Wow! I have not blogged in five days! There's just so much going on, plenty of stuff to do, dozens of deadlines to meet, a number of people to talk to, several plans to pursue. Speaking of pursuits...
What do you want more of?
Leo Tolstoy tells the story of a greedy man named, Pahom, who was obsessed by amassing more and more land. One day he learned of a wonderful and unusual opportunity to get more land. For only 1,000 rubles he could have the entire area that he could walk around in a day, but he had to make it back to the starting point by the sunset or he would lose everything that he invested.
He arose early and set out. He walked on and on thinking that he could get just a little more land if he kept straining forward for the prize he sought, but he went so far that he realized he must walk very fast if he was going to get back to the starting point and claim the land. As the sun set lower in the sky, he quickened his pace. He began to run. He came within sight of the finishing goal and exerted his last energies plunging over the finish line, falling to the ground, dead.
His servant took a spade and dug a grave. He made it just long enough and just wide enough to match Pahom’s body and buried him. Here’s the title Tolstoy gave his story: "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" He ends the short morality tale with this line: "Six feet from his head to his heels was all that man needed". [1]
Despite that reality, straining and striving is a great trait of human character, even essential, I'd say, if we’re to do much of anything at all. That’s what drove Michael Phelps to his impressive neck-full of gold medals from the Beijing Olympics last Summer. Anyone can sense the straining, striving in McCain and Palin, Obama and Biden, and in the decision to pass the so-called Wall Street Bailout!
It was this spirit that Paul encouraged his friends in Philippi about who were experiencing persecution and internal strife- the analogy of running a long race saying, “this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal…”
Of course, that’s what Pahom did in Tolstoy’s story as well: he, too, pressed on and strained forward toward his goal. In part, that was Tolstoy’s point, I suppose. That, and then, importantly, considering the actual content of the goal for which Pahom strove. Which was Paul’s point as well. [2]
Last Sunday night, Capt. Gerry Gambala shared his testimony at our Vesper Service. It was one of the most moving stories of faith. He was among those that led a group of military officers that insighted rebellion on July 23, 2003 against the authority of the President of the Philippines that came to be known as the Oakwood Mutiny. He and his group wanted to make things right by overthrowing which they think was wrong! The plan failed and they were all imprisoned. It was in prison where he met Christ and received HIM as Savior and Lord. He understood that the societal change he was looking for can only begin with inner change among individuals. He was looking to a wrong system to change a wrong system.
The Apostle Paul was like that, he had everything going for him: a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee, circumcised on the 8th day, zealous in faith, properly credentialed in his persecution of Christians. This is a bit like saying, "of the best family, studied in the best schools, first in class, King of the Prom, heartthrob" and so forth. But he had 'em all wrong. He contrasts a life which finds its ground and security in human factors, a kind of résumé building exercise, with utter dependence on God's grace.
For what are you striving? What do you want more of? That’s the question Paul’s words prompt for the thoughtful listener today. How are we to make sense of all the straining and striving in our lives?
What I want more of in life is grace – wonderful, amazing, life-transforming grace. How would one go about pressing toward that goal? [3]
Frederick Buechner defines grace this way: "Grace is something you can never get…but can only be given. There's no way to deserve it anymore than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or bring about your own birth. A good sleep is grace and so are good dreams. Most tears are grace. The smell of rain is grace. Somebody loving you is grace."
How could we possibly get more of that? Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? But how does one strain forward for that?
Buechner continues, “The grace of God means something like: ‘Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are, because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. I love you.’ There’s only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you’ll reach out and take it." [4]
When Christians are at their best – and granted, often we aren’t – but, when at our best we really do sense and then grasp the truth in Paul’s wisdom, that astonishing human transformation occurs in the movement from self-dependence to God dependence. From striving for vainglory to striving for a higher righteousness; from pressing to assert our superiority, to pressing for authentic humility; from straining for perishable prizes, to straining for imperishable; from despair to hope, from fear to love, from death to life.
Indeed, holy striving is really all about gaining abundant life, as Jesus would say it. The abundance he speaks about is grace-based, not carbon-based. Everything else that really matters falls out from that.
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1 Stephen Bauman, Resumes, October 5, 2008 2 ibid 3 ibid 4 Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC, Harper: 1973.
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