Tuesday, October 23, 2012

13 Lessons, #4 Christ the Preeminent Thing


Lesson #4 (but truly Lesson #1):  Christ is Preeminent; forgetting this always leads us and our children astray 

If I write 13 or if I write 100 lessons learned, there is a lesson which stands out above all else like the snow-peaks piercing the sky far above our access in all its reality but open to the feasting of the soul nonetheless, and it is this:  Christ is the preeminent thing.

I can surge forward like the ocean tide thinking of words to say that express the agonizing and the winsome lessons learned and being still learned, or I can recede too like the tide with failures and woe in the blackness of my own shortcomings and omissions that render me silent, the tide sucking the waves inward .  But in all that is said or not said, one thing remains that stands apart from our experiences and occasional insights.  Christ has accomplished everything for us that is good.  That which brings light, that which is the very Light itself, He it is who planted the seeds and nurtures the blossoms and cares for the fruit and harvests His own, has done all things in us which yield good fruit.  And while discipline holds its place, and ten thousand words on child rearing or home schooling can be helpful in coloring in the picture, it is all His picture, His intentions, and His accomplishments. 

Beyond that, we can dream a thousand dreams, envision worlds and pursue accomplishments.  We can fulfill callings and we can learn and grow and become, but if any of this is not found in Christ it is drained of its power and purpose.

And beyond that, we can appear a wonderful person as seen by others even as we know our own sinful inclinations and singular shortcomings, we can raise fabulous children excelling in gifts and flashing bright as meteors; but if their life is not consciously hidden in Christ; if all they are and do is not a thank offering to the Christ who saved and fills them; if they know not that it is He who works change and growth and maturity in their lives, it is He who enables them to overcome their sin and to walk in power and purpose, it is He who loves them and gives them the love they need to love both their beloved and their enemies, then it has all been for nothing, this parenting enterprise.  For at the center of the universe of every relationship, every personality and every victory lies the very heart of the Savior who has written our design and our story before time constrained the centuries.

This has most practical applications when we help a child of 5 or 15 to see his or her sin.  What then is s/he going to do about it?  Are we going to insist s/he knows better and must do better?  Or are we going to point them to the power of the cross, our Christ?  If they begin to follow their own way, are we going to point to Christ?- or talk more about the law and how they should be acting?  One who wrote quite excellent books on raising up godly men who walk in strength and honor said to us this last weekend that he wishes at the end of each chapter he would have pointed to the hope and power and source-reality in Christ.  No matter how much we say about how things ought to be, there is only one Source of anything truly holy, ultimately noble:  the Holy Spirit, working in those that the Cross’s power has touched and that Christ has claimed for His own in bringing many sons to glory, in His image, with His work and His covering and His intentions.  We walk in His light or we struggle in our own self-made torchlight made of the burning embers of pride that leaves much in ash after all.

And for what purpose do we labor?  Our own well-laid plans?  Our vision for our children?  Or to relinquish them to an all-powerful, all-loving and all-sufficient Christ who can use their fully surrendered lives in His way and time?  Intensely practical for the words we say, the actions we take, a hundred choices every day. 
More poetically, I’ve been pondering Alexander Smellie’s treatment of this issue.  Who is Christ in relation to nature’s revelation of God?  In relation to the law of God?  He is a little hard to follow until what he is saying comes clear:  all that we see in nature still cannot assuage our sin or provide ultimate comfort, even when it reveals so much to us of God’s character.  All that we understand and follow of His law does not help us to overcome, even as it reveals His mind on how we then should live.  We need Christ, the Person, His thoughts towards us, His sacrifice for us, His daily reality in us, to accomplish all these things on the very deepest levels of our inner workings of heart, mind, and wellspring of action.  Stay with him and embrace the treasures here.  I had to read it a number of times to grasp the dawning of understanding: we can appreciate and embrace all these other things as good, but only when we live clinging to Christ and treasuring our relationship with Him will we be filled with the things we lack, whether power in prayer, peace that passes understanding, wisdom in parenting, or joy amidst the trials that pierce our souls.  Yes, even that.


"The godly man is a gospeled man. He has seen who he is in Christ, he is moved by what God has done for him in Christ. If I don’t get this part, all the rest will just be a self-salvation project, an exercise in self-righteousness."  --Jared C. Wilson

Tomorrow:  Alexander Smellie’s passage, part II

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