Camazotz

We sit down. We listen to the announcements.  We stand up and sing some songs. We sit down again. We drop money into the offering plates. We listen to someone talk about the Bible. We nearly fall asleep, but rouse ourselves again when the closing prayer finally starts. We get into our cars. We drive home. This happens once a week. It's a routine. 

I think one of the greatest problems with Christianity is this habit we've gotten into of making our faith a routine. We pray before we eat, we go to church once or sometimes twice a week, we sometimes force our eyes open in the morning to "have a quiet time", and occasionally we actually pray a few times. God becomes obligation, not joy. 
However, King David addresses his feelings about God in Psalms and they seem to go completely against this:

"Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere..." Psalm 84:10a

"As the deer pants for streams of water,
    so my soul pants for you, my God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When can I go and meet with God?"

Psalm 42:1-2

Do we really thirst for God that much? Or are we just content going through the motions, day after day after day? 

I thought of a very interesting illustration for this concept from one of the strangest but most wonderful books ever written: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. In this story, Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace, three children who are traveling through the universe to search for Meg and Charles Wallace's father, encounter a very strange planet known as Camazotz. The moment they set foot onto this planet, they instantly realize that something is amiss. As they walk down one of the streets, Meg, Calvin, and Charles notice that all of the houses are identical. There are children playing outside of these uniform houses, but there's something very strange about them all. It takes a few minutes before Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace realize that all of the children are bouncing their rubber balls in UNIFORM, all of them following the same rhythm. As they go into the depths of this planet, our heroes are in for a horrible surprise. They realize that everyone on Camazotz is controlled by a single power: a huge brain known as IT. Rather than controlling the people by sheer force, this mastermind (literally, a mind) sends a pulsating rhythm throughout the entire planet. Everyone on the planet sinks into mindless drifting, just following the rhythm at every second of their lives. If anyone breaks the routine of IT's pulses, they are immediately tortured and re-hypnotized to follow IT again. 

This planet is dark and lifeless as the people living on it continue to brainlessly move through the lives like zombies. 

Two things happen as the three children as visiting Camazotz ( if you don't like spoilers, stop reading at this point... once you finish the book, you can come back and read this post...) . First, Charles Wallace, who is a deep-thinking child genius, believes that he is perfectly able to resist IT, and in his pride, actually falls into hypnosis and becomes part of the rhythm. Next, Meg and Calvin are able to find Mr. Murray, Meg and Charles Wallace's father. 

So, let me pause from the summarizing for a second and relate this back to the original point. It is so easy to fall prey to the rhythm of routine. In the story, Meg and Calvin get VERY close to falling prey to IT's powers, just like Charles Wallace. As they are actually IT's headquarters in the presence of the massive brain, their entire respiratory systems and heartbeats suddenly line up with the pulsating rhythm. 

Another thing to think about is the fact that the people of Camazotz had no idea what they were missing by following this easy, rhythmic pattern. But, their enslavement to IT was getting rid of their freedom. 

In the same way, our freedom to love God and truly enjoy the mercy he has given to us will be gone if we start to follow a routine.

But how do we defeat this complacency?

Well, the solution can actually be found in A Wrinkle in Time.

Meg defeats IT and releases her brother through something rather unexpected: love. Out loud, she tells IT how much she loves Charles Wallace. She feels this love deep in her heart. In the end, this is what frees Charles Wallace from his bondage to the giant brain.

We can defeat complacency with love. If we begin to love God passionately, everything can change. But here's the thing, we have the inability to love God that much on our own. So, as strange as it sounds, we need to ask God to help us love Him. If we begin to do that, the routine fades away. Although we will still read our Bibles regularly and pray on a daily basis, it won't be a drill; it will be part of an ongoing relationship and conversation with God. And THAT'S a spectacular thing. 

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."
John 10:10 

"This might hurt, it's not safe
But I know that I've gotta make a change
I don't care if I break
At least I'll be feeling something

‘Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don't wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything 
Instead of going through the motions?

No regrets, not this time
I'm gonna let my heart defeat my mind 
Let Your love make me whole
I think I'm finally feeling something

‘Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of this life

‘Cause I don't wanna go through the motions 
I don't wanna go one more day
Without your all consuming passion inside of me

I don't wanna spend my whole life asking 
What if I had given everything 
Instead of going through the motions?"

~"The Motions" by Matthew West

The Paradox of Christianity

The never ending staircase, an example of a paradox

 par·a·dox  (pr-dks) n. 
1. A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true



For many of us, we have had the basis of Christianity drilled into our heads at a young age. The Bible stories, the message of salvation, and the little nuances, phrases, and such are part of our everyday lives. Even if you weren't brought up in a Christian household, church culture is probably quite familiar to you because of the way it has penetrated our society. So, if I were to tell you that Christianity is unbelievably complex and mind-blowing, you might just brush it off. That's what I've been doing over the past few months. For me, things outside of my realm of understanding are very uncomfortable. So, I've been trying a horrible experiment; unconsciously, in my mind, I've been trying to minimize my faith into a feasible, neat little box.
But then, I started studying the book of Revelation with a group of my friends and I realized that true Christianity goes much, much farther than simple one-worded answers and formulaic approaches to our problems.

Christianity is a paradox.

Let me explain two of the hugest paradoxes that my friends and I have realized:

1. Christianity embraces grace and truth.
"For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." John 1:17
 
Truth is defined as conformity to fact or actuality. In a Biblical context, this means that truth is conforming to the truths stated in the Bible. What are some of these truths?
"When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,  envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God."
Galatians 5:19-21
This whole passage explicitly states a truth: people who do any of these things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Yet, God also addresses a seemingly opposite issue in the Bible: grace. 
Grace is defined as "mercy, clemency, pardon"
A very well-known Bible passage covers this idea:
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast."
Ephesians 2:8-9
So somehow, there are these two concepts, truth and grace, sitting side-by-side in our faith. Wow. 

2. Joy and Suffering
"You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit."
1 Thessalonians 1:6

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
James 1:2-4

We are called to make the harder choice and starve our sinful natures, yet somehow this suffering is joyous...? Yet another paradox.

 So, what's the point of this confusion?
This is why: we need to feel uncomfortable. The moment we try to put Christianity into a formula or a set of instructions, we are losing all of this messiness. And I think that the messiness is supposed to be there because it reminds us that God is so much bigger than our understanding. It also lets us know that we need to be dependent on God in making decisions that involve any of these paradoxes. 
Why?
Well, try to answer these questions:
what is the balance between truth and grace? Should we as the church be condemning to sinners in truth or loving to them in grace? HOW MUCH should we accept from them?
How much suffering do we need to undertake to discover true joy? Is it wrong to enjoy things that aren't involved in suffering? Where do we need to go to step out of our comfort zones so we can begin the self-denial process? 
These questions all begin to arise if we start to think through the two paradoxes. But how do we answer them?
We go to God. We learn about His character and His desires for us. I think if we begin to do this, we can go forward in the Christian life in a radically different way. Instead of approaching everything with a formula, we can conquer everything in a case-by-case manner, going to God for help and guidance at every turn, yet preserving the messiness and confusion so we can always remember that our own understanding just doesn't get it.
That's why we need a God that's so much greater. 


"Lord of empty space
You breathe and then create
Before the earth was made
You are

The king of every age
Outside of time and space
The heavens speak Your name
You are
You are

Lord of brilliant light
You separate the night
And everything inside
You are

The one who calms the seas
And every part of me
With just a word you speak
You are
You are

So I give You all of me for all You are
Here I am
Take me apart
Well take me apart
Yeah I give You all of me for all You are
Here I am
Take me apart
Well take me apart now."
~You Are by Tenth Avenue North



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