Beneath the Surface (Inside Out, Pt. 2)

Let me go ahead and warn you - this is a longer post. BUT I BELIEVE WELL WORTH IT :>) Grab a cup of coffee or beverage and settle in - I hope you enjoy!

R.D. Lange is an imminent philosopher, and one of the most perceptive observers and discerning describers of the human situation. He has said this - what we think is less than what we know. What we know is less than what we love. What we love is so much less than there is, and to this precise extent we are much less than what we are.

What a challenging assessment. We are much less than what we are. Now that’s a needed perspective. The truth is, we are not sure what is making us less than what we know in our heart of hearts, we are called to be and do in life. Our outward image may communicate confidence and competence, but inside most of us are confused. Two weeks ago, after a sermon on New Year's resolutions, I committed to the newhope community that I would spend time continuing to probe beneath the surface in hopes of helping us get our New Year’s Resolutions right – from the Inside Out!

There are some truths of God so massive and expansive and encompassing that our minds boggle when we contemplate them, so we don’t typically "go there." I love the fact that the Bible dives right in, feet first, if you will! Paul didn’t shy away from these baffling truths. In fact, he sought to make them practical realities. To the Thessalonians he wrote this:

“May the God of peace make you Holy through and through, may be kept in soul and mind and body in spotless integrity until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, He who calls you is utterly faithful and he will finish what he started out to do.” (I Thessalonians 5:23)

Read that again, friends. That is unbelievably powerful!

Maxie Dunnam, while reflecting on this passage, said, "I’ve been probing the dim regions of my personality. I’m not able to get at the stirrings there, they’re too hot to handle, too complex to contemplate. Just when I think I have it all together, that I know myself and have given all to you, some unnamed power surges from my depths, some long-forgotten passion contorts to life and sets my whole being on fire. I know, or I say I know, I know that you’re the God of the mornings and evenings and mountain peaks and the sea. But God, my soul has further horizons than the early morning, deeper darkness than the deepest night, higher peaks than the mountains, and greater depths than the sea. So hear me Lord, I cannot reach to the heights or to the depths. There are motives I can’t trace. Passions I can’t probe. Dreams I can’t get at. Stirrings I can’t explain. But God, make me Holy through and through. Keep my soul and mind and body in spotless integrity. I can’t do it, but you can.” (Dr. Maxie Dunnam, Past President of Asbury Theological Seminary)

Can you relate? Listen, He who calls you is utterly faithful and He will finish that which He has started in you!

Let’s try to wrap our minds around this promise. Paul is saying that the new creation which has begun in us is going to be finished. (II Corinthians 5:17) That is, it’s going to be finished if we will allow it to be finished. The missing ingredients are on our side, not God’s. God is faithful. He wants us to be whole. He has the power to finish His work in us. So Paul prayed that the God of peace would make you “Holy” through and through. Here is another version of that word - Whole – w h o l e – Holy through and through. Don’t forget that Paul prayed this prayer a long time before Freud and psychoanalysis - centuries before depth psychology. The cure of the soul, the probing and healing of the depths of our being, has always been the work of God.

Whether speaking psychologically out of the universal need to be at peace with oneself, or religiously out of the certainty that inner conflict comes when we violate God’s image that has been stamped upon our soul, the answer is found in God working us over from the inside out. Though ancient in origin, it is as fresh as this morning's sun after the snow and rain this weekend. Whether we act as therapists or counselors or preachers or trusted Christian friends, truth in the inward, and wisdom in the secret heart are essential for wholeness.

Most of the time, we’re not all together on the inside and we know it. That gnawing restlessness keeps moving us back and forth, jumping from one effort to trying to find meaning in another. The vague but painful stirring within doesn’t go away when we get that new car or that new job or that new house or that new President which we thought would make us happy. That comes only from the truth in the inward being, wisdom in the secret heart. That’s the place we need to probe. Better yet, that's the place we open for God's Spirit to probe.

I will close by focusing on one area of our inward being that needs special attention. Though we’ve come along way since Freud in our understanding of the subconscious mind, I’m convinced that most of us have not considered the subconscious enough as we’ve sought wholeness in our Christian experience. We don’t have to know the technical language of the therapist to know the anguishing stirrings that cause us to cry out for wholeness and peace.

As you embark upon this journey inward, here is a prescription from a one time, long ago, Pharmacy Major at USC: (I wonder where I would be, who I would be married to, how many kiddos I would have, and which Drug Store counter I would be standing behind today if God had not called me to preach? You know, there are some huge decisions in life but I digress - sorry :>)

1. Be scathingly honest with yourself.
2. Find a Christian friend whom you trust and share your pain and hurt with that person. In some instances, a pastor or a counselor may be necessary. BTW – this why Small Groups or our Triads are so important. Christianity was/is never meant to be lexperienced in isolation.
3. Believe that there is nothing, absolutely nothing beyond the healing power of God’s love in Jesus Christ! There is no sin that has not been dealt with in the cross of Jesus Christ. Oh, I want you to hear that – really hear it. There is no sin that has not been dealt with in the cross of Jesus Christ. And there is nothing, absolutely nothing that can separate you and me from the love of God in Christ Jesus. If that sounds like a verse of Scripture to you, you might be a biblical scholar!

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35 – 39)

4. Commit yourself to a journey of wholeness. We don’t become Holy through and through in a day. So we begin to live a life a transparency, sharing with Christ and others, when it seems right and God honoring. When we become conscious of some hidden hurt, some pushed down pain, some unconfessed sin, we bring that out into the open with Christ, surrender it to Him, and allow Him to heal and forgive as needed. In doing so, we become free in Christ with nothing to hide!
5. Lastly, we learn to live fully and wholly in the present! Check this out - we live in the present in such a way that we do not store up for the future anything that will ravage our lives, tear us apart, and set us back to places from which we have come. That means we don’t let the sun go down on our wrath; we don’t allow hatred to fester within us; we seek reconciliation with another as soon as we’ve become aware that the relationship is broken; we don’t allow lust to grow in us; we strive for good for all people, churches, families and friends. In doing so, we start living transparent lives that are open to the grace of Jesus Christ, who wants to be in us, a cleansing, healing spring bubbling up and flowing to eternal life.

Allow me to close with a story. Some time back, I was in Italy and heard of this most intriguing story that I remember to this day. I’m told that in the harbor of Genoa, Italy, they lowered a statue of Christ in the classic form of outstretched arms, as if to say, come unto me – it is called the Christ of the deep, and they placed it in the harbor, beneath the surface, in the depth of the water, as a memorial to sailors who were lost at sea.

But there’s a more powerful symbol here – Christ does not just deal with the surface issues of life. He doesn’t just fix us up a little bit, putting a band-aid here and a band-aid there. He goes to the depths, permeating our whole being with his forgiving, abiding, restoring, healing love.

Go deep, beloved. Plunge into the depths of Christ and allow Him to plunge His Holy Spirit to the depths of your soul. There, I can promise, He will save and cleanse you from the inside out.

Grace and peace to you as you journey beneath the surface!