Posted on by Abe Austin

God’s Body: The Problem of Pain

Yesterday I spoke briefly about Western philosophy and its emphasis on individualism, and Eastern philosophy and its emphasis on collectivism. I spoke of benefits and drawbacks to each, and today I will present another unique effect of Western Individualism. First, though, let us address a problem that everyone will face whatever philosophy they live by.

Blind Spots)

When a large culture adopts a particular philosophy, it quickly becomes ingrained in their lives and shapes the way that they think. Certain perceptions and reactions will be culled from their range of possible responses. Thus, their view is controlled by their philosophy, but they are blind to the fact that they are being influenced at all. They just think their view is self-evident and are incredulous that anyone could feel otherwise.

As I say, this is common for any culture. All people have assumed premises, regardless of their background. This idea is captured very well in the famous joke of a fish that does not realize it is in water, because the water is so ubiquitous that the fish has ceased to perceive it.

Discomfort at God’s Wrath)

Let us keep that idea of cultural blind spots in mind as we consider what is arguably the most controversial aspect of God in Western culture: Him commanding the destruction of certain civilizations. Throughout the Bible there are some instances where God either wipes out a people by His own hand, or He orders the Israelites to carry out the extermination of another kingdom. I recently devoted an entire study to examining this matter, and how I wrestled to resolve my discomfort with these passages.

But the criticism of God goes even deeper. Just the fact that He allows tragic things to happen, even if not by His own hand, is greatly distressing to many. We often hear the example of childhood cancer as the sort of thing that a loving God simply wouldn’t allow. This complaint is so prevalent that renowned Christian author C. S. Lewis dedicated an entire book to it entitled The Problem of Pain.

And this logic seems to be entirely self-evident to us in the Western world, a matter that every religious person would have to deal with, no matter their conception of the divine. I was surprised, then, to learn that this matter is actually not a great concern to people of other cultures. There seems to be evidence that this moral dilemma is a product of our Western philosophical blind spot as opposed to an obvious universal truth.

A Different View)

But how could anyone actually believe that it is acceptable for God to be good and also allow suffering? Why would our Western Individualism cause us to feel this discomfort, and how could another philosophical view dispel it? I’ll answer these questions in my next post.

Posted on by Abe Austin

God’s Body: Individualism and Collectivism

To begin this series on God’s Body, I want two consider different world philosophies, and how they might affect our understanding of God’s Body and our relation to it. Today will only be the introduction to these philosophies.

Western Philosophy and Individualism)

The first philosophy is the predominant one in our Western culture, which places particular emphasis on the individual. We tend to think of ourselves autonomously and hold individual rights as more sacred than societal needs. And there are undoubtedly some great benefits to this view. Primarily, it leads to the rejection of oppression and injustice. Since the worth of the individual soul is supreme, there is no justification for putting another person in a state of indignity. I do not think it is a coincidence that modern democracy and the abolition of slavery were ushered in by the West.

But this philosophy also has its drawbacks, particularly when we take it too far. It increases the chances of developing a sense of selfishness and narcissism. It can be used to justify sacrificing the greater good for hedonistic pleasure.

Eastern Philosophy and Collectivism)

Now let us consider Eastern philosophy, which often places a greater emphasis on collectivism. Here one considers oneself as a part of a greater whole. Indeed, a part of multiple greater wholes, including a family, a community, and a society. One is expected to serve the whole, and to make personal sacrifices for the greater good. Benefits of this are a greater sense of cooperation and it can foster a strong sense of belonging.

Drawbacks to this philosophy are opposite the benefits of individualism. If one feels subservient to the whole, one is less likely to question injustice, allowing bad leaders a long leash to oppress as they see fit. Thus, for both philosophies we see that each comes with its own benefits and drawbacks. Undesirable side-effects are to be expected in all philosophies, for all are seen through the lens of imperfect mortality.

Views on God)

But how do these two different philosophies affect our views of God? I have already acknowledged some of their benefits and drawbacks in regard to the individual, but tomorrow I will detail one that is a great stumbling block to accepting God in the West.

Because of our individualism, we struggle to truly see ourselves as a part of God’s Body, and that leads to an improper frustration when God allows us to experience pain. Come back tomorrow where I will explain this point further.

Posted on by Abe Austin

God’s Body: Introduction

I am currently reading through Paul’s letters to the churches in the ancient world with my family. We covered 1 Corinthians 12, where he speaks at length about the Body of Christ, and how we are all a part of it. This subject lingered in my mind, spinning off all manner of different tangents and realizations. I wanted to try and gather all of these separate notions and put them into some order, which is what I will endeavor to do with this series.

There will still be some stream-of-consciousness nature to the following posts, but I hope to progress from one point to another with a logical point of connection in between. I also hope to mostly progress in a linear way without curving back too much on previous topics.

If there is a central theme to this series, it will be the Body of God, and our relation to that body. “Body” is an interesting word, because it simultaneously means something that is specific and individual, such as “the body of a man,” but also something that is abstract, aggregate, and many, such as “the body politic.” I believe that the Body of God can be seen in both these lights, which my posts will explore.

Posted on by Abe Austin

A Blessed Curse

Only those that are most dedicated to evil are destroyed by God. For all the rest of us, even when He curses us, it is a curse designed to teach and even save us. The very tribulation that we think will ruin us, ends up being the vehicle for our salvation. It feels like a death, but it holds the seed of life. Thus, by His grace, even God’s curses are blessings.

Posted on by Abe Austin

If God Can Do Anything

Because I believe that God can do anything, I believe that He can make any desired miracle come true for me! But even more impressive, because He can do anything, He can also make things work out without the miracle. Indeed, it requires less faith to believe that God can change the world to match my heart, than to believe that God can change my heart to survive in spite of the world.

Believe in the bigger God. Believe in the God who can make you whole, with or without the thing you most desire.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Already Someone New

If you do today what you weren’t willing to do yesterday,
You are already someone new

Posted on by Abe Austin

Commitment to the Ideal: A Richer Soil

A Difficult Requirement)

Yesterday I spoke of the trouble in having all of our relationships and commitments based purely on the attributes of the other person. If we only show love and devotion to those who love and are devoted to us, then we are not following Christ’s mandate to “bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).

How do we offer such blessing, and good, and prayers, to those that are unpleasant to us. And how do we “give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver?” (2 Corinthians 9:7).

Love for the Ideal)

The answer that I have found is that we must have a love for the principle and ideal, one that is even more foundational to us than love for the individual. As I consider our society today, I see a great need for people who are not just devoted to their spouse, but to the very idea of marriage in-and-of-itself. We need people who are not just committed to taking care of their children, but who are committed to the role of fatherhood or motherhood itself. We need people who are not just supporters of their friends, but who are supporters of friendship itself.

If people loved marriage, loved parenthood, loved friendship, and loved neighborliness, then they could continue to act in those roles even when the other side of those relationships turned cold. If, instead, when companions turn from us, we abandon our relationship with them, we reveal that marriage, parenthood, friendship, and neighborliness never really meant anything to us at all. We just wanted to get, and if we couldn’t get, we wouldn’t be had.

Of course, I would advise anyone that they should marry someone that they genuinely love, and raise their kids to be people that they genuinely like, and build friendships with people that are genuinely good for them, and settle down in a neighborhood that is genuinely inviting. I believe it is right and wise to plant one’s relationships in promising ground, but sometimes the topsoil erodes, and roots must cling to something deeper if the relationship is to survive.

A Choice of Who to Be)

If one does not care whether the relationship survives after the initial excitement has worn off, then they hold a very shallow view of what it means to be a spouse, a parent, a friend, and a neighbor. They will never have a relationship of true depth and meaning. They will live petty and forgettable lives.

If, on the other hand, one remains committed to a marriage, a parent-child relationship, a friendship, and a community, through good times and bad, then that is a person whose bonds actually mean something. That is a person who is living a life of value.

At the end of the day, we are temporal, transient beings, and also the other people in our lives, so our commitment to them is naturally temporary and dynamic as well, ever shifting from moment to moment. We can, however, have a deep, abiding, and overriding commitment to an ideal. We can always believe in marriage, in fatherhood and motherhood, in friendship, and in neighborliness. We can be devoted to those ideals even when the relationship to the other person grows stale. We can continue giving of ourselves to those ideals with a passionate and cheerful heart, no matter how we feel about the person receiving on the other side. It is our commitment to the ideal that will see us through every drought and flood, every change of season, and every passing year.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Commitment to the Ideal: Transient Devotion

The Hardest Love)

One of the hardest instructions Jesus gave to his followers was that they were to love their enemies:

32 For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.

33 And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same.

35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.

Luke 6:32-33, 35

I cannot imagine a time or culture where this mandate wouldn’t go against the grain. I believe it is inherent in our humanity to value those that are good to us, and to despise those that are not.

How, then, are we meant to overcome this basic nature and live another way? It would be one thing if Jesus had said to “put up” with our enemies, or to “resentfully tolerate” them, but he didn’t. He said to love them, and that suggests having cultivated a state of mind and heart that is totally unnatural.

I could easily do an entire series that explores multiple answers to this question. For now, though, I will just take two posts to examine one way in which people fail this mandate, and one solution to that failing. The failure is this: commitment to the person, and the solution is this: commitment to the ideal.

The Failure)

I hear many times in our culture when a person expresses his love, commitment, and devotion to another person, and he gives as his reasons a positive attribute that applies to that person today. Consider these examples:

“I always listen to my wife because she believes in me when no one else does.”
“I need to be a good neighbor because they’ve always been good to me.”
“I’ll always give everything to my children because they bring me such joy.”
“I’ll always be there for my friends because they’re always there for me.”

I think statements like these are popular because they are flattering to the person in question, but they also establish a culture in which devotion is conditional. Implicit in all of these is that the speaker’s undying affection is dependent upon the other person continuing to show up in a way that is positive.

What if the wife stops believing in him? And the neighbors become indifferent? And the children make disagreeable choices? And the friends let him down in a time of need?

These statements of devotion are very transient and weak. They essentially communicate that “I will be dedicated to you, so long as you remain as someone that I like.” Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, the behavior seems to follow the words. Even in our most sacred of mortal relationships, that of marriage, a man and a woman will separate themselves from one another for no other reason than, “we just don’t get along anymore.” Their commitment to one another was based on nothing more than personal delight, and once that delight is gone, so is their commitment.

In addition to being unhealthy for our society, this sort of transient devotion flies in the face of Jesus’s teaching. Our love, our commitment, our devotion was never meant to be dependent on the personal attributes of those we associate with. We were supposed to be able to love and be committed to the wellbeing of everyone, even our enemies.

Just how exactly can we foster this sort of unconditional love and devotion within us? I delve into my answer in my next post.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Invited Blessings

In my study of the Old Testament, I have been reviewing all of the labor and rituals that the Israelites had to observe in order to secure the Lord’s promised blessings. They had to build a holy place where the Lord could reside, they had to give the best of their flocks in offerings, and they even had to give up a portion of their people for a priest class. Also, everything had to be prepared according to a very specific design, and in the right order, with some rituals repeated a precise number of times.

In the end, the Israelites did secure the blessing of the Lord’s presence, and all others that followed. After all of their labor He accepted the house, and “a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:34).

So, does that all mean that accessing God and His blessings is based upon making specific sacrifices and following a specific recipe? In my experience, not exactly.

I would say that I have clear instruction for what I need to do to invite God’s presence into my life generally, but not so much for specific blessings that I might want. This creates an interesting contradiction where I feel His presence, but often cannot achieve the transformation that I desire. Take for example my desire to treat my body as the temple of God that it really is, or my wish that I could better maintain my stamina for the works I feel He has called me to do, or my struggle to let go of the anger and bitterness that I hear Him asking me to lay on the altar.

I hear you Lord, but I don’t know the way.

Further complicating things is the fact that I believe most of God’s blessings are never guaranteed, at least in this life. He might bless me with a sudden passion for always doing the right, or He might consider it wise to let me struggle so that I become stronger. This same uncertainty applies on a larger scale, too. I believe that those who rely upon the Lord have more blessed lives on the whole, but that does not mean that any specific blessing is guaranteed for any specific individual. And we must not forget that in dark times, being a believer has actually meant being more persecuted and afflicted on the whole.

There is no formula that if you do X and Y, then you must receive Z.

Sometimes that is hard for me to accept, but at the same time I realize that if this wasn’t the case, then there wouldn’t be grace. If I knew exactly what levers I had to pull to get exactly what outcomes I wanted, then my path would be in my hands and not the Lord’s. There would be no room for Him to lead me into something I never considered before. There would be no falling to my knees overcome by gratitude when I receive a gift that I don’t feel worthy of.

When we do good, it only invites blessings. If they come, what they are, and how many of them is out of our hands. Each one that comes to us is an unpredictable miracle. Thus, all we should concern ourselves with is making ourselves into a better vessel, then leave it up to God to decide how to fill it.