As I look back on my life’s journey, I can see where I’ve made all sorts of detours in a trip toward some destination… a destination about which there has been very little agreement. Today, as I check my internal compass, I recognize the path I’m now on as one that bears a striking resemblance to a path I abandoned as a young man in my early twenties. Like most detours, there is movement toward the destination but the route is not the most direct and the scenes along the way are not always what one had hoped or planned for. It’s been an interesting journey and along the way I’ve learned quite a few things – some the hard and painful way.
For awhile I followed a path that was strictly prescribed for me. I was shown and taught to follow a road that had a “heaven” as its final destination. Everything I needed to know: how I should behave, what I should do, not do or avoid - the whole works - was all laid out for me to follow. Well I followed it for a while… initially with an enthusiasm that gradually diminished as I approached my twenties. Slowly I came to perceive that it was going to be a long, boring, miserable journey; and I wasn’t at all sure I wanted to go to a place that sounded like just more of the same.
Perhaps at this point I should explain something about the prescribed path I had been raised on. The religious setting into which I was born and grew up was a very legalistic, literalistic and fundamentalist denomination. Many of the normal, everyday pursuits and activities were prohibited because they would be, “against my religion.” In fact that would be the phrase used by neighbourhood friends when asking if I might be allowed to join in some planned activity. For example, they would ask something like, “Can you come with us to ______ or is that against your religion?”
So now I’d reached a decision point. Exit that road and on to another… but what was at the end of this new road I’d gotten on? I figured it was where the journey ultimately ends and you die - fade to black – trips over – no refunds. After travelling that route for a while I found it also had its share of boredom and misery plus the ultimate question that needs answering, “What’s the point?” Now the journey could begin in earnest because finding answers to that question became “the point.” Exploration and discovery became prime motivators on a journey that was becoming interesting once again.
At that point in my journey the detour headed back toward my Christian roots. I’ve already written about this elsewhere; suffice it to say I wasn’t moved by some strong emotional experience or miraculous event. I was gradually moved by some simple questions and the answers I found. As those answers began to accumulate, the realization of what I was starting to see was (and remains) awesome.
And so now the question becomes why take the detour in the first place? If I would have known then what I know now, would I have still taken it or would I have tried a more direct route? If I’m honest, I think I’d have to say there are only a few things that I would change. I don’t believe I could have arrived at the point I’m at today without the detour and the lessons I’ve learned along that path. I also believe those lessons have a role to play in my life - for the lessons and tests that are yet to come.
Like everyone else, most of my choices in life are based on thoughts and feelings. These two factors apply not only to what I think and feel about my current circumstances, but they also apply to actions I could take in order to change those circumstances and thus think and feel differently. In my early twenties I realized I was dissatisfied and didn’t like where I was. I wanted to experience and enjoy life in ways that were incompatible with, and forbidden by, my particular religious point-of-view and upbringing. If I continued to follow that same path, other than get older, nothing else was likely to change.
Now before I go any further, I want to be very clear: I DO NOT view all Christians as being the same therefore I DO NOT want to paint them all with the same brush. That being said however, impressions that one forms about any group are generally based on those individuals or representatives you meet from within that group. I know there are many, many happy Christians and have met huge numbers of them, but, despite protestations to the contrary, I’ve also witnessed an almost joyless reality that has become the identity of far too many Christians that I’ve known or met over the years. With a sombre and subdued outlook on all things they regard as “worldly,” these folks seem to make it a point to focus on all the ‘sinful’ things those around them (especially the young people) are engaged in. After a relatively benign and happy early childhood, many of the young people are sometimes quickly thrust into a world full of “shall not” and “do not.”
For some, the world is presented as a terrible and dangerous place where almost anything appealing to the senses must be either avoided or participated in with restraint and/or some measure of guilt. Somehow many have bought into the idea that sin is fun (or exciting) while virtue and Christian values are bereft of happiness, joy and fun. This may help explain why shortly after experiencing a really fun and enjoyable time, guilt begins to creep in. Joy has been (falsely) equated with sin.
Born Human in a Material World
As a boy, one of the expressions I often heard but never really understood is about being “in the world but not of the world.” Unfortunately, some Christian families become so worried about the world and its influences that they attempt to all but cloister their children by living a segregated lifestyle within their own communities. If excessive, this attempt by itself, can become problematic. Often such children really aren’t adequately equipped to make sound decisions outside of their protected circle. This sometimes leads to a kind of “syndrome” where the young people leave the safety of their segregated community and then “go wild.”
Some ideas to which I was exposed quite early in life even seemed contradictory as can be seen in the title of two popular Christian songs: “This World Is Not My Home” and “This Is My Father’s World.” Another message that I find contradictory concerns how some groups can so thoroughly condemn “the flesh” while they also embrace the teaching that our bodies are the temple of God and we are to lovingly and reverently care for them. Is this simply a metaphor for the internal struggles we have with ourselves sometimes? On the one hand it seems the flesh is thought of as the home of all our “evil desires” - while on the other it is a temple. In other words, the concept of “the flesh” isn’t really very well covered or understood and this can lead to various distortions – sometimes even to self-abuse; an example might be some of the actions people engage in when they decide to “mortify the flesh.”
So, when there seems to be these kinds of contradictions or differing points of view, how does one resolve them? I believe that there really is continuity and harmony within the basic message of Christianity. Such differences, along with how we’ve come to understand or interpret the subject, must be viewed within the context of how it’s messaged throughout the Bible.
First, I’ve come to believe this is indeed my Father’s world. He created it and we are all born into it. We are therefore part of it. So in other words, in one sense at least we are indeed “of this world.” As Christ taught however, we are told that we must be “born again.” It would be during the process of being born again that we affirm the “new” self, born of the spirit and destined to become a part of the new heaven and earth to come. Even then we must continue living each day in this present world. By knowing this fact, we are also aware that the years of our present life remain counted and limited.
In the fall of mankind as outlined in Genesis 3, Adam is sentenced to work the earth and live by the sweat of his brow. Further, he was denied access to “the tree of life” and this would ultimately lead to his death returning him to the earth i.e. dust to dust. I read this as meaning that his choice determined what followed; he would be restricted to a limited lifespan that was sustained strictly by means of what this world could provide. Once access to the tree of life was blocked, everything else was insufficient to sustain him beyond a limited time.
Not only did Adam have to die, his very DNA that was fashioned by the Creator Himself, may have been affected when access to the tree of life was blocked. One wonders if it became just a shadow of what it would have been at the time of creation; especially now after thousands of years and countless replications. Whatever it is that the tree of life supplied, thousands of years of harvesting and working the earth can not and will not supply us with that missing life-sustaining element. Nevertheless, we must continue to work in “the world” if we want to eat and live out what days we do have.
The idea of being ‘in this world not of this world’ appears in several places in scripture. John 17 is one such passage that comes to mind where this idea appears. Here, it is part of a prayer where Christ was asking His Father for the continued protection of His disciples after He would leave this world. In that same prayer verse (15) He asks His Father, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” Even though the battle, as well as man’s redemption had been won, He requested that the Father keep the faithful living here, on this world. There is a reason for this request and work for each follower of Christ to do – then and now. Part of His message is that after going through a series of events still to come, there will be a time when this world will ultimately be recreated and made new.
When I think about Christ’s prayer in light of everything else, there is consistency that goes from creation through to today. Man was created with the unique gift and responsibility of a free will. Not only was he given the ability to choose, but also the right to choose. Man was created to live by the choices he makes and the resulting consequences. Physically, our choices relate to the world we are in and, as a consequence, also a part of. Spiritually we also make choices and I think it is at this level where we decide if we are a part of the kingdom of this world or God’s kingdom. This was the case with the apostles and it remains so today.
Every need or want that we have, including a need for fun, relaxation, enjoyment etc, is met each day by the choices we make from the world in which we find ourselves. It is our responsibility to choose wisely, moment by moment, day by day. I am in this world, I live day to day choosing the things I need from what is provided in this my Father’s world. However, spiritually I have chosen to be Christian and part of God’s kingdom.
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