To See With Our Hearts

It is God's highest desire to pour life into us and restore us to who we were always meant to be. All that He's doing and working for comes back to that: restoration and life.

But it's often very hard for us to see that. Not only is this world full of distraction the takes our focus off of God's focus but we have an enemy hell bent on blinding us to what God is up to. To get through the lies and push aside all distraction we need to approach what God is doing completely different from how we approach any other part of our lives. Our minds are not enough. We must see with our hearts.

To do this we must begin to look at our world mythically. The word myth has come to mean something very different than what it originally meant. We've come to see the word as synonymous with false. But it's not and that's not how I am using it. When I say myth what I mean is anything that stirs your heart to look towards Truth. Myth calls us into the Larger Story. It is that which focuses our hearts on God and His work.

To see mythically all you must do is pay attention to the movements of your heart. You're walking in nature and your heart is overwhelmed by the beauty of it all. That's myth pointing your heart to the beauty of God. You're listening to music and the sound of notes expresses something in your heart that could never be put into words. That's myth at it's deepest level. You're reading a book or watching a movie and a scene or character stirs you and makes you feel caught up and alive. That's God calling your heart to what He has for you.

There's no formula to living mythically but if this is something that's new to you I'd recommend starting with story. Think about the stories you love. Not the ones you find just entertaining but the ones that seem to awaken something in you when you revisit them. Start there and pay attention to why your heart is drawn there. Open up to God and let Him speak through the myth and draw your heart to Him.

And above all else, walk with God in this. The more you're open to His voice, the more He'll bring myth into your life in ways you didn't expect. Annie and I have spent the last year and a half intentionally living mythically and it has changed our lives. Give it chance and watch as God uses to myth to pour life into your life and bring you into who He's always meant for you to be.

A Treasured Possession

The LORD has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands.
-Deuteronomy 26:18

What are we to do with all of God's commandments in the Bible? That is a question the Church has always struggled to answer and though we've come up with answer I believe that most of those answers are anything but satisfactory.

Most Christians come down somewhere between two extremes. The first says, don't worry so much about the dos and don'ts of the Bible. After all, we're under grace. The second says do whatever you have to to obey. Beat yourself into submission if that's what it takes. After all, God said what He said and He meant it.

There's plenty of middle ground, but if we're honest I think most of us would admit we lean towards one or the other of those extremes.

Thank God there's another option! Thank God He intended us, and His commands, for something better!

Take a look again at the verse at the beginning of this post but this time realize the context. God has just finished reviewing His law with His people before they enter the promised land and in this passage specifically He's explaining how important it is that they do what He has told them to do.

And in the midst of that He says to them, "You are mine. My treasured possession." Think about that for a moment. Those words change everything. They turn our whole preconceived notion of morality and God's commandments on its head.

To the first extreme and those who lean in that direction, how can you say don't worry about what God said to do and not to do? You are His treasured possession and He would not see you degraded and destroyed through sin. To the second extreme and those who lean towards it, how can you say we should beat ourselves submission? We are God's treasured possession. Don't we deserve better than that? The purpose of God's law is not to beat us down but to lift us up.

We need to remember that the story of the Gospel, the story God has been telling since the beginning of the world, is a love story. It's the story of God's love for His creation, a Father's love for His children, a Bridegroom's love for His bride. It is our birthright, our purpose, to live as God's treasured possession.

If we could live like that, live knowing who and what we were made for, it would change everything. Maybe then we'd be able to see that we were always meant, and are supposed to approach God's law from a place of life, passion and love.

Changing How We Look At Christmas

I love Christmas and this time of year. This year is shaping up to be especially fun. Not only is it Ellie's first Christmas, but it's our first year in our house. This afternoon we bought our first live Christmas tree and decorated it.

But for as much as I love Christmas, I think there's something missing in the way we look at it. I'm not talking about any type of secularization of the holiday, but about the way Christians look at Christmas. I'd say that the typical Christian view of Christmas involves the nativity, the Christmas story as found in Luke and Matthew, songs like Away in the Manger, Silent Night, etc.

Now, all of those things are wonderful and true and I don't want to diminish them at all. But they're also incomplete. For as wonderful and beautiful as songs like Away in the Manger are, their message doesn't come close to capturing what Christmas is all about.

At it's center, Christ's birth was an act of war.

We need to look at the story as part of the Larger Story and to do that we need to go all the way back to Creation. When God created the world He gave authority over it to mankind through Adam and Eve. Unfortunately, as we all know, that didn't last for long. Adam and Eve sinned but their sin wasn't only about their personal fall or even the fall of the human race. In their sin, they gave away all the authority God had given to them and Satan became the prince of this earth.

But God promised that wouldn't be the end. He promised that He would win that authority back.

Christmas was the beginning of God's crusade against the kingdom of darkness the enemy had spent the last few thousand years building on Earth. Christmas was an invasion, the start of a war that's been going on ever since.

The enemy knew what was happening. We need to remember that the Christmas story doesn't end with the shepherds and wise men stopping by. Satan used Herod, his pawn, to murder every baby boy around Bethlehem. There was far more going on there than an arrogant ruler with wounded pride. It was a counterstrike by the forces of hell against the birth of Christ.

And, of course, the story doesn't end there. This battle is the context of all of Jesus's life and ministry. When He is tempted in the wilderness, Satan tempts Him with all the kingdoms of the world, all the authority Jesus came to win back, but with one condition. Satan stays on top and Jesus bows to Him. He refused but in His death, resurrection and ascension He won back once and for all the authority, power and rule Adam gave away at the beginning of the world.

Now, 2,000 years later, the war that began on Christmas between the kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of Heaven is still going on. The story of Christmas is not over.

Again, I don't want to come across as negative on the traditional Christian view of Christmas. In fact, I don't want to criticize it at all. I simply want to point out that it is insufficient and add in what's missing. So this Christmas season, let's remember that Christ's birth is part of a larger story, a bloody clash of kingdoms. It's a story we are a part of and we are called to join in the fight, to defeat the enemy and to rescue others from the kingdom of darkness.