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A good read for all old timers

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Iconoclast, Mar 16, 2021.

  1. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    Found this online
    An Unmessianic Sense of Non-Destiny
    For many men of a certain age, the mid-life crisis is just that: a mid-life crisis, a time for despairing that youth, good looks and perhaps hair have gone, never to return. For me, however, the experience has been pretty positive so far: not only have I been able to hand on my old banger of car to my oldest son (thus making myself the greatest dad in the world), but I've also broken with my lifelong habit of driving pieces of junk until they disintegrate and purchased an inexpensive but decent sports car. Not quite sure how my wife let me get away with it; but the fact that my previous car leaked when it rained and the present Mrs T had told me that enough was enough and she was no longer prepared to `be dripped on' as we drove along in a storm one day, seemed to open up a great opportunity for sneaking a good car onto the driveway. As she rolled her eyes, she did say to me that a husband with a decent looking car is, from her perspective, better than one with a secret girlfriend and/or a not-so-secret toupee. I had to agree: there are indeed much worse forms of the mid-life crisis out there.


    For me, and I hope for others, being on the cusp of middle age has, contrary to the above, proved liberating. The key, I believe, is to match diminishing abilities and opportunities with diminishing ambition; balance the former with the latter, and you achieve a sort of zen consciousness where middle age does not seem so terrible after all.

    This is an important insight which should profoundly shape our thinking and, indeed, our praying. My special destiny as a believer is to be part of the church; and it is the church that is the big player in God's wider plan, not me. That puts me, my uniqueness, my importance, my role, in definite perspective. The problem today is that too many have the idea that God's primary plan is for them, and the church is secondary, the instrument to the realization of their individual significance. They may not even realize they think that way but, like those involuntary `tells' at a poker game, so certain unconscious spiritual behaviours give the game away.
    The West worships the individual; from the cradle to the grave it tells us all how special and unique each of us is, how vital we are to everything, how there is a prize out there just for us. Well, the world turned for thousands of years before any of us showed up; it will continue turning long after we've gone, short of the parousia; and even if you, me, or the Christian next door are tonight hit by an asteroid, kidnapped by aliens, or sucked down the bathroom plughole, very little will actually change; even our loved ones will somehow find a way to carry on without us. We really are not that important.
    So let's drop the pious prayers which translate roughly as `Lord, how can a special guy/gal like myself help you out some?
    ' and pray rather that the Lord will grow his kingdom despite our continual screw ups, that he will keep us from knocking over the furniture, and that, when all is said and done, somehow, by God's grace, we will finish well despite our best efforts to the contrary.
     
    #1 Iconoclast, Mar 16, 2021
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2021
  2. Iconoclast

    Iconoclast Well-Known Member
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    Take, for example, prayer. Compare the prayers many of us have no doubt prayed, of the "O Lord, please use me for doing X' variety, with the priorities of the Lord's Prayer, where the petition is much more modest - 'lead me not into temptation, deliver me from evil, for the kingdom is yours etc.' One could paraphrase that prayer perhaps as follows: 'Lord, keep me out of trouble and don't let me get in the way of the growth of your kingdom.' No basis there for the typical `Lord, use me greatly to do this, that or the other thing I quite fancy doing' -- usually prayed, of course, before or after the pious throat-clearing phrase, `if it be your will.....' The Lord's Prayer, by contrast with many we cook up for ourselves, is a great example of words designed for the lips of believers who really understand the gospel, of those with, to coin a phrase, an unmessianic sense of non-destiny.



    Mid-life crises are dreaded by many men, but my advice is: gents, seize with both hands the opportunity to truly grasp that, whatever you thought at age eighteen, you are not actually the messiah and you have no special destiny which sets you apart from everybody else. The former is Christ alone; the latter is primarily reserved for his church. We all need to cultivate that certain unmessianic sense of non-destiny which will make us better citizens of the kingdom.
     
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