TONY OTTEN
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An Inconvenient Messiah

9/29/2013

5 Comments

 
Picture, spiders, spider web, web, dewSometimes God tears a hole in the web we've planned.
Maybe this will sound glib, but it makes utter sense to me that if God became a man, we would all nail him to a piece of wood and spit on him until he died. Hence, the story of Christ’s Passion. People have an urge to get God out of the way.

Christ is a master of the unanswerable question. When the Pharisees are preparing to kill him for rebuking their unprofitable customs, he asks, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone me?” (John 10:32, NKJV). Outrageously, he seemed to find no distinction between himself and God: “The Son of Man [Jesus’s name for himself] is also Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28).

His words trembled the Jewish world. By strict ritualism, the Pharisees aimed to maintain stability in the Hebrew lands. This irksome carpenter from Galilee threatened them. “If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation” (John 11:48). Notice that these same Jews witnessed Jesus’s miracles with their own eyes; yet rather than follow him, they calculated how he would affect their interests. So they nailed him down and propped him up, happy that life could continue in convenience.

God’s nature is to get in our way. He means to disturb us from our patterns, our schedules, our preconceived notions. Two of the ways he disturbs us:

He makes us feel our poverty in his presence. When Peter witnessed the fish swarming miraculously into his nets, he fell before Christ and pleaded with him to go away, “for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5:8). Unless we find intimacy with God, we are left to contrast ourselves only with other people, and from this we develop the idea that okay is okay. I pay my taxes; I’ve never cheated on a test; I helped that old lady with the restaurant door—I’m just the average good guy. Peter certainly felt this way. But before Jesus’s knees, he felt the contrast of God’s purity with his own shortcomings—his foolhardiness and pride, his self-assurance and stubbornness, all of which would later lead him to deny Jesus just before the Crucifixion. God makes us feel the chips and blotches in our souls to a purpose—he can only weed out our evils when we realize them.

He has other plans for us. In Matthew 8:21-22, Jesus gives what seems a brutal answer: “Then another of His disciples said, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.’” The Savior, though, was not declaring war on the undertaker industry. He was warning his followers against becoming ensnared with the concerns of worldly life, such as careers, family obligations, or relationships. If not well managed, any of these areas can siphon our devotion from God by absorbing the attention we should be giving him.

God disturbs, yes, but in jolting us from our original beliefs and priorities, he gives us a peace beyond comprehension (Philippians 4:7).

Can you think of a time when God made you do a 180-degree turn in your thinking?
5 Comments
Lynn Hare link
9/30/2013 04:34:07 am

Tony, brilliant post. I love your inspirational words, especially that Jesus "was not declaring war on the undertaker industry," but directing our devotion to Him. I agree: "our worldly life can siphon devotion from God by absorbing the attention we should be giving him."

In order to be intentional about my commitment to Christ, I make blocks of time to worship Him and journal about radical transformation. I write Crafted Prayers based on specific Scriptures that connect with my journey.

God directed me to pull a 180 and to face my own attitude recently for 3 people I was in conflicts with. I spent weeks asking God how He saw them, and got into sync with what the Holy Spirit spoke over who they are in Christ. Then when I approached them, my heart was right. A new trust was established.

In intimate times with Him, the Holy Spirit showed me how to reframe the dynamics in terms of our strengths. And new life is in those relationships for the first time in years. Growing in Christ happens in the context of relational integrity.

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Anthony Otten link
9/30/2013 07:19:24 am

Lynn - your reference to "relational integrity" reminds me of my Old Testament class, where we've been studying Genesis. We learned the scholarly opinion that Genesis portrays the disruption caused when people fail to understand their proper relationship to God.

Writing - or any form of labor - can become prayer when done with the right attitude. I think you may be on to something with the Crafted Prayers. A prayer is not just written words, but a forceful effort to assume a good stance toward God, to have the right mind about him.

I hope all is well with your self-forgiveness book. I would still like to see the first chapter, if you'd like to send it to me.

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Lynn Hare link
9/30/2013 11:53:03 am

By the way, Tony, beautiful photo of the spider's web! Love your photography.

Gina Stoneheart link
9/30/2013 06:26:06 am

Astounding post, Anthony. I love how you stated, "God's nature is to get in our way." How I desperately wish that more people would succumb to this unconditional gift which he presents to us every single day. However, it is up to us to discover how His presence affects our behavior and how much time we spend in solitude and devotion toward Him.

I often think about these things and as much as I try to validate my relationship with God, I never think it is good enough. I worship, pray the rosary and meditate, and attend church whenever my schedule permits me to. AND that is the kicker! I go to church on my own terms when in reality, I need to completely surrender to His glorious and irreplaceable presence by making it to mass; no excuses.

After my mom had taken ill and I, too, noticed a decline in my reckless health, I opened my heart and placed my worries, shame and sins in his hands. For years before this time, I had always gone to confession and said prayers here and there, but I don't think that my relationship with Him then is anything like it is now.

When things are going right in our lives, we as humans are inclined to show the acts of kindness, grace and love that God delights in. I work for wealthy people who constantly bask in the fruits of their privileges. Before my mom got sick, I envied these people. But now, I'm slowly realizing that God has a path for us and no matter how much we long to have money, power, and prestige, He is the one who will be our everlasting light.

Now, I need to work on attending church every week besides my personal devotions and meditations.

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Anthony Otten link
9/30/2013 07:15:20 am

Gina - I'm glad you connected with the "futility" message of the post - the impossibility of devoting ourselves to God as much as he merits. A good verse to remember when you regret not attending church, however, is 1 Cor 6:19: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and that you are not your own?" This has helped to remind me that as a believer I carry a "church" with me everywhere I go - and that if I waste my time, it's not just MY time I'm wasting. Thanks - Tony

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    About

     Anthony Otten has published stories in Jabberwock Review, Valparaiso Fiction Review, Wind, Still: The Journal, and others. He has been a finalist for the Hargrove Editors' Prize in Fiction. He lives in Kentucky.

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