Seriously.. Are we trying to solve God?

I was skimming through my favorite book today, and the chapter on "The Three-Personal God" jumped out at me. It had struck me before, but I got caught up in the book (cuz its so frickin good) and forgot to come back and reflect on it! I need to write this down as a reminder...

"In space you can move in three ways - to left or right, backwards or forwards, up or down. Every direction is either one of these three or a compromise between them. They are called the three Dimensions. Now notice this. If you are using only one dimension, you could draw only a straight line. If you are using two, you could draw a figure say, a square. And a square is made up of four straight lines. Now a step further. If you have three dimensions, you can then build what we call a solid body: say, a cube - a thing like a dice or a lump of sugar. And a cube is made up of six squares.

Do you see the point? A world of one dimensions would be a straight line. In a two-dimensional world, you still get straight lines, but many lines make one figure. In a three dimensional world, you still get figures but many figures make one solid body. In other words, as you advance to more real and more complicated levels, you do not leave behind the things you found on the simpler levels: you still have them, but combined in new ways - in ways you could not imagine if you knew only the simpler levels.

Now the Christian account of God involves just the same principle. The human level is a simple and rather empty level. On the human level one person is one being, and any two persons are two separate beings - just as, in two dimensions (say on a flat sheet of paper) one square is one figure, and any two squares are two separate figures. On the Divine level you will find personalities; but up there you find them combined in new ways which we, who do not live on that level, cannot imagine. In God's dimension, so to speak, you find a being who is three Persons while remaining one Being, just as a cube is six squares while remaining one cube. Of course we cannot fully conceive a Being like that: just as, if we were so made that we perceived only two dimensions in space we could never properly imagine a cube. But we can get a sort of faint notion of it. And when we do, we are then, for the first time in our lives, getting some positive idea, however faint, of something super-personal - something more than a person. It is something we could never have guessed, and yet, once we have been told, one almost feels one ought to have been able to guess it because it fits in so well with all the things we know already." - CS Lewis

This supports the Word, when God said he has created us in His image - We resemble God in a way with small elements of His being, but also far from Him, as we are trapped in this physical world. We are clearly far from God's dimension, but just like a painting, where you will see the characteristics of the artist by examining the brush stokes and the painting style, we are able to see God's character by examining ourselves - our longing for security that this world does not provide, our longing for happiness this world cannot sustain, the joy that fills our hearts when we serve and love, etc. When we examine ourselves we are able to see the basic structure that amounts to God. However, no matter how much analyzing we do on our part, we are only a "square", and we could never properly imagine a "cube". Only a faint notion of It.

Wake Up!

During the New Year's Eve service, Pastor Brian concluded his message by saying, "Let's fight the good fight and run the good race." And it was clear to see that the message was soaked with the theme of perseverance - running the race and fighting the fight no matter how tough it gets along the way. As Christians we are called, by the grace of God, to fight against our worldly desires (although when the peace from God enters our hearts, we are able to take the pleasures of the world in a different form - the way it was meant to be), and to follow after Christ genuinely and wholeheartedly. However, I truly believe simply fighting temptations and doing good deeds isn't what God wishes Christianity to be, nor did Pastor Brian in his message. Christianity is definitely deeper than this.

Fighting temptations through prayer and meditation is a great thing to practice, as it is a crucial component to continually consecrating ourselves for the Lord. However, I believe this is just "having a snack" compared to "having a meal" - waking ourselves up from our drunkenness continuously. It is also great to do good deeds, but I would question if all "good deeds" are actually good if we do not understand the meaning behind some of our actions? It is only when we choose to fight the fight of waking up from our drunkenness, that God will help us to become sober so that we may understand the reason for every little thing we do - not "just because Jesus said so". Once we begin to understand (continuous process) God's definition of love, humility, compassion, can we actually practice them genuinely and naturally where ever we are - not just at church or to people that know of us as being Christians. It is no longer a "show", but just our natural being. As CS Lewis states in Mere Christianity, "When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping. You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly: while you are making them you cannot see them. You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk. Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either," we can understand that, as we draw nearer to God, we see more and more clearly the evil that is still left within us. As God shows more of Himself to us, we see more and more what we have not seen before. If this is true, epiphanies should be frequent and we should continuously be expanding our knowledge/purpose of this "life" until we are reunited with God. Unfortunately, we do not have the power to expand our sight to see what God sees with our strength- it is totally up to God (by grace) to allow us to see small bits and pieces of what lies in His dimension. However, I truly believes God wishes us to see what he sees - our character and our mindset just isn't ready to accept the truth.

"It is impossible for Him to show Himself to a man whose mind and character are in the wrong condition. Just as a sunlight, tough it has no favorites, cannot be reflected in a dusty mirror as clearly as clean one" - CS Lewis.

Our job to mature as Christians, then, lies on how desperate we are to be continually awakened by the Truth. This desperation should be reflected in our prayers and through our actions - reading the word, books, listening/singing to praise songs, and indulging ourselves in anything that may grow our perception of God.

I pray that our generation fights the good fight, not only to fight temptations and distractions caused by Satan, but also to desperately fight to become "sober" from our "drunkenness".

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Side notes from experience:

- The more and more I eat unproportionately and not healthy, the more it becomes easier to continue to eat without any portion control and the lack of care to eat healthy. However, when I switch to a healthier diet, I am awakened, and realize how important a balanced eating habit really is.

- It's extremely hard to commit to a workout plan and it becomes harder as I become comfortable not working out. However, as soon as I snap out of the laziness, I realize that being "comfortable" ruins my physically, mental, and spiritual discipline. Comfort can be a form of "drunkenness".

My favorite QT praise song:

Humble King - Vineyard


Oh kneel me down again 
Here at Your feet 
Show me how much You love Humility  
Oh spirt be the star 
That leads me to 
The humble heart of love I see in You
  
You are the God of the broken 
The friend of the weak 
You wash the feet of the weary 
Embrace the ones in need 
And I want to be like You Jesus 
To have this heart in me 
You are the God of the humble 
You are the humble King

Heart of Service

This entry is dedicated to missionary Jonathan and the three interns (Rachel, Abby, and Shaina) in Costa Rica

This world has brain washed us, and has made us in to cold, selfish beings, causing us to be defensive and offensive. The "corporate" culture that teaches us the motto of "survival of the fittest" makes us rely totally on our own powers to grow in our society, in our corporate jobs, and even our spiritual walk. As we do this, we naturally become prideful, as competition stirs pride in our hearts. This pride makes our hearts callus and cold - It forces us to protect our hearts, while not caring about the hearts around us, and we build a wall and shoot down "enemies" that try to "invade" us. This mindset is true ignorance and we can't help but to walk blind in darkness, trying to put bandages on our cuts by indulging into temporary satisfactions that seem to lift our spirit. However, this only further feeds the virus, and the sickness spreads. This temporary satisfaction infects us deep within and even leads to spiritual cancer.

God's grace is the only thing that can cure this sickness. When we seek Him, and He comes with grace, and strikes humility in to our hearts. He transforms our hearts to be softer, and full of compassion - a selfish cold heart in to a heart of service. Only then, can we be totally secure of ourselves, and live a joyful - full of purpose - life. How can we possibly be happy living as slaves that work to satisfy our materialistic desires? Our happiness would only be from what we produce. This cycle would never end - and it's extremely depressing. However, when God hits us with a heart of service, we partake in a greater goal that is finally not about ourselves. Our motive for our actions become selfless (to expand His kingdom), and this way of life drives us to work harder and to be joyful with any task given to us by God. Service (a form of worship) is the only drug that will instill a purpose in to our hearts and ultimately bring true happiness.