Running Strong

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)

Have you ever wondered why Jesus married those two statements? Did you even know he spoke them at the same time? I mean, he says them in one breath.

And he has his reasons.

By all means, God intends life for you. But right now that life is opposed. It doesn’t just roll in on a tray. There is a thief. He comes to steal and kill and destroy.

Why won’t we face this? I know so few people who will face this.

Yes, the offer is life, but you’re going to have to fight for it, because there’s an Enemy in your life with a different agenda.

There is something set against us.

We are at war.

I don’t like that fact any more than you do, but the sooner we come to terms with it, the better hope we have of making it through to the life we do want.

This is not Eden. You probably figured that out. This is not Mayberry, this is not Seinfeld’s world, this is not Survivor. The world in which we live is a combat zone, a violent clash of kingdoms, a bitter struggle unto the death.

I am sorry if I’m the one to break this news to you: you were born into a world at war, and you will live all your days in the midst of a great battle, involving all the forces of heaven and hell and played out here on earth.

Where did you think all this opposition was coming from?

(Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, p. 12–13)

The glory of God is man fully alive? Now?

Hope unbidden rose at the thought that God’s intention toward me might be better than I’d thought. His happiness and my happiness are tied together?

My coming fully alive is what he’s committed to? That’s the offer of Christianity?

Wow! I mean, it would make no small difference if we knew – and I mean really knew – that down-deep-in-your-toes kind of knowing that no one and nothing can talk you out of – if we knew that our lives and God’s glory were bound together.

Things would start looking up. It would feel promising, like making friends on the first day of school with the biggest kid in class.

The offer is life. Make no mistake about that.

So then … where is that life? Why is it so rare?

(Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, p 12 )

I began to get the feeling of a man who’s been robbed.

I’m well aware that it is life I need, and it’s life I’m looking for. But the offer has gotten “interpreted” by well-meaning people to say, ” Oh, well. Yes, of course … God intends life for you. But that is eternal life, meaning, because of the death of Jesus Christ you can go to heaven when you die.”

And that’s true … in a way.

But it’s like saying getting married means, “Because I’ve given you this ring, you will be taken care of in your retirement.”

And in the meantime? Isn’t there a whole lot more to the relationship in the meantime? (It’s in the meantime that we’re living out our days, by the way).

What did Jesus mean when he promised us life?

I go back to the source, and what I find is just astounding.

“I am still confident of this; I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Pslams 27:13).

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brother or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life” (Luke 18:29-30).

Jesus doesn’t locate his offer to us only in some distant future after we’ve slogged our way through our days here on earth. He talks about a life available to us in this age.

So does Paul,

“Godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come” (I Timothy 4:8).

Our present life and the next. When we hear the words eternal life, most of us tend to interpret that as “a life that waits for us in eternity.” But eternal means “unending,” not “later.” The Scriptures use the term to mean we can never lose it. It’s a life that can’t be taken from us. The offer is life, and that life starts now.

(Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, p 11-12 )

The glory of God is man fully alive. (Saint Irenaeus)

You’re kidding me. Really?

Is that what you’ve been told? That the purpose of God is for you to be fully alive? Well, that is a different take on things!

So it makes me wonder, “What are God’s intentions toward me? What is it I’ve come to believe about that?”

Yes, we’ve been told any number of times that God does care, and there are some pretty glowing promises given to us in Scripture along those lines. But on the other hand, we have the days of our lives, and they have a way of casting a rather long shadow over our hearts when it comes to God’s intentions toward us in particular.

I read that quote again, “The glory of God is man fully alive,” and something began to stir in me. Could it be?

Turn to the New Testament and read for yourself what Jesus said He offers,

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

Wow. That’s different from saying, “I have come to forgive you. Period.” Forgiveness is awesome, but Jesus says here he came to give us life.

Hmmm. Sounds like ol’ Irenaeus might be on to something.

“I am the bread of life” (John 6:48).

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:38).

The more I looked, the more this whole theme of life jumps off the pages. It’s everywhere.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Prov 4:23).

“You have made known to me the path of life” (Psalms 16:11).

“In Him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4).

“Come to me to have life” (John 5:40).

“Tell the people the full message of this new life” (Acts 5:20).

(Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, p. 11-12)

This is the Big Question, by the way, the one every philosophy and religion and denominational take on Christianity has been trying to nail down since the dawn of time.

What is really going on here?

Good grief – life is brutal. Day after day it hammers us, till we lose sight of what God intends toward us, and we haven’t the foggiest ideas why the things that are happening to us are happening to us.

Then you watch lives going down with the Twin Towers, read about children starving in Ethiopia, and wham! If a good God is really in charge … all that.

I felt so bad that Paris wasn’t what my friends hoped it would be, but I wasn’t sure what to say. Like most Christians in that situation, I simply asked Lori how I could pray for them.

“That we would have eyes to see what is going on.”

My heart leaped. Brilliant! Perfect! That is exactly what we need. Eyes to see. Isn’t that what Jesus offered us – clarity? Recovery of sight for the blind (Luke 4:18)?

We need clarity and we need it badly. A simple prayer rises from my heart: Jesus, take away the fog and the clouds and the veil, and help me to see … give me eyes to really see.

(Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, p. 11 )

Has God abandoned us? Did we not pray enough?

Is this just something we accept as “part of life,” suck it up, even though it breaks our hearts?

After a while, the accumulation of event after event that we do not like and do not understand erodes our confidence that we are part of something grand and good, and reduces us to a survivalist mind-set. I know, I know – we’ve been told that we matter to God. And part of us believes it.

But life has a way of chipping away at that conviction, undermining our settled belief that he means us well.

I mean, if that’s true, then why didn’t he ___________ ? Fill in the blank. Heal your mom. Save your marriage. Get you married. Help you out more.

Either (a) we’re blowing it, or (b) God is holding out on us. Or some combination of both, which is where most people land.

Think about it. Isn’t this where you land, with all the things that haven’t gone the way you’d hoped and wanted? Isn’t it some version of “I’m blowing it” in that it’s your fault, you could have done better, you could have been braver or wiser or more beautiful or something? Or “God is holding out on me,” in that you know he could come through, but he hasn’t come through – and what are you to make of that?

When I first read these lines, it was as if I was hit between the eyes with a 10-lb sledge hammer! It began a major shift in my understanding of so much that was going on in my life. And that journey continues today …

So, for you, is it (a) or (b)?

(Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, p. 9 )

When Spillane (The Perfect Storm) treats injured seaman offshore, one of the first things he evaluates is their degree of consciousness.

The highest level, known as “alert and oriented times four,” describes almost everyone in an everyday situation. They know who they are, where they are, what time it is, and what’s just happened. If someone suffers a blow to the head, their first thing they lose is recent events – “alert and oriented times three” – and the last thing they lose is their identity. A person who has lost all levels of consciousness, right down to their identity, is said to be “alert and oriented times zero.”

When John Spillane wakes up in the water, he is alert and oriented times zero. His understanding of the world is reduced to the fact that he exsists, nothing more. Almost simultaneously, he understands that he is in excruciating pain. For a long time, that is all he knows.

John Spillane is a para-rescue jumper sent into the North Atlantic, into the worst storm of the twentieth century, the perfect storm, as the book and film called it, to rescue a fisherman lost at sea. When his helicopter goes down, he is forced to jump into pitch blackness from an unknown height, and when he hits the water, he’s going so fast it’s like hitting the pavement from eighty feet above.

He is dazed and confused – just as we are when it comes to the story of our lives. It’s the perfect analogy. We have no idea who we really are, why where’re here, what’s happened to us, or why.

Honestly, most days we are alert and oriented times zero.

So, how are you doing?

(Waking the Dead by John Eldredge, p. 8 )