Problems are for Solving

I have been having trouble of late with the government. I had a rental property get reassessed at triple the value I paid for it only two years ago. I have been battling with a non-communicative zoning department over a small problem that could have been solved quickly with just a little more communication. The result? I ended up with a $200 ticket.

When I fly I get frustrated with the rights that are ignored and fractured in the name of alleged safety. As I think about one day opening a restaurant I fear and worry over the huge numbers of regulations that face me in the process- fearing that small infraction (or an overzealous inspector or other authority) that could be seized as an opportunity to overturn all the work that had gone into that business endeavor.

And this frustrates me beyond belief. In other contexts, talking to others in formal and informal counseling situations I’ve said that frustration is often (always?) a sign of our own sin rather than a right response to the sins of others. Yes, there is a righteous anger at tyranny, but even within a tyrannical system we are to respond in love.

Last week I posted a link to a site where you can adopt a terrorist for prayer, quoting Jesus’ words about how we are to respond to those who persecute us. Those who hate us. Our enemies.

Saturday I realized more clearly how deep my frustration and bitterness runs towards tyranny and fascism. And Sunday morning during prayer time in worship I realized how hard my heart is towards those who practice it. And I repented of it and prayed (and must continue to pray) that God would soften my heart towards fascist, tyrannical, persecuting people. I prayed that God would help me to love my enemies.

That’s what Jesus wants me to do. Certainly I should not grow tired of speaking out against tyranny and fascism. Certainly I should do whatever is in my power to stem the tide of such evils. Certainly I should beseech God to come in power to end the merciless injustice that follows in the wake of tyranny.

But.

But my response to those who practice the evil must be love. It must be to pray for them. It must be to bless the curser and to overcome the evil with good. And maybe then instead of frustrated outbursts of hating fascists I may see, by God’s grace, a hatred for evil that is punctuated by a love and prayer and what is lovely in the sight of all men.

This may change nothing but me. But it may produce more joy in what little suffering I’ve been asked to endure. And so today I ask that God will soften my heart towards those who do evil. And may He do that today and every day.

If all
Is vanity then why
Do we get out of bed?

Adopt a Terrorist for Prayer
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you
Matthew 5:44

I like this idea–we need to learn to love our enemies, even while punishing their wrong deeds through proper channels.

HT: Seth

Darkness
Dwelling in solitude
Wishing for a friend

Ok. So I got four comments on a post that I just threw together without really thinking about it. That’s more than I’ve gotten on a single post in quite some time. Which means people are reading and thinking (or at least a few of them) and so I’ll write about that.

If you didn’t read the other post or the comments under it the link is right there. What I’m about to say has its jumping off point in what the two posts (and underlying comments) by Josh Gibbs that Seth linked to. I used to read Gibbs but stopped because I was skipping more posts than I was reading, but these two were pretty good, or at least thought provoking.

Some of what I’m going to write on this topic is in the “thinking out loud” category. I realize that it’s dangerous to think out loud walking around a room of people who kind of know you—and that doing the same thing on a blog that can be accessed from anywhere in the world but Tibet is another level of insanity altogether. But then maybe I’ll start a controversy and become famous. Not likely—but I might attract more than the current seven loyal readers.

It is somewhat ironic that I write this on tax day. I filed my taxes quite some time ago, but today is the day that many are rushing off to the post office to mail tax forms and extension forms. It is in this realm of taxes that some of the controversy surrounding poverty happens. At the outset of this discussion of poverty I want to make it very clear that I completely oppose any helping of the poor through dollars taken from taxpayers at the point of a gun. All government run poverty “helps” do just that—and while I’m going to talk a lot in this series (oh no! It’s over now) about all the things that need to be done in ministering to the poor in Jesus’ Name it is Christians who are supposed to do this, and with our own resources, not those that the government has taken from others.

I have been looking at this issue from one perspective of economics for quite some time, and have not found a lot out there that I agree with. It seems like somebody decided that there are two ways to look at the poor, and we have to simplify it down to those. There are those who think we should take money from the rich to help them (I’ll call these the Christian Robin Hoods) and those who just assume that you’re poor because you’re lazy or a drunk. There are varying grades of these two views, but there are very few in between.

As you read what I’ll write, you’ll know that I am decidedly in between. Here are some guiding questions as I get started:

1. Who are the poor? Defining who is poor and who is rich is controversial and difficult at best. Who is objectively poor and who is objectively rich? I have some thoughts on that but it’ll be a post in itself.
2. What is our responsibility? And how do we carry that out? And by whom? Is it enough to give lots of money to the local rescue mission? Should the rescue mission even exist? Is it OK to give a drunk money? Methodologies abound. I will make a distinction between methods and methodologies (principles that guide the methods). Of the former there are many right ways, of the latter the principles ought to be the same.
3. What are the goals? Is the goal that the poor become rich? Or that they are less poor?
4. Why is this a big issue of disagreement? Why can’t we agree that helping the poor is important and figure out how best to do it and go out and do it?
5. What are charity and justice? What do they look like in our current society? What might they look like in a non-capitalist society?

There may be more, but these are questions that can guide any discussion that takes place here and on other blogs that might throw stones this way. I’ll have more later.

The Gospel Coalition | Vision
We cannot look at the poor and the oppressed and callously call them to pull themselves out of their own difficulty. Jesus did not treat us that way.

I read a blog each day (or most days) called Of First Importance which mostly has quotes that remind me of the centrality of Jesus and His Gospel to my life. These are short reminders each day, and on many days I need them. Today there was a quote from this Gospel Coalition vision statement, including the quote above.

I have added some emphasis to the quote and I haven’t at all digested its context, but this quote struck me this morning because it’s something I’ve been thinking about in another context.

How should Christians, being like Christ, respond to poverty? This quote makes me wonder if our response needs to have in its context symbolism of what and how Jesus has done for us.

Lord willing I’ll have more thoughts on this later–no time this morning to expound. I wanted to put this here though so others can remind me later, and so I’ll remember to go back and look at this whole vision statement.

Life
Draining away
Was it ever there?

Deep Forgiveness at Femina
The Lord Jesus did not come, live a perfect life, die on the cross and come back from the dead in order to dab around the edges of our wound. Our complicity in the sin of Adam, and our continuing screwed-up-ness required a great remedy, which could not be had apart from the work of a great Savior. But remember that Jesus is saving us from our sins, and not merely from the consequences of our sins. And one of the central sins he is saving us from is the sin of the double standard — wanting to receive forgiveness on easy terms, and wanting to extend it with the heart of a stickler for justice

A good reminder for me today. Every day.

HT: Kyriosity.

leithart.com » Blog Archive » Clock time
With the mechanical clock, time became dissociated from planetary rhythms and seasons, from change and ageing, from experience and memory. It became independent from time and space, self-sufficient, empty of meaning and thus apparently neutral. This allowed for entirely new associations, linkages and contents to be developed and imposed.

I’ve been fascinated by time and the way that it so often rules over us, rather than man ruling over time. It is an intriguing thing. Leithart’s post here caught my eye, and it’s another one that goes into the catalog I’m gathering. How does man take dominion over time? Is the clock and aid or an obstacle in this task?

I don’t know. I’ll have more thoughts later I’m sure, but right now only questions.

Blindness
No light in my eyes
But seeing is more than sight