Kung Fu Christian

My daughter, Sarah, is taking kung fu classes.  Her teacher is great.  He assigns homework for the week—things like, make your bed, clean your dishes, and clean your room.  In her last class, he told the students that these tasks aren’t simply chores to be begrudgingly done.  They are all a part of kung fu.  Kung fu pervades everything they do.  They clean their room out of respect for their parents, and that’s kung fu.  They put things in place with deliberate and powerful motions, and that’s kung fu.  It’s the wax on, wax off principal from the first Karate Kid movie and the coat on the coat rack principal from the second Karate Kid movie.  It’s even in an obscure, but funny movie called Shaolin Soccer.  Everything is done because of and for the benefit of kung fu.  Kung fu is lived, not done.

It got me to thinking what our lives would look like if we applied that same philosophy to Christian living.  I know it’s the way we’re supposed to live.  I also know I don’t do that consistently.  I may be able to read my Bible, and try to live the principles it teaches to glorify God.  But, I don’t know how to make my bed or take out the trash or mow the lawn or drive to work, and say, “That’s Christianity,” though I could do those things in a certain way and say, “That’s kung fu.”  I could brush my teeth with dramatic body motions and poses and call it kung fu style.  But, how do I brush my teeth “Christian style?”  Can I repair a sprinkler head…to the glory of God?

So, maybe that connection doesn’t work so well.  But, it seems like it should.  If my walk with Christ (living my covenant lifestyle) is supposed to be pervasive and constant, how do I apply the divine to the mundane?

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."  - 1 Cor 10:31 NIV

What is the Nature of Scripture?

My thought is that scripture is essentially a reason to praise God.  That may not be it's sole raison d'etre.  But, from beginning to end, scripture shows God to be a consistent, loving father.  Whether He's flooding the world or delivering His people, every time God does something in scripture, we can say, "Hallelujah!"  Israel turned to idol worship and God punished them.  Hallelujah!  Jacob stole his brother's birthright and ran away, and God upheld His promise to Abraham.  Hallelujah!

From the historical perspective, He demonstrates his consistent love for us by rewarding and punishing His children throughout scripture and by making promises that he keeps.  Scripture doesn't cast mankind in a very good light, as we tend to be inconsistent, self-loving, self-serving, willful children.  But, that directs us even more back to scripture being a reason to praise God for His consistent love for us.  Hallelujah!

Does scripture contain Biblical answers to modern problems?  As a parent, I find myself having to take things away from my kids.  Things they like.  Things they cherish.  It's usually the iPad because they are hooked on a game, or a TV show they've watched 10 times in a row.  Taking these things away from them feels like punishment to them.  To them, it feels like I'm being mean.  But, I see them becoming obsessed with something trivial (TV and video games), and I need to break that pattern of addiction because I love them, and I need them to love me (by obedience--or vice versa, obey me because of their love) more than their iPad & TV.  

I read a book called The Pursuit of God in which the author writes about having possessions, but not being possessed by them.  An example cited was Abraham, who was willing to sacrifice his dearest possession, Isaac.  That demonstration of love literally saved the world.  The story of Job fits into this category of modern problems, too, I think.  

The problem is that, when you lose your job, your car, your health, your loved ones, iPad time, TV time (modern problems), it's so hard to see that ancient scripture may be at work.  Abraham never said, "I want my iPad!  I want my iPad!"  (Hallelujah!)  But, the idea is the same.  It just might be God's loving hand breaking your fixation/obsession/addiction to the 'things' in the world (can we call it idol worship?) and redirecting you back to love-driven obedience to Him and His plan for us and the world.  It just might be a reason to praise God (even though I still find myself fussing at him for not protecting me and my family when it happens).

Here's the thing, though.  Without an understanding of scripture, we could never see our modern problems from that perspective.  And, that's why we end up perplexed and frustrated when God abandons us and allows these terrible things to happen.  It's so hard to hear "I love you" when you're in the throes of grief, punishment or withdrawal.  On the other hand, God can't hear, "I love you," from us when we're obsessed with our modern problems.

Verb Form of 'Christian'

I have this image in my mind of a video showing an unmarked radio controlled car. The caption reads, “Creation.” It’s picked up, dunked in water, and a sticker in the shape of a cross is applied to the hood. The caption reads, “Christian.” The car is picked up, a battery is installed, the motor revs & the car speeds off. The caption reads, “Disciple.” 

We are all creations; in baptism, we become Christians; in deeds, we are disciples. 

Or, to put it another way, “Disciple” is the verb form of the noun, “Christian.” 

But, I’m going to challenge Willard’s water-in-the-gas-tank analogy a bit and suggest that we don’t add water to the gas tank. Instead, our cars are built with a reservoir of water connected to our gas tank. That wasn’t part of the original design. But, the prototype was retrofitted with it, and it became standard equipment from then on. The reservoir has many hoses that lead to our gas tank, and more hoses are added all the time. Each hose has a valve that is open in its natural state allowing water to flow into the gas tank. These valves must be held shut in order to keep water from flowing. 

To complicate things, releasing the valve can actually be enjoyable and at least temporarily rewarding. With so many hoses and valves, it becomes challenging to keep them all shut. 

Fortunately, it’s possible for passengers to help us hold them shut, and that makes it a lot easier to keep water out of the gas. It’s a lot harder to keep them all shut when you’re alone in the car. 

But, it seems that either by choice or by negligence, a valve eventually opens. Or maybe two, or three. It feels good to take a break from holding the valve closed, and the water doesn’t have an immediate impact on the engine. Well, maybe a little, but it’s tolerable. It’s only when the engine starts running really rough that we start closing valves. And, it’s then that we discover the valves can be very hard to close. 

We don’t so much add a little sin into our lives as much as we allow a little sin to sneak out—to be expressed in our deeds, our thoughts, our words. Our sinful nature is within us, and we allow ourselves to be disobedient. 

But, if Jesus’ own hand-picked disciples couldn’t prevent themselves from sinning, how can we? We can’t. We must necessarily sometimes miss the mark. 

Our challenge, as disciples, is to hold the valves shut as long as we can, knowing that we will eventually relax our grip and then have to work to shut the valve again. That probably keeps us humble, and makes us more likely to be forgiving of others who try to keep their valves shut, but fail occasionally.

Dresden Files

I don’t know if you’ve read the Dresden Files series. It’s about a wizard living in modern-day Chicago, fighting supernatural forces and helping the police catch bad guys. I read the first book, and in it, there was an interesting concept of a wizard’s “third eye,” which essentially allows him and other wizards to lift the veil of the apparent and see the world in its “real” mystical, magical, hideous fundamental nature. It implies that the world we see is not the real world. Rather, what we see is a mask of more palatable images concealing the hideous “real” world. The same concept appears in the movie, They Live, and The Matrix, and probably others. 

It got me to thinking about our world and how we see people. I think we tend to view most people (especially ourselves) in their best light. We see ministers and church ladies and shepherds and philanthropists as “good people,” and we put murderers, child molesters, rapists and politicians into a different category. And, I think we probably see people in both groups as better than they actually are. After all, a sin is a sin, and there are no degrees of disobedience. Still, I tend to think that people aren’t as bad as the worst thing they ever did, nor as good as the best thing they ever did, but are somewhere in between. 

 I wonder what we would see if we had a “third eye.” What would we see if the veil of the apparent were lifted, or if we had those cool shades that allowed us to see beyond the real world? What if we were able to see people as God sees them? Would we be more compassionate toward one another? Would we be repulsed by them? Seeing ourselves with clear eyes, would we hide from others and scramble for a fig leaf big enough to cover our shame? It’s the blood of Jesus, I suppose, that puts that veil back on us and makes us palatable (acceptable) to God.  

Jesus had the ability to see people unveiled, I think. So, why don’t people have the ability to see each other for who they really are?