What distance is enough?

Stop for a moment to consider the distance between here and there. If you are considering the distance between your forefinger and your nose, it is likely not further away than the end of your arm! If you are considering the distance between your home and a small island in the Pacific the distance may be two or three thousand miles. Consider the distance to Mars and your journey just got beyond what you have ever traveled before. Now, consider the distance between your guilt and your sin - it is likely a lot closer than you'd like it to be! When God's grace comes on the scene, though, that guilt and sin go through a separation far greater than any distance we are capable of understanding with our finite minds! Our sin is separated from us as far as the east is from the west. That includes the guilt associated with that sin - if we allow God to separate us from it at the same time he separates us from the sin. Too many times, we hold onto the guilt and go through some form of 'separation anxiety' because we cannot fathom how completely God has removed our sin from our lives.

He has not punished us as we deserve for all our sins, for his mercy toward those who fear and honor him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west. (Psalm 103:10-12 TLB)

The key is in first understanding God's position on our sin - it is already forgiven in Christ Jesus. We think of it as something we must endure some form of 'punishment' over, but when we fully begin to appreciate the purpose of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, we begin to realize the 'punishment' for our sins (past, present, and future) was already placed squarely on his back! The 'separation' of us from our sin was accomplished at the cross - the 'separation' of us from our guilt over that sin is accomplished at the foot of the same cross. Guilt serves a purpose - it tunes us into something that is problematic in our lives. It gets us to the point of admitting we need to stop, take notice, and allow some adjustments to be made in our lives. It causes us to refocus and get our attention rightly placed. It isn't to be held onto, muddled over, allowing it to build up into waves of shame. It is to be the thing that causes us to realize God's grace brings separation - as far as the east is from the west - of us from our sin.

Guilt isn't about God forgiving us - it is about us forgiving ourselves. Since the beginning of time, we have had the hardest time giving ourselves 'absolution' when we know we have done something 'wrong'. God built us with this internal sense of 'imbalance' that comes when we have engaged in behavior that is not good for us. It is this imbalance that he intended as a means of communicating where it is we need to adjust our choices. Guilt was always intended to help us, not to drive us deeper into despair or fretting. It was not ever supposed to drive us into the self-pity of shame. We need to learn to see and use our guilt as God has designed it - as a warning to consider what we have been doing and then to adjust our behavior so that we are back in line with what we know we should be doing. 

If God is able to remove our sins as far as the east is from the west, do you think he might also be able to remove our sense of shame over those same sins? Shame is really what comes as a result of what we, or others, are telling us about that sin. If we start telling ourselves the truth that God tells us about how wide this separation is, maybe we would have less opportunity for shame to take hold. I think that may be a lesson we all need to embrace - God's grace is sufficient to cleanse us of our sin, but his Son's actions on the cross were more than sufficient to remove both the guilt and the shame of that sin. The distance we put between our guilt and us begins at the cross and it never meets up with us again. Just sayin!

What? It isn't all about me?

There are commands in the scripture that are not 'optional' behaviors or attitudes. We are to embrace them as a way of life regardless of how we feel. Too many of us are reliant upon 'feelings-based' actions. If we feel like it, we do. If we don't feel the urge, we don't. Don't love the world's ways is not optional. Don't love the world's goods is also not optional. Neither of these commands are 'optional' or dependent on how we feel at the moment. We might want to gloss over these commands, but there is much value in considering them as guiding principles in our lives as the consequences of being too caught up in the ways of this world system or in seeking after what it offers carry some heavy burdens for us. When we are in love with this world and what it offers us, we isolate ourselves from God - although we may align with others in this world, isolation from him is just not good.

Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.  (I John 2:15-17)

What is the 'world' in scripture? In the plainest terms, it is that which sets itself against the ways of God. The idea is that of being in opposition to, or living in such a manner as to take one's focus off of grace and love of God. Don't love this world's system of doing things, or treating people, as the world spends so much time just focusing on self is really a means of helping us not be so 'me-focused'. The plain truth is laid out for us - the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure - those things that will please our 'self' while paying little attention to the things another needs. It offers us what will build our pride and what will fill our coffers. In the end, we are left empty - devoid of the connection with God that fills our spirit to overflowing. The world system teaches us that "our way" is the most important - we need to look out for #1 (us). God's way is contrary to this - look out for your brother, and then let me look out for you. 

The second command is to not love the world's goods - meaning we are not to be so consumed with getting everything we see, amassing to ourselves great storehouses of physical wealth and "things" that will eventually deteriorate, break, and be of no value in the end. Craving attention is natural to human nature - we like to be the center of our universe! As a matter of fact, we learned this quite young. When we were not considered the center of all that was going on around us, we learned we could throw a little tantrum until we got our own way - until attention was focused on us - even before we could speak, we figured this one out! God's plans and "systems" are different. His desire is that we would place our attention on him - first and foremost. That means that we consider all we do in light of answering a few simple questions: 1)If I pursue this course of action, will it keep Christ central in my thoughts, attitude, and actions? 2) If I pursue this moment of pleasure, will I regret the consequences? 3) If I bring this "thing" into my life, will it add unwanted distraction to my life?

These are not really "rocket-science" kind of questions. They are practical questions that help us to evaluate decisions "in the moment". The world only offers us a continual craving for physical pleasure - what we see and hear is that if it feels good, we should do it. We are encouraged to want what it is that we see - even if we don't really need it. After all, isn't that the concept behind 'end-cap' sales in the stores? The world also encourages us to become puffed up in pride over our achievements and those physical possessions that we acquire or amass. If we ask ourselves those questions (run our decisions through those "filters" before making them), we might just avoid some heartache in our life. The reminder to us is that when we fail to use some "filters" to guide our thoughts, intentions, and actions, we will drive a wedge in between God and ourselves - we isolate ourselves from God's fellowship. Isolation is really disconnection. When something is isolated, it is "set away from" that which it was designed to be connected to. We isolate very contagious people in hospitals because if they were "connected to" others in the hospital without taking the proper precautions to avoid the spread of disease, we'd have an epidemic!

Isolation from God occurs when our heart or mind places anything else in the position of authority in our lives that is designed specifically for God. We are allowing ourselves to be "exposed" over and over to those thought patterns, cravings of our bodies, etc., that connect us more with the "disease" of our sin instead of the "remedy" for our sin. The best thing we can do is to use the "filters" we are provided: the Word of God, our conscience, and the Holy Spirit resident within. When we do, we find that they answer the questions posed above with pretty reliable truth - directing our behavior, our thoughts, and our intentions toward God and away from the world's systems/ways. If you are in a place where you are realizing that your love for God has been "squeezed out" by the things you have been pursuing, it may be the perfect time to begin to evaluate your focus. If all we can see is "us", there is not much room for God. In other words, we have "isolated" ourselves unto ourselves - taking God out of the equation of our lives. It may be time to step out of that isolated place and into the safety of God's arms. Just sayin!