I recently watched one of Rob Bell’s Nooma videos in which he mentioned that we are, in this life, "living between the trees," that is the tree in the midst of the Garden and the tree in Revelation. He emphasized that we are living—not simply waiting for the great beyond.
I think this is a wonderful, beneficial concept. Christianity is about what we do now. Now, this life, is the time to begin living, to begin getting all we get out of what we have been given and what we continually receive. Jesus, Paul, James, all emphasized the idea that serving God is doing good to others.
Yet doing good is too often looked at as a minor. Heaven’s the major. Pulling people out of Hell is the major. Warning everyone around us of the fire that God is holding them over, making them feel the flames lick their feet, scaring them sleepless, guilting them into turning so they won’t burn….
Misses the point.
Doing good—living good (yes good, not well) is the point. This is what holiness is about—not obeying some arbitrary list of dos and don’ts, but living out a life that honors God in every way possible. Secular, sacred, whatever. There is no wall other than the one we have created.
The key then, the whole point of living here, living between the trees, is honoring the One who created us by living, by taking what He gave us and spreading it through the Earth like salt and light rather than hiding it under the bushel of puritanical separatism.
Living. That’s it. There’s so much to this.
Ah, but if living for God was seen as a natural way to live, not something that required special clothes and special language and special manners, but something hopeful, something proactive, something that continually lifted us and everything and everyone around us to a higher plane. If only we saw mediocrity as an offense to God on the level of what we think of as "sin". If only we decided that living timidly, afraid that if we did THIS or THAT people would think of us as like, like, like…that sinner kneeling there in the corner.
If only we realized that improving everything and everyone around us, intellectually, aesthetically, healthily, and, yes, spiritually, honors the One True God who made it all, sustains us all, and entrusted his creation with his creation.
If only we really lived between the trees.
6 comments:
"Yet doing good is too often looked at as a minor. Heaven’s the major. Pulling people out of Hell is the major. Warning everyone around us of the fire that God is holding them over, making them feel the flames lick their feet, scaring them sleepless, guilting them into turning so they won’t burn….
Misses the point."
I believe the point will become clear in life eternal. Living a good life, or striving for holiness while good, loses its meaning if you are leaving the lost to perish in their sins before the God we claim to love so much.
If you love Jesus and those he died for, you will warn them of what awaits them if they die in their sins.
What we forget is that life eternal begins now. Living as disciples, learners of a way of life, is a higher calling. Leading people to a better life goes much further toward fulfilling the great commission, which begins and ends with "teach".
I'm glad we're finally emerging from the shadows of the 19th century revivalists who seemed to do so much to turn Christianity into a battlefield with flesh and blood.
I think part of the change is due to the availability of modern translations, which are particularly useful when reading the gospels. We get a real sense of who Jesus was and the life he led, who he condemned, who he comforted.
Sometimes I think we have those two things backward--we condemn those who need comforted and comfort those who need condemned.
btw, next time go ahead and use your name. Civil disagreement's welcome.
"I'm glad we're finally emerging from the shadows of the 19th century revivalists who seemed to do so much to turn Christianity into a battlefield with flesh and blood."
What in the world are you talking about. Have you read things from 18th and 19th century revivalists? John and Charles Wesley? Whitefield and Edwards? Charles Spurgeon and A.W. Tozer?
How in the world can you claim these men turned Christianity into a battlefield?
"Sometimes I think we have those two things backward--we condemn those who need comforted and comfort those who need condemned."
I don't believe we should condemn anyone, but we should comfort all the lost with the Gospel. And that includes things that the lost won't find very comforting in their present state. But unless they hear the truth they will never know their need to repent, and will be compelled to receive Christ for the wrong reasons.
Their is a real danger in not presenting the entire Gospel to the lost, and the danger is making false converts that never repent of their sins because they are never told about them. They are never told how offensive their transgressions are to God, who it cost him the life of his only son.
They will accept Christ as a remedy to the suffering and sorrows of the consequences for the sins they haven't forsaken. And they will continue in this state right up unto Judgement Day when every deed done in darkness is brought to light, every idle word spoken is brought into account. When the very thought and intents of the heart are revealed.
If we love the Lord we need to tell people the truth.
Yes, I've read quite a bit by the revivalists, and they had quite a bit good to say. However, they transformed the landscape of Christianity. Whether that's good or bad, it represents a change that happened at a certain point in time, and this is different than the original, eternal state. So it is legitimate to question whether the changes they made caused Christianity to be more or less like it was intended to be.
Which in the end may be moot, because the truth is that we do not live in their time, and their methods, while effective in those times, may not--I would say do not--represent the best way to present Christ today.
Personally, I think that what they did led Christianity to be too much about us telling and too little about us living. While Christianity is at odds with man's world, so to speak, it is in harmony with God's world, with the nature and true meaning of God's creation and of life. Too often we treat Christianity as an artificial construct. The differences between Us and Them end up not being the differences in Galatians 5 (in which the works of the flesh are called "obvious") but instead about differences that we choose that put us in the light we wish to portray ourselves in.
And thus the battlefield becomes flesh-and-blood against flesh-and-blood. My opinion versus your opinion. My lifestyle versus yours. With the understood assumption that whatever my lifestyle is equates with Holiness. We are comparing ourselves with ourselves and setting the standards ourselves.
It's time to try to get back in touch with eternal truths, and sometimes doing this means telling the difference between man-made, time and culture-specific methods, and living as Christ in the world.
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