Mercy and Conflict

It's strange, but I am realizing that there is mercy in conflict.  Over the last few years I have been learning about the beauty of restraint, the poetry of tethers, and the contentment in consequence.  It takes a while for this thought to take hold, that getting everything you want may not be what's best for you.  Under this umbrella of thinking it's possible to see the peace present in struggle. 

It's easy to get frustrated, even hopeless when we look at our lawmakers and neighbors engaged in endless conflict.  Is it possible that this gridlock may be for our own good.  Checks and balances were built into our Constitution so that no one branch of government would gain too much power.  The consequence is there is a struggle to get anything done.  The very struggle for one person or company or group to gain power over another is in it's self, limiting.  

The desire to get things done is a strong one.  In our hearts we think, "If everyone would just listen to me and do what I say, everything would be perfect."  But none is without wickedness, not none.  
When Obama was elected, I was in awe of the feeling.  I wasn't entirely in line with his politics but I remember watching election night being filled with hope.  I supposed I yearned for a righteous man that I knew I wasn't.  He could change everything.  Recently I was reminded of this by a Gwenyth Paltrow quote hinting at the same thing:

“I am one of your biggest fans, if not the biggest, and have been since the inception of your campaign,” Paltrow said. “It would be wonderful if we were able to give this man all of the power that he needs to pass the things that he needs to pass,” she added.

Even the most liberal parts of my heart cringe at the thought of one man having complete power.  In the conflict between the right and left is mercy.  There is brilliance in our awful system, checks and balances multiplied so that almost nothing gets done.  It's almost as if the chaos governs our passions, preventing one viewpoint, idea or worldview from dominating.  It was not as the founding fathers intended, but there is grace in our ineptitude.  

So there are a couple things happening here.  One is that we are actually better off when we don't get everything we ever wanted.  No one likes a spoiled brat. In a more serious thought, there are many times when a group or a country or many nations gave ultimate power to one man or one ruling class or those ruling powers took them.  The results have been catastrophic.  I only need to say one name, Hitler.  Yet the circumstances of Hitler's rise were born out of a despairing country's hope for something better, the hope for a righteous man to rule them, to bring them glory.  This is not a unrighteous hope.  This hope is the hope of all hopes.  This hope that burns in the hearts of men and women is the right hope.  More often than not though we put hope in the wrong person.  There is only one worthy of this hope, only one who saves, only one who redeems.  We ache for a hero and a savior, we settle for Obama or some other figure who falls well short.

I have ruled my own world and failed.  I have attempted to be the savior for others and I have failed.  I have yearned for oneness and the end to conflict and found that yearning unsatisfied if not even ridiculous.  Surrender to Christ is the only thing that makes sense, and he is the only one worthy of this hope that remains in us all.  Praise him.

Psalm 96

1 Sing to the Lord a new song;
    sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, praise his name;
    proclaim his salvation day after day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
    his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

4 For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
    he is to be feared above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the nations are idols,
    but the Lord made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before him;
    strength and glory are in his sanctuary.

7 Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations,
    ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
    bring an offering and come into his courts.
9 Worship the Lord in the splendor of his[a] holiness;
    tremble before him, all the earth.
10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.”
    The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
    he will judge the peoples with equity.

¹¹ Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
    let the sea resound, and all that is in it.
¹² Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them;
    let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.
¹³ Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes,
    he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
    and the peoples in his faithfulness.

Spirit and Body

We are always in constant battle for the rights to ourselves.  We fight for the rights of our bodies and we fight for the rights of our spirits.  From a Materialists point of view, the body and it's machinations are all that matter.  Anything resembling a spirit or soul is merely an evolutionary illusion.  The Gnostics, then and now shun the material world, seeing the physical being as mere extra weight to be shed to get to the real self.  These are two worldviews on opposite ends of the spectrum and I have oversimplified them both.  But I do so to express how glorious and comprehensive Christianity is.  More specific, it is Christ himself that makes the world, that makes us whole.  Christ, existing in the heavenly realm, became a man to exist in the earthly realm...on Earth as it is in heaven.  Materialism invites you to escape to your physical comforts.  Gnosticism invites you to discard the concerns of your body, because you are in fact a spirit.  Christ promises something more and something real, that your Spirit exists now and for all time and it has a body and that body, like the whole Earth will be made new.  You only need to believe and upon believing invite the living and breathing Christ to rescue you from an eternity of decay.

Philippians 3
 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹ Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. ²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

We can shed neither the Body or the Spirit we can only (attempt) to surrender.  And we mustn't hold back one or the other, but both belong to God and in his hands we can be as he intended: Perfect.  And even when we stray far from that perfection, we can still claim the perfection of Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. ² Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, ³ because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. ⁴ For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.