All is Given

There are two basic approaches to life--one in which the world is a world of scarcity, given to us by the skinflint god, and the other in which the world is a world of endless possibilities, bestowed on us by a loving Father.

--Douglas Wilson

The older I get (which is not very old at this moment) the more I recognize how wrong my assumptions are about adulthood. I have a a hard time shaking off the feeling that my bootstraps must be given a hardy lift and I must become a lady of self-sustaining strength. Childhood is understood as a time of receiving and completely relying upon others. It's allowed and expected. But when the hour strikes twelve, then all must be labored for, all must be earned. Open hands are put to the plow. 

I think there's something to be said of the goodness of work. To work with your own hands and earn your own bread is a good thing. But in the process it's so easy to forget that every dollar you receive in exchange for your labor is still something given. It is manna from heaven supplied through the "mask" of your neighbor. 

I recently watched the new Cinderella movie. In a scene near the end, Cinderella's step mother exposes her own bitter view of the world. "Nothing is given," she snaps. In her eyes, all will be taken if she cannot snatch it all back, no matter what means she must use to do it. "Love is free," Cinderella interjects. And of course, she is right. Who can earn love? Who can earn relationship? Is the love of the Father not a gift we can simply humbly receive? Can we really make anything effective on our own? Can we really cause any seed we plant to bear fruit? 

All is given. All is of grace. The world we live in is one of abundance because we have a generous Father. We don't deserve or earn one drop of His good gifts. But He is a good God.

An environment of humility makes pride stick out as it should. Holiness is marked on the citizens of the Kingdom. Against a backdrop of love, selfishness is stripped of all its excuses and shown to be the implosion of a desire that eats you alive. When a life marked by the mind of Christ is the way of a People, sin is exposed as a leech to be crushed by The Heel. It is a deadly thing, but it is also very dull.

I recently picked up C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. While reading it, I noticed the dissonance between Edmund's behavior and those who follow Aslan. His behavior is distilled into the refrains of a child reaching out for all it can find while smugly screaming "Mine!" His mind is driven by the promise of more Turkish Delight and a position of power to hold over the heads of his siblings. He reasons away all warnings he has received about the witch in an effort to fulfill the desires and the dreams he has entertained about them. When he reaches the Witch's home, however, his visions of grandeur begin to fade. He is fed water and dry bread and commanded to join the Witch's hunt for his siblings in the snow.  Sin, the temptations of the Witch, promises to give glory and pleasure but only drains us dry. We become shrunk down and bent over, pinning after trinkets that dissolve into water and stale crumbs.

As the Witch and Edmund proceed on their journey, they are stopped by the emergence of Spring. Aslan has come "shaking his mane", breaking the silence of eternal winter with birdsong and crocuses. The Witch becomes frustrated as the mud forces them to get off her sledge and continue on foot, while Edmund's running siblings cannot contain their delight in the beauty of the changing landscape as they flee. The Witch held a degree of power over Narnia for a time, but Aslan is the real ruler over the land. Satan, like the Witch, has had some form of power over this land we inhabit. He would have us believe he is the true ruler, but we have the real King Jesus who came and will come again. He has brought the Spring of the New Kingdom, with a promise that it will be the "normal" of a New Heaven and a New Earth. The power of the enemy will melt away, and all who run to his castle will be disappointed. 

The marvel is that the true King has been the most humble one. While we were making fools of ourselves, fighting over moth and rust, Jesus came to earth and made us stick out. We were the grumbling selfish children, He was the selfless perfect servant. In His light, we are shown to be the blind, sick, deaf, and lost people we are. We would walk into our own destruction.  Except for when He comes to our rescue. Except for when His holiness exposes us, and instead of condemning He comes to cleanse and to cover with His blood and His righteousness. 

 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, 

did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, 

being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the 

point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is 

above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

(Philippians 2:3-11 ESV)

But your fulfillment in life will not come from how well you explore your freedom and keep your options open. That’s the path to a frazzled, scattered life in which you try to please everyone and end up pleasing no one.

Your fulfillment in life will come by how well you end your freedom.

-David Brooks