Bad News, Good News: Pass it On

Recently I’ve been feeling pretty “blah” – not apathetic, necessarily, but, well, bored, as I told Bryce the other day. I’ve been praying that the Lord would restore unto me the “joy of my salvation”. 

Alfred, our pastor here in Montana, offered the other day that when we find ourselves bored or lacking joy, we should remind ourselves of the bad news – that is, that we are sinners, and our sin runs deeper than we could ever imagine. Not until we understand our own depravity can we understand the redemption we have in Christ (the good news): “but God shows his love for us in that while were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1:15, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” Yes. This is good news. 

As I’ve tried to ponder on this “bad” news (Lord knows I don’t do it enough) I’ve been humbled by some of Tim Keller’s (pastor of Redeemer Church in NY) thoughts on the matter: 

“So according to the Bible, the primary way to define sin is not just the doing of bad things, but the making of good things into ultimate things” (Keller, Reason for God). 

I can go on and on about how many good things I turn into ultimate things, instead of making God my “ultimate” – my husband, my friends, my family – all good, but when I worship them instead of worshiping the Lord my God, things get bad. Keller quotes in Reason for God, Ernest Becker, author of Pulitzer Prize winning The Denial of Death: “No human relationship can bear this burden of godhood…If your partner is your ‘All’ then any shortcoming in him becomes a major threat to you.” How true this is, and this should make us turn immediately the opposite direction – that is to the One relationship that deserves our utmost everything, the God, the One who has redeemed us from our deepest sin-ourselves. 

Now that we are having a baby I feel I take all these truths to heart even more, knowing we’ll have to instill them in him or her from an early age. Becker notes that a child’s need for self-worth “is the condition for his life.” If this is the case, then it is of dire importance that we teach our little one that his or her worth comes from the Jesus who loves them, that his or her identity lies in Christ and Christ alone. Not only this, but Bryce and I must model this, and this means not worshiping each other, but Christ.