Month: November 2015

Copyright 2015 by Shea Oakley

All rights reserved

It is a biblical truism that we should never be so satisfied with our spiritual growth that we stop seeking it. However is it also possible that we can become so dissatisfied with the perception of our “growth rate” that we are robbed of the joy and peace that God wants us to know? I believe this is a vital question for the Christ-follower to ask and one that needs a definitive answer.

The Church has no shortage of perfectionist believers. These are the perennially frustrated people who are forever trying to be holy in their own strength; either with or without a conscious recognition that this faulty approach to the Christian life is what so frustrates them. A compulsion to try to earn the acceptance of God is the bane of their spiritual existence and this compulsion is widespread in the Body of Christ today (especially in a Church often unknowingly influenced by the often performance-oriented culture that surrounds it.)

There are perhaps few things more corrosive to human souls than the nagging feeling that we will never “measure up.” This is the primary source of a sense of dissatisfaction with our rate of growth in the things of God. Spiritual perfectionism is, at best, deadly to our sense of well-being. At worst it can shipwreck our faith. Human perfectionism short-circuits the healing power of divine grace and it is exactly that grace which makes all true progress in the faith possible.

Some will assert that an opposite problem is just as spiritually harmful. This is what might be called “spiritual laziness”; the tendency to take grace for granted and not be at all concerned with growing in the knowledge and righteousness of God. I’m sure this is a real issue for many believers as well, but I cannot speak to it. The reason is that, on a personal level, I have only known the deleterious effects of “Christian Perfectionism” (an oxymoron, by the way, if there ever was one.) The truth is I have been guilty of it myself.

The answer I have found, even if I too often forget it, is that all growth is a process. This is true in both the natural and supernatural realms. Human beings do not come to spiritual maturity in a day any more than they do in regards to physical maturity. We, hopefully, do not expect young children to take on adult responsibility for the simple reason that they are not adults. What we are at 10 years of age and what we are at 40 are simply not comparable. So it is for the earnest Christian who is 10 years in the faith versus one who is 40 years in. A long process of growth is built into God’s creation. There are no instant short cuts to maturity, as much as we might prefer that to be the case.

This is not to say that spiritual growth is automatic. We do play a role in our growth, but not in the sense of being its source. The motive power, again, is always the grace of God. It is He who wills and works true change in us. Our primary role is to surrender to His power, never trying to generate it on our own. In that sense the role we play is a passive one. We must choose not to try to work for our sanctification because, in doing so, we actually impede it. For real sanctification to occur we must “get out of the way” and truly let God be God in our lives. If we have been caught up in perfectionistic self-effort for a long time this will not happen overnight. The surrender of our perfectionism is itself a process.

It is in the ongoing acceptance of this reality that we find the needed answer to a joy and peace-robbing dissatisfaction with our spiritual progress. It is in that answer that we will progressively restore both of these deepest of blessings to our lives.

Copyright  by Shea Oakley

All rights reserved

In periods of spiritual growth we sometimes find ourselves consciously aware of standing on a higher plateau in our Christian journey. When we are awake to having arrived at this new level it is cause for joy, a time to rightfully celebrate what God has done in our lives. But, like so many blessings in this existence, there is an accompanying danger of which we must also be conscious.

It is all too easy to look down at others who have yet to reach the place that we feel we have reached in our own sanctification.

The temptation to pride is always increased whenever a human being succeeds at anything in life. This is as true in the realm of the sacred as it is in the profane. In fact believers who might have long ago given up the kind of hubris that once accompanied worldly accomplishment sometimes now find themselves succumbing to a sort of “pious conceit.” In some ways giving in to this kind conceit is even more dangerous than the earlier type. Jesus reserved His most scathing criticism for the Pharisees, a spiritually prideful group if there ever was one. It is bad enough to think oneself better than another because of secular achievement. To be arrogant because of the religious kind is even worse.

Some might assert here that true spiritual maturity cannot lend itself to this kind of temptation. While it is indeed accurate to affirm that a vital part of authentic growth is the development of humility such humility is not a foregone conclusion. For instance someone can acquire a virtue like patience or discernment and start to think that they have far more patience or discernment then other “less spiritual” people around them. Modesty may accompany an increase in these qualities, but such is not always the case. Humility is a separate quality, one that is not automatically attached to whatever others a believer may be in the course of acquiring.

It is vital that we consciously take care to nip such spiritual arrogance in the bud. But how do we cut off the root of pride that might come along with legitimate growth? Here, as in other vital areas of the Christian journey, prayer is essential. As we thank God for our newfound “elevation” we do well to ask Him to help us not let it go to our head. Praying for sensitivity to others, as far as our testimony of what God is doing in our lives, is also helpful. Another good check for our spirits is to employ friends who will tell us if we come across as even slightly “holier than thou.” Meditating on the humility of the Man who was infinitely more holy than the best of us is another safeguard we can employ.

Perhaps the best thing we can do with our increased spiritual maturity is to help bring our brothers and sisters along with us, to the same place that we have been blessed to attain. The very grace which made it possible for us will make it possible for them, and there is great joy in store for the one who voluntarily becomes an instrument of that grace. In endeavoring to lift others onto the same plateau that we have reached we forsake pride for something far sweeter, the satisfaction of loving others.

Copyright 2015 by Shea Oakley
All rights reserved

We live in an age that often seems to embody the idea that the only evil which exists is that which impedes individual human beings from having their own way. This idea is then combined with an unshakeable conviction that there is no such thing as objective, transcendent and absolute truth. The result of this is a cultural metanarrative in the West that deifies the self while simultaneously providing a sort of secular religion that has as its only goal the glorification of radical personal autonomy.

This is particularly evident in the words we once lived by that now evoke either ridicule or self-righteous anger from the cultural elites of the 21st Century West. A number of these words and phrases come to mind. They include: honor, morality, religion, humility, authority and obedience.

“Honor” is a term often used to describe a way of life that involves respect for a long-standing code of conduct that requires both self-control and self-denial. It seems that, with the possible exception of the military, the classical sense of honor is increasingly seen today as nothing but a hypocritical fiction put forth by overbearing moralists who have the temerity to suggest that human beings restrain their worst instincts for a higher good.

Speaking of moralists the word “morality” has become one of the most politically incorrect words in the land. This is because, more than any other word describing what human beings should and should not do, morality smacks of the idea that there is an overarching Reality which determines that some action is always right or always wrong. Few like such a word in an era of situational ethics designed to free people from any thought of ultimate responsibility for their actions in this life.

“Religion” has become another verbal bogey man in our society. Perhaps the worst thing that can be said of someone in 2015 is that he or she is “very religious.” Often the assumption is that such a person must be extremely narrow, repressed and ignorant. This is likely because such benighted souls must have somehow been brainwashed into thinking that human destiny is determined by whether or not we have surrendered our self-sovereignty to a Creator who might actually expect the allegiance of those he has created. Even worse, such a religion usually involves a call to radical humility and “humility” is another déclassé word in the Post-Modern world. Why should any of us consider ourselves somehow less than anyone or anything else? Are we not all deserving of the very best as the advertising ceaselessly reminds us? Are we not all, in fact, absolutely equal in maturity, integrity and character? To disavow ourselves of this kind of pervasive pride is increasingly looked upon as a form of psychological and intellectual suicide today. That doing so was once seen as one of the paths to true happiness seems to have been forgotten in the wake of the much vaunted social revolutions of recent Western history (and the pervasive Political Correctness they have spawned.)

Then there is the despised word “authority.” Those in authority are considered corrupt by the very nature of having a power that we can’t veto. Power is, of course, ok for us….just not for those who we think presume to be in any way above us. We live in a time when authority only exists to be questioned and often torn down as an impediment to self-determination. “Don’t trust anyone in authority” seems to have become the mantra of the age. Meanwhile; if that is generally true then no one should, of course, dare to ask us to abide by the last of the discredited words of the past: “obedience.” Obedience? This word is so out of favor that some of us will not even apply it to the training of our pets. Why should we be obedient to any authority since, as noted above, authority is not only inherently corrupt but demands we surrender our absolute right to being completely our own?

So Western Civilization is well on its way to disposing of all these “archaisms.” Other words that imply human beings are not the measure of all things are going as well. In the long (or not so long) run we will see what the lexicon of our brave new world will end up being. In the meantime I can think of two words that, when combined, may be among the most accurate to describe where we are heading as a culture.

They are “self” and “destruction.”

Copyright by Shea Oakley

All rights reserved

“Forgiveness is agreeing to live with the consequences of another person’s sin.”

There are doubtless numerous definitions of forgiveness. Because the imperative to forgive is so primary to living an authentic Christian life believers through the centuries have tried to describe its essence in different ways. There are many facets of forgiveness that must be gleaned to make up an overall definition.

One of those facets is described well by the above quote from Christian author Neil Anderson. In fact his characterization of granting pardon is one of the more profound in its simplicity. It is also one of the most difficult to accept. I suspect this is because “agreeing to live with the consequences” of someone else’s careless or malevolent wounding of our spirits seems like the height of unfairness. There is no way around the reality of that perceived iniquity. But we need to recognize that the world we live in is no longer fair. We also have to leave the blame for this reality where it belongs, on our own race’s corporate doorstep.

Human beings cry “unfair!” for a reason. We have an innate understanding that things should be equitable in relationships. This is no accident. Each of us is made in God’s image and so we have, somewhere deep down in our very being, the sense that ultimate reality is void of relational wrongs. This is true. There is no unfairness in the perfect unity of the Trinity. While some might interject here that it was unfair for God, the Father, to will His innocent Son to die the horrific death of the cross the truth is that Jesus went to Calvary willingly. His Father did not bully him into it. It was an act of love, designed to bring the potential for our forgiveness, and therein lays the rub.

Love and forgiveness trump unfairness.

The world knows iniquity only because the first human beings choose to cooperate with the one who might be called the “Essence of Unfair”, Satan. Thefall of our race is what has made the lives we now live on Earth subject to injustice. We have no one to blame but ourselves, both collectively and individually. If we let it stop there the result could only be despair. We would face the prospect of an ongoing existence as evil beings with no recourse but to forever wound and be wounded by each other and eventually die in that condition. Our now intrinsically unfair natures would see to this and all the while our lying egos would assure us that only we have been untreated unfairly. In a sense this is what the idea of “Hell on Earth” means.

But because of Jesus bearing the greatest unfairness of all, His wholly undeserved death and bearing of sin that was not his own, we who believe are on the road to ultimate redemption from the presence and results of our inequity. Divine love is more powerful than unfairness and it can set the human race free from the captivity of our fallen nature.

This brings us back to the question of forgiveness. The reason Christians can forgive others is twofold. Reason one is because we come to know that “the consequences of another person’s sin” against us may not be worse that than the consequences of our own sin against someone else. In short, we reckon with the fact that we are not always fair ourselves, both to others and to the perfectly fair God we have vowed to serve. Reason two is that we who have put our faith in Jesus Christ know that the destructive consequences of other people’s sins in our lives are not permanent. Even if we do not experience complete healing in this life God promises to “wipe away every tear” when our redemption is completed and we stand before him in Glory. In the meantime, because of this hope, we have access to the grace we need to bear temporary pain and to consciously extend forgiveness to the people who caused that pain. Received grace, the unmerited favor of God through Christ, is the wellspring of forgiveness. This is true even in the midst of still-experienced relational hurts. By an act of grace-empowered will we can live with the consequences of their sin, and our own, letting love and forgiveness alter the equation. In doing so we will begin to free ourselves to find a degree of healing even in the here and now.

There is no better way to trump unfairness then in knowing the beginnings of the healing of our hearts.