Probably the phrase I’ve used more than any other in the last number of years of leadership is….. “It’s a tension!”
I’ve used it when I’ve been faced with a number of different options regarding how to launch something. I’ve used it when I’ve had to deal with a complex pastoral matter. I’ve used it when theological challenges have arisen. I’ve used it when I’ve been mediating between two other leaders who are on different ends of a decision. I’ve even used it when I have been making a choice myself. Often when other people are talking with me about stuff they will say it before I have the chance to!
The longer I’ve led the more I’ve realised that there are more right answers than I thought there were, and without needing to say it, fewer wrong ones. Of course, there are still rights and wrongs, but what I mean is that decisions I would have been definite on earlier in my life now feel that there is a whole other side to them that I didn’t consider in my 20’s.
What is the best call, rather than the ‘right’ call, in each situation can be very subjective depending on our own personal circumstances and opinions. What might be the best option for one person could be completely the opposite for another.
There’s a tension right??
In this post I wanted to talk about some spiritual or theological tensions that I have wrestled with in my life. If you are a follower of Jesus, or at least have an interest in Him, I’m guessing you will have faced some of these too.
My goal is also to offer what I have noticed about us in the middle of these tensions, which I think is unhelpful, and perhaps suggest another way we might navigate these moments which would leave us feeling fuller rather than frustrated.
1 – Obedience and Freedom – this one is my longest point because it feels like the foundation of many of the others.
The Bible is clear about obedience. The people of God are called to live by God’s ways. His culture is supposed to form in our hearts and we are called to live in a way that is aligned to His instruction. This instruction comes from His desire for us to be fully who He created us to be. His intention is very good. However, that does mean I will have to make decisions for God which may go against my human desires. That’s where obedience comes in. The Hebrew word we often use for obedience literally meant “a way, path, route, road, journey.” Obedience is often difficult of course but I know it is way better for me.
However, obedience has an ugly sin driven cousin. The danger of living with a distorted obedience is that we turn it into religious activity. It’s easy to identify. It’s when the rule becomes more important than the ruler. When we lose sight of why God has asked us to live a certain way and stop following Him but instead submit to the what. We see this in the lives of the Pharisees and religious leaders throughout the gospels and I’m sure you’ve seen it in the modern day too. Religious activity often looks obedient in its outward behaviour but it misses the other side of the tension.
Freedom.
In the midst of the tension we have others reminding us of the freedom we are to have in Christ. Jesus was very clear that He wasn’t on earth to lay anything heavy fitting on His people. His people weren’t required to live under the heavy loads that the religious leaders were putting on them. The Bible is just as clear on freedom as it is on obedience. However, I have watched many of us embrace a distorted freedom too and think that it means living without any boundaries. We reject God’s instruction because we are committed to our definition of freedom. We say “God wants me to be free so surely I should be able to do what I want without restriction!”
The tension comes when we struggle to understand when we are to obedient and when we can exercise freedom. Should we go for a run on our sabbath because we are free to worship or is that work? Should we keep a regular time to spend with Jesus or simply hang out with Him when we can?
Ps. If you are reading this and have worked out the answer is both you are correct…..but I’m trying to take you on a journey here!!!
2 – Feasting and Fasting – I personally wrestle this one with the obedience and freedom thinking tied in. In my world obedience = fasting and freedom = feasting!!!! The tension of feasting and fasting is maybe a little easier than the others but I still have found it tricky. It is clear that the Bible is filled with celebration and feasting. There are times where we are called to celebrate with food before the Lord. Times where we are to thank Him and celebrate His goodness. However there are times where we are meant to fast, to abstain from the plenty that we have access to and be devoted to Him. I have heard stories of people who never fast because they feel that it kills celebration and stories of those who look down on anyone who celebrates because they believe these are days of fasting until Jesus returns.
So should we fast, or should we feast?
3 – Rest and Activity – We hear from the first chapters of the Scriptures that God is a God at rest. Once creation was completed He rested. I like this part of following God!!
However His rest didn’t and doesn’t equal inactivity because He is very clearly a God who is ‘at work,’ a God who is active. He is a God who both calls us to rest with Him and to go into all the world and make disciples. Too often when we apply this to our own lives we from swing from one extreme to the other. Often we are running ourselves ragged trying to do ministry 24/7 in order to be active for the Kingdom – we call this the Martha syndrome. In the process we can make ourselves ill, neglect what really matters, and ultimately miss what God had for us. On the other extreme we do nothing. We don’t engage with what God has called us do, we don’t exercise the mission He has given us, and we use the ‘excuse’ of just resting with Him as the excuse for this.
4 – Petition and Acceptance – There are so many moments in the Scriptures where people have petitioned God (ask again and again and again) and the circumstances have changed. Even Jesus tells a story of a persistent neighbour who never gives up while looking for bread and encourages His followers to pray like this to the Father. Therefore we know that we have permission to pray until we see the change we are crying out for.
However there are times in the Scripture where God is unmoved because His will and the circumstance is set for some reason or another – the reason is often way beyond human wisdom. There are other times when the prayer is a selfish prayer that contradicts God’s instruction, although there are even a couple of examples where He still changes His will (think the kingship of Israel in Samuel’s time).
So, when should we pray and expect His breakthrough and delivery and when should we simply accept that His way is set and there is nothing we can do? Too often we drift either to an apathy where we forget to pray and petition for anything or we spend years praying ‘silly’ prayers that are not going to move anything and neglecting engaging with what God is doing.
5 – Fear and Friendship – We are told throughout the Scriptures that we are to fear the Lord. The word fear is not meaning that we should be scared of God in the same way a petrified child hides from an abusive father, but that we should recognise that He is God and we are not. We can’t be lazy or too cheeky with our relationship with Him.
However we also know that He is our loving father, that He wants relationship and friendship, He loves to dwell with us. We are to talk with Him naturally and not bring any pretence or masks before Him. When should we bow low and look down? When should we look Him in the eye?
6 – Inclusion and Instruction – We are called to love all people because every person is an image bearer of God. Regardless of whether they are living out their identity in Christ or not, we are called to love them as we would love ourselves. We are includers. That can be tricky when they are living in a way we believe is directly opposed to God, or perhaps even trickier when how they live becomes accepted as law in the land where we live and we are called to make our choice e.g. abortion laws, same sex marriage, transgender policy (I know people will land differently on these topics but I offer them as they are the current challenges we are facing).
We know we are called to love but we also know we must stand for our convictions and ‘instruct,’ or speak with, those who don’t know Gods best for their lives what that is. We are called to live differently from the world around us, not in opposition just for the sake of it, but in harmony with God. That means there will be times when we don’t agree with the people we are trying to include. Times where we cannot live by the standards the world has set. This can cause difficulty for us and others around us.
There is a danger that our inclusion grows to a diluted theology if we go too far one way, and an equal danger that our instruction spreads to disdain and exclusion on the other.
What not to do
What I’ve learnt over the years is that to try and resolve these tensions is futile. Too often we try to tie them in a neat little bow but anyone who has tried will notice that the bows aren’t that neat. Our minds are simply too small and are therefore incapable to understanding how they all hold together. So, we tend to do one of two things with them.
- Choose one – ultimately because we don’t understand how both can be in operation in our lives we choose one and reject the other. Each person in this category will do this to a greater or lesser extent. We’ll say “we aren’t meant to fear the Lord because He is close to us and He loves us” and anyone who talks about the fear of the Lord is branded a religious nut who has missed what God has for them. We fast and e ever fest, instruct but never include, embrace our freedom but never obedience. We can become entrenched in our thinking because we don’t want anything too complex when it comes to our choices.
- Compromise – instead of choosing one we try and hold a ‘balance’ of both and often end up not fully living out either. It’s hard to quantify this mindset but it might look like fasting only a little bit and not quite feasting fully (if that makes sense). We essentially give 50% to each in the search for balance and wanting to do a bit of both. We are neither fully obedient or free, neither inclusive or instructive. We become ‘lukewarm’ to borrow the description of one of the churches in the book of Revelation.
As you can imagine neither of these approaches are what I believe God has for us.
The reality is that the earlier points I described are heavenly principles that we are called to live out but we haven’t learnt to fully embrace the heavenly resources needed to accomplish them. We see them as opposing but God doesn’t.
In the Kingdom of Heaven these principles aren’t in opposition, they are in harmony.
They exist together. We see it in the life of Jesus. He was kind and stern, structured and unstructured, focused and fun, hard working and ready to rest, obedient and free – we could go on all day. God exists outside the rules of our engagement. He isn’t bound by what we are bound by. The constraints of time, space, and matter are not applicable to Him. He can be everywhere, or nowhere, in the past, present, and future, at the same time. That’s a head scratcher right?
So, we simply aren’t going to fully comprehend the Kingdom in the constructs that we know. That doesn’t mean we give up, that simply isn’t an option for a follower of Jesus.
A possible way forward
Here are a few things I think might be helpful for us as we choose to step forward into the tension.
- Stop trying to work it out – these things truly are a mystery with our human minds. We could spend years debating and reasoning and while it is important that we think and question, we can’t allow that to keep going to the point that we are rendered useless.
- Embrace the tension – whilst we can’t fully work it all out without Gods intervention we can embrace the tension of the both. Without trying to balance we try to humbly embrace the tension of it all and see what happens. Tension is not always a bad thing as I have written about before. Forces that seem to be in opposition help planes to fly, boats to float, and bridges to stand. Let’s simply try and hold it all and ask the Lord to guide us and speak to us and we truly try to live out the life He has called us to.
- Seek supernatural wisdom – obvious I know, but if we are lacking the heavenly resources to accomplish this then we need to ask for them! We may not be able to fully embrace them on this side of heaven but surely we have to do all we can to embrace as much as we can. Jesus calls us to ask and ask again so let’s just do that. Let’s learn full freedom and obedience, full petitioning and acceptance. We’ll need His help of course but it must be possible if it’s in his heart.
Alright, that’s enough head stretching for today. I hope this was helpful in some way, shape, or form. Let’s get on with following Jesus eh?