On being hitched to Jesus

I was hanging out with a (fairly recently married) friend tonight, and we were talking about our relationships with our wives. In the course of that conversation he said something like, “I see every day now what it means when Christ calls the church his bride.” I immediately thought about what an imperfect metaphor that was, because we are married to women who are at the very least our equals, while the perfect Christ is in a relationship with, well, all of us human losers. And then I stumbled into truth.

There is an aspect of the bride-bridegroom metaphor that I never really thought about before. That is, every human husband and wife are of equal worth before God. That’s pretty clear, I hope. So when Jesus calls the church his bride, he is essentially stating that our worth is equal to his. I am just as valuable to God as Jesus.

That statement is almost outrageous. It doesn’t match up with how I feel about myself and people in general compared to Jesus. But it does line up with what I know is true about God and Jesus and my relationship to him. It’s truth, and it’s one of those pieces of truth that transforms some piece of your consciousness and takes you to a higher place.

Moses, continued.

So, Moses … the urgency of that last post has faded somewhat, but I think I can follow up that line of thought.

It’s easy to accept facts about God or do what he tells us to, when it doesn’t require any real personal investment. I.e., it was easy for Moses to take off his shoes, but not so easy to agree to go back to Egypt. In the same way, it’s easy for me to love what I know about God. It’s easy for me to do some things … like I can read my Bible, I can pray. That stuff is not too hard. But it seems that so often in the Bible, when God was going to do something extraordinary, he asked for an extraordinary commitment from his human instrument(s). Now I’m sounding like a preacher, but oh well … I have to say it. This is when it gets tough. I like my nice, comfortable, safe, normal life. But there come these times when God wants to disrupt it. He wants to put me in situations I’m not competent to handle, and I’ve got to be willing to take it on, letting him act through me. The only other choice is to stay and enjoy my nice, comfortable, safe life and never do anything that means something.

“Do not be afraid.” — Derek Webb, New Law; and God, a bunch of times.

Moses and me are tight.

Here I am in New Hampshire … headed first for a meeting with some church leaders about the possibility of becoming involved there, then headed for Bar Harbor, ME for vacation time. And I am nervous about this interview, more nervous than I can remember being for a while. Why? Because, from what I know, I really like the pastor of this church and the situation of the church in general. It feels as though it would be a really good fit between their needs and my and Becky’s skills and abilities. Therefore, I am really hoping it works out, and because I so want it to work out, I am really nervous. But ultimately, it’s in God’s hands anyway.

I’ve been thinking about a lot of things lately, but have not had the time and opportunity I’d hoped for to write about them here. One thing that’s caught my attention is reading in the book of Exodus, and seeing the story of one man’s journey (Moses) and the journey of a nation (Israel.) I can’t help but see the parallels between this journey and the human journey in general … each person’s journey with or away from God, and our interactions with him.

What’s striking is that at every single critical juncture in Moses’ journey and that of Israel, someone had some serious objections to the right way forward. In Christian churches I heard a lot growing up about the obstinacy, rebelliousness and faithlessness of Israel. When you read closely, you see that in the beginning of Exodus, at least, they just took after their leader. I can imagine being Moses and actually hearing God audibly speak to me from a magical bush that was burning but not burning up, and questioning every statement he made that had to do with how I should live my personal life. It’s one thing to accept God’s general statements … “this is holy ground,” “I’m the God of your fathers,” “I am.” It’s even easy to take off my shoes. After all, it’s not like it’s that much trouble to loosen up a sandal strap and step out. It’s kind of cool getting to be reverent in an experiental way like that.

But change my life? Go back to stinkin’ Egypt, where I’ll be persecuted and maybe enslaved and I’m actually a wanted fugitive? I’m sorry, God, but I think you may have gotten a crossed wire with yourself here. Lead a nation? Do you remember the last time I tried to lead? That was when I was younger, better looking, fashionable and relevant, and nobody at all wanted to listen to me … what’s more, I ended up killing a guy and leaving the country!

to be continued, because I have to go and get ready for that interview I was talking about earlier…