Make the World Go Away

Hey Folks,

There are a gazillion things that I would like to write about these days but they are still warming in the incubator of my skull and aren’t ready to be hatched yet. So I will let them continue to stew. The brain doesn’t want to stop working lately. I’m reading and reading and every once in a while I’m understanding something and that just pushes me on to more reading. I ordered another book last night.

I’ve been thinking some about the application, or perhaps, the consequences of what I have been reading for the real world. What does it mean to think Christianly about Mathematics or Psychology or any other topic in the realm of existence? I’m actually not thinking all that much about math because, thankfully, math is not my calling. I have read more about math in the last 6 weeks than I ever care to read again but I do understand the need to think about Math from biblical presuppositions more than ever before. I will humbly defer all questions to James Nickels and his book, Mathematics: Is God Silent? If you are inclined in a mathematical way then that book is for you.

Psychology is a different bird altogether. Even as I was getting my Masters in Clinical Psych I was noticing the discrepancies between what I was taught about man through science and what I knew about man from scripture – they are two different things. I chose to go to a secular school to get my degree because I knew that I would be on guard there with every idea that came into my ears. Years earlier, in the Christian colleges that I attended I was fed lies in the guise of truth and it has taken me a long, long time to recover from that. In case you don’t know it: presuppositions are everything when it comes to the truth.

You see a biblical view of the Psychology of man must include the creation, fall and redemption through Jesus Christ as its core statement of the true nature of man. Sin is not just a negative event in mankind’s existence. In other words, sin is not just a debt that we owe. It is also something that we pursue with all our hearts. It is who we are outside of Christ. The heart is deceitful above all else. That means that left to itself the core of human existence is deceitful and loves darkness while hating the light; regardless of the kind and peaceful words that flow from the lips.
One of the goals of Psychology then is to shine a light on the deceit of the heart that so easily besets us and enable those under our care to live more truthful lives. Another way to say it is that we guide anyone who wants back onto the path of life and out of the death that they love so much. This includes believer and unbelievers because the common grace of God pours out blessing on the just and the unjust and as believers walk on the path of life more consistently unbelievers will be recipients of the temporal blessings that follow.
To do these things, we need to be able to see the pain of existence as the consequences of walking off the path of life. A biblical view of the world tells us that there are consequences for leaving the path of life. Our world is filled with sickness and death (both physical and mental) because we as a race chose to rebel against life. Healing comes in proportion to our willingness to walk upon the path of life.

Climbing back onto the path of life is both a gift of grace and the hardest work a person will ever do. It is God who gives us both the will and the power to do it but it is us who actually have to do whatever ‘it’ entails for us. There is no clear cut distinction in the real world between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. Grace is not a magic wand that fixes all your boo boos and makes everything all better. Grace gives you the power to face the things that scare the shit out of you and walk on through to the other side. In doing so it doesn’t reduce the fear, or the pain, or the consequences but it does ensure that nothing of value to God will be lost in your life ­­– anything else is up for grabs.

Fallen mankind loves to sing with Eddy Arnold to God: Make the World Go Away and get it off of my shoulders. Say the things you used to say and make the world go away. As if with Brittany Spears we could just say Oops I did it again to make everything alright. But that can’t be done (at least that’s what God says in his word). Mankind is irreparably damaged by its jump off of the path of life. It is dead. There is no hope for recovery. There is only the promise of a new life in Christ. That is the good news. You want on the path of life you can be put on the path of life but not the dead zombie you only a new creature, from new creation, the new humanity, can be placed on the path of life. If you want it here it is come and get it but you better hurry ‘cause it’s going fast.

The problem with the good news is the bad news of sin. Mankind doesn’t want life. Left to itself mankind loves death. It pursues death with all that is in it. It loves the darkness and hates the light. That makes the good news all the gooder because while we were yet lovers of death and darkness Christ died so that anyone who wants can get back on the path of life; Being on the path of life, however, means giving up the path of death.

The weight of the world on our shoulders is the weight of sin and its curse. The good news says you don’t have to be under the curse any longer. Christ came to adopt zombies into the family of God if they are only willing to stop being zombies.

The call of the psychologist, or counselor, if you prefer, and for that matter the pastor, is to guide anyone who wants to out of death and into life. It is the call to turn a spark into a bonfire in the hearts of those who are new creatures in Christ and to warm the chilled bones of the zombies close enough to the path to feel the residual effects of those who truly walk there.
Here is a brief summary of the call of the Christian Psychologist: No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found.

Joy to the earth the LORD has come.

Brad