Fault Lines

We all have them, those cracks in the foundation that we all come into the world with (Psalm 51:5). Our fault lines are carried with us everywhere we go in spite of our best attempts to project another image. Sin just has a way of sticking to our hearts and souls and lives even when we try to hide it.

The image we project on social media usually doesn't amount to much more than putting lipstick on a pig. The funny thing is that we often buy into the "pretty" pigs we see around us. "Of course other people have better looks, better kids, better homes, better lives. Facebook shows me so."

Can we be honest for a second and drop the pretension?

Each of us carries hurts and brokenness that we would prefer the world not see. The fault lines run deep enough that we can rest assured there is no earthly fix for them. Only Jesus can bring that kind of healing.

I've only just begun counseling for my anxiety but I've already come face to face with the reality that I, and most others, walk around trying to hide or minimize both our finite-ness and our fallen-ness. On top of our sinfulness we are limited by time, space, energy, and many other things. Sadly adding to their problems, many people spent significant energy hiding these facts.

When we should ask for help we instead feel shame as if our burdens  were our own choosing.

Instead of feeling sorrow over the ways sin (our own and others) has caused us pain we carry guilt, feeling like damaged goods.

Fear of being exposed as something other than what we want others to think about us prevents us from ever showing up with our whole selves.

I don't want to advocate for a bare-it-all over-sharing with any listening ear, especially when that ear doesn't desire or is ill-equipped to hear your pain. There is a measure of discernment needed in our disclosure.

Still, what I want, what I truly long for is for follower's of Christ to live out 2 Corinthians 4:6-7 in a fresh way.

"For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness." has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us."

The passage begins with a reminder of Genesis 1: "let light shine out of darkness." God's creation of everything displays that he holds the all the power and this puts us clearly in the category of being created. The 'jars of clay' phrase that comes next is a reiteration of the same thought that God holds all the power. It is about him and his ability to bring light out of darkness.

The miracle of bringing light out of darkness in Genesis 1 is mirrored in the second bringing of light into darkness that happens in the hearts and lives of those who have seen Christ's glory.

When we hide our fault lines, when we pretend we have it more together than we really do we are robbing God of his glory. We are trying to take the miracle of his light-in-the-darkness creativity and make it our own.

There is healing to be found in being broken and in being a jar of clay. The saying "if it ain't broke don't fix it" means we leave working things alone. It also means that if we can't admit something is broken we can't seek the healing we need.

Let those fault lines and failures be seen and known. Not proudly, nor in celebration, but in humility because they are what God will use to shine light in the darkness.

Charges of hypocrisy ring true when Christians hide or deny those failings. When we can live with them, confess them, repent of them, and bear one another's burdens with them we allow "the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" to be seen in our lives.

We get no glory but God gets praise and just maybe our fault lines will begin to be healed. That should be enough for our hearts.

Surrender

Submission and surrender are beautiful words for Christians. Sadly, somewhere along the line the words have been hijacked so that most people speak of them in a negative tone. They connote timidity and a weak will and are seen as a precursor to being used, abused, and trampled upon.

However, biblical submission and surrender (and they are the same thing) are wonderfully liberating and empowering. In a predictable pattern the world offers freedom and liberation through imposition of one's own will in self-determination while claiming that submission and surrender lead only to captivity.

The truth is that there is glorious freedom to be found in submission.

Imagine talking to Adam and Eve in their final years. The memory of the garden lingers sweet in their minds while the bitter taste of the fruit still drips from their lips. Sin has woven itself around their hearts and lives and they have seen death and suffering and alienation from God and enslavement to sin.

Now imagine asking them, those who can still smell the blooms of the garden, if they regret their decision to pursue the freedom and liberation offered by our cunning adversary. Have them recount the joy of submission to the Lord's command before their insubordination. I imagine that the degree to which sin had failed to erase that memory would correlate directly to their desire to go back in time to change their insubordination into submission.

The true freedom found in their submission can only be regained by accepting Jesus' perfect submission and surrender as our own. This accepting of ours is an act of submission as we lay down our own attempts to be justified or righteous.

Surrender and submission involve a terrifying freedom where we move through fear of judgment into forgiveness. Submission is the act that moves us through through the terror into freedom. We receive grace and mercy when we look beyond the terror of being judged for ourselves and see that we have acceptance and freedom in Christ.