The Romance of Romans-Part 106

Romans 15 cont'd

Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.

Comments:

The terrible pain of rejections and injustices combine and add shame to our situation. We even feel ashamed of our very longings for intimacy and impact that are at the core of our being and again, left to ourselves, we are driven to find a way to cope. Our strategies are erected upon a reactionary and firm commitment at our center to "self=protect". We aren't speaking here of a kind of reasonable self-defense from physical harm, but a putting up of "walls" that generally shut out and shut down our relational vulnerability. This kind of self-protection becomes the subterranean, and usually, subtle primary goal of our broken hearts. The scripture states in Proverbs that "there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death." To me, such self-protection seems to fit squarely into this warning.

On a surface level, we creatively make multiple choices, normally over the course of many years, that fit neatly with our now embedded goal of self-protection. We learn to make such decisions so swiftly and deftly that we lose touch with our hidden agenda that is moving us through life and relationships. We also lose touch with the very fact that we are making choices at all. We imagine that we are just "being ourselves"...though the joy of living ebbs out from us. (I am convinced at this stage of the process, the ancient enemies of God and the human soul...satan and his demonic host...are operating overtime "in cognito" to offer us false images of God, other people, our circumstances and ourselves. If we buy into these falsehoods, then the evil one's most basic work is accomplished, for he has received our personal support for his lies.)

In reaction to our profound pain (and our felt need for comfort of any kind), we form false images, we believe lies, we make unwise inner vows, we overuse our strengths, we transfer blame to undeserving people, we develop addictions, we mimic others and we employ any number of similar coping mechanisms. All of these things have a weird way of offering us a temporary comfort...this is why they are tempting to us. A particular "way of being" emerges and a "style of relating" ensues that is far from the genuine and whole person that God intends for us to be and become. Some would call this, and I believe there is merit to this, a "false self".

Of course, many people realize along the way that they need God to forgive them for their depravity...their sins of pride, lust, greed, hatred, selfishness and the like. And faithfully, God provides this forgiveness when we turn to Jesus Christ and believe in who he is and what he has done for us in his death and resurrection. Additionally, when the Holy Spirit enters our lives, he takes up his residence in our innermost being and imparts to us a new nature...a new heart...a new creation. This reality provides the new base line for us so that God and we can partner, through both crisis and process, to dislodge the sinful and hidden goal of self-protection and successfully put off the old nature...the false self...both it's way of being and it's style of relating.

Not a small battle is inaugurated in order for this to be realized! But, we are no longer alone in the fight and One who has already conquered all sin and death is our Bodyguard.