The Vicarious Christian

vi.car.ious

adj.

1. Felt or undergone as if one were taking part in the experience or feelings of another.

2. Endured or done by one person substituting for another.

3.  

    a. Acting or serving in the place of someone or something else; substituted.

    b. Committed or entrusted to another, as powers or authority; delegated.

4. Physiology Occurring in or performed by a part of the body not normally associated with a certain function.

From Latin vicarius; see vicar.

Recently I dreamt that I was writing a book, the title of which was "Beyond Ourselves- The Gifting Interface Ratio Level in the Life of the Prophet Elijah"! Surprisingly enough, I have had no offers to publish this book! However, another book title that I have considered is the title of this blog- "The Vicarious Christian". I will probably never get round to writing the book, so here is the synopsis!

Many years ago I read The Lord Of The Rings while working as a kitchen porter in my summer break. Unfortunately, I became a little too embroiled in the story, and my moods began to follow the development of the plot! I went in to work one day feeling really down, the reason being that Gandalf had just fallen with the Balrog from the Bridge of Khazad-Dum!  A few weeks later I went in elated that Gandalf had risen as Gandalf The White! Sad but true!!

More seriously, I have  have come to realize that often I am in danger of leading a vicarious Christian life. No, you didn't read that wrong, I didn't mean to say Victorious. Often believing that one can mature through osmosis, I read the latest book from the latest anointed leader; I visit the blog of the gifted pastor and avidly devour his teaching; I sing the most up-to-date worship song and learn the most effective methods of evangelism or ministry as defined by the latest gurus in their book/blog/DVD/Conference/Interactive website/t-shirt combo package ("All yours exclusively for $599.99!"). I sign up to the latest "cause", believing that by doing so I am more sold out for the Kingdom. Reading the biography of spiritual giants who have gone before, I feel myself more spiritual than before; I believe I am growing in prayer because I have discovered "The 7 habits of Highly Effective Prayer Warriors". In short, I enter the experience or the feelings WITHOUT HAVING LIVED THE EXPERIENCE!

A word to the wise (and myself)- The Christian Life is not meant to be vicarious! it is meant to be a life lived only as you can live it, and only as God leads and reveals. You and I are unique, beautiful songs of God's creation and redemption, and our lives are meant to be sung to the full, not subsumed into a general, amorphous muzak as we try to imbibe the spirituality of others. We cannot experience the fullness of God's love, his leading, His empowering as we try to experience Him through others, however anointed and gifted they may be! You are not meant to be the next Billy Graham/John Wesley/Mother Theresa/Shane Claiborne/Chris Tomlin/Peter/Paul/Mary/Moses/John Wimber/Rob Bell/Calvin/Martin Luther/ A.W. Tozer/C.S.Lewis (Circle where appropriate!). So while we can learn from these and many others, and appreciate the gifts to the body they were and are, we cannot allow them to live the God-filled life for us. And we cannot ride on the coat-tails of the good and the great before God. The church we are a part of does not matter; the name of our pastor is not important; the number of causes we have liked on Facebook may make us feel good, but may not have an eternal bearing on our lives.

In many ways, vicarious Christian living is an ancient, well-established practice. Think about the people of Israel requesting Moses to meet with God for them, and then to tell them what God wanted of them- and how well that worked! Or the people of Israel demanding a king to reign over them, rather than having God as their King. It appears that often we want others to take the chances, do the hard graft and represent us before God, while we reap the benefits. Unfortunately, that is not the way it works. Or is it...?

Because there is a vicarious Christian life to be lived- the sacrificial Way of Jesus. The Life of Jesus was a vicarious life, not in the way described above, but in entering into the sufferings of broken man, in order to live the life and die the death that brings freedom to those who follow Him. We are now able to enter into that life, and in doing so, not merely experience the feelings of another, but know His life in us, making us fully alive again. As we live this life, we realize more and more that the vicarious life we have often led, leeching off the life of others, is a fraud, an empty shell, a mere facade; and in doing so, we are more ready to engage a broken world with, in and through Christ, rather than just reading about how to do so, and therefore believing that in some way we have done so! Now, that is a Life worth living!

Because..

"Why am I doing what I am doing?"  Sometimes, in moments of pressure, tension, or stress it is easy to ask this question, to consider alternative futures for myself and my family. Why am I living in a foreign country? Struggling to understand and be understood? Often seeing small increments of change in people’s lives, while others appear to regress? Continually battling the frustrations of not seeing all we hope, dream and pray for come to fruition?  To ask this question is especially easy for those of us with a “glass half empty” personality (myself included!). Often what is needed is a reminder as to what has led us to where we are. This list is my reminder to myself- by no means complete, not perfect, but so necessary. 

1) Because God’s preferred future is wonderful ( Revelation 21:3-5).

2) Because Satan’s preferred future is the opposite of God’s (John 10:10).

3) Because God’s preferred future will win over Satan’s! (1 John 3:8).

4) Because people need to hear the invite to live in God’s preferred future now and for evermore (Romans 10:14-15).

5) Because I want that preferred future to come quickly, and come completely (2 Peter 3: 11-13).

6) Because God has invited me to play a part in singing His freedom songs, a harmony and counterpoint that only I can sing (Ephesians 2:10).

7) Because I can (Jeremiah 1:4-10).

8) Because I can’t (Psalm 127:1,2).

9) Because especially when I can’t, God  can and does (2 Corinthians 12:9,10).

10) Because I am answerable to God for what I do in seeing His preferred future come to fruition ( Matthew 24:45- 25:46).

As stated above, these are my “Because” statements.. but what are yours?  Why are you doing what you are doing- “Because” or “Just because”?

“Corpsman! Corpsman! Corpsman! Corpsman! For God’s sake, corpsman! Corpsman! Corpsman!”

The above is the opening line from the Oscar-winning movie, “Flags of Our Fathers”. The movie tells the story of the battle of Iwo Jima, during the Second World War,  and in particular the raising of the American flag,  as captured in the iconic photography of Joe Rosenthal. It is a poignant, striking and powerful slice of cinematography, and nobody except for the most hard-hearted could fail to be moved by the brutality of war and the disastrous effects it has on the lives of both those on the frontline and their families and communities.

Following the lives of those men who were treated as heroes for their part in the raising of the second flag on Iwo Jima, the movie centers around the story of John “Doc” Bradley , a corpsman. For the uninitiated, myself included, the corpsman was the trained medic, the person responsible for the patching up of the wounded before they were able to be evacuated from the frontline. A thankless and extremely dangerous responsibility, the corpsman was often a prime target for the Japanese, who knew that by killing him they would cause another ten soldiers to die before they could receive medical attention for their injuries. The corpsman would be running from foxhole to foxhole, stemming the flow of blood from fresh wounds, calming the injured soldiers down, calling for the runners to bring the stretchers needed, all the while trying to escape injury himself.

In the work we are involved in, there is also a desperate need for corpsmen. Corpsmen who will walk and stand with hurting, broken people in their crises, bringing peace into the trauma, stemming the tide of destruction that sin and Satan have wrought in the lives of those created in God’s image, those who despite their infinite worth have been beaten, bruised and battered by life and its injustices. Corpsman who understand the effects of childhood trauma, of drug and alcohol addiction, of personality disorders, of educational inadequacies, of family and community breakdown, and who, in understanding, are prepared to dive into the mess of mankind and bring hope, healing and wholeness to those who are “sat upon, spat upon, ratted on”. And corpsmen who will point people to the place of healing, whether that be the doctor’s surgery, the psychiatrist’s office, the addict’s group, the prayer ministry room or the family meal-table.

But where are the corpsmen? Where are the people called, equipped and enabled by God in the fields often wrongly deemed as less spiritual than the traditional missionary/pastor/apostle/evangelist roles?  While grateful for those who have sacrificially come to provide counsel, training and much needed support and encouragement in these areas, we still cry out for corpsmen on the ground, in situ ready for the times of desperate need, the crises, the times when the body lacks the understanding it needs to serve our students as fully and deeply as God desires.  Is our understanding of God, His ways and His mission so lacking as to limit the call to “the spiritual” ? Or are there other reasons why the call to go to the ends of the earth with the good news of the Kingdom of Jesus often seems to go unheeded? 

As Jesus looked out over Jerusalem, seeing a people oppressed, downtrodden and directionless, he called his disciples to pray for workers. That prayer is still being prayed today, that God would mobilize His body to release workers of all kinds into the harvest field. Will the “corpsmen” hear the call and come?

“For God’s sake....”

The mundane, the miraculous and the Mystery

Do you ever feel that some days are full of the mundane? A case in point: another “normal” day begins. Up at 6 to get our son off to school, our daughter needs waking at 6.45, and, as per usual, takes an age to have breakfast and get ready for the drive to school. Trying to avoid the traffic jams, a one hour round trip to school and back to the Well, where e-mails need answering - I’m sure they are reproducing over the weekend! Time to prepare for a mentor’s meeting, to think about the teaching schedule, then we begin the round of meetings and classes. Lunch at 11.00, then more classes. my daughter arrives back at 3.30, and myself or my wife (usually myself!) head back home to get her homework done, to prepare dinner, to catch up with our son before he disappears into his books and homework. After dinner (with the requisite phone call interruptions), the usual round of washing up, washing clothes, answering more e-mails, showers and stories before bed, and before long another day is over.

Does sound rather mundane, doesn’t it? Not the stuff of inspiring missionary reports, but real life as it often is, even for missionaries! a large proportion of our lives are like this, and cannot be avoided. There are responsibilities that all of us have in life that just go around and come around. It is so easy to feel a certain disconnect between the mundane and the miraculous, victorious, overcoming life we believe we are to live, the way the message of Jesus is so often portrayed. And yet...

The good news of Jesus occurs in the midst of mundanity. The Jews had had 400 years of “same,same” a stunning silence from the Almighty after the last of the prophets had laid down his pen and retired unheard. Visions and dreams of the Messiah had been imagined and expounded, many of them conflicting, but when Jesus  was born, despite the angelic fanfare and the miracles surrounding His birth, he was unrecognized as the savior by many, because he was not spectacular enough- looking just like an ordinary boy from a backwoods town in a backwoods area of a backwoods country, not looking like the all-conquering king people wanted. But it is precisely here that the miraculous occurs, not on another plain of existence, but in the here and now, the stuff of daily life. Jesus, the Mystery of God, enters into the mundanity of life to suffuse it with hope, with purpose, with Life, with the miraculous.

And it is still the same; it is as we walk through the mundane, welcoming Jesus to be with us, that the miraculous occurs; a Christmas party to which we have invited strangers results in their finding a place called Home, and an opportunity for them to enter the Kingdom is opened up; a simple word of encouragement to a fatherless man becomes a message of hope as he meets the true Father; an opportunity to work at making jewelry provides an escape from a life of sexual slavery; a trip to the beach with two girls whose mother has left them brings joy to their hearts and a smile to their faces; a cup of coffee with friends becomes a holy place, where the mundane and the Mystery mingle in laughter, deep discussion and sweet fellowship. We are too ready to flee the mundane wherever possible, and to seek the thrill of the miraculous, as witnessed by the popularity of revival meetings, healing and prophecy conferences and the like. None of these are necessarily bad, but if we focus on them we are in danger of missing the miraculous in the mundane, of not practicing the Presence of Christ in the everyday. As we practice the Presence, the mundane undergoes transformation to the miraculous, and we will see God at work.

I could write more, but the kids need feeding- time to meet with Jesus in the mundane again!