rosie walked by and saw the title of this post and became instantly worried that someone on veggie tales had died. i assured her that everyone on veggie tales was fine...
i read this great blog post this week that kind of said (in a much better and wittier and more succinct way. sigh.) what i was ruminating on last week about death... and it was written by phil vischer. the father of veggie tales. not the actual father of vegetables... well, you understand.
and if you don't understand this video will not clear it up at all for you...
seems phil and i have some things in common. we have both lost hairbrushes at times and we both HATE "sermons" that are basically "self-help seminars" sprinkled with Scripture to make them all happy and Christian-esque. and we both have a slight little fascination with death... and a more than slight love of the gospel message.
so here is what phil had to say/write after sitting through one of those "12 steps you can take to living a more blessed life" sermons...
"The problem is, what they’re teaching isn’t Christianity. Even when sprinkled liberally with Bible references. Christianity starts with dying to one’s self, not thinking more positive thoughts about one’s self. But that’s harder to teach through mass media. It is not a particularly appealing message. It’s countercultural. And it doesn’t initially sound like what we want. We want to achieve our dreams – not die to them. Not give them up. We want to “increase,” not “decrease.” We don’t actually want to follow Jesus. We want Jesus to follow us – to pick up after us – clean up our messes with his Jesus superpowers.
We want Jesus to make our dreams come true. And if that means we have to be better people, well, we’ll give it a try. But it’s about us. Our goals. Our dreams. Our lives....
We miss one thing, though. Putting ourselves first is sin. Clinging to our dreams and goals is sin. Rebellion against God. So the power of positive thinking can improve our lives, but it can’t redeem us. We’re still enemies of God. We’re still fallen. Broken. Slaves to sin.
Our preaching has become limited to what is easily and appealingly communicated on a mass scale. And the reality of taking up your cross and dying to yourself is NOT easily and appealingly communicated on a mass scale. If it didn’t work on a mass scale for Jesus, how do we expect it to work on a mass scale for us?...
If that’s the case, perhaps massive success should make us concerned. Perhaps we’re preaching “signs and wonders” – easy answers. Telling people what they want to hear, that your life can still be about you. That Jesus wants to clean up after you. Make your marriage work, give you healthy kids. A good job...
Jesus asks us to make disciples. He doesn’t promise us great success in that endeavor. It isn’t about results. It’s about obedience."
phil vischer, Lord, make me popular
God doesn't promise us to success in parenting. even that great verse in proverbs about "train a child in the way they should go..." even though it keeps me warm and snuggly at night isn't a promise from God (see what a great blog post from "desiring God" has to say about that proverb by clicking here. keep in mind that it won't help you sleep at night. sigh.) turns out a proverb is more just an example of wise living than a total formula for instant success (just add water, stir, and voila, a perfect family). raising a child in the way they should go is pretty sound parenting. but it is not a guarantee of success. or of popularity. dying to yourself isn't popular. or fun. or a guarantee that things will turn out looking like YOUR definition of success. God's definition of success is very different. topsy turvy actually. turns out it is the obedience that is the success. the very act of obedience is where the success is. not in the results of that obedience. the act of it.
so am i being obedient as a parent to dying to myself? to letting go of my definition of success? to what my hopes and dreams and goals were for "successful" parenting? can i do that and still not ever see popularity? or success? or the results this should have all yielded? and yet say "you are God and you are good and Your grace is sufficient"?
because sometimes success looks like death. maybe because the greatest success ever looked like death. in fact it actually was a death...