The Grass Is Greener...?

The concept of growing where I am planted has never resonated well with me. I am constantly looking for something bigger and more grandiose. I am, quite simply, addicted to encouragement. I love being appreciated. In fact, it motivates me more than I care to admit. But God’s design and plan calls for us to be faithful. That means being faithful where we are. It means being faithful with what we have. I usually fall into the trap of thinking that if only I had then I could do something really special. But the fault of that logic merits chastening. I do not need to do something special because I define what special is. I need to remember that God IS special. I am small.

For some reason, I like, some of you, fall into the “grass is greener” trap. I want to accomplish something for God so much that I am constantly running out in front of His guidance in order to accomplish it. If it succeeds, I try to share His glory. If it fails…well that’s all on Him. It’s His will and plan.

Most of the time I feel like a spiritual Forrest Gump except that my stumbling and bumbling turn into…well, stumbling and bumbling. I try to take solace in the fact that God can take whatever I have and use it for His glory. He uses my good and redeems my bad. But when I study God’s word and see the power and majesty contained there, I’m more convinced than ever that everything that I have to give is insignificant. But our great God uses the insignificant.

For example, Jesus went to the home of a Pharisee named Simon. While there, he was approached by “a woman of ill repute.” She was a prostitute. She had a past. She had shame. She had guilt. But she was moved by the compassion of the Savior. She knelt and washed his feet with her tears. She dried them with her hair. She anointed them with expensive perfume. The Pharisee was indignant. Jesus, seeing through their exteriors, told the story of a man loaning money to two people. The sums owed were vastly different. The debt could not be repaid. The terms were renegotiated and the debt was forgiven. “Who do you suppose loved him (the man who forgave the debt) more,” Jesus asked Simon. “I suppose the one who had the larger debt,” he answered. And he was correct. But he still didn’t get it.

By the world’s standards, only one person in the room that night was insignificant. She was the one God used. “I understand feeling as small and as insignificant as humanly possible,” she might have said. But now she understands feeling redeemed!

Unfortunately, I am usually more like Simon the Pharisee. He was a good man. Religious! Probably great at following rules! He would be the current equivalent to the regular church attender, very faithful in his attendance, and able to follow well the religious expectations of the day! But he still doesn’t get it.

“Speaking in the language of today, we would say that she (the unnamed woman) went ‘nuts’ about Jesus. Her behavior obviously was the behavior of a ‘nutty’ person. (We really do have to use colloquial language to capture responses to Jesus. More formal, literary, or theological language cannot do it.) When we see Jesus as he is, we must turn away or else shamelessly adore him. That must be kept in mind for any authentic understanding of the power of Christian faith. This woman, unlike Simon, was not about to turn away.” (The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard, pg. 19)

When was the last time you found yourself “nuts”… absolutely, totally, completely, and irrationally nuts. What was it about or in response to? Usually when we go “nuts” it is because something has angered us or our team has scored. In matters of faith, we have sufficiently trained ourselves to be restrained. We still don’t get it!

The first time I heard a dirty joke, I was in sixth grade at NASA space camp in Huntsville, AL. It was a school fieldtrip. That night when the lights went out, a student who was new to the school (at least I had not seen him much) told a joke so vile that to this day I remember every word. And then a funny thing happened when we were in eighth grade. This same student had a love encounter with Jesus. And he went absolutely nuts. He started praying for students. He started speaking to others about the change Jesus made. It was uncomfortable, but we knew it would soon pass. He soon would become “normal” just like us. We were thrilled that he got “saved.” Now, would he please just SHUT UP! Who did he think he was anyway? Most of the rest of us had been “saved” for years. His excitement was ruining our “Christian” reputation. Unlike us, he wasn’t even a member of the campus Christian club. Somebody had to teach him how to live the “Christian” life just like us. I mean, from our perspective, he just didn’t get it! But unlike us, he just couldn’t turn away.

Several mornings ago, we shared coffee and a couple of hours of fellowship. He still will not shut up! He is still “nuts!” I could not be more thrilled. He credited his behavior, in a self depreciating manner, to ignorance. “When I read my bible everyday it never occurred to me that I should be any different,” he said. He lived what he read. That is a key to the biblical life. The measure of our faithfulness is not found in our knowledge. It is found in our obedience. (I’d love to take credit for that little nugget of truth, but I’m simply quoting my friend.)

Many times we are absolutely, positively “correct” in our theology. We are even correct in our behavior. We say the right things. We do the right things. We teach the right things. But we still don’t get it!

I was recently at a church when an announcement was made about kids no longer being allowed to run in church. I understand there could be safety issues. Someone could get hurt. But these kids were excited about going to their place to learn more about Jesus. (We can’t have excitement in church so let’s nip that in the bud right now.) The statement made was teaching kids to respect “God’s house.” (I will not begin to address the faulty theology there.) What is more disrespectful to God? Children being children and running in church, or adults who sit in church with hearts darkened by sin that we have absolutely no intention of dealing with? Please understand, I am not expecting anyone in church to be sinless. But when we grow accustomed to our sin, to the point where we have no disdain for it, then we are living a lie!

The biblical life is not about right theology. It’s not about right teaching. It’s not even about right behavior. It’s about getting it! It’s about understanding that our lives are not meant to be lived in order to check the right boxes on our religious to do list. It’s about being so in love with Jesus that we can not turn away. It’s about deciding to make a difference on this terrestrial ball that we call home. It’s about buying one less thing, that we don’t need anyway, in order to give to someone who does have a need. It’s about sacrifice. It’s about doing without so we can do more. Not because we are obligated, nor because it is necessary, but because we get it.

We have everything we need to make a difference now. The question remains…do we really want to make a difference? The biblical life is about choosing to forget your interests in order to be interested in others. There is no room for self. The prostitute poured her “self” out at Jesus’ feet. We have to as well in order to truly experience Him. The Pharisee just judged Jesus’ seeming lack of understanding and discernment. In that moment, the creation judged himself to be more experienced and wise than the Creator! It is far too easy for you and I to do the same.

My younger cousin has a tattoo on her back the reads, “Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future.” She probably gets judged harshly for the ink on her body, but the message is one that deserves to be screamed, both with ink and with voices, from the highest hilltop. My friend understands that message. The woman at Jesus’ feet understands that message. Do we?

We still fall into the “grass is greener” trap. We get to a point in life where we trade sinful habits for religious ones, but often, we haven’t exchanged our hearts and minds. But the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. In fact, being from a rural area, I can tell you that the grass usually grows greener over a septic tank. When we exchange habits without exchanging hearts, we are only changing how we use two hours of our time on Sunday. Jesus did not die so we can punch our clocks on Sunday mornings (we often expect overtime credit for a Sunday night or a Wednesday night) and then go right back to being the same again. If we truly believe, then we are foundationally different. We need to make sure that our spiritual lives are not simply stagnant cesspools of religious activity filled with rules with no personal meaning, action with no individualized purpose, or theology with no practical life change. Making sure of that means that we get it!