All Things New

My Super D Duper friend over at Adoptyuen, blogged recently about the Sabbath. Interesting. Old ways. Even when we think we “get it” we often don’t. Not for very long. Real change is really hard. One of my favorite all time sayings, and if you’ve known me very long you’ve heard me say it more than once: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.

Why! Oh, why!.... Do we think doing the same thing over and over will work? Especially Christians. We have the NEW Testament, the NEW Covenant, the promise we will be made NEW and yet, like the disciples, we go back. Back to pain. Back to sin. Back to old habits that destroy us instead of putting on the NEW self, created to be like God.

Why are we prone to wander, Lord? Why do we always want to go back to Egypt?

I’ve been in the book of James. Heavy stuff. Heavy stuff on faith and works. Faith without works is dead, you know?

But here is the wrinkle I see. That passage in James identifies 3-4 key evidences of faith at work. And... it’s not what you’d naturally think. In fact, I’m looking at works in a NEW way.

James says, “Feed the poor, clothe the needy and visit orphans and widows.” That’s easy. What’s harder to work out in my mind about works are the tales of Rahab and the Spies and the story of Abraham and Isaac. Faith at work can be a high risk undertaking. Faith at work goes against the grain. Faith at work is sometimes a private matter. Faith at work goes against common sense. By these examples, faith at work often appears to be sacrificial. Yet, in 1 Sam 15 God says, “To obey is better than sacrifice.” Whoa.

Rahab’s and Abraham’s examples of faith are NO LESS SIGNIFICANT than the obvious instruction about serving the needy. Yet, because certain acts of faith are intensely personal, more relational than tangible, we sometimes fail to identify them as acts of faith. From a desire to be obedient, we go looking for concrete good works to do. Truth be told, we want others to notice them, too. We don’t always go looking for the good works GOD prepared for us to do, either. Been there? Done that?

We sometimes get hung up on our own ideas of what a “good work” is. If you read Jill’s blog, you hear her tell the example of how the disciples did that. Good works that complete faith do not come from ourselves. Good works do not come from the letter of the law. Whatever you make of acts of faith, make sure they are also acts of obedience. I guess that’s the point.

Perhaps, if I could remember all God did in the wilderness outside of Egypt, I wouldn’t want to go back to doing things my way. If I could hold on to the bright hope for tomorrow with both hands, I’d listen to God’s unique instruction, trusting Him instead of leaning on my own understanding.

Is anyone tracking with me?

Maybe God isn’t interested in us doing the same old thing because he explicitly said, "Behold I make all things NEW." (Rev 21)