Selfishness as a Declaration of Autonomy

In continuing to examine my own heart, I find that not only is laziness rooted in selfishness, but selfishness seems deeply rooted in the vice nourishing soil of autonomy. The word Autonomy comes from two Greek words: autos meaning, self; and nomos meaning, law. The autonomous person is a person whose will and  independence are not governed by any particular outside body or force. Autonomy then is the characteristic of being self-governed, or being a law unto ones self. When a person declares autonomy, they are declaring independence from any recognized authority. If we narrow the viewing lens and zoom in a bit, we can see that in many everyday ways, we can, in fact, be quite autonomous. I have no outside authority restricting my choice of restaurant for lunch, or whether I drink coffee or tea on my way to work. However, I do have an authority that says I can't drive 80 mph on the expressway during my commute. I am under the obligation to recognize the authority of the United States government and its officials with regard to the laws that Federal and State governments pass. However, at least in my state of Kentucky, I have no restrictions on the size of my soda container. So with regard to soda sizes, I am still autonomous.

    When we declare autonomy from God, either explicitly as the professing atheist would, or implicitly, lazily, unthinkingly as many Christians do, myself included, we are seeking, or acting as if we had, emancipation from God. Both neglect and outright contempt for the commands and precepts of God are rebellion against him. My selfishness must be seen in connection to its autonomous roots. The prophet Samuel said to Saul, “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.” God will remove the arrogant king who rebels against him, and he will cast you down as well. The king of Assyria boasted in his slaughter of Israelites and other nations who were under the judgment of God. 

The Assyrian king was merely a tool in the hands of God (Isa. 10:5-6). But the king in his arrogance declared himself autonomous; he said, “By the strength of my hand have I done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding” (Isa. 10:13a).  The Assyrian King boasted himself as the sole arbiter of wrath, motivated merely by his own lust for blood and power. God pronounces a curse upon him and declares, “When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes. See, God will continue his rule over you whether you recognize it or not, and he will bring punishment to bear for arrogance and autonomy. Crucial to the very definition of a Christian is the fact that we have turned from our rebellion against God, and have run to him as the rightful King, and only hope for our salvation from his just wrath on rebellion.

The Morning

The secret blue that paints the sky.
The human heart cannot ask why
The crisp wind blows, or what birds sing.
Who knows the promise sunlight brings?
The Lord.
Hallelujah,

Hallelujah for the morning.

Thoughts on Laziness

Proverbs 24:30-34

I passed by the field of a sluggard,

by the vineyard of a man lacking sense,

and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns;

the ground was covered with nettles,

and its stone wall was broken down.

Then I saw and considered it;

I looked and received instruction.

A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the hands to rest,

and poverty will come upon you like a robber,

and want like an armed man.

Proverbs 6:6-11

Go to the ant, O sluggard;

consider her ways, and be wise.

Without having any chief,

officer, or ruler,

she prepares her bread pin summer

and gathers her food in harvest.

How long will you lie there, O sluggard?

When will you arise from your sleep?

A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the hands to rest,

and poverty will come upon you like a robber,

and want like an armed man.

It is so easy to utter those words to my self, “Just a little rest.” “I’ll only sit for a minute, then I’ll get to work.” What a Lie. History has shown me that it is a lie. Rest is rarely for a few minutes unless there is a supervisor telling you that your break is over. Yet look at the ant. There is no one with a collared shirt, no one with a badge or a clipboard coming to tell her that her break is over. 

No Overseer or Ruler

I remember working for UPS while I was in college. We worked 3^rd shift, so from about 10:30 pm or so until 3:00am; though from night to night the start and end times changed slightly as we were reliant on the arrival of trucks and planes to do our jobs. We worked typically 3-5 hours when not in the peak holiday times. But sometimes those 4 hours felt rough, especially mid way through the semester when your exhaustion from going to class during the mid day hours, and then going to work when your body wants to be sleeping begins to catch up with you. So, you can imagine how welcome a break was when you got one. Now, these were mandatory breaks to comply with union labor laws, but boy we wanted them. The break, however was for only ten minutes, long enough to refill your water, use the bathroom or, in the case of many, fall stone dead asleep. I know I can't speak for every unioned package handler in UPS, but for myself and those I knew, if we had been allowed to, we would have definitely rested for far longer. It was the presence of a supervisor, calling us back with the grating reminder that we still had many trucks or airplane containers to unload, that recalled us from our reprise. Left alone, we might just have stayed and slept, or purchased another bag of chips from the vending machine.

The ant though, has no supervisor; she has no overseer or ruler. Yet, they scurry about and get their work done. I’ve never spoken to an ant, but I don’t imagine that ants take breaks like we do. If they do, I’m sure they are prompt and tidy breaks, with not a second of lingering. All kidding aside, the ant is not concerned with its self; it is not worried about what it gets out of the deal.

Paul explains in 1 Corinthians, “Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.” Can I underline that? I am not to seek my own good! Yet my own good is my underlying concern. Furthermore I am to positively seek the good of my neighbors! I am commanded by Scripture to shut my mind to my own concerns for personal good, like tiredness and frustration and then to shed my torchlight and gaze upon the good of my neighbors. Furthermore, as a husband, this absolutely, singularly and totally must begin with my wife. She is the chief of all my earthly delights, and the primary instrument of God's mercy to me. I’m to be fueled by her good, growth, prosperity and protection as an underlying assumption for my actions, not my own. Disgustingly, such an idea is utterly backwards from what I am by nature, and furthermore, what our culture tells us that we should be. Praise God for the Justification and sanctification found in union with Christ! May I seek it earnestly!

We are to do good by ourselves first, right? Wrong wrong wrong! It is wrong to believe that I am to seek my good first, then the good of others. But I believe it is even more wrong to believe the Scriptures and do opposite. At least the unbeliever is being consistent. I have more light, I know what I should do, and I believe the Bible to be true and wholly without error when it tells me what I should do. Yet, I do not do it. James 2: 20 says, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” What a shameful thing when those who know the truth do not walk in it. 

Go to the ant sluggard, consider her ways and be wise.

Thoughts on Fasting.

Donald S. Whitney says in his now classic, at least in my mind, work ‘Spiritual Disciplines For The Christian Life’ that fasting is “the most feared and misunderstood of the spiritual disciplines.” When I read that, I take in a breath - and think, “hmm, he’s totally right.” I don’t understand it, neither have I been exposed to regular admonition to practice fasting as a discipline. I don’t fear it exactly, but I don’t fully understand it, and it is often the case that we seem to fear what we don’t understand. It is fearful like timidity is fearful, like that uncertain, hesitating first step onto the bridge we think may collapse. Uncertainty and unfamiliarity amid the cacophony around lead to inaction in any area. We think, ‘eh, maybe next time;’ or, ‘let me think a while about it first.’ On and on until weeks pass and nothing has been done. Perhaps this is a thought about some larger problem in the postlapsarian human condition, certainly at least as I see it manifest in myself. Either way, my intention is by God’s grace to prayerfully search out and implement this lost discipline.

The following article will be the first in what I plan to be a series, undetermined in length, in which I put down my developing thought. I mean to keep a catalogue of sorts, which is beginning in my mind as statements about what I know fasting is not and cannot be. After setting boundaries, it will be easier to make positive statements. As I read and pray and practice, I hope to be pressed into the mold of God’s thinking so that my behavior will be pleasing to him. let the reader note that I write as to a mirror, addressing my own soul, perhaps in God's providence you too are edified. I certainly pray that is so, and if what I say is biblical and true, then it will be edifying to us both. On then to the first thought.

Fasting can and will never be the foundation of God’s graciousness or favor toward you.

            I am mindful of the all too human tendency to attempt to earn God’s grace. I am mindful of this error in my own heart. Grace however cannot be earned. If an object is earned, then by definition the object was owed, not given graciously. Consider that if I make $10.00 per hour, and work for one hour, then I am owed $10.00; it is my wage. My employer was not being gracious by paying me $10.00 he was merely adhering to a stipulation. If, however, he gave me $10.00 and a candy bar, then the candy bar was a gracious addition to my wage. Making sense? The demand to pay for something that was given freely is actually arrogant and dismissive of the individual who did the giving, even if the attempt is well intentioned. Paul explains to the Galatians that,

“I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”(2:21)

Will Paul attempt to add personal righteousness through adherence to the law to his criteria for salvation? Certainly not. Isn’t this exactly what the Judaizers were seeking to do? They said that the Gentiles must be circumcised according to the law of Moses. Paul calls this hypocrisy (Gal 2:13) and not in accord with the truth of the gospel (Gal. 2:14).

The nature of grace is that it is un-earned, to attempt to earn grace is to misunderstand grace completely, and to stand in front of God with arrogance rather than humility. The foundation of God’s grace is in his own sovereign desire to dispense it and the foundation of God’s favor is the obedience of Christ. In your union with Christ, you receive the benefits of his obedience, death and resurrection. Jesus is the Son of God in whom the Father is well pleased. So when he looks at you he sees your older brother, his beloved son, and because of your relationship to the Son, the Father is able and willing to show you favor. Furthermore, this is already done. Hebrews explains,

“But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” (10:12-14)

It is finished. You cannot increase your standing one step more than where Christ has placed you. You cannot add to the righteousness that is yours in Christ, to attempt such is rather to tarnish you, not cleanse you. Isn’t this an application of Isaiah 64:6?

“We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.”

And you ought not to live as though God at times forgets that he loves you, and must be reminded. Do not think that your fasting jogs his mind so that he says, “Well well, there’s that Benoit fellow I made, good thing he reminded me of my purposes toward him, ‘cause I totally forgot…pheew.”

No, Philippians 1:6 makes it clear that it is God himself totally apart from you who finishes his work in you.

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

The covenant he made is one that he took on the stipulations for. It is his promise and he will fulfill it. Do not think that you who are so feeble and small could reach out into eternity and grapple with the mind of the living God.  David prayed in Psalm 119:49-50,

“Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.”

I do not think David is attempting to remind God; rather, he is praising God for the surety of his promise, a promise that God has marked. Be sure my soul of this, the Lord is not slack concerning his promises (2. Pet 3:9), and your standing before God is by grace alone, through faith alone, by the merits of Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. Let me fast; careful not to fall into thinking that I am holy or that it will earn God’s favor. Such is sin.