Monday, June 22, 2009

Strength Concealed by Weakness

Divine humility is a term created by C. S. Lewis when he could find no other words to express his experience with a God so massive, so powerful, yet who approaches humanity with modesty and gentleness. Allow me to juxtapose these two qualities: God opened his mouth and spoke the universe into existence. We don’t yet know the full size because we have never seen the end of it. So what we can see is what astronomers call the “Observable Universe.” The observable universe is so massive there’s nothing in our language that can summon the proper perspective, so we’ll deal with our galaxy, the Milky Way.

This image is an artist's rendering of our galaxy. It consists of more than 200 billion stars; and by conservative estimates our galaxy is about 100,000 light years in diameter. Let’s unpack this: Light travels more than 185,000 miles every second. A light year is the distance it would take an object to travel at light-speed for a whole year. So, if a person were to travel at 185,000 miles per second for 100,000 years, they might be able traverse the length of our galaxy. Okay, perhaps that’s a bit too long for us. Our galaxy is disk shaped, like Frisbee, so we might choose instead to pass through the width – that would only take 1,000 light years. In fact, if we were to scale our galaxy down to the size of one hundred miles in diameter, our solar system would be less than one millimeter in size.


In case this galaxy is too small for you to stretch your limbs, God has prepared extra space for us beyond our galaxy. In fact, astronomers confirm there are more than 80 billion other galaxies in the observable universe – this is just what we can see. And, that is not stars we’re dealing with mind you, but galaxies. The number of stars in the observable universe is uncountable, but astronomers estimate somewhere between 30 and 70 sextillion. That is 10 followed by 51 zeros times 45. According to Isaiah 40:26, God has a name for each one and calls them out by ranks.


The universe is only one example we can use to behold God’s greatness. We could have gone the other direction into, say, DNA and the billions of characters of organized code in only one strand. Suffice it to say, God is unfathomably awesome.


If we left our understanding of God at this, we couldn’t possibly find anything modest or meek about him. But Lewis experienced another side of God that leaves us breathless. By virtue of this unfathomable greatness, God is the one and only being that need not bother with anything or anyone. He has no need of anything. He is justified to do away with any creation that would dare to ignore or dismiss him. He is Mighty with a capital “M” and deserves all honor and respect. But this isn’t how he does business, and that is where the “Divine humility” comes in. He endures our insults and dismissals. As Lewis (1940) put it,


… it is a poor thing to strike our colours to God when the ship is going down under us; a poor thing to come to Him as a last resort, to offer up ‘our own’ when it is no longer worth keeping. If God were proud He would hardly have us on such terms: but He is not proud, He stoops to conquer, He will have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to Him, and come to Him because there is ‘nothing better’ now to be had. … It is hardly complimentary to God that we should choose Him as an alternative to Hell: yet even this he accepts. (p. 95-96)

What is it about God that motivates him to take such a humble approach toward us? This divine yet humble nature seems paradoxical, but it is very true to the Biblical concept of God’s character. John Milton must have had this Divine humility in mind when, in his Epic, Paradise Lost, he postulated the reason Satan had the audacity to strike a rebellion against the King of kings. Satan says, “but still [God’s] strength concealed/ Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall” (1.641-42). In other words, Satan miscalculated the strength of God because of His Divine humility, and felt it was possible to usurp the throne.

Perhaps this is why God hates arrogance – it is so unlike Himself. The Bible is clear God aims to make us more like Him. Thus we find ourselves encouraged to place ourselves last, sit in the lesser seat, be the servant, and consider others more significant than ourselves. I’m not saying he wants us to be self-defacing; but a healthy dose of self-forgetfulness would do us all good. For those of us who don’t get this, who persistently kick against the goads, God has, in His grace, provided a thorn. He would have us be great like Him, but the path to that greatness is through a weakness. This is why God afflicted Saint Paul with a "messenger of Satan to torment him" (2 Cor. 12:7), and why he chooses the “foolish in the world to shame the wise” and “what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor. 1:27).


The man C. S. Lewis (1954) himself is a profound modern-day example. This man is arguably the most influential Christian writer of the twentieth century. He propped up the failing hearts of the Englishmen while their island was bombed in World War II, he wrote potent and effective books on Christian apologetics, he cleverly countered atheistic attacks on Christian faith, he produced insightful allegories in his series The Chronicles of Narnia, among other fiction, and he wrote numerous academic essays. Almost fifty years after his death he is probably the most-quoted Christian author, period.


But his impact on the Church was a result of a physical handicap. He was born with only a single joint in both thumbs, limiting his ability to work with his hands. This was cause for serious dismay and disappointment because he “longed to make things, ships, houses, engines” (p. 10). After repeated effort at creating and building, he admits turning from his “failures” in tears. It was “As a last resort ... I was driven to write stories instead” (p. 10, emphasis mine).


What path would his life have taken if God had given him normal joints like everyone else? The world would have lost out on his writing and reasoning and encouragement. Lewis displayed the wonder and wisdom of God in his writings. No doubt he prayed as a child for an operating pair of opposable thumbs! But God denied him this gift, and as a result he was driven to write! What he first saw as an affliction, and a serious weakness, God used for his greatest strength. This made Lewis' life a great example of what Jesus teaches: “My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).


Let this be a reminder for you and me, that when failure is lodged in our path, when we find our abilities severely limited and wanting, it just may be those very weaknesses that God will use to display His might and glory through us. For God wields great and awesome power, but he conceals it with weakness. How much more would He have his children be that way as well?


References:


Lewis, C. S. (1940). The problem of pain. New York: HarperCollins.

Lewis, C. S. (1955). Surprised by joy. Orlando, FL: Harcourt

Milton, J. (2000). Paradise Lost. London: Penguin

Sunday, June 14, 2009

The Reed and the Oak


There is a Jewish parable that dates back to the first century called the Reed and the Oak. In this parable, a thin reed and a giant oak tree grew up along side each other near a river.

Throughout their life span they each encountered the same weather conditions – but each responded differently to the same types of weather. As wind picked up and blew, the reed would bend and sway in response to the wind; but the oak remained erect and upright because of its great strength and deep roots.

During the course of time a great and horrible storm came upon the land. The gale-force winds were so strong, and the oak so resistant to its influence, that it was uprooted and blown over. The reed, however, survived because it bent down low to the ground, compromising its upright posture. Yet, because the reed was willing to go very low it survived. And because the oak would not budge, it was blown over. Dr. Moseley explained the moral of the parable: “There was nothing wish-washy or compromising about the oak. The reed on the other hand, would bend to the right or left, even with a slight breeze” (p. 23).

You see, the oak lost its life by refusing to compromise, but the reed could only save itself by continually bending to the will of the wind. First century Jews likely knew this parable well. Knowing it ourselves, we get a better understand of what Jesus meant when he said this about John the Baptizer: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A Reed shaken by the wind?” (Matt. 11:7) the implied answer is “No! an oak!”

Jesus said this right after John sent a message to him from prison. By disassociating John with the reed, Jesus was comparing John to the oak in the parable. This statement was a tacit prediction of John’s upcoming death. John was strong, uncompromising with his faith, and his roots went deep. Therefore, when the horrible storm came, he would not bend as a reed, and as a result he would lose his life.

The lesson we take away from this is repeated elsewhere by Jesus in different words. If you are to be righteous, if you are to be a follower of Jesus, you must be prepared to lay down your life for the cause, because in many ways, that path requires us to be uncompromising to the world and its influences.

The idea is this: it is better to be an oak and lose one’s life, than to be a weak, and bending reed, and save it.

Reference:

Dr. Moseley, Ron. Yeshua; A Guide to the Real Jesus and the Original Church. Baltimore, MD: Lederer, 1996.