truth that we are free in Christ is one that many arrive at with much difficulty, if at all. We who have tasted His goodness should be walking advertisements of His joy and peace and freedom. Our light should shine so brightly that others are drawn to it, yet sometimes we forget how far we ourselves have fallen, and communicate judgment rather than love and mercy.

Christians as a whole, for example, come down very hard on women who have experienced abortion. In my years counseling these broken women, I have learned that it is difficult for them to accept God's forgiveness -- but it is even more difficult for them to forgive themselves. Satan has convinced them that what they did is so monstrous that they are beyond God's reach, and unfortunately this lie is perpetuated by church people.

The church I attend is a mosaic of colorful people, tattooed and pierced, addicted and broken. I love it because it reminds me that life is not always tidy, and that my view of what Christianity looks like may not necessarily be the correct one. As Mike Yaconelli says in his book Dangerous Wonder: "Christianity is not about learning to live within the lines; Christianity is about the joy of coloring."

It is my heartfelt and tear-soaked prayer for people to know the truth that will set them free. Not some manmade doctrine or ridiculous legalism, but the real truth -- the one that rises far above all the rest. The one that redeems their lives from the pit, when they never dreamed they had a shot at life.

May we, as Christ followers, be living examples of this truth.