Author: Wick

Ephesians 4:24 “and to clothe yourself with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

I really like this verse.  Particularly the phrase “new self”.  We desire to be made new, and it’s not about shedding everything we’ve ever been through as if we could forget how this broken world has impacted us.  How we’ve been hurt, cheated, lied to, offended.  How we’ve hurt, cheated, lied to, and offended others.  So many of those things, even after forgiveness comes, linger in the corners of our minds and the back of our soul…and we convince ourselves that a good Christian would be able to forget completely the ways of this world…so we pretend we have.

But this and other verses (2 Corinthians 5:4) remind us that it’s not about destroying who we have been and building completely from the ground up.  Any more than God is about scrapping the entire cosmos in order to rebuild things completely different.  It’s about God taking what exists, and “swallowing up by life”. 

God desires to take what has happened, and what is happening in our lives, and “clothe” these things with a new purpose.  Not to ignore what it is, and pretend hearing words like these will automatically bring hope to those who have experienced immense pain.  But approaching what is, genuinely and with a Love and Desire to make all things New.  To redeem our entire lives, transforming not only our hearts and minds, but our history as well.

The words for “new self” continue to be very encouraging.  The word “new” is “kainos”, which can either mean new form (recently made, fresh, recent, unused, unworn), or new substance (of a new kind, unprecedented, novel, uncommon, unheard of).  I would think both translations could be quite Hope-filling. 

It also helps that the verse directly before it uses the words “put away your former way of life, your old self”.  The word for old here is “palaios”, which means old, ancient, no longer new, worn by use, comes from the root word for “former” or “long ago”.

I think it’s one of the reasons I love Youth Ministry.  They understand the concept of acquiring a new identity, and letting go of an old one.  Heck, many of them develop new identities on an annual basis as they go from 7th-12th grades. (usually just one in 6th or 7th, another in 9th, and another toward the end of 12th) 🙂  So the task becomes, allowing them to see that can happen from God in a way that is quite supernaturally different from receiving it from their peers, culture, or family situations.  Thank you, Jesus….

I’ve already said that no two books have ever gone together so well than NT Wright’s “After You Believe” and Nicholas Carr’s “The Shallows”. Carr presents an eye-opening case for us to be more aware of the changes happening not only within our brain, but actually TO our brain due to the informational web era we live in; the fact that our grey matter is constantly in flux, being wired and rewired according to our practices and thoughts. Wright presents a call to a renewed vision of Christian “Virtue”, reminding us that being made a New Creation involves practices and thoughts that we must work at in order that they become second nature over time. That our lives here and now can be practicing the language of the Kingdom to the point where we citizens begin to transform the world around us even now, as we ourselves are transformed.

One example Wright brings up are the Beatitudes. Most of us have heard this section of Matthew chapter 5, where Jesus says “Blessed are those…”, etc. Some translations actually translate the word “happy are those…”, which Wright quickly points out is fruit of a misunderstanding of what it means to follow Christ. As Wright states:

“one of the things that marks Jesus out over against Aristotle in terms of the source and driving energy of the “virtues” – is that this includes “happiness,” but it includes it as the result of something else – namely, the loving action of the creator God.”

He goes on to talk about the fact that these beatitudes are neither an exercise in legalism (a checklist of things to do if you’re following Christ well), nor are the verses that follow (avoiding not just murder, but hatred, not just adultery but lust, etc.) a cry for “really meaning it, not just going through motions.”

In both cases, we hear a calling toward what Wright labels “eschatological authenticity”. That the language and natures of Kingdom living are opened up for us in Jesus Christ to participate in now. It will be a struggle, and we’ll have to pray for grace and strength, but it “is at least now within reach.”

Wright point out: “You can’t collapse the whole question of “how to behave” into the command “It must come naturally, otherwise it isn’t authentic.” Jesus puts it the other way around: he says, in effect, “Follow me, and authenticity will begin to happen.”

When God created human in the garden, we believe He created in His own image. We are created to be the bearers of God’s image into all creation. To reflect God’s glory into the world. In every area of our life. In every season. In every time of day. As a husband, a father, a youth pastor, a friend, a teacher, a student, a brother, a son, etc. To carry the genuine humanity God is calling us to become into each area, and to live accordingly.

To carry faith into situations where others have let go long ago. To bring a solid hope to a world that has experienced far too many broken promises. And to Love in worlds where hurt, brokenness, and suffering have taken place for so long, genuine love is like an ancient myth.

As we do this in the name of Jesus, we bear the image of God in a world that was created for us to do so…and all things are becoming New…

The question when finishing a book like “The Shallows”, that I think to myself as much as I’m asked by friends who know I’ve read it is, “So, will you be using the internet less from now on?” I’ll admit, there are sections of the book where I imagined unplugging. Deleting my facebook, ending my blog, and canceling my chat accounts…all seemed tempting at different moments.

Just as the author, toward the end of the book, confesses to attempting. He admits to being a solitary type man, and being self-employed, has abilities to disconnect many of us couldn’t handle. Then, toward the end of the same chapter, he admits that when finishing this book was near complete, he “plugged in” once again. Even brags on his new Wi-Fi Blu-ray player that streams NetFlix and YouTube, etc.

I don’t think I’ll go into a sort of legalistic re-appraisal of my online connections. But I do think I will be more purposeful in my intellectual and creative development. I’m better familiarized with the benefits of decreasing how much of myself I rely on the “web” for, and how much of my day is unplugged. I see tremendous value in carving out specific time for words on printed pages, and want to work on the habit of using the “off” switch for my laptop’s wireless capabilities.

God has given us an amazing amount of self to create and discover, and an identity that He continues to form in our hearts, minds, and lives. There are large amounts of energy and enthusiasm to share the benefits of technology with the generations who were born before much of it existed. Teaching the elderly, and even the middle-aged how to properly navigate the world-wide web, and all of it’s various facets.

But an area we need to remember, and foster, is to share that bridge in both directions. The abilities our parents and grandparents have to focus on a single concept or idea. The imaginations bolstered and living organic memories of those who have developed them naturally, instead of clicking a search engine for the most relevant facts….should make us want to sit at their feet and listen. As we are raising tomorrow’s generations, may we continue to require not only the ability to type well and navigate, but to sit still. To dream. To listen. To write. To memorize. To create. To discuss and wrestle with a single idea or challenge. To work their way through a densely-packed, beautifully written classic novel…immersed in its’ pages that are completely void of any links or advertising to distract the mind.

Although….I’m okay if we stop teaching cursive. I still don’t get it. 🙂