The Most Important Thing

Here is the thing. I hate words. I love them and yet, I hate their limitations. Or is it my limitations in their use? Perhaps it's just because I speak English and need to speak a more expressive or precise language. Maybe I should learn ancient Greek. That probably wouldn't help much but at least there are multiple, more precise words for different types of love. That would help some, right?

Here is the problem I have with words: They can never express the wonder and awe and love I feel for the amazing web of humanity I see continually falling out before me. This and related topics are generally the areas where I feel words fail me most. I can never express to people how much I care about them, how much they've meant to me or express just the beauty of the human situations I find myself in. Perhaps I should be blaming my own capacity of expression rather than the capacity of words themselves

Here is the thing about people: I love them.

Here is the thing about people: they are inherently (at least in this phase of our eternity given our fallen world) compelled toward darkness- things that destroy them and destroy others. We hear Christian doctrine preached all the time about the depravity of man. How we are these sinful creatures who can do nothing without God. I have friends who say they see God's goodness and how people turn from it, how they turn away from Him and thus from their potential. People are frustrating. I could not agree more. Sometimes I just want to collapse on the floor as I helplessly watch people cripple themselves in turning away from God. Sometimes, I collapse on the floor because I just can't stop crippling myself or other people. But Someone always seems to help me up again.

But here is the thing about people: More than I see what I wrote above, I see the most beautiful things I have ever beheld come from them and within them (that I can only assume come from the Spirit within them). I see so much pure love and joy and selflessness. I watch children laugh uncontrollably and I'd swear all darkness must have disappeared from the face of the earth. I've experienced communities of people who will walk through fire for one another, I've seen complete strangers connect in remarkable ways, I've had people I never met come to my aid. Here is the thing about words in describing this vital concept: they fail me.

Despite our great capacity for darkness, God shines through it when some bright, light goodness breaks forth- it is these moments that I think we cherish most in life- the ones where this goodness, this light shines. It is in these moments that humanity shows who it was meant to be. It is in these moments that we remember that darkness in the end, does not win.

The important thing to remember about all of this is that it's mediated through people.
I think at times, because of the fallen world we live in and the sin that runs rampant in every one of us, we operate with a continually negative view of humanity. We devalue the spirits around us that are immortal even if the bodies that hold them will pass away. Even if the world that holds them will pass away. Because really, the only thing in your life right now that will not die (aside from God), are the Spirits of those around you.

C.S. Lewis says it best"
“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously - no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.”


So whatever it is that we are doing here, whether it be the work we do, the hobbies we have, the civilization we perpetuate with our existence- we must remember that it is the relationships we make, the people we pass by every day that last in one way or another. Knowing, loving, relating to one another- this is what we are doing here, this is the most important thing.

Easter: Love Wins

You may have heard of a book by this title written by an interesting fellow named Rob Bell. This post is not about that book, although it is on similar topic. I suspect, however, that Mr. Bell and I will be making somewhat different points.
"Love wins" is a very popular notion. Like Love Wins the book, lots of books with this theme in them have become bestsellers. Harry Potter, Twilight (although real Love doesn't win in this case because Ms. Meyer is confused about what Love is but she convinces her readers that it's love (and perhaps it is indeed, lowercase-l kind of love) and therefore it appears that love wins), etc. etc. Unlike Love Wins, however, these books are popular because people enjoy them rather than purchase them for the purpose of analyzing and mocking them. Not only books but movies, and any other media or form of story that portrays the theme of "love wins" tend to be very popular. There is a reason for this: it is because this is the root of what our hearts long for, this is the summation of the plan for the world. But, I have news for you: all these books and movies that you love so much- they STOLE their primary premise, their main theme.
Maybe stole is a harsh word. I'm just being hyperbolic. They were influenced, whether they realize it or not, to incorporate into their story the theme that originated from the greatest story ever told.

Let me tell you a little bit about it:
There were some ordinary guys walking around doing their usual jobs and being "normal" people. You know, traveling along the roads to work, cheating people out of money, ignoring people in need, lying, the average stuff we do every day. They had families- wives, children, brothers, sisters, large extended families. But something is missing. You know what I mean- there's that longing for Something more, Something better. Then one day, this dude comes along and proves Himself (through miracles and explaining He is the answer to some prophesies, longtime religious/spiritual longings, and complicated theological issues) to be that Something, more like Someone who fills that longing. In fact, He is so great that He overcomes all those dark every day things that turned out to define and limit those poor ordinary guys (of course, they didn't really realize this until He came along).
Suddenly, things that seemed hopeless to these normal guys seem hopeful. Suddenly, He is the greatest hope of their lives so they leave everything- their families, their lives- and follow Him. But then He dies. In fact, all the powers of darkness that reside in humans- the very dark sorts of deeds that these ordinary guys once engaged in every day, kill him. Maybe this Great Hope was not above them- those dark forces, all those limitations- after all.

Crap.

Let me put this another way:
Have you ever had something come along that you put all your hope in? If not, perhaps something you put much of your hope for some part of your life in? Maybe it was the promise of money you desperately needed to solve a financial crisis, a job that seemed to be the answer to finding meaningful work or needed financial stability. Perhaps it was a relationship with another person, even children? Something that made you hope again that things would be ok, that your life was no longer meaningless. So you count on it, you put all your hope in it, put all your "eggs in one basket" so to speak (commence knee slapping laughter since it's Easter) and perhaps abandon other things in pursuit of this hope- perhaps you could even call it a dream and then you could as old Langston what happens to a dream if it is deferred.

But then, this world steps in as it always seems to do. Various circumstances, perhaps reckless or harmful actions of others, and, dare I say, the forces of darkness in general, kill it, take it away. The thing you hoped most for, that you relied upon is dead and it seems as though it ceases to exist. What do you do now?
I feel like I would respond with complete desolation accompanied by an angry, "of course! This is just like the world! Nothing can ever go right!"And I would be correct, it is just like the world (the world influenced by darkness at least) to attempt to destroy any hope we have, to eradicate goodness from it.

So, imagine being in this hopeless state- you have just begun to convince yourself that darkness may have won this time and then...
circumstances arise in which your hope returns- stronger than ever because it could not be beaten and thereby proving that it is, in fact, the real deal- something worthy of investing your hope in.

And this is how it was with these ordinary guys who placed all their hope in Christ and His message. For a hot second they may have felt like utter fools. They gave up everything for this dude because they thought he was right- the real deal, THE Dude. But then, this Dude they followed who claimed he was the Son of God, the King of this world, who would bring eternal life had just been killed by a bunch of mere mortals. Well, there goes that...
Even more disconcerting, some of those involved in sentencing  Him to death considered themselves men of God, some may have been people these ordinary guys knew. Worse  yet, some of these ordinary guys themselves were too cowardly to even stand up for their greatest Hope when faced with the task. We're dealing with sheer darkness influencing men here- sheer darkness took down the Greatest Hope of men.

"Where is your King now?" could have been the taunt our ordinary guys would have received. "Where is your hope now?"
And just when we start to think that maybe the darkness did win after all, in the ultimate twist, He returns! And BAM! Love (God- because God is love and Jesus is God/Jesus' actions are the stuff of sheer love) wins! Proving that He is above the powers of darkness- nothing, no matter how evil can take Him down. Nothing can kill our Hope because when it is in  Him, it is immortal.
Think about this- you can have a Hope that can NOT die. That, my friends is a powerful thing. Even more powerful is the notion that we love so much when told in other stories and books but often ignore when we hear it in THE Book: The light shines in the darkness and the darkness CAN NOT overcome it. Love, my dear friends, wins.