The Reconstruction Revolution pt.2
Snap! The skin of the fruit gave way beneath his teeth. She reached with her finger and gently thwarted the descent of the trickle of juice down his chin.
“Do you think it will feel different right away?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. Putting her arm around his waist and gently tucking herself under his arm, she felt distant and insecure, not empowered and confident as she had hoped.——-
Our problem… from the garden… from the beginning of humanity… is that we succumb to the desire to determine right and wrong on our own terms. It’s the equivalent of the compass deciding where North is— gratuitous self-focus. It is such a fundamental problem that after David has indulged in outrageous acts of self-centeredness against Bathsheba and Uriah, he leaves us Psalm 51 as his song of contrition and as his prayer to God to give him what he needs so that this won’t happen again.
Psalm 51:12 is where we find a first massive piece of reconstruction for the future of the Church.
“Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” (NIV)
David knows firsthand, that the only way to experience joy in God is to continually be saved from himself daily. He doesn’t want to be north for his own compass. This is his desperate plea. But how can this be more than a one time thing? How can David be sustained in his battle against prize on a daily basis?
“Willing spirit” is a little tricky to translate. NKJV says “generous.” It is also translated as “noble” as in a lord being generous to his vassals. But the bottom line is there is a strong sense of generosity to this word! If David is generous, he won’t be his own reference point. He will be sustained in his battle against pride.
Please notice what I am not saying here! I am not saying that my taking note of pride’s invasion into all aspects of Christianity is a new discovery. What I am saying is that generosity as a means to combat pride is a rarely advocated pursuit. I don’t think that generosity even needs to be engaged in for its own moral requirement. I think, in our struggle against pride, that someone can be generous just as means to an end. For instance, if I am struggling with pride issues this week, I should force myself to pick up the check the next time I go out to eat with my friends. Generosity, even when it’s forced, takes the focus off of me as the center of my world. This is a very usable weapon in our war against pride.
Because pride is killing the Church. From the fully “Emerged” who is certain of no certitudes, to the authoritarian fundamentalist who is certain that moving away from the “church growth” model is killing the Church.
A desire for one’s own — whether it is pride over a hip, creative philosophy on life, or pride over full pews — is killing the Church. If we are going to make our way forward, If we are not going to be our own reference point in life, we have to use generosity as a means to kill pride. David knew that if he was going to avoid the same pitfalls that he had already committed, God had to speak sense of generosity into his heart.
This has to be our foundation. We have to give it away. Our power, our territory, our influence, our materialism…
The first act of reconstruction is the daily destruction of our pride… through generosity.
