Chapters 4 & 5
August 21, 2006
Moving on……to Chapters 4 & 5. I have not had time to read them yet (again at least) but I wanted to get a post up for these chapters. We look forward to more contributions from Michael now that he is settled (and I expect a little bit more out of him now that he is an academic, ha).
Right away in Chapter 4, he sites Mother Theresa in saying ‘it is among the wealthy that we can find the most terrible poverty of all – loneliness’.
Long commutes to work, working incredibly long hours, all to make a higher standard of living for our family, but makes you think about what this is really doing to us and how rich our lives really are.
Good relationships bring so much life to us. When I was working the last 2 years I really struggled not having that, and was unhappy in many ways because of it.
I think if we somehow get more involved in the way Shane is talking about, it will not only be for the poor, but will actually do something great in us. So maybe it isn’t as scary as we think it is? Really releasing the grip I have on my major securities in life is terrifying for me, but maybe God is trying to free me of that so I can live better, I don’t know.
What do you think?
I think you are right Michael. Isn’t it interesting how what we think will make us happy and secure takes us away from the life God intended for us. The life that would bring glory to God and therefore the greatest joy in our own lives is often smoothered out by our inability to let go of our stuff, our security. Lots of stuff in Chap 4 and 5 more later. Oh and welcome to Anita and Ellen to the discussion. Feel free to let us know what you guys are thinking.
I am reading Addiction and Grace and it starts out talking a lot about freedom and its nemesis, addiction. We become addicted to so many things, and a big one is security (or what we would think is security…our possessions, control over things). Yet the Bible tells us that our real security is found in trusting God. Funny how that is the real security, yet trusting in God can sometimes be the scariest thing to face for us.
He talks about how we were born out of love, and how this love gives birth to freedom. If we can really attain this perfect love (which we only see glimpses of this side of the fall), we are then able to experience true freedom. This love is the opposite of being in bondage, it is free.
Just an interesting perspective I have been trying to get a better understanding of, and has a lot to do with the security topic we have been discussing.
I need to read through the chapters again but just adding to your discussion – anything that we strive for that takes the place of God is an idol in our heart. Security for sure can be that as well as wealth – even our kids.. good things can take the place of our focusing on pleasing God. I was thinking about how God wanted to lead the Isrealites to freedom from their bondage – he showed them so many miracles, he provided for their needs and in the end promised them they would reach the promise land flowing with milk and honey. However they failed to follow God and ultimately turned to idols and wound up wandering in the wilderness. I wondered if we are not so much like that .. God has so many promises for us if we would only turn from our idols and believe him… only then will he lead us out of the wilderness into the promised land. Maybe we are too satisfied with the wilderness (out of God’s will ) instead of realizing he has so much more..
This leads me to think how many times I act like I don’t really trust the heart of God. Believing His heart is truly good and that He really knows what’s best for me.
Furthering Michael’s discussion including the book Addiction and Grace, the guy in that book discusses how you can look at addiction as a continuum. Instead of only looking at the extreme addictions, such as cocaine addiction, he sees us all as addicted to multiple things. As Beth said, security and even our children can take the place of our pursuit of God…and this guy would say that you can even be addicted to them. As Michael described, they take away our freedom to love God. When Jesus confronted the rich young ruler about giving up all he owns, Jesus knew the one thing he was not willing to give up…the guy was in bondage to it, addicted to it, and did not have the freedom to choose Christ’s way. Scary to think that even though we may want to give things up we are so addicted to them that we often do the same thing as the rich guy, just in other ways. We may use denial, or repress our addiction, rationalize it, etc so that we do not have to give it up. Finally, what was interesting in Chapter 4 was that Claiborne suggests that even if our wealth is not an idol in our life, we should live on little and give most to the poor, using the rich ruler story as an example. I have always heard something like this, “It is ok if you are rich and a Christian, just don’t make it an idol.” I like how Cliaborne challenges that thought.
Beth, I liked your thought on being in the wilderness and becoming so used to it that we cannot imagine anthing better. Reminds me of one of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes, “As Christians we are far too easily pleased. We fool around with wealth, power, and sex when infinite joy is offered to us. Like a child in a sandbox that cannot imagine what a day at the sea could be like, we are far too easily pleased.”
The C.S. Lewis quote sums it all up.
So true..I think too going back to what Matthew said about wealth, I wonder if we fool ourselves to think we can be so rich in wealth and it be ok as long as we don’t make it an idol. I wonder if that is even possible.. not sure.. any thoughts on that? So hard to grow in our faith when we are surrounded by so much.
I believe I have seen people with tremendous wealth who are truely devoted to following Christ. But they are very few and far between and I think we tend to error on the side of thinking our idols are ok. Guess we will wrap up these chapters. Altought I think we could spend more time here discussing such things as community. In Chap 5 Shane talks about how vital community is and how those that we are in community with should most likely not look exactly like us. The beauty of the body of Christ is how so many different kinds of people come together to form it.