Stuck In Circles

It’s weird how alike people can be. Just a few hours ago I was with my friends William and Tiffany recalling how William and I have had several moments where I am thinking something, and he says the exact same thing, or vice versa. Today we were talking about announcing my birthday and immediately I thought of the Party Planning Committee from The Office; I didn’t say anything. But lo and behold, William perks up and says that we should start a Party Planning Committee for my birthday. Gosh darn it.

 

Two days ago I hung out with Josh the Playwright, and, as you have read already, we are sort of the same person. And this time we weren’t talking about the feminine nature of the Cross, but the concept of ideas versus being, concept versus concrete, the spiritual versus the incarnation.

 

Now, obviously, moderation is something that is always needed. So when I gripe against our obsession with spiritualizing everything, realize I am trying to let us see that we need to tip the scale, not polarize to the incarnation.

 

Here’s the deal: I’m stuck in circles. (Bear with me, because right now I am going to voice a concern with the evangelical church, but later I am going to voice a concern with the writing community, who I usually deify and hold in high, uncritical regard, so just be patient.) My problem lies here: so much of the time in the church we “spiritualize” things. What I mean is this: If something bad happens, some of the time we blame it on Satan. What we don’t do enough, as I believe we should, is ask ourselves the question, “What did I do to try to make the situation different?” Here’s another example: You might be tired of me going back to Africa but I will always go back to Africa. When many Christians talk about Africa, and many people in general (non-Christians, agnostics, whatever), they tend to blame or question God in regard to the pain, disease, and material lack in Africa. In a sense, we spiritualize a problem that, otherwise, we could have a huge impact on. One last example: Many times I am sitting in a Bible study, church in general, or some other gathering of Christians, and I am overcome with an angst for movement, for action. Especially in Dallas, where we have the seminary and more churches than Christians, we love, I mean love, to debate theological footnotes. We adore the combative nature of concepts like free will or predestination or whatever. We spend so much time dwelling on ideas, and so little time dwelling on the physical solutions to pain, hunger, disease, and want!

 

The first circle I find myself in is that of Christians, and it is a circle I love and would not trade for anything. The second circle I find fault in is the writing community, and moreover the academic community. As writers, we try to make everything so damn deep and stuff. We try to inflate stories with meaning and poetry with loftiness (not always, obviously, but a lot of the time), and we seemingly forget the nature of this life: Five senses. We have eyes to see, ears to hear, noses to smell, hands to feel, and tongues to taste, but we have become so absorbed by our minds that we disregard our five senses! Why do we forget so easily that without our physical senses, we would be not? In Christian terms, why do we forget so easily the incarnation of Christ? The fact that he slithered out of a 15-year-old’s vagina covered in birth goop? We have wrapped ourselves around ideas, Christians and writers, and have forgotten that the nature of action lies on the physical manifestation of these ideas, not the debate or discussion of them.

 

And so, in attempt to offer solutions to voiced problems, here is my effort. As for blaming problems on Satan or our own brokenness, and altogether focusing on the loss and not the possibility of restoration, I offer you this:

 

“Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked on himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was . . . Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” –James 1:21-24; 27

 

And we must remind ourselves who the “word” James speaks of is: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The “word” is our Lord Christ Jesus!

 

So, as James says, we must become “effectual doers,” not mere hearers, listeners, or discussers! If we love the Father, if we truly love the Father, it will follow that we will be doers. So what is one solution offering to the obsession of concept over being? It is to touch, to ask the Great Being for a strength, a love that abides not in ideas but in action, in rough love, in such a way that we would find ourselves waiting at the hands and feet of orphans and widows. For example, I have a friend in Dallas whose name is Shae. She is brilliant and loves Jesus and you can tell because she is a doer and not merely a hearer. She works with IJM (International Justice Mission) in freeing people from forced prostitution and slavery. She raises money in her community and literally changes, saves really, lives in the name of our Lord.

 

Another example (for Mary): In one of, if not the, greatest stories of all time, a little hobbit takes action that leads to the restoration of a kingdom. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings is an amazing tale of reality. In talking of spiritual versus physical, Tolkien provides the perfect picture. If you have read the books or seen the movies, recall the scene in Rivendell when they great leaders of the nations are debating on what to do with the Ring. Elves, men, dwarves, hobbits and a wizard gather together to discuss the fate of Middle Earth. Not long after the adjournment of the meeting heated argument arises, tearing apart the allies who stand against Sauron and Mordor. Amidst the clamor, the discussion, a small hobbit, our friend Frodo, stands up and announces, “I will take it.” Gandalf’s brow darkens as he realizes the incredible toll the task will take from the halfling. Frodo does what we all should: stand against the ever-long debate and take action. Incarnate action. Frodo bears the yoke of all Middle Earth around his neck as Christ bears our yoke on the Cross.

 

The ideas are important only for this reason: When Christ’s ideas are realized and truly “implanted,” they bring love to fruition in physical action.

 

I do not discount the spiritual! Prayer is one of the most beautiful things we have and is a very “spiritual” thing . . . we must learn to balance the pendulum, steady the ship, placate the ebb and flow of our tide. We must realize this metaphysical obsession and reap the loving harvest of Christ’s incarnation.

 

“Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.” –James 2:17