Well, I would say that the two greatest expressions of human
sin or brokenness are fear and
laziness. Yeah, lots of Christian preachers all
zero in on various sins of one kind or another but
I would say you could track just about every expression of human brokenness
down to their root cause, and you would find fear
and/or laziness.
Fear, that is I'm afraid
to embrace change or I'm afraid to take this step because
I fear what chain reaction it'll set off or what it might result in. Or
laziness, which is eh, this is interesting and I might read a bit more
and I'll explore it a bit down the track.
But you have a look - I mean, domestic violence, it's either fear or laziness.
Fear of the repercussions of dealing with your relationship
or laziness - I just couldn't be bothered changing. You have a look at any
kind of sin - lust,
violence, drunkenness - you name it.
Any kind of human brokenness - why won't people change? Because they're afraid of
the consequences of the change
or they're simply too lazy to make those choices.
We all know what it's like. You know, I need to lose weight - why won't you?
I'm just too lazy to, or I'm frightened to. You need to deal with
your estrangement from your father so you know, deal with that.
Yeah, I need to do that but I'm just too afraid of how he'll react or
I'm too lazy to actually make the trip out there to see him or whatever. You watch
time and again - I always think of it as like reigns on a charging horse. You know, we
were destined to charge - we
were destined to run free but fear and laziness
holds us back.
Fear and laziness will say 'blame the circumstances.' Fear and laziness will say
'be bitter and angry about these situations.'
Fear and laziness every time will, will ask you to become
static in the situation; whereas if we dare to believe what Jesus calls us to is
courage and
effort and sacrifice and work - those kinds of choices invite us to step
beyond the circumstance
not to ignore it, not to pretend it didn't happen, but to be able to draw from
it the very best that we can
and to move forward in significant ways.
And for me, this is the very essence or center of the gospel message
about Jesus, like Jesus dies on the cross to deal with human sin
Now what does that mean? I think what it means is that Jesus kinda lays
an axe into the root of fear and sin in our lives, and they begin to
wither.
They're like a a vine that's grown up all around our souls,
and it's like the work of Jesus is laying an axe to the, to the very root of the trunk
of that vine. And slowly but surely
over years, it starts to wither. We start to charge, we start to
run free. I'm mixing my metaphors with vines and charging horses but you might get
the gist of it and so
I would say that, that for me there's something marvelous about having
followed Jesus for a long time and to see that I am less and less
lazy and less and less fearful.
I tend to think, but I don't know if this is - it's not a general rule but
I tend to think fear is stronger as you're younger and laziness
as you get older, but I mean, I've been frightened and lazy all of my life. I'm an
expert in fear and laziness,
but if you are expecting that you can embrace a life that will call out
the most courageous choices in your life and will invite you to make the most
sacrificial,
hardworking effort in your life, you're gonna be a far better off person
for doing it. It would be a new way of being human which would be about
courage.
It would be about effort and work. It would be about embracing
a journey to become all that humankind was intended to be.
This quest, this exploration and relationship with God actually doesn't lead you to
become closed down in this life. It doesn't stunt you.
The pursuit of God countermands fear and laziness,
and invites us in fact to embrace everything humankind
was intended to be. So yeah, be afraid but countermand that fear -
it doesn't happen overnight. If you're expecting that,
that's laziness but if you embrace courage,
embrace the work of pursuing God, and I promise you you're a better person
at the end of that process because what Jesus wants in your life is for you to be freed,
to to embrace the way of being human that he modeled for us