Saving Bastille's Pompeii

The song was catchy, and that was all. Then I watched the music video, and it seemed weird, but somehow meaningful. I did some research and all interpretations were intriguing. I couldn't get the song and video out of my head. In their popular song, “Pompeii,” the English alternative rock band Bastille had gripped my attention by a song that resonates with human experience.

The music video begins with Bastille frontman Dan Smith on top of a building overlooking the city of Los Angeles with glazed eyes.  He walks through streets littered by trash and grime. He encounters people who seem soulless. Their eyes are black pits, which seems to point to lives empty of vitality and meaning, pitifully wasting away. Smith’s character begins running. A panic hits him to try to escape the city. He makes it to the desert, only to discover his own eyes being blackened as he looks in the rearview mirror. The sickness caught him too. He ascends into the beautiful mountains only to be overcome with the same soul-emptiness signified by his now fully black eyes.

In interviews, Dan Smith says the inspiration for “Pompeii” is imagining a conversation between two people being buried by the lava in the historic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Merely listening to the song might allow someone to only picture the historic Pompeii, but in the music video, Smith clearly brings the significance of a city’s destruction to present day.

Smith says he likes the historic stories because they resonate. “When I’m writing, I want the songs to be good—and memorable—but also to have a level of depth to them as well, and thought that goes into them.” Smith cares about his lyrics. Starting with a classic story, he gives depth of meaning and metaphors for what we experience in our world, such as the encounter with hedonism as told in “Icarus.”

Bastille isn’t a shallow pop band. The music is popular worldwide, but the meaning and thought behind the songs is profound, often ironically contrary to the crowds dancing to them. Dan Smith is a thinker, and many of his other songs and music videos also reveal a gloomy reality.

Every song on Bastille’s breakout album Bad Blood acknowledges human depravity. From “Flaws,” “Icarus” and “Pompeii” to “Bad Blood,” “Things We Lost in the Fire” and “Weight of Living,” the band feels the brokenness and pain of the world in which we live. The somber realism is revealed openly by even the song titles themselves, but deceptively concealed in catchy rhythms and tasteful melodies.

Last October, Bastille released another song displaying the painfulness of reality. Though it is a mashup of two 90s dance songs, “Of the Night” by Bastille is shockingly somber. The music video for “Of the Night” is maximally depressing. Tracking a crime scene investigator through numerous scenes of homicide and suicide, the artistic work portrays a message of gloom in reality and interprets “night” both literally and figuratively.

Dan Smith has a deep grasp that this world is dark, painful, bleak.

“Of the Night” ends with the protagonist sitting in his own blood, a gruesome picture of another victim and leaving the viewer with a message of hopelessness. You can’t escape the rhythm of this world, of the night.

Smith’s outlook on life resonates with me. I want to think we’re getting better at being humans—that is what the Enlightenment taught us—but I keep seeing destruction around me. We are so deeply selfish as human beings, and we ultimately find the problems we face in our world to be, yes, partly our doing. We cannot escape our own selves.

Oh where do we begin? The rubble or our sins?

Smith’s question surprised me when I heard his mention of sin. The term isn’t popular today. Most people think of picketers holding signs against homosexuality. Or if you’ve grown up in the church, you could think of how you’re not supposed to drink, smoke or chew or hang out with those who do. For me getting a degree in theology, the study of sin (hamartiology) is one of the richest topics. Whether you call it inherited dysfunction or original sin or collective insanity or maya or dukkha, something reigns in our being that isn’t pleasant, loving or generous.

Smith sees problems and destruction in his world. Our modern-day “Pompeii” is plagued by being “caught up and lost in all our vices.”  If you descend and look at the streets, they’re littered by trash and inhabited by people wasting their lives unawares. We’re self-destructive. 

Dan Smith offers two starting points to work against the problems: clean up the rubble or attack our sins. Anyone thinking deeply about his question would see that he is pointing to sin as the root cause. The rubble comes from our sin, and we cannot clean up the trash and help the soullessness if we are corrupted.

The significance of the black eyes in media normally points to demon-possession, a sort of loss of humanity as the soul is overtaken by an evil force. I interpret Smith to be showing how inescapable human selfishness is. Even if we do try to fix our sin as a root cause for the destructive eruption, we’ll find we cannot escape ourselves.

How am I gonna be an optimist about this?

In “Pompeii,” Bastille sings a request for optimism, a question asking for any hope in the midst of such gloomy circumstances. My initial response is to fight for optimism and not despair. The world’s not that bad, Smith! But the correct answer to the song’s central question might be, “don’t.”

Don’t be an optimist about this.

We are completely selfish leading to self-destruction. Sin is pervasive, corrosive and ruinous.

Pompeii doesn’t stand a chance, because we’re all part of the problem. Even if we think we’ll escape the lava and burning ash in the city of vice, we will still lose our souls to the internal pandemic. Our human race is individually and collectively wretched.

But God,

who is rich in mercy,

made us alive in Christ even when we were still dead in our transgressions.

The great transition in one of my favorite chapters of the Bible, Ephesians 2, comes with the astonishing involvement of God in a bleak situation. The author Paul has acknowledged that we were all dead in our trespasses and sins, completely without hope. But God. Like the sun breaking through the clouds after a long thunderstorm or the first buds of green after a dreary winter, the two simple words show the only way I can “be an optimist” about this world.

I don’t mean to overly spiritualize a pop music video or smack condemnation from the Bible, but for me, this truly is the only source of hope. I’m only 25 years old, but like Dan Smith, I profoundly connect with stories illustrating the death and destruction we find on the earth. The best answers I’ve found have been in the Bible:

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? 

Jeremiah 17:9

There is no one righteous, not even one;

there is no one who understands,

no one who seeks God.

All have turned away,

they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good,

not even one. 

Romans 3:10-12

Only in Christianity have I found an adequate explanation for the pain we experience in life and an infinitely marvelous solution—that God Almighty, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, would send His only Son out of His infinite love for us, and save us.

How do you save Bastille’s Pompeii while “great clouds roll over the hills bringing darkness from above”? How do we save ourselves from our own devices? How do we escape a society where we are “caught up and lost in all of our vices”? Look for intervention from a source outside ourselves. The transcendent God who made us became one of us that he might save us—save us from spiritual death, from pervasive sin, from eternal punishment. Wow. God is good.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son,

that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world,

but in order that the world might be saved through Him.

John 3:16-17

The End of Beauty

I wear on my right hand a ring that says “Bonvm Veritas Pvlcher,” Latin for “Goodness, Truth, Beauty.”

The three words are sometimes called the transcendentals or the highest forms/ideas, or could even be considered final causes in teleology, studying the end goal or purpose of things. That’s some of the classical philosophy behind these lofty concepts. Goodness is good because… it is. Truth is… true. Beauty is beautiful… just because.

Beauty is unexplainable; it is something to which other things point. Sunsets, music, mountains, art, fresh air—they all give us tastes of beauty.

We all understand that beauty does something to us. It moves us, excites our souls, is sensed in our spirits. Beauty evokes words of wow and irrepressible smiles. 

When we walk up to the edge of the Grand Canyon and the immense expanse fills our eyes, we can't help but speak our amazement. At first sight the vast crater of Volcán Poás in Costa Rica, person after person says "¡Que lindo!" or “How beautiful!” When a child has her first bite of steak, her face lights up and a big grin creeps out. The music of Mozart played by an orchestra in a symphony hall forces one’s eyes to close in an experience of transcendence. Beauty gives us a sense that life is good, and we humans are drawn to it—desiring to get as much of the delightful experience of beauty as we can.

I’ve been exposed to the most beautiful of worlds humans can create. Being employed in upscale restaurants meant commuting past magnificent homes in luxurious neighborhoods then working around more-beautiful-than-average people driving up in their eye-catching cars, wearing tasteful clothing and leaving handsome tips. Wealth in the city is very appealing, alluring, attractive.

Costa Rica is overflowing in natural beauty. This country contains spectacular volcanoes, impressive mountains covered in tropical green, clean rivers with stunning waterfalls, and pristine beaches. The temperature is warm but not hot, the waters refreshing but not cold. The sun is pleasant but takes breaks for life-bringing rains and awesome thunderstorms.

I like beauty. I find it exceedingly attractive. (naturally). Unfortunately, I often make beauty an end, a goal. I forget to go a step further.

There’s an end to how much happiness beauty can provide us; it has its limits. Though many things contain value strictly because they contain beauty, beauty has not succeeded in satisfying me. I’m a seeker of goodness, truth and beauty. I’m adventurer in life. Yet for all the magnificent beauty I’ve been allowed to see, the high never lasts. My longing is never sated.

Costa Rica is a slice of the world where people come on spiritual journeys. I came on one, though I know the God I seek. Men and women, young and old, come here to appreciate the beauty in this nation, and it’s a good place to visit.

Ticos—Costa Rican locals—frequently use the phrase Pura Vida—literally, “Pure Life”—as a greeting, farewell, or just to say “what’s up?” or “sweet!” Here the phrase is used as the Hebrew Shalom, Sanskrit Namaste or even Hawaiian Aloha. Just as Shalom expresses the Jewish value of and longing for “peace,” or Namaste reveals the underlying Indian idea that “I bow to [the god in] you” or Aloha propels a cool, easygoing and friendly culture, so Pura Vida promotes a Costa Rican appreciation for a clean environment and a healthy, stress-free lifestyle.

The appeal of Pura Vida draws people from all over the world, especially the United States, because we long to be free of busyness, of processed foods and of concrete jungles. We see in Costa Rica a return to the Garden of Eden. The coastal scene we call paradise. We all long for a more perfect world, so why not pilgrimage to the bio-diverse and eco-friendly Costa Rica?

I'm guilty of being caught up in the idolatry of beauty. I may not seek after drugs for a high, but I do love a good adventure in a beautiful place. I like being around beautiful people, and I find wealth magnetically attractive. I like eating delicious and healthy food. I enjoy exercise. While these things may be good, when I fail to acknowledge the God behind the beauty, beauty ceases to please me; it can thrill no further. I’ve noticed that Costa Rican art revolves around Pura Vida and the natural wealth here… oddly similar to the way Indian art revolves around depictions of their various gods and goddesses. We pervert beauty when we make it an idol, when we worship something that contains beauty instead of the God who created it. Perversion never satisfies.

We exploit beauty in other ways too—gluttony, pornography, adultery, over-exercise, drunkenness, laziness… for a few examples. Our sinful human brains just cannot seem to get it right, constantly taking good gifts from God like food, bodies, sexuality, alcohol and rest, and using them improperly or in excess. I try to find the most harmless, healthy “high” possible—and I got it coming to Costa Rica. But I didn’t become a superman. I didn’t transcend to a higher state of being. I found that beauty cannot satisfy.

My ring, given to me by Biola Universtiy’s Torrey Honors Institute at graduation, reminds us of what we studied—a belief that the God-man Jesus Christ is the consummation of goodness, truth and beauty. God is good, and Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life. Jesus taught truth that runs deep through the veins of this earth, even calling himself the truth.  No act on earth has been as beautiful as the redemption Jesus brought about for us by his sacrificial death on a cross. Jesus is the be-all and end-all of this universe.

Jesus Christ is all that I’ve found satisfying on this earth. I’m serious. Everything else leaves me empty. Only when I live according to the good instructions in God’s Word do I know peace. Only in reading and meditating on the Bible do I sense that I am studying the most profound truths of the universe. Only when I worship the God who created me and this beautiful world do I feel that my life is rightly ordered.

As  I depart from Costa Rica today, it doesn't mean the end of beauty; it simply means I have to look for it in other places--in smiles, in conversations with friends, in a good cup of coffee on a rainy day. Because God made our world, the undercurrents of beauty are everywhere. We ought to seek out beauty; it’s good. But we ought not hope that beauty alone will fill the cravings of our souls. Drink responsibly from the well of beauty, and remember your Creator.

Growing Pains

 God who is everywhere, never leaves us. Yet He seems sometimes to be present, sometimes absent. If we do not know Him well, we do not realize that He may be more present to us when He is absent than when He is present.

-          Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island

The last two weeks I’ve come to a painful realization of my lack of spiritual maturity.

I don’t love God for being God.

This is a tough thing to acknowledge for someone who has a lot of identity wrapped up in being a good Christian. I’ve done a lot of the right things to conform to the Christian culture; I’m even in Seminary, having dedicated my career to serving the Lord. People hope I’ll be successful as a Christian, including myself (whatever that means). But I’ve got a lot of growing to do.

Coming to Costa Rica was my attempt to jump back from the cliff of doubt, despair and burnout in my faith, and to further prepare myself for ministry. Now that I’m here, I’ve found myself to not love spiritual disciplines. I find it hard to pray. Sometimes I have an aversion to God’s Word.

The Dark Night of the Soul

Many Christians are at least familiar with the term which comes from St. John of the Cross’s work, The Dark Night of the Soul, but we don’t really know how to recognize it or respond.

For me, a night of the soul is a time that removes the guards I place between me and full devotion to God. I’ve got cushions—identities, securities, distractions—that keep me just safe enough from fully giving myself to God. Removing the padding is very uncomfortable.

I’ve had my share of experiences which painfully kick out those crutches: being fired, leaving California, getting sick in India. These are times of great hardship, in part because I’m coming to the unappealing reality that I valued my job, my friends, or even my very life above the God who gave me life.

Now I feel certain despair at my inability to create spiritual richness… to feel spiritual.

Dr. John Coe, director of Biola’s Institute for Spiritual Formation, wrote an article that has resonated deeply with my experience. In it he writes, “Believers in a dark night… become aware of how little they really love God, how little joy they take in the spiritual disciplines. Yet they also perceive, with a kind of sadness, that the world and its pleasures cannot satisfy.”

Yes, that’s it. I can try to read the Bible; I can try to pray. I can go on a hike with breathtaking views in places people call paradise. But none of it is satisfying if I’m not enjoying God.

Coe goes on, “Though they certainly love God in the deep where the Spirit abides, they discover how little there is in their character that enjoys prayer and the Bible, how little they really love God characterlogically.”

Exactly.

The diagnosis is accurate, but what do I do?

“Resist the temptation to spiritually fix oneself,” Coe advises, getting to a root problem of our spiritual pride. Instead of striving harder, I need to rest in God’s grace. This phrase is becoming a theme for my trip. Rest is a state of being, not doing. Humbly I must acknowledge my need for God and my absolute dependence on His grace.

I’m learning to love God for who He is, even if it’s tough and shows me more of myself than I care to see.

Growth is gradual; growth is tough. My Spanish is not suddenly fluent because I’m living in Costa Rica. I’m not suddenly more spiritual because I came here to study the Bible and pray. Out of my love for God I have to build a deep love for the Bible over a period of time, to build a habit of turning to God.

“Be faithful to the spiritual disciplines,” Coe counsels those in the dark night, “despite the fact that practicing them may feel painful and lonely.” Because spiritual growth is a lifelong process, our faith requires diligent habits so that we can daily move forward while keeping Jesus Christ as our goal.

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 

- Jesus

Summer Sabbatical

Today I leave for a new adventure… in Central America.

This summer holds a different kind of adventure for me. Rather than sightseeing, thrill-seeking or mission tripping, I am traveling with the purpose of studying God’s Word and prayer. 

My summer will be a practice in being, not doing.

"Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord. 

(Jeremiah 29:12-14)

Here’s the back-story:

The Setting

I’ve completed a year and a half of seminary: studying theology and the Bible in an academic setting. I also live in an urban center in the United States of America—probably the most fast-paced, achievement-driven country on earth. During the semester, my life is busy. very busy. Studying full-time, working part-time, and trying to even talk to a few people during the week, I barely find time to sleep.

I am not unique in this scenario. As a single young adult in the city, I feel a particular pull towards making a name for myself. We strive for more money, to be attractive, to be cool. For the most part, it comes easily. We’re surrounded by big buildings, big names, and big ambitions. We’re starting to make a lot of money with our time, which feels awesome. We can follow every impulse and desire; we are independent with no one to be accountable to. We’re young and energetic, handsome and strong, smart and funny.

Being caught up in the speed of the city, it’s easy to forget God. Many of us do. I have conversation after conversation with coworkers and dear friends who have lost their faith, or who just don’t care about God, or maybe are in a deep slump. We don’t need him (so it feels). We can succeed on our own, and life celebrates all that we’re good at. It’s hard to imagine I’m dependent on God.

Being in seminary I’m not immune from the world. I’m even guilty at times of following my own pride through the façade of being a good Christian. I just want to be good enough. I just want to earn favor with God, or at least with man. But in the midst of the cultural lies, I must get back to the root of truth. God becomes more real in my life when I obey how he told us to live.

I like my schooling; I like what I’m studying. However, I also value rest and a chance to step back and take a different approach to the Bible—one that is more organic and not so constrained by time. This summer I seek to go to the core of the Christian faith, meditating on what God has revealed about Himself in Scripture and praying as His prescribed response.

The Idea                                            

As I anticipated summer 2013 coming up, I began to look at options of where I would spend it, what I would do. If I quit my job and took the summer off, I would have two solid months to go anywhere in the world. I don’t want to be a perpetual traveler filled with wanderlust, but this seems like a summer I can strategically use for personal and spiritual growth.

Looking international seemed like a good option as I consider one of my life’s passions and purposes to be connecting with the worldwide church and understanding the diversity of humankind.

As this summer may be my last as a single young adult with the ability to travel and try something new, I want to use it purposefully. I know most people do not ever get the opportunity to take a summer off. I’m extremely blessed to be able to afford this financially. Knowing how busy I keep myself, I know this is a great chance to disengage and take a step back to renew the spiritual side of my life, and so I began looking into options around the world.

The Options

First I considered a mission trip back to Asia; I’d love to see China and visit a friend in Taiwan, maybe even partner with some friends in Singapore. But after not being able to find a travel buddy, I considered that door closed. I’m so grateful for companionship with Kyle in India, and I’m convinced I don’t want to try missions without a good friend like him.

Next I looked into an extended “pilgrimage” at Orthodox monasteries in Greece and Mount Sinai monastery in Egypt. Living in a monastery is part of my ambitious “I think I’d like to try it” list, and as I began to seriously consider spending my summer in a monastic community, the idea became extremely appealing. I saw it as an awesome chance to slow down and have nothing to do but read, memorize and meditate on the Bible, and spend ample time in prayer. Yet hopes faded when I was politely turned down by the monks.

Back at square one, I considered other lifelong ambitions: spend a summer abroad studying Spanish in Costa Rica or live in a cabin in the mountains by myself for a month. Only weeks away from summer, I researched heavily and have ended up with a combination of all pursuits…

Where I’m Headed

Today I’m flying to Costa Rica. There I’ll be staying in a “jungle house” by myself for 25 days. It’s rainy season, so I got a great deal (part of why I can afford this), and I’m sure the rain will help keep me focused on my goal of meditating on God’s Word and praying. I’m excited to be in Central America because I can work on my Spanish and learn more about Latin culture and Hispanic people.

I suppose “sabbatical” is a fitting term because this is a rest from work, a break to refresh and renew. I’m excited to refresh my faith by feeding it with essential nutrients. Too often in the city I’ve starved my faith by not being diligent in the core spiritual disciplines. Beauty makes me come alive, and I’m thrilled to immerse myself in such naturally beautiful places and let my soul spring out in worship to God. The house is in hikable distance from some waterfalls and only about 6 miles from the Pacific coast, so I can even hike to the beach while memorizing scripture. :)

Part II of my time in Central America will begin as I take a bus ride up to Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. There I’ll begin a more communal approach to the spiritual retreat, staying at a Catholic mission  for almost three weeks, eating 3 meals a day with other volunteers and occasionally partnering with work of the mission. I’ll be able to choose my own pace, so some days I can help with their education projects, go to the coffee plantations, or even help out with mass in other villages, and other days I can just go to the chapel to pray or take a hike overlooking the “most beautiful lake in the world.”

I don’t want to merely do a lot of things in life; I want to become a man of God and to be fully devoted to the gospel. I believe the distinctive of Christian ministry is our use of God’s Word and prayer to a God who hears us and whose Spirit dwells within us. This summer I don’t want to be a tourist or go on another mission trip; I want to be with God. I’m grateful and humbled and excited and afraid as I step into this new journey—your prayers are much appreciated!

But reject those myths fit only for the godless and gullible, and train yourself for godliness. For “physical exercise has some value, but godliness is valuable in every way. It holds promise for the present life and for the life to come.” This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance. In fact this is why we work hard and struggle, because we have set our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of believers.

Command and teach these things. Let no one look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in your speech, conduct, love, faithfulness, and purity. Until I come, give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the spiritual gift you have, given to you and confirmed by prophetic words when the elders laid hands on you. Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that everyone will see your progress. Be conscientious about how you live and what you teach. Persevere in this, because by doing so you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.

1 Timothy 4:7-16

The Gospel: Good News or Deceptive Superstition? Am I Crazy to Believe in Jesus of the Bible?

“Coming though, Jesus Boy!” the bartender announced as he slid by me during a busy shift. We’ve had a few conversations about religion before, and apparently my commitment to follow Jesus has earned me a new title.  

I’m proud to be identified by Jesus—I long for him to become greater in my life as I become less—but after growing up in such a predominately Christian culture, I never expected to be nicknamed for my beliefs about Jesus.

 I don’t know if you think Christianity is foolish or normal, but if you think those of us who believe in Jesus are crazy, please keep reading. I’d love to hear your response.

The Gospel

The “Gospel” is the core of what we believe as Christians. It is the message of “good news” that out of his love for us, God has sent his son into the world to provide a way for us to get right with God. We as humans have disobeyed God, breaking relationship with him and deserving death, but God made a way for us to get back to him.

The verse in the Bible that most clearly states the gospel is John 3:16: 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son,

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

With any exposure to Christianity, I’m sure you’ve heard this verse and know the reference. There’s nothing magical about this one verse; it simply states the good news of God’s love and salvation through belief in Jesus in a concise, helpful way.

But what does all this mean? I don’t need to be ‘saved’ from anything, you may say. Allow me to explain…

The Human Predicament

The Bible describes humankind as being in a certain predicament shortly after God created the world. God made the world to be a place of peace and perfection (in Hebrew: “Shalom”). The first people on earth, Adam and Eve, lived in a perfect world for some time, before they broke the one command God had given them.

We too have followed after those first humans, going against the way God told us to live and instead following our own desires and wants. Breaking God’s commandment cannot go unpunished, for God is perfect and holy. The Bible tells us that

“all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans3:23) 

and

“the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

I’m not trying to be condemning and judgmental; I’m just stating what the Bible says is true about our human condition. I consider this to be a loving warning to a friend as if I were pushing you out of the road as a semi-truck races toward you. Do you believe in an absolute difference in right and wrong? Then if there is a perfectly right God out there don’t you think he should punish our wrong-doing?

So in the big scheme of things, we as humans corrupted God’s intent that the world be a good and perfect place. We brought brokenness and pain and war and suffering into the world by not following God. We do not live as we ought to. We deserve punishment for sin, even the slightest imperfection.

Don’t stop there. This isn’t good news. This is awful, but you have to understand and believe that this world is not as it should be before the rest makes sense.

I find it easy to believe that humans are screwed up, because I’m constantly hurt and disappointed by other people and feel the pain of all the bad things going on the earth.

Just this week a friend of mine in India died of TB and asthma, being weakened by HIV+.

She was only 14.

This world is messed up. Thankfully this sweet little girl became a Christian before she so abruptly passed away, but it’s still difficult to accept the death of a child. Right now I am wearing a bracelet she made for me, keeping the reality of death fresh on my mind.

God’s Provision

Now back to the good news: God did not want all men and women to just die off as punishment for sin into eternal damnation. Instead, he works to restore humanity to himself. God loves us. God provided a way for us to get right with him, and that is by sending his Son—God becoming man—who would die in our place and then show victory over death by rising from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 states that the message of first importance is 

“that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to [many of his disciples].”

Jesus Christ is the substitution for the punishment we deserve.

He died a horrifying death on a Roman cross as payment for my sin. You could say Jesus took my spiritual cancer and healed me by putting it on himself. Then after being killed, he conquered death with victory over the grave. Wow.

That is the Jesus I’m willing to be called crazy for following. He’s amazing.

Our Response

The good news also has a requirement: we must believe it to receive it. The message sounds a bit loony: God became man 2,000 years ago, died for our sins and rose from the dead. But I believe the Bible, and it resonates with my experience of the world.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says, 

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

These verses point out for me what is fundamentally different about Christianity from every other world religion. Other religions strive to appease God or gods by sacrifices, rituals, or good works, but in Christianity, nothing we can do is good enough to reconcile us to God—we cannot get right with God on our own.

BUT the gospel is the all-important clause that means we don’t have to. We don’t have to earn our way to God; God came to us. So Christianity requires the humility of faith to believe that God saved me and I cannot save myself. I respond with faith, and works are supposed to flow out of the life of faith. Faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation.

My “religion” is exclusive in that I believe faith in Jesus Christ is the only way humans find salvation, get right with God, and live for eternity with Him. However, Christianity is all-inclusive in that anyone is invited to accept this message as truth and respond to Jesus. For me to be more “open-minded” would be to deny the core of my faith. The Bible says,

“There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) 

Jesus himself said,

“I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the father [God] except through me. (John 14:6)

If you’ve gotten this far and still think all of this is ridiculous, the Bible addresses this too:

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians1:18) 

I don’t mean for this to be an accusation, but that I understand, according to the Bible, why you don’t believe. I understand why I’m you’d think what I believe is foolishness; maybe it is. Yet my hope, desire and prayer is that you will come to believe the good news of Jesus Christ and share in the joy that I have from following Him. 

Settling In

I moved into my new apartment in Dallas a month ago, and now I’ve been making this my home. My boxes have been gradually unpacked. My roommate and I assembled an Ikea desk together. I bought a bookshelf and wired up my stereo. It feels like my life is coming together. After some stress, I got my job back and settled into the work routine. My finances are even stabilizing. I’m building study habits for my new classes and establishing new friendships in my community. I guess you’d say I’m settling in.

After a summer of constant transitions—travelling all over the U.S., working in 3 states and visiting friends and family in a few more—I’m no longer living out of a suitcase. I've finally settled into a location, routines… comfort.

I must be careful when I become “settled.” My tendency is to forget my need for God when I “have my life in order.” When I don’t know how things will turn out, I spend a lot more time in prayer asking God to intervene.

One of the hardest things about being a Christian in America is that we have everything we need here. Wealth grants us security. We tend to forget God, rationalize our independence, ignore the spiritual realm. I appall myself with thoughts of such heresy. Yet in the history of my experience, when I am “settled”, I quickly boost my pride and confidence in myself, and quickly develop complacency with sin in my life. The result is that I turn from God, and I no longer have room for Him in my life. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

How do you fight complacency when settling in? Comfort isn’t bad, but how do we avoid the dangers that physical security poses to our spiritual lives?

I have to surround myself with truth, to fall back on disciplines I sought to develop in healthy times of life. The prophet Isaiah writes, “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near” (Is. 55:6). Isaiah is not saying that God is going to hide from us, but instead telling us to seek God even—especially—in the good times. Don’t wait until your storm comes to turn to God. While your life is going well, acknowledge God.

As a Christian, I have another perspective I must bring to mind: this world is not my home.

Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). The Kingdom that we Christians speak of and live for is an eternal governance by God—a rightly ordered universe. Jesus tells me I do not belong here; I have a home in another realm.

Maybe you need to hear the call of John the Baptizer: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). He lovingly beckons: turn now, because soon divine order will be restored to the earth. That order involves judgment. Make sure you’re on the right side.

Life is short—too short to “settle in.” We don’t have the time to get caught up in petty things. I follow Jesus because I believe he came to the earth as God incarnate, sent by His Father, so that He might act as a substitutionary atonement for my guilt of sin by His death upon the cross. God becoming man is the most beautiful thing that ever happened on earth, yet it’s hard to believe in the midst of comfort.

Now that the weather in Dallas has cooled down for the fall, I can cozy up under the awesome new quilt I got from my friend’s mom. I feel secure, comfortable. How will I avoid letting that comfort keep me in bed, paralyze me from a useful life? I will daily renew my mind and attitude by reading the words God gave us in the Bible. I will become a man of prayer, so that I will be continually reminded of my utter need for God, who loves me and hears me. I will develop habits of discipline, not free-floating through life, but creating diligent study habits, rigorous exercise routines, sleeping well, eating well, and loving others well. I will be grateful, praising God with thanksgiving for who He is and how He has blessed me. Why would I settle for less?