Destined to be prosperous?

Proponents of prosperity teaching will pick and choose certain Bible verses to substantiate their claim that material wealth should be the destiny for all believers (Malachi 3:10; Deuteronomy 8:18; John 10:10; 3 John 2-4; James 4:2). And many men of faith in the Old Testament were materially prosperous--like Job, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, David and Boaz. My previous blog already addressed why someone like Abraham was righteously rich--many people were cared for due to his prosperity.

But we can't ignore that in the New Testament, not only do we see Jesus and his disciples lacking  material wealth, we also hear Jesus say, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has no place to lay his head" (Luke 9:58). And more recently, many of our role models in the faith, people like Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa, Eric Liddell and Jim Elliot, stand out to us for the way they left behind comfort and security to serve others in poor and forgotten places. How do we reconcile this apparent contradiction?

Teachings that hyper-focuses on either enjoying prosperity or suffering for Christ are simply missing it. Instead, let's look for the common thread between the Old Testament patriarchs and Jesus' followers. What we see is that they didn't live their lives just looking after number 1 (self); they all looked out for others (i.e. loving their neighbours) whether they were rich or poor.  And in this love they prospered.

So, don't pursue prosperity to satisfy greed and don't suffer for the sake of suffering, nor should we  avoid either  prosperity or suffering if the end result will benefit our fellow man. Loving our neighbour fulfills our destiny and produces biblical notion of prosperity.

Is it wrong to pray for prosperity?

In many places the Bible suggests and sometimes states outright that God desires us to flourish, to be at peace, to prosper. But what does the Bible mean by prosperity?

Prosperity can be considered from two perspectives, with two different results. It feels really wrong to ask God for personal success and riches; there is no peace inside with a prayer like that. But when I pray for success that benefits more people than myself, say for my business--where others are employed--for example, I feel much differently. In this scenario, my prosperity benefits employees; praying for this type of prosperity pretty much becomes necessary because others depend on my success.

We see this same thing in the patriarchs of the Old Testament. Abraham was abundantly blessed with livestocks and wealth--a material prosperity that flowed over to his extended family and servants. Abraham's faith yielded a prosperity that benefited many beneath the shade of his tree.

That is not the way prosperity is marketed today. We tend to want wealth and success for personal reasons; its benefit rarely extends beyond one's immediate family. In some instances it doesn't even extend that far! Our individualistic society has lost the ability and joy for communal sharing, the very thing Biblical prosperity is intended to build. Now we rely on the government to aid our poor, to care for the sick, and to provide for our elderly relatives. We say, that is why we pay our taxes!

God does want to prosper us but it is not for our personal individualistic empowerment. Rather, when he grants us material abundance he intends it to help us be our brothers' keepers.

Search for love or search to love?

Listening can be particularly trying when the content is cyclical with no end. The typical love search scenario goes like this: A meets B, A builds entire (ie. emotional) life around B, B freaks out and runs away, A gets confused and hurt...later A meets C, A builds entire (ie. emotional) life around C...

The thing is, people who repeatedly find and lose potential life partners rarely love (in the giving sense) those they're trying to hold onto. You get this sense when what they share is never about admirable qualities of the person they want; rather, it is about what they did, what they said and what do those things mean regarding the permanence of the relationship. In other words, they're fixated on having someone to meet their needs, and not necessarily loving someone. 

Of course, all of us pursue life partners at least partly for selfish reasons(!). But when we become so consumed with our desire that it overshadows our ability to love someone for who they are, then the relationship is destined for failure.

Jesus was a talker

Being a listener--the kind where you become a mere sounding board for others to pound their words into--is overrated. After years of practicing active listening, I've concluded that endlessly listening to someone share the same relational problem on 'repeat', where I can't give them advice, is a complete waste of time. People who only want a muted audience are typically self-absorbed; their problem may well originate from this narcissistic tendency to begin with. 

It sounds callous and uncaring--maybe that's why it took me so long to speak up--but it isn't. In all the accounts we read where Jesus deals with people, there isn't one single story where he listens endlessly without speaking into someone's life. Being a muted listener seldom helps anyone.

In contrast, a helpful friend should speak up, trying to break the loopy thought or behaviour of another. A good counselor should probably do the same--though the temptation to allow a patient's endless verbal avalanche may be too much, when one is paid by the hour to be a 'good listener' :).

Rolling out of winter soon...

Angry sky

Feb 8/11 Vancouver sky line

Sweet light

Self-portrait at 17:19

Ants in my dream

Happy Valentine's Day!

Light up the hidden world

In the book Blink: the Power of Thinking Without Thinking, the author, Malcolm Gladwell explores and attempts to explain some of the mystery that comprises our subconscious world. One interesting thing he points out is that our subconscious selves may possess attitudes and beliefs that are contrary to our consciously held values.

To demonstrate this psychologists at Harvard use something they call the Implicit Association Test (IAT). For example, when Gladwell took the Race IAT, he discovered that he had pro-white associations subconsciously even though he himself is half-black; in fact, 80% of those who took the test had such results. Why is this? Surely not all 80% of the participants are racists! One explanation is that our society is full of things associating good with being white and, conversely, inferiority with having coloured skin. Even as we consciously decide against racism, our minds are fed images, information and impressions--which our subconsciouses can't help but absorb. 

No wonder countercultural values can sometimes create a nasty mess inside our minds!

Toward this end, Christians should consider verses like this: the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our inner most thoughts and desires (Hebrew 4:12). By cherishing the truth in the Bible, God's word can illuminate our subconscious world and instill deep within us the values that we consciously choose to uphold--even values the world around us subtly oppose (Ephesians 6:16, Psalm 119:9-16). 

The Egyptians triumph

It's been satisfying watching how the Egyptian story unfolds and this is a fun article about it: Dual Uprisings Show Potent New Threats to Arab States

Speaking of struggles and change

This song is pretty cool: Marina and the Diamonds' Mowgli's Road

Taming our subconscious (2)

When our subconscious causes havoc we gain an opportunity to change some part of our hidden selves.

An undisturbed Id, one that has all its desires satisfied, doesn't bother us. But an unhappy Id brings discomfort and thereby draws attention to a previously hidden area where our trouble lies. Struggling with our subconscious isn't always a bad thing. For example, we should put up resistance when an inordinate desire seeks control or when a blindspot in our personality causes involuntary unwanted behaviour. Internal conflict and struggles may well be indications of divine transformation at work (Ephesians 4:22-24, 2 Corinthians 5:17).

Many wise people in my life have said that people don't change. There is even a Chinese saying "At age 3, you are set til age 80"--meaning no substantial personality change is possible beyond age 3. But my experience has been quite different. I have gone from being extremely shy to having confidence, from having resentment to forgiving people, from being arrogant to being more humbly self-aware. Each of these profound changes surprised me to the core; they were never a result of something I initiated or even wanted. Change--of our deep selves, our Ids, our subconscious, is possible...

Experience tells me that the internal work of the Holy Spirit must be true (Romans 8).

Taming our subconscious (1)

In the Freudian model of human psyche, our subconscious--he calls it the Id--is the mysterious part of our personality that does much of the driving in our lives. It does not consider situational reality; instead our Id is consumed only by the need to meet its desires.  For example, babies do not consider the desires of others nor the reality of their situation. When a baby wants food, needs a change, or wants relief from pain, the baby will cry until the need is met. Likewise, when our Id is unhappy, it will cause vivid dreams, sleepless nights or illness to get our attention in order to satisfy its demand.

In other words, Id lives in a completely self-oriented world, motivating our decisions and actions mostly unbeknownst to our conscious selves. I don't know how much of the Freudian theory can be accepted as fact, but what this basic concept describes does match experience and makes some sense. It reminds me the apostle Paul when he describes his internal conflict in Romans 7:15-23. Paul call this part of him sin and confesses that he is helpless--without God--to control its whims and wants.

It seems that life then, at least to some extent, is about taming the Id in us. But how? We know in our head that Jesus can conquer Id, so what does it mean when sleepless nights hit, when disturbing dreams wake us or when bodily diseases cause us grief? Is Jesus not at work when these things happen?

The power of words

In Genesis 1:1-25 we read that God spoke and the material world came into existence. The creation account in many ways can simply be considered a series of divinely spoken, powerful words.

In the New Testament the apostle James warns how evil man's words can be (James 3:1-12). So he admonishes us to tame our tongues. And while his allegories about the power of our tongues seem exaggerated, we know from experience that what James wrote is true. Man's words can be powerfully destructive.

In both cases, we conclude that words are powerful. With words we create new worlds in people's imagination (think of Lord of the Rings or any other novels that you've read). With words we instill desires into people's hearts (remember all the clever advertising tag lines logged in your subconscious?). With words we can either soothe or cause pain (consider the effect parents' words have had on their children). With words we can create hope in desperate times or despair in idyllic circumstances (who hasn't been affected this way by a spouse or good friend?).

It's easy to forget the influence of our words, but we are held responsible for them. Didn't Jesus say that we will have to give account on judgement day for every careless word we have spoken? (Matthew 12:36-37)

Hope, fear and words

Hope is our fuel, it energizes, empowers, propels us into action. Fear is a puncture in the fuel tank, it drains hope and paralyses us. They are opposite powers working on our psyche. Which side ends up winning may be influenced by our words.

The Egyptians protesting right now are running on hope for a better future--a civilian-run society where they are no longer oppressed. But there is fear too: you see it when reporters ask about the potential rise of an Islamic state like Iran. Those interviewed become angry! Why? Maybe beneath that anger, they fear what the West fears as well; they respond with anger, not wanting to give fear any room.

The internet has now shrunk the world. Words from the West can inject either hope or fear into the tense situation. I wish news commentators were more sensitive when they air their opinions; any pessimistic 'what if's' are just not that helpful right now.