Many Times, Many Ways - Part 6

Part 1 –The character of our communicative God!

Part 2 –God’s good for us in silence or the quiet voice 

Part 3 –God is able and willing to speak over anxiety, one hindrance
Part 4 – Whatif we cease to pray? Can we thwart God’s will? The role of prayer in guidance

Part 5 – Whatif we cease to pray? The role of faith in guidance

The stars provide guidance for navigators. In the night, when disorientation heightens, when sight is dimmed, the stars provided a due course. In time, the stars provided a system and a science of navigation that was honed into maps, GPS, satellites, etc. Humankind “progressed” and moved away from the stars to machines.

In our disorienting nights, we look to God for guidance; he is our Navigator and provides our navigation. Yet, I have heard the view of Christian guidance as one similar to the movement from the stars to the machines. Guidance-finding and maturity has been compared to being like a child growing up to an adult. A child needs a parent to do simple tasks for them (“I’ll change your diaper”), or to dictate simple tasks and chores (“Put your shirt on!”). Yet, if the mother was doing that for a teen or an adult, it is abnormal. So, too, the Christian life has been likened. At the beginning, God might dictate everything to us, but as we mature, God should not have to dictate to us as much. We become “adults.” I perceived this as increasing in independence.  

However, my perception of the above clashed with another idea of maturity—increasing dependence on God. Looking to him more than self. Like Jesus, doing nothing of my own accord. Abiding in the Vine. Is this being a “child” in the above sense, where God dresses me? Where I am more and more dependent?

Are these two different pictures? Are there truths from both of them? How do we reconcile them? Or how do we live in the tension of both truths? Do we grow up and depend less on shooting stars for guidance, and more on our own reason and character, as shaped by God?

What I missed was transformation. What I missed was union. What I missed was the nature of me. Who acts as I grow in maturity? Not I, but Christ who lives in me (Gal. 2:19-20). Not my competency, but the competency of God (2 Cor. 3:5-6). Not my energy, but the energy of God (Col. 1:28-29).

Flip back to Genesis. God created Adam and Eve and gave them dominion over the Garden. They were to rule in his stead, representing him. Instead, they ruled for themselves; instead, they judged for themselves; instead, they represented self. Separation. Inward turning. Small, crippled souls. Flip forward through Genesis and Exodus. Israel, too, was commissioned to be God’s light to the nations, representing him. Yet, they too turned to their own righteousness. Jump to the New Testament, and finally, Jesus, the true Adam, the true Israel, the true Image-Bearer, the true Representative of God himself on earth. And he is transforming us to be like him, true Eves and Adams, true representatives of God.

In union with Christ, I am now transformed. I am to grow up, grow into Christ. Increase in union, increase in dependence. No metaphor captures this—perhaps a branch grafted into a vine. At first, the branch may be attached, but still have some of its own sap and vitality seeping through its veins. Then, as its own sap gets used and flows out, it cements its grasp on the true vine. The first fruits may be weak, but slowly with time, the union becomes more complete until it is entirely the vine’s sap flowing through the branch. And the fruit is luscious. The branch itself is moving, producing, growing fruit—but not it, but the life of the vine in it. We are to be so transformed in union with Christ that his life is our life, his mind is our mind. Our actions and thoughts just instinctively become his. We are unconsciously dependent. His breath becomes our breath.

This is a far cry from a growing adulthood and independence. Christianity is not moral self-help so that we can become people of better character. It is not even simply to make us more “moral” people. It is not to make us wiser and more caring. All of that is true. But it is all secondary. Christianity is to make us like Christ in Christ so that he is the Firstborn of a new creation and a new people. Instead of merely looking to the stars for navigation, instead of merely looking to God for a map, Christ’s light is within us, the Spirit is within us. Our guidance becomes instinctive; from us, from him, both, because I am in union with him.

In guidance, in our disorienting nights, may we grow in dependence and union! So often we long for a map or a machine, so we can go off and do it ourselves. But may we instead seek him, not just a map. May we seek him, not just an answer, not just self-development or strength of moral character or wisdom. May we seek him, to become like him, to grow in union with him. This is the journey of guidance. It is not about answers so much, as it is about becoming like him and seeing him more clearly. I do not want to undermine the difficulty of decisions and guidance still—seek, strive! It is hard; it does require work. But the dark nights become less disorienting. Guidance is sought less fretfully and anxiously as we learn more and more who he is, and who he is in us, and how much he transforms us. We see, know, know deeply his light in us. Then, even if the north star is hidden, there is a sense of direction.

Oh Lord! May it be so in me! 

“The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16).

“It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:19-20).

“…but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8).

“And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left” (Isa. 30:20-21).