Holy Shint Batman!!

I wish someone would have just given it to me straight. Maybe someone has, but it just hasn't sunk in until now. I've felt like such a disappointment lately, mostly because I keep screwing up. I hear all the time:"Nobody's Perfect," "Broken World," "Spiritual Battle." Then on top of that I hear "Christ frees you from sin," "No longer a slave to sin," "Jesus gives you victory in sin." But it seems to me that if any of this stuff is brought up in a sermon, it should be followed by: "But shit happens." Or maybe more appropriately "Sin happens." Actually both happen... "shint" happens, a lot of times they're the same thing.

I've read in the word, and people tell me that Jesus promised trials, but that's not as encouraging as they mean it to be. It's only half the story. I think what would be better to hear (at least for me) is "Drew, Jesus promised trials and I'm telling you that a lot of the time, you will FAIL. You will fall flat on your face!" That's the kind of straight shooting I would rather hear.

For the last several months I've had this idea in my head that sin in a christian's life is moot. I know now that that idea is a virus, it makes me sick. I know now where this came from, and it's something equally as viral. When the body of christ masks its pains and struggles from each other, then sin becomes to each member a personal defect rather than a product of our world.

I used to think that because I belonged to christ and was "no longer a slave to sin," it meant that I wouldn't sin anymore. That was pretty stupid of me to think so while every day of my life was still filled with it. For whatever reason, it's taken this long for the real meaning to hit me, and it hit like a friggin freight train to the face.

In essence, I think Martin Luther reworded that with a bit more kick: "Sin boldly, but believe in Christ more boldly still." Shint is gonna happen and when it does, ya gotta own it. Not being a slave to sin is not so much about not doing it, but rather when it comes, own it, give it to God and say "I may be a screw up, but I'm a screw up in the death grip of God's unconditional love and neverending grace." Apologeticist Peter Kreeft says that there is no opposite of sinners in our world, just saved sinners and not saved sinners. Being free of sin is not letting your enemy's immediate victory blind you from our God's ultimate win.

The times I've felt free from sin were the times when I could sit with my fellow believers and without fear of judgement pour out my pain and struggles and to have them reply "me too, thank God for grace." I want more of that in church.

Driven

I've been working at a ski resort the past few months on their race crew. I've never really had anything to do with ski racing... ever, but it hasn't been to bad of a job. As much politics as I have to put up with, I least I get to work outside all day on my skis. There's only three of us that make up this race department, and as such I've been spending a lot of time with these two guys that I work with. I'm very different from both of these guys, most notably in my morals and ethics. While it's hard for me to be around them, it's been good for me as well. When I'm able to step back and look at my time with them, it enables me to see how intricately God has woven himself into the fabric of reality in this world. He's not just in "christian" circles, but low and behold, even within the lives of these "worldly" men that I work beside, God makes himself evident to me daily.
One of the guys I work with is by nature, a VERY passionate person. Super high energy and fully throws himself into whatever may be feeding him at the time. The other guy is much more laid back, more my speed, but equally as immersed in the things he loves. While I listen to these two talk (most of the time about subjects I wouldn't care to listen to them talk about) I realized the other day that we have something in common. We're driven by hope.
Here are these two guys against whom I've counted myself radically different, only to realize God's made us with the same operating system. Even better though, is that through these two men, far removed from my comfortable "christian" lifestyle, I feel like I've gained a more realistic understanding of hope than ever before.
It's not an emotion, or a sentiment, it's our friggin engines. When I look at my life, what keeps me going is the hope of heaven, the hope of God's glory.
So the difference between me and these guys now is where our hope placed. Proverbs says "Hope deferred makes the heart sick..." and when I hear the pain and shallow emotion the people around me, when I hear of their sick hearts, I feel like now I know why. All around me here, people put their hope in temprorary solutions, quick fixes that ultimately seizes their drive. God tells us time and again in his word that he alone can fulfill our hope, fulfill our longing.
Letting Christ's glory drive me doesn't free me from hurt, but allows me to faithfully plow through it. And ultimately that's what faith is, "being sure of what we hope for."
These two men have so much passion, but it is so fleeting and often followed by a sorrow that's just as consuming. Up and down, I see it every week. And it's rad to think that we're ALL created with a hope stash to do with what we please. Our differences don't stem necessarily from morals or lifestyles, but ultimately from where our hope lies.