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Thursday, April 16, 2015

Pastoral Panoramic Ponderings ~ The Heartbreaking Journey that Returns us to Joy


          When I read Scriptures that invite the church to have greater things in our relationships with God and his people than we have yet to experience, I consider the journey required to move us from where we are, to the life God offers.
          When I meditate on these gracious opportunities to grow up to be like Jesus, I reject the legalistic pendulum extreme that demands immediate perfection in that area, and I reject the cheap grace pendulum extreme that says that God accepts us just as we are even if we never strive to put any particular issue of God’s word into practice.
          What I see as the plumbline is the transforming work of God[1] that changes us on a daily basis “from one degree of glory to another,”[2]beginning from wherever we are in our true soul condition, and leading us toward an increasingly mature experience of whatever God’s word reveals.[3] In other words, God calls us to something in him that starts from wherever we are in ourselves. He will change us; we must admit how much changing we need.
          For a while I have been considering these two Scriptures together:            
          Philippians 2:12-13
Philippians 4:1
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
1 Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.

          What I want to fully experience in Christ is what it is like for God to work in me and my church both to will and to work the brotherly love and longing, the relationship of knowing others as our joy and crown, to stand firm in the ways Paul has taught, and the relationship realities of knowing one another as “my beloved.” I also want to experience fully what it is like for churches to work these things out with fear and trembling so that we are becoming like Jesus, and following the example of older brother Paul, so that we can see our growth in the kind of relationships that are ours in Jesus Christ.
          With that in mind, I am regularly reminded of things that describe where people are starting from. The love relationships Paul is talking about are the aim, but each of us is starting from some kind of soul-condition that will need transforming in order to get there. In both our freedom and maturing in Christ, we can experience these things in increasing measure, the “from one degree of glory to another” journey of transformation.
          One of the things that came up this week as a real starting place for some believers revolves around the difference between explicit memories and implicit memories. I have witnessed the painful ways that both kinds of memories can restrict people in their ability to believe they are loved and longed for, or that they are anyone’s joy and crown. I have also seen how these things can stir up fear in others who don’t know what to do when such things happen, and do not have faith to let the Holy Spirit lead the way in showing what to do. If we leave things there, relationships disintegrate, and the inner heart of some of God’s children withers and dies for lack of loving ministry.
          An explicit memory is something that comes as a replay of a past experience. We remember details of what has taken place at an earlier time in our lives. When someone suddenly gets a flash back of an explicit memory of some form of abuse, their whole being reacts and recoils from this in the same way as if the abuse had just taken place.
          Paul’s example of relating to the churches as his loved and longed for brothers who were his joy and crown is severely tested when someone is in the midst of haunting explicit memories, and the rest of the church doesn’t know what to do. Who will lead the way to say that nothing is impossible with God?[4] Who will remind that church that, if his word describes such relationships as Paul exemplified, then God is able to do far more abundantly than all that we could ask or think in this regard?[5]
          An implicit memory is even more difficult to deal with because often it is not recognized as a memory at all. An implicit memory is when the feelings associated with a past experience pop up in a present relationship because of something that is taking place. Someone may be thoroughly confused over why they are reacting so strongly to what someone just said or did, not realizing that they are remembering the feelings of something from the past. The others in the situation are likely shocked and confused over the strong emotional reaction because it seems disproportionate to what just took place.
          It is very common (I speak only from my realm of experience) to see relationships run for the cover of self-protection when emotions get too strong because most people have been hurt by too strong emotions in the past. However, when we realize that some of these reactions are actually implicit memories, the feelings associated with painful events from the past, people can come together to seek healing for the past traumas, and experience changes to the emotions that come up in difficult situations.
          I understand that speaking of such things may sound new, or too strange to belong in the church. I represent those who know such things happen to them, and also know how many times they have been rejected because they had inexplicable pain enter a relational situation. I have witnessed both explicit memories and implicit memories shake up people’s lives and relationships. The inner worthlessness and hopelessness that many believers carry exacerbates the fear-based responses, usually giving far too much ground for self-protection. Often there is no one in sight to take a stand of faith that even such things as this can be brought into the love relationships spoken of in God’s word.
          One of the things we must consider as we humbly accept where people are starting from, and perhaps allow ourselves to feel hopeful that someone might be able to set an example and lead the way in how to find healing for our own inner brokenness, is that the church must not treat this “joy and crown” side of relationships as something people can attain by their own will.
          What we need are churches that weep with those who weep even as we rejoice with those who rejoice.[6] The apostles did not make rules about which things in the church we can weep about, or which people in the church are the weepers or the weepees. If there is weeping to be had, there is weeping to be done.
          In other words, while we seek to grow up in maturity and freedom in Christ so that we can constantly return one another to joy, we must deal with the things that come up. Part of bonding to one another in the love of Jesus Christ is walking together in the things we are going through. We must believe there is a work of God going on inside us that will bring us to know one another as our joy and crown.
          When we consider Paul’s example, and how he related to the church in such purity of faith, and hope, and love, we do not begin with how we work that into our hearts, and souls, and minds, and lives. We begin with the reality that anything we could possibly do is because God is already working in us to will and to work for his good pleasure and our complete joy.[7]
          What I believe is that, when we consider that we are working out our salvation with fear and trembling because God is working in us to will and to work for his good pleasure, his work includes whatever we would consider our starting place. This means that, whenever I see something new that God would be doing among us, knowing that he will be working these things together for his good pleasure, I ALWAYS expect to see something of the Beatitudinal journey taking place.[8]
          When I think of people hearing that we could have relationships in the church that feel like the most loving brotherhood of believers, longing for one another when we are apart, viewing the church as our joy and our crown, and standing fast together in the things we are taught by the apostles, I expect that the first steps people take towards such things will expose all the injuries, and weaknesses, and broken things that are inside us.
          Picture it like this: for a while, people have been gathering around a campfire. This campfire has been burning for a long time in a clearing, but it is surrounded by darkness and fog where a lot of bad things have taken place. Many people love the darkness and fog because it hides the way they are handling life. At the same time, other people are drawn out of the darkness and into the warm glow of the campfire.
          However, this is not just a relationship between people and a campfire. This is a relationship between all the people who come to the campfire for light and warmth. As they gather around the fire, they become increasingly aware of one another. They begin adjusting to the numbers of people, and the need to share space around the fire, and to include everyone.
          This isn’t so bad as everyone just huddles around the campfire for their warmth and comfort. But when one of the apostles starts speaking to this huddled group of people about how they are his joy and crown, and how beloved they are, and how they are to stand firm together in the things that are taught in the Scriptures, and this means opening up broken hearts to loving one another, and treasuring one another, and this requires getting up from the holy huddle around the warm campfire and starting to talk to each other, and communicate with one another, and consider how everyone is doing, and get involved in each other’s lives in whatever ways each person needs, something unavoidably uncomfortable starts to happen.
          As people get up from the holy huddle, it becomes apparent that some are limping and having a lot of difficulty making it around the group to meet people and get to know them. Others are so consumed with fear that they are unable to get up from their crouching position around the fire to even look anyone else in the eye, let alone reach out to them with a feeling of love and joy.
          There are others who are looking up hopefully, but are paralyzed by old injuries, and don’t know how to get up and mingle in love. Still others stand straight up expecting everyone to just start doing what Paul said, and don’t know what to do when so many people aren’t able to join them.
          And then comes the moment of faith, the moment where churches decide whether or not they will travel together into the beloved brotherhood realities that are theirs in Jesus Christ no matter the cost. Will they embrace one another in the pain, and heartache, and fear, and healing that must take place to get from fear-based relationships to love-based relationships? Will everyone consider that the place others are starting from, no matter how different that may be from anything they have ever known for themselves, fits what God is able to work with to bring about his good pleasure and our complete joy?[9]
          What happens is that the church becomes conscious of so many different levels of freedom and maturity that it is as though everyone’s point of reference has to change. Some who were considered pillars of the church must humbly admit that they have been faking it for survival, and are filled with fear, and hopelessness, and broken things they don’t know how to handle. Some, who have been so broken that no one could expect anything from them, begin speaking of their faith that they are positive that Jesus still heals the invalids, and the paralysed.
          Others begin speaking of spiritual battles within their heads, and hearts, and souls that leave them in constant defeat over voices, and thoughts, and accusations, and miserableness, that they don’t know how they could possibly focus on the necessary work of learning to love, and to be loved. People beside them, close to them, loving them, ask whether all the Scriptures about Jesus driving out demons could apply, and whether they could love one another through the spiritual deliverance that sets people at peace in their right minds?
          Those who have weathered the Beatitudinal journey in their own lives, and helped others walk through painful valleys of darkness,[10]know that Jesus came to proclaim good news to the poor, and give sight to the blind, and set at liberty the oppressed, and release prisoners from their prisons, and enter into whole churches with the announcement that it is the year of Jubilee, the season of God’s favor, the day of deliverance and salvation, and so they watch and pray for the realities of Christ to take over their broken brothers and sisters.[11]
          At the same time, some in the group must deal with their struggle to hide behind theological positions that deny what people are going through. They are faced with why they are so afraid of their brothers and sisters having problems with eating disorders, and sexual abuse memories, and demonic attacks, and dissociative brokenness. They struggle with their prideful self-dependence that wants to keep control of their world through manmade doctrines, rather than opening their hearts to how the living word of God is working to deliver people out of whatever is going on in their lives, no matter why it is there.
          My contention is that, if we will remove our self-imposed, manmade, limitations on how people are doing, those things we decide Christians can or cannot be dealing with, and will accept that God will be working in us both to will and to work the kind of loving relationships Paul spoke about, we can leave it in his hands who he brings into our lives, or who is in our churches that we must walk with, or what is wrong with us that we have never told anyone about.
          Remember that Jesus never once treated anyone who came to him like their problem or issue did not exist. Whatever they came with, that is where he directed his ministry. When he called the weary and burdened to him for rest, he did not qualify what it was that was making them weary, and neither did he create a box around the kinds of burdens people could bring to him.[12] He simply said that if the weary and the burdened would come to him, would take his yoke upon them and learn from him, he would give rest for their souls. Yes, their souls, and anything that was in their souls. If that is what Jesus did, that is what we must expect the body of Christ to do together now that he is our head.
          Now, as I was writing out these thoughts, something very fascinating happened to me. At the end of what I wrote, I suddenly realized that I was feeling love, and longing, and joy for God’s people, and the kind of relationships Paul spoke about. I felt a beginning degree of glory in what it means to consider the people we are blessing, and weeping with, and rejoicing with, as our crown of delight, and I knew that there are more degrees of glory to come.
          It all felt like an expression of that, “to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or think,” characteristic of God. I was so busy asking and thinking about how to share my heart with people about explicit and implicit memories, and all kinds of issues of brokenheartedness, that God was working in me to have this will, and to do this work, so that, when I was working this out with fear and trembling, he surprised me with how much more he was doing in me than I had known.
          Where are you starting from today? Do you lean more to the side of those who are broken in your freedom and ability to relate to broken people? Or do you lean more to the side of those who have trouble believing anyone in the church could possibly care about how broken you are? Do you need help with an impatient attitude that just wants people to get on with it and do the right thing? Or do you need help with a fear-based attitude that can’t imagine God wanting to be close to the stuff you see inside yourself.
          Whatever the case, ask God to show you how he is working in you to will the kind of relationships Paul was talking about, and to work those growing and maturing relationships, and ask him to lead you by his Spirit in how to work out these things with fear and trembling.
          If we will trust God to do far more abundantly than all we could ask or think, we can ask for what Paul experienced in love relationship with God and his people, and then watch God do things that are far different from what we asked or thought, even if we must weep with those who weep to get there. You can be sure that there will come a day, perhaps sooner than you think, where the weepers and weepees will also be rejoicing with those who rejoice.

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)






[1] Romans 12:2
[2] II Corinthians 3:18
[3] Ephesians 4:11-16 gives a wonderful picture of how the church works together to build each other up. We simply need to accept where people are starting from to become fully engaged in such a life in the Spirit.
[4] Luke 1:37
[5] Ephesians 3:20-21
[6] Romans 12:15
[7] Philippians 2:13; I John 1:3-4; John 15:11
[8] The Beatitudinal Journey is a summary of the transformation that takes place based on the Beatitudes Jesus listed in Matthew 5:1-12. Essentially it means that, when we see something God is calling us to experience, we will often first see our poverty of spirit in that area, then feel mournfulness about how we are doing, then feel a meekness that acknowledges it is unable to fix what is wrong, which leads to a hunger and thirst for the righteousness that can only be experienced by faith.
[9] Philippians 2:13; I John 1:3-4; John 15:11
[10] Akin to David’s Valley of the Shadow of death in Psalm 23.
[11] Luke 4:16-30
[12] Matthew 11:28-30

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