When we live in a culture where we can easily hide behind masks, have plenty of ways to fill our needs that don't involve real relationships, and as a culture we seem perfectly content to be self-sufficient and completely ignore God; then the deep cry of the heart for intimacy is easily ignored. Yet we long to be known (our deepest fears, desires, and dreams) but the true self is often suppressed behind many masks and idols. God designed and created us "in His image", the Trinity has amazing intimacy, freedom, love, and honor for one another (the perfect family). We were created from intimacy, for intimacy, and to experience intimacy with God and others. As one author says, intimacy is in-to-me-see. I find that I am okay with people knowing me when I generally feel good about myself, my performance, or my ability but the moment I am in a weak and vulnerable place there is a great temptation to hide behind a mask of being "okay" or a veneer smile that hides my inner pain or struggle. Why is it just so easy to hide? Ever since the Fall and Adam and Eve believing "the Lie" or default setting is fear and hiding, it is only through intentionally choosing to walk in the Light before God and open up with others that we are known and begin to come out of hiding. There are people who I have known for years and yet still don't know a lot about their deepest inner world, struggles, fears, hurts, and dreams. Since becoming New Creations you would think it would be simple and easy to live out of who we really are but the old masks seems to haunt us, hang on for dear life, and become our refuge when life is hard or painful. It is no wander the New Testament is strewn with commands that are: "set your mind on things above", "be tenderhearted forgiving one another", "...be transformed by the renewing of your mind..", "...rejoice in the Lord always...", "...put off your old self...", "...be thankful in all things....", and many others. These commands are given to sons and daughters as instructions for life, practical wisdom for living out of who we truly are because we have a choice to live out of the memories of our old life. Since we have a tendency to live as orphans individually, we then create relationships structured with orphan ways, and finally we create institutions and organizations that hold orphan values to perpetuate orphan culture. The Kingdom of God is a family not a bunch of individuals getting together to advance their self-interest, the Kingdom of God has a King who is both good/loving and powerful. The Kingdom of God is marked by the intimacy the Father has with the Son, the Son has with Holy Spirit, and Father has with the Spirit. We are invited into a Kingdom of intimacy, relationship, freedom, light/honesty, love, wisdom, and supernatural life. I am amazed that God does not think of life as separate from relationship but even the word Zoe (Greek for God-life) has relationship and intimacy contained within it. As God created the heavens and the earth, all the fish of the sea and birds of the air, trees and plants, and finally mankind and said it is good. Scientists, biologists, chemists, physicists, and others will tell you about the interconnectedness of things and yet we have worked hard to disconnect from God, others, the Creation that we are part of, the animals that God created, and mostly we run away from the manifest Presence of God. We seem to call our orphan culture good but does God call this kind of disconnected, individual, and self-sufficient independence good. We are designed for intimacy, there is a deep groaning within us that if we don't deny it will help to lead us to new life.
No comments:
Post a Comment