Missing The Point

So I was sharing about a funny old day I had very recently. Following on from that, I slept since then, although again it was a bit bizarre in terms of the time I went to bed and when I woke up. In any case, I had me sleep – that’s what I’m saying – and on waking up and getting my bearings on life just as I was about to make my way to the train station the title of today’s blog struck me.

You’ll recall that at some point in that funny old day I was railing against God about the people I have to serve who appear to be wasting the effort that I’m making on their part. As I considered that in the light of some other conversations I’d had with others it came across again how easy it is to miss the point

It is just so easy to get side-tracked and lose focus on what the main point is. In my conversation with Mr. Feeney I was talking with him about how being Bible-believing Christians is understanding that the central focus of the Word is about the Living Word. If we get mixed up with other stuff around fancy techniques, principles, models, fads, trends and systems we fall for the same trap that the scribes and Pharisees dived head-long into when they encountered Jesus. They were well versed on the words in the script, but missed the whole point.

It’s a bit like reading Hamlet and knowing it like the back of your hand, but having a fixation on the political situation in Denmark in which the story is set. The point is missed and there’s no point getting the script right, if you miss the point of the story.

Yet such is our sinful nature that it doesn’t take much for us to lose focus on the point of the story. For example, a conversation about a couple who are staunch members of the church and their marriage appears to be falling apart. Accusations and harsh words are said and people are hurt in the cross fire. What also comes up are questions as to how two stalwarts of the faith could have such a dysfunctional relationship? All the questions, all the hurt, all understandable, and yet still missing the point if the bigger question isn’t also asked – where is Jesus in all this?

I remember my brother challenging me on similar lines – of course he was referring to the Deity, rather than Jesus, but I know what I know. It’s a stinging question if in the midst of it all I cannot pinpoint the role Jesus is playing in the ongoing activity. It shows how far I’ve wondered if it gets tricky to genuinely answer it and the outcome is that He’s nowhere in it and He is not the end product of it.

One of the phrases that came to me in the enforced absence from blogging is that Jesus is the means and the end – we often use Him as the means to another end, i.e. come to Jesus to be saved, to get a spouse, to get money, to get eternal life, to get healthy, etc. He offers Himself as the provider and healer and Saviour and life-giver, but when we use Him as a means to an end that is not Him then we’ve committed idolatry – we’ve sinned, which in my favoured classical English definition is about – missing the point. That not applies when He’s the means to another end, that’s even worse if we think we can reach Him through a means that isn’t Him.

In the same way that we suggest there is no way to the Father but through Jesus, so there is no way to reach the goal of being Christ-like unless we do it … get this bit … through Christ – immersing ourselves in the ongoing revelation of who He is through scripture and daily devotion.

By daily devotion, I’m not referring to that 15 minute or 1 hour bit at the beginning or end of the day when you do the prayer and Bible reading bit. I’m talking about His active engagement in every aspect of the day. The grace/blessing for food is a part of involving Him in the day in the most basic of things, the internal dialogue that takes place as we grapple with work issues, the musings we can share with the family on returning home. Everything is naturally soaked with the centrality of Jesus even when his name isn’t mentioned and that conscious awareness of the presence of God allows us not to miss the point when distressing, befuddling, confusing and sensational events happen.

I note that there are a number of posts that I’ve written about direction and focus, but it never has more of a bearing than it does now. Life must be about the careful consideration of how not to be bogged down by other well-meaning issues that do little to draw us closer to Christ by Christ for Christ.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd