I think I am going to be wrapping up my work on the definition of holy this week. I am now going to re-direct my major efforts toward the parts of Scripture that are much simpler and provided the tools for me to recognize that the popular definition of holy in our day is an error.
The definition of holy as "set apart" is reading too much into one ancient writing that say that "holy means set apart". Means does not always mean definition. In this case, I am convinced that it means significance. I do believe that being blessed and being morally whole do set people apart from those who are not. This is just like a hospital separates the healthy from the unhealthy in cases of communicable diseases. But to claim that what we are chiefly to imitate in God in being blessed like he is with some kind of prosperity (which seems kind of weird) and to claim that we are chiefly to be like him in his separation from sin (again which seems kind of weird) is not the God that I want to emulate. I want to emulate a greater God who has a blessedness that indicates "I am who I am" and a God who is above all else chiefly "morally whole" as holy. My God is not morally one kind like just love. Give me a much more robust God than that and then I will emulate God for the rest of all eternity!
May you learn the meaning of holy as I have and long the day when all the world knows it too!
[This piece too is still in process, but it does cut the point doesn't it?]
"Are you afraid of success?" Remember that line from "It's a Wonderful Life"? Maybe the fear of success is greater than we imagine. "The only thing to fear is fear itself". Remember that line from FDR? Could it be that our fear is greater than fear itself? Could it be that our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but rather our fear is that our adequacy or confidence demonstrates the inadequacy of others? How can we possibly succeed where they failed? Are we also fearful of hurting other people's feelings of adequacy or confidence? I believe I can see and feel these fears every day. So now fear rather than confidence is our primary stance.
Perhaps, following failure after failure which came after proclaiming success after success, we are a bit weary and fearful of confidence. Look at the path of our own pasts and those leaders around us covered with failed successes. From religion, Jimmy Baker; from politics, Richard Nixon; from business, Kenneth Lay; from sports, Tiger Wood and the list for all these areas goes on and on. People who once had our confidence that then turned around and shattered it. It is a fearful past that we live with everyday.
In a very real sense, fear is helpful. We need confidence that is not just fearless. We have to be able to discern when confidence makes sense and when fear makes sense. The problem is when fear so controls us that we now believe that we too will not possess the strength to solve the previously unsolvable. The ones older than us didn't, goes the reasoning. Why would this generation of human beings in the 21st century succeed, where many in the 20th century did not? Could we possibly be more adequate than the so-called "Greatest Generation"? Is this our fear? Does latching on to them as the "Greatest Generation" just give us a convenient excuse to not try what they found impossible? Is it an attempt to shield us from the fears of the 20th century? Is it an attempt to find one place and time where we can be confident?
I believe excess fear and excess confidence are both hurting the legitimate feeling of confidence. In the story of Joshua, he is told that instead of being afraid that he is to "be strong and courageous". Notice not strong and fearless. Remember too that "the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom". So woe to the fearless! So what about us? We are not to be frightened by other people' s feelings of fear and inadequacy, are we? We are not to join the fearless, are we?
A biblical theology is one of those specific areas where people are afraid. People are afraid that a biblical theology is not possible. The let's boil that all the way down to a specific biblical definition of holy. It simply is not possible, we reason, based on all the ones before us that failed. I repeat and capitalize for emphasis two words: NOT POSSIBLE.
Now before I say much more about a biblical passage this week over 5 steps in 5 days, I want to point out the many times that I have learned the danger of these words "not possible" and why they ought to be feared (fear itself again!). They can be very dangerous words. They can undercut confidence itself. So here is some instances outside of biblical theology but still part of life's experiences, where I have experienced the danger of NOT POSSIBLE. They are:
1) it is not possible for your parents to love you as much as their natural born, because you are adopted,
2) it is not possible to beat someone in wrestling, because they beat you a year ago,
3) it is not possible for you to be a mile runner on the high school track team, because the first time you were ever timed in a mile run in high school, you were beaten by an offensive lineman,
4) it is not possible for you to ever be smart, because your IQ score in high school was very low,
5) it is not possible to get a high grade in college Greek, because you struggled even with English grammar,
6) it is not possible for you to become a good communicator, because who scored very low in the English section of the ACT during high school,
7) it is not possible for you to be a good basketball coach, because at one point you did not know the short list of fundamentals,
8) it is not possible for you to succeed as a fisherman, because you previously failed as a fisherman,
9) it is not possible for the tool you have to be better, because others used it before you and it did not prove better but instead controversial,
10) It is not possible to be emotionally intelligent, because you previously were not emotionally intelligent.
All of these and more (ex. player, coach, and AD) contribute to why I believe "not possible" is dangerous. Everyone has proved instead to be very possible. Besides that, it makes us (me included) all hypocrites, who sang when we were younger, "nothing is impossible with God". It is not our mindset alone that needs to change as much as our strength-set. We need to boost our confidence, when it is appropriate!
An emotionally healthy person knows there is a time to be confident and there is a time to fear. The healthy person knows when to be one and not the other. Again, they are not fearless. They are confident. There is a huge difference. Lots of people get hurt being fearless. Me included, so that is not what I am looking for from us. I am instead looking for confident people, who know when to be confident.
In Christ,
Jon
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