FAILING TOWARD SUCCESS

I came across a story in Austin Kleon's book, Don't Call It Art, that is going to stick with me into the future.

(Maybe it will even motivate me to get going on a YouTube channel.)

The story concerns one Mr. Charles Jones who was a serial entrepreneur with a long record of failed business ventures. 

Each time he would launch a new business, his first step was to order high-quality stationery, pens, and pencils with the new company name.

And each time a company went under, this man would gather all these supplies, bring them home, and hand them over to his kids, begging the children to use them up as quickly as possible. He actually forbade them from using both sides of a sheet of the paper. 

Growing up in a household with plentiful art supplies, several of the children went on to careers in art, including a son, Charles Jr.

AKA "Chuck".

That would be Chuck Jones ... of Bugs Bunny fame. 

In one college art class, Jones had a professor who warned that the students each had 100,000 bad drawings in them that they needed to get out before they could produce anything of quality. Jones said he felt relief knowing that he was likely well past the 200,000 mark himself. 

I guess the takeaway is this: trying and failing leads to more trying and failing which is another way of saying "practice", which leads ... at least sometimes ... to insane success. 

QUESTIONING THE DIVINITY OF JESUS

Benjamin Franklin once wrote in a letter to Ezra Stiles, President of Yale University:

"As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, is the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see...

"But I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble."

It is not surprising to see Franklin expressing doubt as to the divinity of Jesus. We know that orthodox Christianity was being questioned in his day and that the prevailing theology was Deist, with no room for the supernatural.

It is admirable to see his reluctance to "dogmatize upon" Jesus' divinity. How can he, he says, since he has never studied it in depth for himself? 

Such a level of epistemological humility is refreshing to see. And appropriate.

Franklin wrote this letter on March 9, 1790. And when he theorized that he would "soon" have the "opportunity of knowing the truth" about Jesus' exact nature "with less trouble" than extensive study, he was, of course, hinting at his own death.

And that "soon" proved a matter of weeks. Franklin passed on April 17th.

Now, I'm guessing that many modern American evangelicals would confidently predict Franklin's destination in the afterlife as being a place of punishment rather than reward - simply for questioning Jesus' divinity.

But that's because in this age we seem to believe that people are saved by proper doctrine. 

GOD IN PLAIN SIGHT

1 The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world. (Psalm 19:1-4)

Some people argue that God is too hidden from human senses to be real. Others - like the poet king David - maintain that we walk daily through God's handiwork.

In fact, we are so surrounded by miraculous beauty, that it has grown common to us. 

And thus, ironically, the wonder of God becomes invisible because it is so prevalent.

I was thinking the other evening as the sun was setting and the fireflies began to rise and hover around our backyard ... What if these bugs should happen to go extinct in the future. 

Would my grandchildren even believe me when I told them that once there were insects that emitted pulses of light for about an hour each summer evening's twilight? 

"We called them LIGHTNING bugs. Or FIREflies. The light was a bright fluorescent yellow. Kids would collect them in jars and watch them up close."

Bugs whose tails light up and shine in the darkness? 

I think it would be too fantastical to believe.

THE LORD WAITS

Isaiah 30:18 says: "The Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him."

Who is waiting for whom here? Both God and humans are depicted as "waiting".

You might be tempted to picture God as sitting on the sidelines waiting for you to finally get your act together.

But the sense of the word "wait" is closer to longing than merely passing time. (For both God and humans.)

So it's more like "the Lord longs to be gracious to you".

Think about that.

Many people carry around an image of God as distant, indifferent, perpetually disappointed, or barely tolerating them. Some imagine that God is looking for reasons to reject them.

I know that I've been there before. 

But Isaiah paints an entirely different picture.

God longs to be gracious.

He desires to show mercy.

He is for us, not against us.

He is not looking for an excuse to abandon His children.

He is looking for an opportunity to restore them.

STUBBORN CHILDREN OF A LOVING FATHER

Isaiah 30:1 says,

"Ah, stubborn children," declares the Lord, "who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin."

These words describe the starting point for every one of us.

We are all carrying out a plan for our lives. We have plans for our days, our careers, our relationships, our retirement, our future. The problem is not that we have a plan. The problem is that our plan is often not God's plan.

Isaiah says we also make alliances, but not with the Spirit. We place our trust in our own wisdom, the approval of others, the values of the world, and sometimes even the lies of the enemy.

The Hebrew imagery behind "making an alliance" literally refers to pouring out a drink offering to a deity. In other words, we are always giving our devotion to something. We are always trusting something. We are always worshiping something.

The question is: What are we pouring ourselves out for?

If it is anything other than God, the result is predictable. Isaiah says we "add sin to sin."

One bad decision leads to another. One compromise makes the next compromise easier. One lie requires another lie.

The mess accumulates.

It's a little like dirty dishes in the kitchen. One plate doesn't seem like a problem. Neither does the next one. But eventually the sink is overflowing, the counters are covered, and in time the mess can spread into every room of the house.

We become spiritual hoarders, surrounded by the consequences of choices we never intended to pile up so high.

But notice how God addresses His people:

"Ah, stubborn children."

There is frustration in those words, but there is also affection.

There is disappointment, but there is also relationship.

God doesn't call them failures. He doesn't call them lost causes. He doesn't call them enemies.

He calls them children.

That is important because many of us imagine that our failures have somehow severed our connection with God. We convince ourselves that He has finally had enough. That He's washed His hands of us. That He's turned His back.

But Isaiah presents a different picture.

A good father does not walk away from a disobedient child. He moves toward that child. He corrects. He teaches. He guides. He restores.

He doesn't abandon the relationship.

And our heavenly Father is better than the very best earthly father.

NOT TODAY

I have a fascination with watching YouTube videos about theology. 

Sometimes the hosts have years of study and expertise and sometimes the hosts are average believers who believe themselves to be experts. 

These days, about 10% of the time I am listening to learn something new. The other 90% is "hate listening" - where I am just critiquing the arguments, the biblical interpretations, and, most of all, the attitude.

From expert to amateur, there is little epistemological humility to be found on Christian YouTube. 

Almost EVERYONE is certain their doctrine is right and that the other side, if not outright heretical, is chock full of people who are profoundly blind to "what the Bible CLEARLY teaches". 

And the commenters seem to eat up the confidence of the hosts. 

But even the Apostle Paul - the author of 13 out of the 27 New Testament books, and expert of experts - wrote that we "see through a glass dimly" and "know in PART" on this side of the afterlife. 

Yes, he included himself in that statement.

We could use more of that sort of humility in our discussions of doctrine and theology today.  

Some day we will see clearly and know in full with 100% confidence.

But not today.

HOW LONG IS ENOUGH?

One of my questions for Free Grace people - and anyone else firmly in the "once saved, always saved" camp - is this: How LONG does a person need to experience "faith" in order to get their irrevocable ticket to heaven stamped?

As soon as you claim that faith instantly guarantees a person eternal life from that moment it is expressed, you are implying that faith can be genuinely salvific even if it proves to be a passing thing.

So what is the minimum amount of time a person would need to "believe in Jesus"? 

A day? An hour? A minute?

Does it just need to be long enough to walk the aisle at church, kneel at the altar and have a deacon pray over you? 

Why does the Apostle Paul talk about being "IN THE FAITH"? 

2 Cor 13:5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

When we talk about salvation by faith alone, are we picturing "faith" as being possibly short-lived or necessarily continuous?

More importantly, how does Scripture envision saving faith?