Glorious Cliches

No apologies today for extended silences-- too much else to say.

I have been reading again.  A cause for celebration and acknowledgement as I haven't, really, since getting married.  On the docket at the moment are Jerry Benjamin's booklet "Simply Singular: Is Christ Prominent or Preeminent?", Rev. Henry Wright's "A More Excellent Way to be in health", and Kevin Dedmon's "The Ultimate Treasure Hunt".  All of them whirl around the same eye-- the centrality of Christ to the Christian life and the necessity of seeking Him for His own sake rather than for what we stand to gain by cozying up to Him.  It's difficult for me to talk about any of these precious things without sounding trite, even to myself, because the words that say what I mean are very cliche, over-used and nearly devoid of meaning after 2000 years of use.  Trust me when I assert that for every tired platitude I write there is a glorious firework going off in my brain.

I got to hear Jerry Benjamin speak again over the weekend; he taught the book of Daniel at Ecola when I was there 12 years ago, and as a Jewish convert to Christianity he brings a depth of perspective coupled with a passionate delving into the Lord that falls like the first rain after drought.  He said repeatedly, "The Christian life is impossible," and he is right. Fortunately, the only Life we are called to is Christ's and He's already lived it.  How easily we forget.  We assume that in gratitude for our "so great salvation" we are now called to "do great things for God" when in fact He simply wants to be His great self in us, and let the great things occur as the natural side effect of the saving life of Christ. 

As I was perusing Dedmon's book this morning, it was impressed upon me how easily we have strayed from the centrality of Christ even within our concept of salvation.  We constantly assert, "Christ died to save sinners," which is certainly true; Paul says so in 1 Timothy.  But unless we look at the whole picture of Scripture we sail dangerously close to thinking it is therefore all about us.  It's an understandable assumption-- we're living in our bodies, and, as my pastor recently mentioned, whose face do we always find first in a picture? We are self-centric by nature.  Oddly enough, so is Jesus.  In fact that's the point: Jesus died to save sinners, but that issue wouldn't even be on the table unless He had wanted us.  Jesus died so He could have what He wanted, His greatest treasure, His body, His face in the picture: us. Salvation is all about what Jesus wants.  And since we know He only wants what the Father wants, and what the Father wants is perfect, we can rest assured, without any need for pride, that we are a super big deal.

But only because our worth is found in being the possession, the inheritance of Jesus. 

That, my friends, is a saying not in any danger of becoming cliche.