Sixty Stadia

Some people will tell you Christmas isn’t all about gifts. Pah. Christmas is all about a gift. Let’s be honest - if you asked people for the things that remind them of Christmas then it’s likely that, in true Family Fortunes fashion, gifts would be one of the top answers. Gifts are one of those things that human nature loves. A gift is an opportunity to show someone that you love them, value them and care for them. It’s an opportunity to take a moment out and say to someone that you thought about them and that you wanted them to know their worth to you.

I think that sometimes we can get into a mode where we tell ourselves to remember the reason for the season, and yet still get swept into life and forget to act out our words. We can easily turn inwards and instead of sharing with others who don’t know Christ, become introspective and just talk amongst ourselves. Christmas is not about us. Christmas is about God gifting humanity with His only Son. It’s about the divine becoming flesh to present all of us with the opportunity to be saved. Christmas is about a gift, but it won’t be under any of our trees. Yes, we should celebrate together the reason for the season but a key part of that is sharing it with those who don’t.

Forty days after the birth of Jesus He was taken by His parents to the temple in Jerusalem, as was Jewish tradition. (Luke 2:22-38) Into the hustle and bustle of the temple walked Mary and Joseph; their son was wrapped in a blanket to be redeemed by His father and Mary carried two turtledoves for her own purification. The greatest gift the world has ever received was carried into the temple amidst no fanfare; for the teachers, the pharisees, those bringing offerings, those selling, life carried on as normal. The redemption of the first born was customary and for almost everyone in the temple, the priest included, this was just another baby boy to be redeemed by his father in exchange for five shekels. God’s gift would have went entirely unnoticed were it not for two people, Simeon and Anna. 

Simeon had waited for this moment. Simeon had, quite literally, lived for this moment. The significance of the gift was not lost on him; this was the gift of salvation, the revelation of the gentiles, the glory of Israel - this was huge. Simeon grasped the baby and held Him and there and then gave praise and declared his life complete just because He had seen the gift. Then there was Anna, the eighty four year old prophetess whose life was dedicated to worship and prayer. Coming up at the very hour that this was happening she gave thanks to God and then, full of joy, started to tell everyone who would listen. “It’s Him, He is here!”

There is so much happening at this time of year and life can become so frantic. I know that in a few days time I will be rampaging around Newcastle like a frenzied bull in Paloma, desperately seeking presents I should have bought months ago and panicking about irrelevancies. Somehow I need to take up the challenge that when that happens what’s most important isn’t fresh air, a cup of cocoa or actually finding that elusive gift somewhere. All of those things are nice and good, but am I showing anyone love? Am I introducing anyone to the gift the season is really about?

Amongst the rush of life are we getting on with our routine or are we, like Simeon and Anna, giving praise and declaring aloud the great gift? In all of those people around at the time only those two were aware of the magnitude of gift that God was giving and they could not stay silent. All were in the temple carrying out their religious observances but only two were really recognising what God was doing. Are we the same, or do we just get on with our lives and keep the God part restricted to the church service? For Simeon and Anna there was nothing routine about that day, there should be nothing routine about the way that we do Christmas. We should, like Simeon, take the opportunity to praise God within it and, like Anna, miss no opportunity to spread the news of what happened two thousand years ago under a star.

If you’re reading this and you don’t yet know Jesus personally, I want you to think about the fact that you’ve made it this far into the post. Something has stirred interest in you, some thing perhaps suggests that maybe there is more to Christmas than a miniature nativity on the windowsill. I’d love if this Christmas you actually took a chance on getting to know the real Jesus. I’ve known Him many years and yet He still never fails to go beyond expectations, to bring fresh surprises and new things. If you’ve never gotten to know Him, He’s probably not what you expect. Take a chance this Christmas, go to church and actually connect with someone and ask them to help you know more about Him. 

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
- Matthew 5:14-16 (ESV)

I’ve blogged over the past few weeks on the way we grow, using the analogy of plants that grow towards the light. This post, however, spins that on its head. This post is about how we ourselves are called to be the light of the world and help others to grow. The point of reference is the same, but as followers of Christ growing in Him we have a responsibility to be the light that shows him to others.

One thing that I find a real challenge is the idea of “being Jesus to my world”. Don’t get me wrong, I know I’m meant to be. I understand that people in my world may not get a chance to see Jesus first hand without first seeing Him in me. Yes. that makes perfect sense. What doesn’t make perfect sense is the fact that some days I struggle enough just to be Pete to the people in my world. How on earth am I supposed to be Jesus? I make a mental list of his attributes and then glance over my own. He is compassionate, loving, kind, brave, intelligent, wise, selfless, patient, generous - oh, yeah, and also the literal Son of God. I’m conscious, some of the time, and have occasional moments where I attain the dizzy heights of the average. See the disparity? How do I bridge that gap?

I had a moment of clarity on this when I read about the light threshold. You see, to start growing towards the light a plant doesn’t need to be in full sunlight, just to have enough light to activate the auxin in the plant’s cells. There is a light threshold and it’s when exposed to that amount of light that the plant starts to grow towards it. There is an experiment you can do where you place a phototrophic plant in a box with a small hole on one side, if the hole exceeds the plant’s light threshold it will grow towards it. A plant in a dark box can grow towards the light let in by a small hole. We in ourselves don’t have all of those attributes that Christ has but we don’t need to be perfect to point someone to Jesus. We just need to show that in our imperfection we have something else that sets us apart and shows strength through our weakness. That can be enough to trigger someone’s spiritual light threshold and start them on their way towards an encounter with Him.

If we’re trying to show all of this stuff through our own strength then you know what? We’re setting ourselves up for a fail. It’s our very weakness and incapability to be Jesus that allows his strength to come through. We just need to place our reliance on Him and let His light show through us. Yeah, we’re not perfect but what we need to do is show enough of Jesus to trigger something in them that sets them growing towards the real thing. I can’t be the fullness of Jesus’ perfection, if I could then what would I need Him for? What I can be is the best likeness I can manage and He will make up the shortfall. That’s what is needed. God knows I’m not perfect, my friends know I’m not perfect, so all they need to see is that despite my flaws Jesus is displayed through me to show them that there is a difference. In fact, this brings us to something that Paul said when struggling with things within his own life and unable to understand why the problem still existed:

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
- 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (ESV)

The people in our worlds are aware of our weak points and flaws but when they see that something in us gets past those and shows strength in spite of those, that’s when they see Jesus. When they see that even though we might be on a short fuse we’re managing to stay patient, then what they’re seeing is a bit of Jesus. When they see that even though we may be flat out of strength and running on empty there is still strength there, they’re seeing a bit of Jesus. When they see us reaching out with compassion to someone no matter how society feels about that person, they’re seeing a bit of Jesus. When they see that we are not conformed to this world but are dedicated to a better more loving way, they are seeing a bit of Jesus. We may not be able to be the full on Jesus experience and heal them while multiplying loaves of hovis in the kitchen and outwitting haters with great wisdom, but what we can do is show through our lives that we have experienced Him first hand.

When I think of the light threshold I remember Paul saying in his letter to the Corinthian church, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” Only God is going to transform the lives of people, only by personal experience with Him are people going to be saved, but by being Jesus to them to the extent that we can, we can be the ones who point the way for them. We can show them Jesus through our actions and our compassion and sow into them something that will set them growing in God themselves. We’re not expected to be the whole package, that would impossible, what we need to do is live our lives in a way that lets the light shine through us and then in-spite of our imperfections people will see Him.

“But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.”
- Proverbs 4:18 (ESV)

If there is one life that I think serves as a great example of living life towards the light that person would be Paul. Paul got a literal light that turned his life around and from that moment onwards he lived his life growing closer and closer to that light. One of my favourite portions of scripture is from Philippians 3:10-14 where Paul explains his motivation and purpose in life. I’m going to post it here from the Amplified version because the extra clarification of certain terms really gives a good insight into what Paul is saying.

For my determined purpose is that I may know Him - that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly - and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection which it exerts over believers, and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed in spirit into His likeness even to His death, in the hope that if possible I may attain to the spiritual and moral resurrection that lifts me out from among the dead even while in the body.
- Philippians 3:10-11 (AMP*)

What an amazing passage. It’s a fantastic insight not only into Paul’s perspective on life but into what our own lives should be doing. This is what it is to be a follower of Christ; to know Him more deeply and intimately, to understand Him more clearly, and to know the power that flows from Him with the end goal that we become transformed into His likeness. The devil doesn’t give a rip about one more Jack or Jill attending a church, what panics him is the fact that when someone follows Christ they are not one more Jack or Jill they are another Jesus.

How do we grow into what He intends and what He has called us to be? We strive with our whole being to know him better and to turn that knowledge into becoming like Him. Ephesians chapter five starts, quite simply, with the words ‘therefore be imitators of God’. And that is the way that Paul lived his life. As we follow his journey from conversion we see that in everything Paul strives to become more like Jesus.

So what steps did Paul take in becoming an imitator of God that we can learn from? 

• He made Jesus his clear focus. If you look at any one who sets out to imitate someone the first thing that they do is look at them, they study them. Paul absorbed himself completely in Christ. The letters of Paul show a man entirely confident in the one whom he follows. Now Paul received the gospel straight from the Messiah himself, but was that all of his development? No, he ran a race. He states so many times that his purpose was to know Him more. His spiritual journey did not stop at conversion, it started at conversion. We need to grow more like Him and how do we do that if we don’t show interest in Him? To grow like Him we need to study Him, read about Him, get to know Him. Our life should reflect a growing likeness to Jesus. 
• He modelled his personality on Jesus. This one is both an effect of encounter with Jesus but also an active life choice. It’s a mix of the two in the same way that the week after you first make your decision to follow Christ you’re walking on cloud nine and not even thinking about your personality but then a little down the line you realise that your personality is still a part of you and you choose to live contrary to your bad traits and to grow in Him instead. Saul was not a nice guy, and I don’t mean in the sense that he was persecuting the faithful - he did that because he felt it was what God wanted - I just mean that he was not a nice guy. It’s clear that his personality was angry, confrontational, aggressive. What we see and are told in the epistles is that he crucifies his flesh. He strives not to give in to his faults but to show love, compassion, patience. In Galatians 5:16-24 he talks about all of the things that are the fruit of the spirit in our lives. Relate the personality points from Galatians 5:22-23 to Saul and you’ll see the extent of the change that occurred. So how did this happen? It’s a result of his encounter and his personal revelation of Jesus, it’s powered by the Holy Spirit living in him, but it still takes Paul to dedicate and submit his life to do it. 
• He submitted himself to the Holy Spirit. In Paul we see an honest example of submission to the Holy Spirit. I love how frank Paul is about the fact that his flesh fought against the spirit. He admits that he struggles, he admits that sometimes the more he tries the more he seems to fail. But yet we know from his life that he was an amazing man of God. He recognised that he could not do what was needed in his own strength so he relied on the Holy Spirit’s strength. He recognised that there were times his flesh wanted the opposite and chose to go with the Spirit.
• He did not shy from the tough choices. A vital part of growing more Christ like is the fact that the resolve to do so shouldn’t change when the journey gets tough. That’s often when you find that the most character defining growth occurs if you choose to keep going towards Jesus. This resolve ran right through Paul. He chose that when it got tough he was going to stand firm, that when he was in prison he was going to worship, that when he was before Festus he was going to say “I appeal to Caesar” knowing full well what doing so would entail. 

Now, I know Paul’s life is pretty spectacular. It’s quite possible we won’t go on dramatic missionary journeys, be imprisoned for the gospel, escape from cities in baskets, or end up prosecuted for our faith and having our case heard before Obama or Putin. Chance are we will have a life in which we operate in a much more localised sphere. That doesn’t make the lessons from Paul’s life any less relevant though, it just means we need to apply the same principles of growing more like Jesus into our own lives.

We will most likely never heal anyone with our shadow, but do we reach out and help the sick that we know in day to day life? We may not have an opportunity to stand before Caesar and discuss our faith, but how are we with the old lady next door who actually would just like to know about a God she’s heard of but never experienced? We may not speak to the gathered philosophers and thinkers at Mars Hill but how about the sceptics we work with who have thought about life, reached different conclusions, but what to know how we came to believe as we do? You see the bible tells us that the power that made Jesus conquer death is the same power that lived in Paul and lives in us.

We can impact our worlds hugely by growing more Christ like in this way, it’s the very central core of our faith. Everything else flows from that growing relationship with Him. This isn’t about some cheesy mantra where we go around saying “WWJD?” in showy fashion, this is about deep seated change in our lives so that we become in our very being more and more like him. That is what Paul describes in the passage from Philippians, and I’ll leave you with the rest of that passage in which Paul states his continuing commitment to growing more like Christ.

Not that I have now attained this ideal, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own. I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own yet; but one thing I do, it is my one aspiration: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the supreme and heavenly prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.
- Philippians 3:12-14 (AMP*)

Next week I’m going to look at how this effects our relationship with people in our worlds. Previous posts in this series are The Phototrophic Life and Bi-directional Growth.

* When quoting the Amplified bible I removed some of the square brackets to make the text flow readably online. Anyone familiar with this translation will be aware that explanatory sections come in square brackets for clarification. Removing these doesn’t alter the meaning, it’s a syntax distinction so the reader can tell what is explanatory content.