Find a bird
As you might have noticed as you read our posts on Dandelion, we tend to always say something about our pain. What pain?...you ask. That thing in your life that you’re thinking about right now…that is always on your mind, that occupies your thoughts and takes up your mental and emotional energy. That pain. We all have it…it’s not the same thing for all of us, but we all have it. You know what I’m talking about…THAT pain. I’m talking about where you really live. Where you really are today.
I heard a friend say recently that too often our experience in the church or with Christianity in general (read - our experience with Christians) has led us to think this faith has nothing really to do with that pain. Not really. We know it has something to do with some kind of general suffering, our problem with sin and all that, but in all honesty that feels kind of secondary. If we were really to talk about the real pain in our lives, that thing that keeps us up at night, we might doubt that Christianity offers any real-life application or relief there.
Now this is all assuming that we are in touch with ourselves in some way, that we have the space or freedom to even connect with where we really are and are not simply running from one thing to the next in a mad unconscious dash to stave off any such kind of self-reflection or understanding. We use activity to cope with our pain. If we allow too much down time or unstructured space we might start to actually feel something, and we don’t want to do that. We are like Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle that modern classic. For some reason I’ve cited lots of Tom Hanks movies this year. Do you remember when he’s back at work after his wife has recently died and a friend offers him the info of a grief support group? Sam (Hanks’ character) responds by flipping through all of the support groups he’s already been given, “Hug yourself. Hug a friend. Hug a shrink. Or work. Work hard. Work will save you! Work is the only thing that will see you through this!”
That’s often what we do, we get busy. Because we don’t think there’s any real actual help out there for our pain…whatever help is offered is inadequate at best. Or we are too overwhelmed by our pain to want to really feel it, so we find something else to cope with it. And it’s usually the same old things: we double down on work like Sam did, thinking it will distract us from the pain, and eventually it will just go away. Or money. If we just had more money or things we’d feel better. We’ll buy happiness or relief. Or drugs or alcohol or sex. We’ll numb out so that we don’t have to feel. Or even relationships. I’ll go get lost in someone else’s life and get consumed by their problems, that way I won’t ever have to feel my own pain…I’ll be too busy with theirs. These are not often conscious thoughts, but this is what we do. If all of this sounds a bit familiar to you or even cliché it’s because we’re not very creative. We repeat the same patterns that have been going on since the beginning.
This is how we cope. This is how we distance ourselves from the pain, that pain. Problem is it never goes away. It just gets overshadowed and pushed into the background by the next problem, the next pain, the next area of life that consumes us, that becomes too much for us. Because that’s the way things work here on earth. It’s the human plight. And it’s what Jesus acknowledges and describes in Matthew 6:19-34. We live in a place where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal. That’s what we can expect on this earth. Things wear out, things break down, things die here. It’s not just material things either, but relationships too. Life on this earth is temporal. It does not last. Jesus wants us to see it for what it is so that we don’t put our hope in places or things that will ultimately disappoint us.
Not our actual truck;)
That is what we do though. Of course it is. It is reflexive. It’s a part of our nature because we really want things to endure. We want things to last. We believe that they should. We buck against the reality that we live in a dying world. We don’t like it and don’t want it. And rightly so. It is evidence that we know this is wrong…the way things are is off…something has gone terribly wrong. It’s part of our unconscious memory that we were created for life not for death, for eternity not for the temporary, for something better…but now it’s broken, we’re broken. And as a result, we are always trying to reverse it, to restore it, reclaim it, whether it be in our lives or the world around us, we are always trying to find or establish some kind of permanence. Something we can point to and say, “This will last…I can put my trust in this…I can find some hope in this because it will endure…this thing won’t disappoint me.” We store up for ourselves treasures here on earth all the time. BUT everything keeps on breaking. And we’re left with that pain in some way shape or form.
Recent example: we just bought a “new” old truck to help us take care of the property God has given us for Dandelion Ministries. We’ve got a lot of overgrown areas that need to be cut down and torn out, and we have an old barn full of crap. I mean that literally. Yes, there is a lot of junk in it that I’ll need to haul off to the dump, but there are also many piles of crap…poop from a few feral cats and some raccoons that have called it home (or at least their toilet) for quite some time it appears. I figured a pickup would be helpful to cart that stuff off instead of putting it in the family Subaru. SO, the Subaru had to go and now we have the truck. I love the thing already. But I am also aware of it’s decay. It’s in great shape for an old truck from the northeast, but my ongoing losing battle with my old friend, Rust, is about to resume. I’ve got to replace the belt tensioner, pulleys, wheel bearings in short order and eventually the exhaust manifolds. Things in this world do not last. Moth and rust (and feral cats) destroy.
“What did you say about me?” (not our actual cat either)
Jesus’ alternative to any of the different tools we may use to deal with our pain is himself. He does not disappoint. He tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness because he is a recklessly generous God. He’s a God that provides food for birds that do nothing to earn it or deserve it… “they neither sow, nor reap, nor store into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them” (Matthew 6:26). And he clothes flowers in the field in the most incredibly beautiful shapes and colors when they do nothing for it. “They neither toil nor spin”…they don’t work for it, they don’t deserve it (6:27). They literally cannot move from where they are planted. It’s a picture of complete passivity. They’re here today, and they’ll be gone tomorrow. He does it because he loves to…he does it because he is a recklessly generous God. And Jesus tells us that we are the object of this amazing God’s love by posing that great rhetorical question, “Are you not much more valuable than they?” You are worth his very life.
As we have seen, our response to the brokenness of this world is to try to exert some kind of control over it, to try to do something, make something happen. “Work is the only thing that will get you through this!” But Jesus is painting a picture here that says we don’t have to do anything to find the true answer to our pain, that pain, our real pain. God will give us the answer because that’s the kind of God he is. You might object saying, “Wait a minute Sean, he told us to seek God’s kingdom and his righteousness. We have to seek.” We’re always so desperate to hear that it’s up to us in some way. That’s the old us, the sinner, trying to fight for air as he is drowned in grace…but consider the fact that it is Jesus telling the people this. He is telling them to seek God’s kingdom and righteousness, and he is sitting there right in front of them! He is the righteousness of God incarnate, come to earth. He is the one that ushered in the kingdom of God with his arrival. He is the answer! He says seek, but you don’t have to look far because he’s staring you in the face, talking to you. He is the evidence of God’s reckless generosity full bore, his amazing provision for all of creation and most specifically for us. The antidote to death. He came to undo all of the brokenness in the world for us…for free. He is the gift…for you!
This is the only message that stands up to your pain…the message of the person and work of Jesus Christ says God loves you unconditionally. He loves you more than you could possibly imagine, and it has nothing to do with your performance. It’s just because of who he is. That message speaks to pain.
When you meet that God, then you have encountered true Christianity. When you meet Jesus Christ, who tells you to seek him and he is sitting there already having found you, then you begin to understand how great a hope we have with our pain. He is showing that you do not have to worry about a thing. Just like the birds. So, look around and find a bird to watch for a minute and remember God’s amazing grace in Jesus Christ for you.
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