Prepping for Thanksgiving
November 16, 2006 by Laura | Trackback URI
Thanksgiving, and Christmas, are just around the corner. And that typically means a great deal of pressure and stress. So I’m linking back to an older post where I describe the lesson I learned from Hurricane Katrina about holiday stress. I wrote it a few months after Katrina, when all of our lives were turned upside-down, and in many ways, for so many people, still are. Just one example - my mother has a three bedroom house in which she normally lives alone. After Katrina, she welcomed three coworkers whose homes were destroyed. One moved out after three months, another after a year, and one is still with her. The one who remains has terminal cancer. For various reasons, none of the woman’s three adult children can take her in.
My mother, who explicitly rejects salvation, is doing one of the most Christian acts a person could ever do. It’s breaking her heart, as she has become quite good friends with her roommate. This is the third person she’s had to nurse through and ultimately lose to cancer. She’s a legal secretary with no medical training, but she’s learned how to give shots and to help her friend after the chemo and radiation which is delaying her death. She’s doing all this without much help from anyone - my husband and I do what we can, but there’s not much we can do - and most importantly without the help and comfort a loving God provides his children. She gets her comfort from her faith, which keeps God at arm’s length, and it’s a hollow comfort. But she just doesn’t know any better. (And it pains me to say this, but it’s true: as good as the deed she’s doing is, it still won’t get her into heaven because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and so far she rejects his sacrifice on her behalf.)
Here’s the lesson I learned last year, which is only emphasized by seeing my mother’s struggles:
Before the hurricane, I spent hours every day stressing about politics. Thanks to Katrina, I learned what the real war is. It’s not about terror or Islamofascism or what political party has power in any given country. I’m not completely indifferent to politics now, but that particular siren song has lost much of its appeal. I am blessed because since Katrina my perspective is slightly more eternal.
A lot of people stress about the holidays. A word of advice - don’t. It doesn’t matter what your in-laws say behind your back. So what if the turkey burns? Don’t be upset if you can’t get “the” hot toy this season for your kid, or if you get it, and they play with the box all Christmas morning.
But let your chief care be for his kingdom, and these other things will be given to you in addition.
(Luke 12:31)
saying your mother won’t get into heaven because she doesn’t have the same faith as you…
isn’t that judging?
and won’t that prevent you from getting into heaven?
Good question. The short answers are no, and no.
Here’s why:
Everything after this paragraph is predicated on the belief that the bible is true, and is the authoritative source where God is concerned. It has been proved to my satisfaction historically and archaeologically. There are no contradictions in it that are not easily explainable by context. For example, your 12 year old daughter having sex is bad but your 21 year old married daughter can have all she wants, and that doesn’t make you a hypocrite. And also remember that we are no longer bound to the harsh old testament laws. They are still studied as a reminder of why Jesus came to die, but since he fulfilled the law, we are free from it. They also provide a fuller picture of God’s holiness, explaining why the result of sin is death.
From the very beginning, when God gave Adam and Eve animal skins to wear when they had to leave the garden, sin has resulted in death. That was the first animal sacrifice. Much of the Old Testament consists of rules and regs designed to show how perfect we must be in order to stand before a holy God, and the stories of how we repeatedly fail because we are by our nature, sinners. After we sin, throughout the old testament, a sacrifice is made to atone for the sin.
The purpose of Jesus’ death on the cross was to put a stop to all that - for God, who was sinless, to be sacrificed on our behalf, and permanently free us from the old laws. (That’s why the veil separating the public part of the temple from the holy part where only priests could go was torn top to bottom when he died - to symbolize that we were all now free to approach God.
People who reject Jesus’ sacrifice do not approach God. As the bible says, He is the way, the truth, the life, no one can come to the Father except through him. We can’t come to him under our own terms.
So to conclude, no matter how nice we are, we are still sinners. We’ve all sinned. Good behavior doesn’t make up for it. Throughout the bible, the only atonement for sin was blood. We no longer sacrifice animals because Jesus’ death freed us from having to do so, but if you don’t accept Jesus’ death in payment for your sin, where does that leave you? The idea of being good somehow making up for sins is a man-made invention.
As for the bit about judging, assessment is not the same as judging. Looking at a situation and discerning the truth is not judging. The cop who issued my speeding ticket wasn’t judging; he was pointing out the fact that I was doing it and advising me of the penalty. I could take it up with the judge if I wanted. A judge enforces a penalty. I do not; I point out that a penalty exists, which is clearly different. Christians are not called to judge those outside the church, although we are called to judge those within it:
Putting away the evil man from among you is a penalty; that’s acting as a judge. Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary includes this comment on that passage of scripture: