Often, during a crisis, I resort to my tried and tested game plans and resolve to “do what I have always done.” However, this crisis does not seem to be much like anything we have experienced in our lifetime and I cannot just respond with traditional strategies. So, most of time, I just sit and ponder and ask Laura things like, “Did I just sit in my chair for 4 hours and do nothing?” I ponder whether this is going to be the new normal. I ask my wife what day it is for the 3rd time, as I drift off into pseudo-nap number four of the day.
Yesterday, I started investigating what strategies might work, but since this is different than any thing we have ever experienced, effective methods just seem to elude me. I think being may be way more important that doing. People smarter than me often remind me, “We are human beings, not human doings.” So, yesterday, I started by considering that we be where we are, otherwise known as presence.
Since it is about time for my last nap of the day, let me just suggest one more.
Be who you are
In the Bible, there is an incident described that I would describe as something similar to a drone strike.[1] To make a long story short, Elijah the prophet and King Ahaziah get into a struggle about whether the king is respecting God. Elijah responds to the king’s lack of respect for God by calling down fire from heaven (like a drone strike) and wipes out the soldiers in successive waves (50 at a time) until Elijah (and apparently God) finally shows some mercy. It seems like a bit of an overreaction, to say the least, but it leaves me with lot of questions.
The question I ask is, “Is this what God is really like—does he really end people’s life just for disrespecting him?” To me that sounds like a gangster or a mob boss more than a loving, restorative God. It seems retributive and even childish, not like I imagine The Divine to be. The other big question I ask is, “Is this how we are supposed to be?” Are we supposed to be retributive to those who oppose God or do not consult Him first or believe in Him? Apparently, the Israelites believed in the drone strike god because there is another reference to it in Luke chapter nine.
After the transfiguration, Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem and sent messengers ahead to secure lodging for their visit. When the Samaritan village was unwelcoming, James and John question, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”[2] Apparently, the common belief about their identity was that when someone stands in our way, we remove them from our path in the quickest and most efficient way. That was their understanding of who they were. Even though Jesus teaching was completely contrary to this, they still clung to the ancient misunderstanding about God and what the people of God are like.
Jesus rebukes them. In some manuscripts he says, “You don’t know what kind of spirit you belong to.” If I could interpret a little, I would suggest that the battle is between the spirit of retribution and the spirit of restoration. Jesus demonstrated his love and mercy toward the Samaritans (the sworn enemy of the Jews) several times. When Peter tried the way of retribution with his sword in the garden, Jesus rebuked him and basically told him, “that’s not who we are.”
Most of us like Peter are just trying to fit in. We want to be significant and we look to other people for models of how to get where we think we are going. James and John wanted to be like Elijah that represented the prophets. I can relate to that because I love the poets and the prophets and often lump them together. But in our desire to be significant, we must remember that the one basic requirement is we first must be who we are (otherwise known as authenticity). One of my oldest daughter’s favorite quotes is Oscar Wilde’s statement:
“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their life is a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”[3]
I have tattoo on my arm of a couple of Chinese characters. The characters are a Mandarin word about authenticity. It literally means, “Real.” That is my prayer for the second half of my life and my hope for the world. I want us to be who we are.
Maybe this pause in our lives will cause us to consider living differently. Maybe we can get out of the patterns we have become accustomed to and decide what is important and what is not. Hopefully, our lives will become much simpler by determining what is necessary and what is window dressing. What we cannot afford to do is to follow someone else that doesn’t know what they are doing either. They are likely groggy from their last nap also.
As we awaken from this slumber, my hope is that we will learn to be where we are and be who we are!
[1] 2 Kings 1
[2] Luke 9:54
[3] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/317-most-people-are-other-people-their-thoughts-are-someone-else-s
Karl Forehand is a former pastor, podcaster, and award-winning author. His books include Apparent Faith: What Fatherhood Taught Me About the Father’s Heart and the soon-to-be released Tea Shop. He is the creator of The Desert Sanctuary and Too Many Podcasters podcasts. He is married to his wife Laura of 32 years and has one dog named Winston. His three children are grown and are beginning to multiply!
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