One of the people I was teaching asked me to explain the term ‘substantial’.
On that occasion I got all technical on them and said that it meant – stuff. When something is substantial it is full of stuff. When it is not substantial it doesn’t have a lot of stuff in it. The person had previously referred to a cheese sandwich when we were talking about structure. I referred back to that to suggest that unless the wedge of cheese was particularly thick, you wouldn’t really refer to it as a substantial sandwich. Add a condiment of your choice to it, some salad as well and a meat-kind that you like and then you can call that a substantial sandwich.
In life, people tend to prefer engaging with things of substance. They don’t really want to be dealing with pathetic insubstantial things because it will leave them feeling hard done by and wondering what the point was.
Similarly, if there is an organisation and a person of a certain title or position in the company, there is a preference that the person in question will live up to that position or title. I was a reading a book recently about a guy who became the manager of a football club. He went in on certain conditions that reinforced his position. Those conditions included being the one to have the final say on the transfers of players in and out of the club. If he didn’t have that, he wouldn’t feel like he had substance in his position. The leading executives assured him that this would be fine and openly said so.
In practice, however, the executives would go behind the manager’s back to arrange transfers of players in and out of the club. At first the manager felt a little betrayed, but was assured by the owner that this would not persist, only for the executives to go and buy players that the manager did not rate and more importantly did not want. This reached the stage where particular signings were made and the manager felt he had no alternative but to resign. In essence he felt like a man with the office, but not the power. A person with the title, but not the responsibility that went with it. He felt he was a manager in name only – there was no substance. It was like just having a thin-sliced cheese sandwich.
Reflecting on that made me soberly consider how often we experience that feeling and how often we can make others feel that way too. I catch myself sometimes and how I engage with my family. Am I really a Dad or is that just a title? Am I really the husband, or is that a convenient label for me? That’s not to say I live insecurely second-guessing myself. It is to say, I’m grateful that I am not allowed to take those things for granted and live in a way where I’m no more filling than that cheese sandwich.
Some of us claim to love Jesus and say He’s the Lord of our life, but the actual room we allow Him to exercise that rule, that lordship is even less substantial than that cheese sandwich. He is Lord in name only. It’s a lovely little name card we put on His desk, but in actuality He does not have any meaningful stake in what matters in our lives. It can be so vividly and blatantly be seen whenever an issue arises and the normal reaction for us – without a hint of remorse – is to take ownership for ourselves regardless of what Jesus says on the matter or what He’s doing in it.
Family, church, work, relationships, all over the show there can be a tendency to just treat things on a name-basis only. Not acknowledging and engaging substantially with it. Treating it like a cheese sandwich.
It doesn’t have to be that way at all. We don’t have to just take it on the surface – we don’t have to be that way – we can celebrate the depth and truth of the matter.
There’s so much to enjoy when we sink our teeth into something substantial, chew on it and let it settle in the system slowly and surely.
(Photo by Lluís Domingo on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 