Smeagol is Free!
A hermitudinal view of...stuff...


6.04.2005  

10 and 3

Supposedly, Mr. Mikami has 10 papers and 3 final exams to take before the 10th. At least, it was still 10 and 3 as of early Thursday morning. Come to think of it, if it's still 10 and 3...uhhh...well, so much for that MDiv, huh Kev?

Just kidding ;)

Anyway. We were talking for a long while about sin and its effects, grace and its effects, and the dynamics of how God graciously works on our hearts (grace through faith) in spite of sin. It seems like I've had a lot of conversations about sin and grace as of late, come to think of it. Kev had been the midst of writing a paper when he called me to ask me if I'd ever had one of those times when studying where I was so caught up in another train of thought that studying became pointless until I dealt with the said train of thought. I think a very appropriate reply would've been, "that's what my studying is always like."

That, however, was not my reply.

Mr. Mikami went on to detail some thoughts of the how we, as fallen, sinful humans, tend to relate to God when we sin. If I remember correctly, he and the rest of his pastoral staff were dealing with this matter from a certain point of view, and what had caused Kev such an incorrigible need to think this through was the fact that they hadn't really concluded anything as a staff.

Kev, however, thought he had come to a conclusion, and wanted to run it by me. I guess he thought I might provide some sort of stimulating conversation or something....*shrug* ;)

He used this analogy to sum up his thoughts: When he was younger, his dad told him not to go and play chasemaster ("tag" for you white folks...I don't know if I've ever heard the term "chasemaster" used outside of Hawai'i...have you?) outside at night with the other kids in the neighborhood. Kev knew this was because he'd probably stand a good chance of getting hurt if he did. So what did Kev do? Go outside and play chasemaster. Well, one night he cuts his foot on a piece of rusted steel, and so they had to take him to the hospital. Now, being that Kev is just a tad bit older than me, the treatment he received while in the ER was a little more...oh...rudimentary than one would receive today. What that means is that the nurse was scouring his foot in such a way that his dad, who had been holding Kev to comfort him, had to leave the room and have Kev's uncle come in to replace him because the cleaning process was too horrific to watch/hear/feel/experience. Kev told me that as he recently thought about that story, he realized that his perception of the situation was probably vastly different than his father's perception. While he was limping to get help from his dad, he can remember feeling fear of being punished for being disobedient. His dad, however, did no such thing; he simply took his son to the hospital. Kev said that his dad's reaction was primarily one of concern for the hurt that had been inflicted upon his son, not for the fact that his son had been disobedient.

The point of the story was that in our sinful states, there is a fundamental flaw written into our souls that prevents us from trusting the Lord as we ought to. First, we do not trust that His will is good and perfect. If we did, we would realize that not only does His will bring about the best possible result, but it also gives Him glory in such a way that we are able to enjoy and share in that glory. Second, we do not trust that His will brings about healing and perfect reconciliation as He says it will. If we did, we would not continue to sin as we do and grieve the Spirit so horribly. Both of these account for the seemingly unjust wrongs and persecutions that we go through in life, particularly those that we will suffer for Christ's sake (2 Timothy 3:12).

What Kev's story does not necessarily deal with is the aspect of sin that offends God's glory. Yes, sin does hurt is tremendously, and yes, God is our loving Father who heals the hurt that sin deals out to us, but we cannot forget that our sin does require punishment, and that punishment must be in degree equal to the offense of our sin. How is this reconciled? There is only one way: the cross of Christ. The punishment of our sin upon the cross was such that, as Paul writes in Romans 8, "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." The cross is the reason why! The cross restores and justifies every trust that we have in the loving arms of the Father, for without the cross, God would be required to punish us in hell, just as He promises those who spurn His glory.

Kev and I spoke for a long while...we covered stuff that I had actually spoken to Darren about just hours earlier. It was good for my soul; in fact, I'm still being fed by what we spoke of. More later...I gotta grab some grub :)

posted by Bolo | 6:06 PM
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