Last week, I spoke to a friend who was totally stunned to find out he’d been laid off. All those years, gone. Talking on the phone, I very simply said, “Joe, God is your Father.” As the words were coming out of my mouth, I had this overwhelming sense that it was actually true, and that God was my Father too, and that God was in my office with me at that very moment. I was totally overwhelmed by a most simplistic statement - what some might call “milk” - a most elementary truth of my faith: That God is my Father. Why is this still so stunning to me after 17 years in the faith?
I think this is something of what Jesus meant when he spoke of becoming like a little child. I know I’m growing as a disciple when the simplest things become the most profound. I know I’m growing as a disciple when I don’t need to hear something new all the time. I know I’m growing as a disciple when the old information - the simple gospel - is always fresher still.
Theologian Karl Barth (pronounced Bart) was one of the most complex intellectuals of the twentieth century. He was the most influential Reformed theologian since John Calvin. Even one Pope described him as the most important theologian since Thomas Aquinas. Barth is perhaps most famous for his thirteen-volume work entitled Church Dogmatics. It took him almost 40 years to write and he wrote it right up until his death in 1968. It contains 6 million words. A reporter asked Dr. Barth if he could summarize those 6 million words. Dr. Barth thought for a moment and then said: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
I was at a Pastors Conference one year in Nashville and they had set up this Prayer Room. There were different stations designed to help us focus. For instance, in one corner there was a small table and a chair with a vase of lilies and a sign that said, “Consider these lilies.” In another corner there was a closet with an open door and inside it looked like the decor you might find in a Bedouin tent and a single solitary chair. A sign simply invited you to sit on the floor in front of that chair and talk to Jesus who was, for most of us, actually sitting in that chair. I remember telling Jesus about all the sin in my life at that time and sensing that he wasn’t surprised at all, and that He loved me more than I could ever know - no matter what. Maybe that’s why I’m still stunned. I hope the simple things like this never get old.
Mark
