For the first time, I read a book by Greg Boyd. And boy, it is so difficult! The reading was so lively and accessible and I've come to realize
why. It definitely is difficult to live out because it is Jesus' way, yet it sounds so extremely exciting to live Kingdom life, which will fully manifest itself when Jesus comes again. On another note - I felt, for a number of times, an urge to cover the front cover with my bookmark when I read in public places because the title sounded anti-Jesus. But then I eventually stopped covering it so people could see the subtitle too:
Losing Your Religion for the Beauty of a Revolution. That should do.
On Wealth and PovertyI don't agree with a few minor points in this book, but out of the many, many things from this book that enlightened me and got me excited about living Kingdom life is revolting against poverty and greed. Jesus says that my heart is where my treasure is (Matthew 6:20-21), and
Randy Alcorn totally changed my perspective on money by rightly
pointing out that we accumulate treasure in where we think it's going to last. No one in their right mind buys furniture for the hotel they're staying in while on vacation. Up till this March, I bought many dresses, blouses (unfortunately, many are immodest), heels and makeup. I'm a sporadic shopper. I don't shop frequently, but I splurge when I do. As a citizen of the Kingdom
to come, it now makes no sense to me to pile up treasure on earth, especially when I'm definitely going to die and leave this pitstop for home.
So what follows my changed perspective? If I'm going out the next day, I pack my things and pick out the outfit I'll wear the night before. And I think for most of the time, what I wear should reflect this Kingdom perspective. I make an effort to spend money on others and God's kingdom. I resist the temptation to just 'buy something since I'm here at the mall' so I can measure how well my time at the mall paid off. I don't look at things in the mall and imagine how they would increase my worth by making me prettier, look more fashionable, more middle-class, more conservative and whatnot. And then lament on the fact that life is a little less awesome in reality because I don't really want to spend the money on that dress or bag.
Something was wrong.Still, there was a big problem. My revolt against poverty and greed was beginning to look like ascetism. God created the heavens and the earth, complete with fruit-bearing trees so that Man and Woman could enjoy it in
abundance. The Preacher tells me that for all the toil and "meaningless" living on earth, we are to embrace it and enjoy the fruit of our labor (Ecclesiastes 9: 9). Yet I was becoming stingy, unwilling to chip in to any more expensive but very unimpressive twenty-firsts birthday presents, since every dollar I save could feed so many more impoverished people, save so many more girls from forced prostitution and reclaim so much land that capitalists have snatched from poor farmers.
So when Greg said the memory of that Haitian boy scavenging through a three foot-high pile of garbage in Cité Soleil haunted him for each dollar he was going to spend on non-survival related stuff, I couldn't agree less. Guilt was beginning to consume my compassion, and as much as I thought I wasn't judging people, I felt dismayed towards those who were not living simply too. As Greg pointed out, Jesus' first miracle was for a party (!!!). He rebuked Judas for the costly perfume Mary poured on his feet and was often feasting with his disciples and other people, while there were just as many beggars and destitute people on the streets as there are now.
It makes sense to me that Greg said guilt comes when I try to take too much responsibility. These destitute and needy peoples are God's first, and my responsibility second. I can trust that God, being the God of abundance and source of all blessings, to take care of every one of them. And I'll continue help out in areas where I have been convicted to help in, where God has given me the responsibility to do so.
Also, my God is the God of Abundance. God showers his love on me - providing bare essentials is not his modus operandi (cf Philippians 4:19, 1 Timothy 6:17). I'd like to quote Greg at length.
If the Kingdom of God is about manifesting God's will "on earth as it is in heaven", and if Jesus manifested God's Kingdom perfectly, then it must be the case that it's God will for people to enjoy nonessential things, celebrate weddings, kick back with friends at parties, share an abundance of wine and food, and worship God extravagantly...Jesus wasn't taking a break from the Kingdom when he celebrated nonessential things: he was just manifesting...[its] abundance (139-140).
2 Corinthians 9:8 also says that abundance comes before self-sacrificial giving, and comes as a result of it, so I may always be doing good work since I'm
living a very good life. Now I could choose between Package Guilt and Package Enjoyment: Guilt, with a dash of Judgmentalism, a cup of Constant Comparison and three cups of Pseudo-mere Survival vs. Enjoyment, and plenty of Thankfulness, Compassion, Joy and Trust. Needless to say which one!
My Jesus of CompassionI increasingly appreciate poor people, uneducated people, intellectually or socially challenged people, gangsters, terrorists, delinquents, school dropouts, and other social 'deviants', because my primary job, following Jesus' example, is to believe and live the fact that every of these individuals have
unsurpassable worth. Jesus died for them "just as he died for us" (112). Meritocracy has its merits, but sells the lies of freedom and equality. Meritocracy is not the answer; Jesus is. Their worth is not determined by their salary, nor their jobs, how they speak or what they believe in. They are not worthier, or less worthy than me because Jesus humbled himself to cruelty, oppression and lowliness for the glue-sniffing boy at the park, the President of Luxembourg, the serial rapist on death sentence, and me.
I'm from the working class. We try to live like we're from the middle class and most people believe it. For the past eleven years, I was ashamed of my family because they are people disenfranchised by the English, literacy-based system of today. My brothers hang out with social deviants because they are one themselves.
Can I say they experience so much frustration and sadness from the world and, shockingly, the Church?
I was one of these 'church people' myself. I judged them, felt they deserved the love-less treatment they were getting from the world and the Church because they chose to be socially and spiritually inferior. I couldn't wait for God's disciplining to come because they seemed so hard-hearted against every kind of punishment or coaxing my parents and I did - Why did I punish my brothers? You can see this self-righteousness can get so perverse: I genuinely thought my methods were even better than my parents'. I tried not to walk close with them and my parents or talk to them in public...until I believed a few months ago that Jesus loves them not more or less than he loves me. How radical can this be!
My Life source? As Boethius says in
Consolatio Philosophiae, people may resort to evil or do acts of compassion, but all strive for Goodness. Not all ways lead to Goodness, but the desire for it is undeniable. Greg calls these different ways our Life sources. From these sources, we find purpose in life, and our life revolves around them. This can be something as outright-ly reviled by evangelicals as pornography and lust, to something inherently good such as right doctrines. Right doctrines! Like Greg, Jerry Bridges and Tom Blangiardo say, we get the adrenaline rush, the racing heart, the butterfly in the stomach and we end up
almost yelling in theological debates if our Life source is the right doctrine. Whenever I felt like that debating or 'sharing' Christian-y stuff, it was often something very ill-informed and foolish like "Worship music with drums glorifies God less because God prefers the organ and music set to chords, like hymns", or "Calvinists are the real believers while Arminians are humanists who use God's Word for their own interests". I was bent on winning, so the more I smelt victory the more excited I was. And this is also why I wasn't really open to listening and considering my friend's views. The truth didn't matter since winning was my Life source. You could imagine it was always unloving.
Even when whatever right doctrines God has been showing me, and whatever I've experienced of his love is inherently God-glorifying, good and true, I'm still an idolater should
this become my Life source. God is perfect, and in him we find perfect goodness - that's why we call him God, not some name we give to another dude like us. God is Goodness, and he is the only Life source that totally satisfies and is right. And again, I'm reminded of sin's deceitfulness because even the right doctrines can replace God as my Life source?! Let's cling on to God, the Giver of Living Water and Bread.
Christus AmorTime and again, I can't believe how love answers every trouble or question I have. I'm convinced that we can always start off from God's love for us through Jesus.
"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him."
-- John the Apostle
