Clinging to Inadequacy

Commentary on Sabbath School lesson for 4.16.11

“Surrender don't come natural to me
I'd rather fight You for something
I don't really want
Than to take what You give that I need”[1]

These are some of the words for Rich Mullins’ song “Hold Me Jesus”.  Mullins has really caught the essence of our constant struggle with God:  He wants to give us eternity and we want the here and now.  I have to mention the show Hoarders: Buried Alive again.  Somehow their experience seems to parallel, on an individual scale, how all of humanity has been acting since Adam and Eve took a bite of whatever fruit that was.

So, here’s this person who has “collected” so much stuff that he (or she) cannot walk through his own house without stepping on things.  There are whole rooms that are completely unusable.  It seems like most of the time, there is very little of value in the house, just tons of things the person is afraid to get rid of, for whatever reason. The person has usually come to the point where he is either going to lose his home or his family because of the mess.

Enter the psychologist and the professional organizer, both of whom specialize in hoarders and they start trying to help the hoarder.  The organizer will pick up some random thing off of the top of a pile (maybe a plastic hanger that’s broken or a stray glove) and ask the hoarder if he can get rid of it.  Amazingly the hoarder, who knows that losing his family and/or house is imminent, will hold this bit of garbage and really struggle with being able to let it go. One man was on the verge of losing contact with his wife and little boy because of his hoarding.  They had already moved out of the house.  The father had one whole room filled with nothing but toys that he had bought for his son…but he had never given any of them to his son…the son he was going to lose all contact with.

Aren’t we just a whole lot like that?  Our lives are filled to overflowing with trivia that is separating us from God.  We invite Him in to help us de-clutter, but everything He asks us to get rid of, we want to hang onto.  Meanwhile, He’s waiting to give us eternal life.

“[In an article for Decision magazine], Samuel Kamaleson illustrates [the difficulty of submission] through a Christian folk story from South India. … it opens with a young boy who loved to play marbles. He regularly walked through his neighborhood with a pocketful of his best marbles, hoping to find opponents to play against. One marble in particular, his special blue marble, had won him many matches.
During one walk he encountered a young girl who was eating a bag of chocolate candy. … he had a weakness for chocolates. As he stood there interacting with the young girl, his salivary glands and the rumbling in his stomach became uncontrollable, and he thought to himself, I have got to get my hands on those chocolates.
“…he asked the girl, ‘How about I give you all these marbles for those chocolates?’ She replied, ‘Sounds fair to me.’
He put his hand in his pocket, searching for the distinguishing cracks on the surface of the blue marble. Once he identified the blue marble with his finger tip, … and pulled out all the other marbles.
“As he handed the marbles to the girl in exchange for the chocolate, the boy thought his plan was a success and turned to walk away. As he began to eat the candy, he suddenly turned to the girl and asked, ‘Hey, did you give me all the chocolates?’
“Our fallen nature persuades us to posture ourselves in the same deceptive and defiant attitude as the boy in this story. We want everything the kingdom of God has to offer. … we want all our prayers to be answered, we want to ‘feel close’ to Jesus, …—we want it all. But we are unwilling to give up everything for it. Many times there is a ‘blue marble’ in our lives that we seem unwilling to offer to the control of Christ. …”[2]

Adam and Eve had been wearing garments of light and they gave them up for fig leaves.  They traded everyday face-to-face communion with God for a piece of fruit…hm. When the One who could save them came looking for them, they hid.

It wasn’t until Adam and Eve spoke to God and confessed what had happened that they found out that God already had a plan to rescue them from their sin.  Adam and Eve had tried to fix things by sewing fig leaves together, but they didn’t realize the full cost of what they had done.  What they had done could not be fixed without the shedding of blood  --  fig leaves just were not going to cut it.

“He who would become a child of God must receive the truth that repentance and forgiveness are to be obtained through nothing less than the atonement of Christ. Assured of this the sinner must put forth an effort in harmony with the work done for him, and with unwearied entreaty he must supplicate the throne of grace, that the renovating power of God may come into his soul. Christ pardons none but the penitent, but whom He pardons He first makes penitent. The provision made is complete, and the eternal righteousness of Christ is placed to the account of every believing soul. The costly, spotless robe, woven in the loom of heaven, has been provided for the repenting, believing sinner, and he may say: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10).”[3]

Are you ready to give up your fig leaves for a perfect robe of righteousness?  I am.

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[1] Rich Mullins, “Hold Me Jesus”, A Liturgy, a Legacy, & a Ragamuffin Band (1993)

[2] Christopher L. Heuertz, Simple Spirituality (IVP, 2008), pp. 116-117; Samuel T. Kamaleson, "Mangoes and Marbles," Decision magazine (January 1978)

[3] E.G. White, A New Life, p. 23

I can quit…

Commentary on Sabbath School lesson dated 3.12.11

What are you addicted to?  You’ll notice that I didn’t ask if you have an addiction.  That’s because, in my own unscientific opinion, I believe that all of us are addicted to something; just some of our addictions are harder on us than others.  Mind you, I don’t have one shred of evidence to back me up, but think about it for a second.  Our sinful natures have given us all addictive personalities to one degree or another.  Some people struggle with the big name addictions like alcohol, cigarettes, illegal or prescription drugs.  Almost anything can become an addiction: shopping, cleaning, reading, working…

Have you ever seen the TV show, Hoarders: Buried Alive?  Hoarders are addicted to saving things, usually things that shouldn’t be saved.  A lot of us hang onto useless things that we have sentimental attachments too, right?  But these poor folks hang on to things like pizza boxes, broken hangers, and gloves without mates.  They hang onto them for years until their homes are practically filled up so that they have to walk through and on the stuff they’re saving.  Their lives and the lives of their family members are pretty much dominated by stuff.

Some addictions are quite subtle.  

“Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, author of Words That Hurt, Words That Heal, has lectured throughout this country on the powerful, and often negative, impact of words. He often asks audiences if they can go 24 hours without saying any unkind words about, or to, another person. Invariably, a small number of listeners raise their hands, signifying ‘yes.’ Others laugh, and quite a large number call out, ‘no!’“Telushkin responds: ‘Those who can't answer “yes” must recognize that you have a serious problem. If you cannot go 24 hours without drinking liquor, you are addicted to alcohol. If you cannot go 24 hours without smoking, you are addicted to nicotine. Similarly, if you cannot go 24 hours without saying unkind words about others, then you have lost control over your tongue.’”[1]

What do you think?  What are you addicted to?  And why can’t we be addicted to good stuff, like healthy food, reading our Bibles and speaking kind words?

Have you ever wondered how people get addicted to things?  I’m pretty sure nobody starts out by saying to themselves, “I’m going to collect so much stuff that I won’t be able to walk on the floor or find the stove and dishwasher.”  or “I think I’ll become addicted to crack so I can sleep in a refrigerator box under the expressway.”  So how do some of us end up that way? 

Because when we just start out, what we’re doing seems so small and innocent, and lots of times, it’s fun. 

“Some years ago, while our family was vacationing in northern Minnesota, we decided to visit a small county fair near the town of Babbitt. There weren't many people there that morning. In fact, we were about the only ones visiting the carnival rides. So when I climbed into the Tilt-O-Wheel with my three kids, we hoped the operator would give us a decent ride—even though we were the only ones on it.“Little did we know what we were getting involved in. The first few minutes were rather fun. We laughed and enjoyed the funny feeling inside our stomachs. But after a while, it got to be not so much fun. And after some more time—way past the length of an ordinary ride—I began to feel queasy.“I wanted to get out, but I couldn't. First, we were going to fast to escape. Second, the centrifugal force had me pressed firmly against the back of the car. I was immobilized. Every time we spun past the operator, I looked pleadingly at him. ‘Please! Read my eyes! I need to get off!’ But the operator kept the ride going. I guess he thought he'd let it run until more customers showed up.“After another few minutes, the ride became miserable. The funny feeling inside my stomach had turned into a churning concoction that had a faint resemblance of my morning's breakfast. I had no control over my life. I was caught, going around in circles, held down by a merciless carnival ride operator.“Only after what seemed like three or four hours did he finally relent and stop the ride. I'm sure I looked completely green by this time. I staggered off the platform and made it about 20 feet, where I bent over and lost my breakfast. Of course, my kids gathered around, cheering me on. They thought this was the best part of the ride.“If you're caught in the grip of a diabolical ride that started out fun but has turned into an addiction—if you're going around in circles, powerless to get off—you know the helpless feeling of losing control of your life. You know what it means to need God's supernatural help to stop the ride so you can escape.”[2]

And there’s the answer to my other question.  How do some of us avoid ending up living in a refrigerator box under the expressway? 

The truth is, because we live in a sinful world, we have a sinful nature that dominates everything we do, think, or say just like an alcoholic or any other addict’s life is dominated by his (or her) addiction.  Try to overcome our sinful nature (sin addiction) without bringing Jesus into our lives is like trying to tuck in an octopus – just about the time you get one or two arms down, three or four different ones will pop up.  All the good intentions in the world are useless until we can admit that we have a problem that we can’t fix by ourselves.

“There are those who attempt to ascend the ladder of Christian progress; but as they advance they begin to put their trust in the power of man, and soon lose sight of Jesus, the Author and Finisher of their faith. The result is failure—the loss of all that has been gained. … ‘He that lacketh these things,’ declares the apostle, ‘is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.’”[3]

Are you ready to quit?  There’s only one way:  

“The work of transformation from unholiness to holiness is a continuous one. Day by day God labors for man’s sanctification, and man is to co-operate with Him, putting forth persevering efforts in the cultivation of right habits. He is to add grace to grace; and as he thus works on the plan of addition, God works for him on the plan of multiplication. Our Saviour is always ready to hear and answer the prayer of the contrite heart, and grace and peace are multiplied to His faithful ones. Gladly He grants them the blessings they need in their struggle against the evils that beset them.”[4]

Or, as John explains it:  

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”  John 8:36

Face it, you and I can’t quit, but we can reach out for the One who has already bought our cure.  We’d be crazy to turn it down!

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[1] Rick Ezell, One Minute Uplift (7-21-06)

[2] Rich Doebler, Cloquet, Minnesota

[3] E.G. White, Acts of the Apostles, p532

[4] E.G. White, Acts of the Apostles, p532