Little Children and a Chumbawamba Faith

Today at lunch my 8-month-old son Joshua, who loves to pull himself up on EVERYTHING, tipped over and fell on his head.  This is a common scene in our house.  Joshua gets up, Joshua tips over, Joshua gets back up (occasionally needing one of Mom's magic kisses).  He's basically a Chumbawamba song.

"If I fell as much as he does I wouldn't try anymore."  Christine said.

"When do we lose that determination?' I replied.

When do we lose that determination?  Why does the fear of pain and failure cause us to retreat to our safe places?  At what point do we in our adult wisdom become such cowards?

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." Mark 10:14b-15

What does it mean to receive the Kingdom of God like a little child?  Well, there is a lot to that phrase and pastors, scholars and commentators have much to say about it.  But I want to look at the thing the Holy Spirit used Joshua to teach me today.

Little children, like my son, do not simply receive the gift of life and stay put.  No, little children see life, whether you teach them to or not, as something to conquer and explore.  Joshua was not satisfied to lay on his back, so he learned through much effort to role over.  He was not content to just be on his stomach, so he strained until he could scoot places.  He wasn't happy just to scoot, so he began groaning to pull himself on to anything he could find.  He's not satisfied to simply stand, so he's trying to move places on his feet.  As he tries to move he falls and yet he keeps trying.  It will be the same when he learns to walk and ride a bike.

Are you content with the life you've been given or are you determined to explore all that you could do with this life?

"We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn.  In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you ned someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's Word all over again.  You need milk, not solid food!  Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.  But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."  Hebrews 5:11-14

Are you an infant with no goals for growth in your understanding of the truth?

"Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."  Galatians 5:25

Are you scooting around contently when you should be walking in step with the Holy Spirit?

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:12-14

Are you content to be immobile in your faith when you should be straining to move forward?

We should accept the gift of eternal life, which is the person of Christ, like a baby accepts the gift of his or her life.  We should not simply breathe and have a heartbeat, which is living by definition, but rather we should be growing and maturing.  Joshua takes chances because he thinks life will be more enjoyable when he can walk, feed himself and get to the cats.  This unshakeable, joy-filled, determination shapes so much of his activity.  Shouldn't those words describe our faith?  Shouldn't we have an unshakeable, joy-filled determination to mature that perseveres through all the bumps, bruises, falls, failures, persecutions and pains?

Accept the Kingdom of God like a little child.  Enjoy the gift of new life the Father has given you through the work of Jesus Christ and push further into this gift through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Discover more of what God has in store for you.  Find all the abilities and joys available to you in this gift of life even if you feel some pain in that process today.

Failed Resolutions

The new year is a time where we feel we get a chance at a restart, so we make New Year's Resolutions.  31.6% of New Year's Resolutions fail before the end of two weeks.  41.6% don't make it the month of January.  Only 8% last the entire year.  Chances are fairly good that if you made a New Year's Resolution that you've already failed.  This post is not written to discourage you, but to encourage you.  You can restart your resolution.  You can get back on the horse but let's look at the Bible's examples of famous restarts.

You probably know the story.  God creates the world and Adam and Eve in it.  The world and everything in it was perfect... until Adam and Eve sinned and screwed it up.  Soon their own children were killing each other and to use John Milton's words paradise was lost.

Genesis tells us of the Bible's first restart.  The people of earth became violent and utterly sinful so God decided to start over with one family led by Noah.  Noah builds the ark and the whole world was flooded leaving only Noah and his family.  And they lived happily ever after, right?  Wrong.  Soon after the ark lands on dry ground Noah plants a vineyard and gets drunk and then his son either lustfully stares at him or flat out rapes him ("uncovered his nakedness" is used as a euphemism for homosexual incest in Leviticus)  This first restart fails soon after it starts.

Genesis also tells us the stories of Abraham.  Abraham was to be the father of a new nation with which God would have a special relationship.  Well, Abraham has all sorts of problems being the new start.  He lies and has people sleep with his wife because he says she's his sister... twice, has a child with his servant because he thinks God is taking too long, and lives a life that is well short of the perfect restart.  His family line is filled with fighting, scheming, murder, and more.  This restart didn't work out well.

Abraham's family becomes the nation of Israel and eventually becomes enslaved in Egypt.  God sends Moses to rescue His people.  The nation of Israel was led out of Egypt and given new laws to govern them toward holiness.  Immediately they spend much of their time failing and breaking laws right and left.  Moses gets frustrated time and again by their inability to follow through with what they promised to do in their covenant with God.

The book of Judges is a cyclical story of failure, restart and failure again. The nation of Israel sins, then gets dominated by an outside force, then God sends a leader to redeem them from their enemy, then things work out well, then the leader dies and the nation of Israel sins worse than before.  Rinse and repeat and you have the book of Judges. None of the restarts worked.

Later Israel gets a king instead of having judges to rule them.  The very first king, Saul, fails and is rejected by God.  So God restarts with a man after His own heart named David.  David leads the Israelites and they live happily ever after, right?  No.  During David's time there is unrest and civil war, his son Solomon sees some success but David's grandson sees the country ripped in half.  The kings in the line of David were mostly evil.  This restart did not fix the problem.

Time after time the restarts failed.  Time and time again the person who was set up as the second Adam, if you will, failed to bring the restart that was needed.

Until Jesus.

Jesus is the second Adam.  From the time sin enters the story of mankind the Bible makes us feel the need for a restart.  We failed out of the shoot and we need a restart.  Jesus is the only restart that works.  He is the judge and king who is perfect and won't die.  He's the Noah who provides rescue from destruction and guarantee of the rescue working perfectly.  He's the one that fulfills all the promises given to Abraham that Abraham and his line couldn't fulfill on their own.  Jesus is the restart we needed.  He is the one who is making all things new (Revelation 21:5).

So, when you seek to restart something in your life don't try to do it with your own power.  The Bible is filled with men and women who quickly learned that they couldn't do it on their own.  If you want a restart in your life don't look to yourself but look to Jesus who offers a regeneration, a rebirth, a restart that won't fail.  Let Jesus be the second Adam you need today.