CN | Rootedness: God Is Great, Glorious, Good & Gracious

Rooted in 2022: Remembering the 4 Gs of God Helps Reveal Glory of Jesus

For summer 2022, we are continuing our series Rooted: Whose We Are + Who We Are. This post complements the series as we look at whose we are. You are most welcome to join with us on Saturdays at 4 p.m. at the Fusion Center, 30 Tyler Prentice Road, Worcester to learn more.

"The human heart is an idol factory." Both Neitzsche (an atheist) and Calvin (a theologian) said this, two men who had very different views of God and the world, but spoke truth plainly and clearly.

More recently, author David Foster Wallace elaborated on this aspect of humanity in his famous "This is Water" commencement speech at Kenyon College:

Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god to worship is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure, and you will always feel ugly. Worship power, and you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need even more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. Look, the insidious thing about these forms of worship … is that they're unconscious. They are default settings.

So if all the things above result in worshipping the person in the mirror, which will only lead to my end, how does trusting in Jesus help me worship Someone who is actually worthy of my worship and will lead to a full life?

The 4 Gs of God: Good, Gracious, Great, Glorious

In his book Everyday Church, Tim Chester thoughtfully highlights four attributes, or "4 Gs," of God found in the Scriptures (ex. Psalm 145:5-8 include all 4) that help each of us evaluate how idolatry can shrink our life, and how ultimately Jesus is better. Below are the "4 Gs of God" Jesus continues to help us learn as we abide in Him, get rooted more and more in His grace, and are set free from worshiping something or someone that can eat us alive as we continue to get "rooted" in the One who not only frees us, but gives us and grows us in abundant love and life.

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.  

Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him. 

+ Ephesians 3:17-19; Colossians 2:6-7

(1) God is our Great Redeemer.

Jesus: Jesus is the Great Redeemer who can transform even what was meant for evil into something good; He leads me better than I can lead myself and sets me free from being enslaved to self protection.

Savior-Worship Response: God is more worthy of my worship because of His greatness to handle any situation and transform it, which means I can rest in His power to protect and provide.

Substitute Idol: I am my redeemer, which means I need to feel like I am in control in most situations in life, if not all, in order for them to turn out well.

Self-Worship Response: I don't tend to be very flexible with my plans, and I'm not much for taking risks for the sake of others. I'm very impatient with people if they don't follow my advice. I also tend to avoid responsibilities I'm not interested in or would have to sacrifice for, and tend to be overbearing with those who I think should be responsive to me.

Vince Larson, New City Shorthand: Proud? Where am I proud? How does God's greatness humble me instead to be free from needing to control?

(2) God is our Glorious King.

Jesus: Jesus is the King whose glory can be my main focus as He is with me always, so I get to be present instead of fight for attention.

Savior-Worship Response: God is more worthy of my worship because of His glory and presence with me always. I can be myself and don't have to live in fear of others. I get to give glory to others freely while being fully present with them.

Substitute Idol: In seeking my own glory, I am my own ruler or others' slave, which means I need consistent approval from others so that I don't fear what they think about me.

Self-Worship Response: I tend to avoid confrontation and crave acceptance. I behave differently around certain people and often hide my true self. Contentment with life is based on who has complimented me recently. 

Vince Larson, New City Shorthand: Scared? Who or what am I scared of? How does God's glorious presence always with me free me from being afraid?

(3) God is our Good Creator.

Jesus: Jesus is God's best gift for me as the Bread of Life and living water; satisfaction in His goodness is everlasting because He is making me everlasting as part of His new creation.

Savior-Worship Response: God is more worthy of my worship because of His goodness, which means I don't have to look anywhere else for my satisfaction.

Substitute Idol: I am my provider, which means I always tend to need to create or get the next best thing to be truly satisfied.

Self-Worship Response: Life is often wanting. I need another emotional, circumstantial, or chemical high to pick me up. I complain a lot. People around me often feel the burden of needing to meet my needs. I don't tend to be fully committed to anyone for very long, but I tend to get over committed to many things.

Vince Larson, New City Shorthand: Hooked? Where am I hooked? How does God's goodness free me instead to be content and celebrate what I have been given?

(4) God is our Gracious Father.

Jesus: Jesus was sent by His Gracious Father to perform every aspect of life perfectly for me, and His work on my behalf to reconcile me to God is completely finished.

Savior-Worship Response: God is more worthy of my worship because of His grace, which means I don't have to live to prove myself to others anymore.

Substitute Idol: I am my performance manager, which means I need to perform in life at a certain level to feel worthy of being accepted by myself, and others need to perform for me to accept them.

Self-Worship Response: If people don't thank me for what I do, I can emotionally manipulate them to make them feel guilty. I don't take criticism and failure well; in fact, these often crush me and/or make me defensive. You won't find me restful or relaxed when there's always something more I could be doing. And I'm either proud of my recent success or envious of others' which results in me being distant from those who have inexpressible joy. 

Vince Larson, New City Shorthand: Cold? Who or what am I cold to? How does God's grace warm my heart instead to be free to embody His love that endures all things, believes all things, hopes all things, bears all things?

Bonus post: Rooted in Gospel Fluency: Good Fruit from Root of Jesus

Christ is all,

+ Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

CN | He Saw That It Was Good: A Good Calling (Surge Intro)

 

He Saw That It Was Good by Sho Baraka

How can we bring what we do every day—no matter how humble—into the story of creation and redemption that God is writing so we can join Him in healing this broken world? + Sho Baraka

As we continue to prepare for the next Surge School, I have returned to The Seamless Life by Steven Garber as well as He Saw That It Was Good by Sho Baraka to offer people a glimpse of how we will walk through what it means to have a deeply formed life that connects your work with God's work, your story with God's story. 

Below are some quotes from Sho as you consider how Surge School might be worth your time, creativity, and investment in the months to come.

He Saw That It Was Good: A Good Calling Inspires Rich Contentment & Creativity

We've already been given a good role. One that requires us to act out the image of God as we find our place in His story and to give of ourselves to make this world a little less broken. What if, instead of coping and complaining, we chose to believe this? To believe that we have a part to play—no matter how humble our role seems on the surface? What if we found the bravery to faithfully create in response to our calling, no matter how humble that calling is? What if we embraced the daily opportunities we are given to invest our time and our talent in our work?

God is good. And one of the implications of being made in His image is that we were made to cultivate good (towb). We were made to work—not for mindless profit but for the benefit of the good world. To contribute to the welfare of creation.

Brokenness in society reproduces itself when we create from an identity smaller than the one God gave us, instead of reclaiming our rightful story. When we reclaim that truer story, our creativity and calling can bring us the richness of contentment.

Contentment ignites the observation that all things have intrinsic value by simply being what they are. And here's what happens when we really get that: contentment removes the obstructions that keep us from seeing properly. We see things as they are—ourselves, our work, and God ... I remember hearing a quote that captures the heart of contentment: 

"If God has called you to be a trashman, don't stoop so low as to be a king."

When you have a high regard for your work, you can change the climate around yourself. God is preeminent over prestigious positions as well as the "restrooms" (or sanitation trucks) we manage. Whether we work in a palace or a lion's den, God provides opportunities for us to reflect His character in our calling.

We are not limited by what we do but by how we do it.

When our creativity is grounded in worship, we become deeply content. Our contributions are not about prestige or production. They are about faithfulness. The attic or restroom that serves as our office may not be as high a call as we want (it's okay to have ambition and want to expand our horizons), but it's a call we can see as holy. The more honor we bestow on even those humble positions, the more our dignity is affirmed.

(For example), it's easy to dismiss sanitation work as just collecting garbage. But let's think about how many ramifications there are if a city doesn't handle its trash. Garbage will collect on street corners. The waste will increase the risk of pests spreading disease. A lack of sanitation puts higher pressure on health-care professionals. The city begins to lose its aesthetic appeal. As a consequence, the dirty city brings in less business. This diminishes the community's value, and people don't take ownership of where they live. The citizens begin to care less about their neighborhoods and schools. They invest less. And the cycle continues. Sanitation work affects the economy and quality of life of the whole city. Whether or not we desire such work is irrelevant. Devaluing virtuous work is to say that God is not present in that activity. That is an evil philosophy. A demonic theology. The ability to solve problems is a direct reflection of our connection to God, our Creator. That is a creative life.

Even in the most undignified or exploitative settings, there were people who used their God-given creativity to reclaim their human dignity. We need to look no further than American slaves singing spirituals on the horrid plantations or chain gangs using crafty cadences to remind them of their humanity. The melody of the soul silences the mockery of our surroundings. Music, like all art, is the memory of virtue. 

No matter our setting, with imagination we can dignify it. Remake this broken world, even just a little.

Worship is not restricted to churches or cathedrals. If we believe God is sovereign, then we must believe that what he has made has a good purpose. We must see good not solely as what is good for me but as what is good according to the narrative of God. Within the narrative of God, neither our talents nor our work has ever been limited to what pleases us. Work can be for provision. Work can be for pleasure. Work can also be for purpose—redemptive purpose. Good work helps repair the damage done when humans decided to swerve God as the preeminent architect of all creation. It reinforces the true story.

If your work is concerned only with wealth or upward mobility and not the well-being of others, then your God has become a slumlord. Work is not agnostic. Calling is spiritual. Every swing of a hammer is informed by an idea ... If we don't swing the hammer within the framework of our own convictions, then we swing it for the conviction of another. Are we creating with God's good vision in mind? Is our work building the kind of world that we see in the love and life of Jesus?

Very seldom in the Bible did people have the luxury of doing what they wanted. Many were called by God to fulfill a need. At times during this calling, the individual felt underqualified. This did not stop God from assigning him or her to the task. If anything, recognition of limitations makes a person more qualified for the job because of his or her dependence on God. Therefore, is it possible that our theology around calling should emphasize need over desire?

Here are some important questions to ask ourselves: 

Why has God placed me here at this time? 

What is the redemptive goal of my work? 

Am I working for the glory of God or the glorious dollar? 

God demonstrated the power of work and cultivation in Genesis. He hovered over the void and created beauty and meaning. As humans made in God's image, we have the ability to wake up every morning and create beauty and meaning too. Each morning is empty and without form. There is no narrative yet. We hover over the emptiness and make decisions to create. 

Will what we make be good?

+ Excerpts from pgs. 28-45 in Chapter 2: Good Call in He Saw That It Was Good: Reimagining Your Creative Life to Repair a Broken World by Sho Baraka.

An Invitation to Consider Surge School New England

If some of these thoughts intrigue you and stir curiosity and a hunger to learn more, consider participating in Surge School New England.

May God's Kingdom come, His will be done.
Jesús nuestra Rey, venga Tu reino! 🙏💗🍞🍷👑🌅🌇

Surge Quarterly Gathering of Table Groups

Next post: CN | Becoming Who We Are: Wrestling with God in Doubt

Here are links to other recent City Notes (CN) books:

A Time To Heal (Shalom); The Artistry of What's Next; Red Skies; Saintly Swagger; Story of God in a Sanitation Truck; Seeds of Hope in the Rain & the Dark; The Church is the Most Corrupt Institution on Earth; The Seamless Life

With presence, peace, and many blessings,

Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

CN | Becoming Who We Are: Wrestling with God in Doubt

"Jacob Wrestling with God" artwork by Ruelson Bruce Lee

Doubt, when it's wrestled into the presence of God, can become astonishingly beautiful and redemptive. + Dominic Done, When Faith Fails: Finding God in the Shadow of Doubt

Today, if you believe in God, are you in a season of doubting in the midst of the blood, sweat, and tears? And if so, are you game for wrestling a little longer through this cold, hard night together? Perhaps that's God's invitation to us all.

For this City Notes (CN) focused on when the night is long, sight is blind, and fear is a closer friend than faith, we are going to look at another adapted excerpt from Dominic Done's timely book, When Faith Fails, that's part metaphor, part story, part biblical theology, and something more. Also, look for the bonus conclusion from Matt and Julie Canlis' Godspeed.

Becoming a Luchador: Wrestling with the God Who Takes Us to the Mat

One day we may have an encounter with God that's vivid and undeniable, and the next we question it all.

For example, Jacob had a curious dream about ladders and angels (see Genesis 28:10-22). It was an unforgettable and mystical moment. Following this, however, Jacob immediately stepped into a tragic period of loss, loneliness, broken relationships, disappointment, and intense confusion about his calling ... By the time we reach Genesis 32, Jacob is consumed with doubt. 

This is the infamous story of the man who wrestled with God (ex. luchador in Spanish). It's fascinating to me that, of all the experiences Jacob could have had with God ... God took him to the mat. 

Why is Jacob full of doubt and wrestling with God? Fear of his brother had driven far from home, but his fraudulent past was quickly catching up with him. Jacob was intensely insecure, pretentious, and deceptive. But God perceived something more in him. Where Jacob only saw his failures, God saw potential—a future leader and a man of vibrant faith. It just needed to be unmasked. God had to strip away Jacob's facade and expose, humble, and change him once and for all. 

God has hidden every precious thing in such a way that it is a reward to the diligent, a prize to the earnest ... all nature is arrayed against the lounger and the idler. The nut is hidden in its thorny case; the pearl is buried beneath the ocean waves; the gold is imprisoned in the rocky bosom of the mountains; the gem is found only after you crush the rock that encloses it; the very soil gives its harvests as a reward of industry to the laboring ... and so truth and God must be earnestly sought. 

+ A.B. Simpson

They wrestled under the stars, and Jacob's strength was vanquished. His hip, thrown out of socket, burned; his body throbbed in pain. But even then, Jacob refused to abandon his grasp of God. Instead, he tightened his grip. "I will not let you go unless you bless me!" Faith isn't a choreographed script; it's a wrestling mat. It means taking all of your fears, sins, insecurities, and doubts and going head-to-head with God. And yes, you'll probably get bruised, broken, and lose your swag. But it's better to be an authentic mess before God than a fake religious person.

A faith that can't be tested can't be trusted. In Galatians 6:16, Paul says that we are "the Israel of God." In other words, because our spiritual heritage is full of people who wrestled with God, then we are called to be wrestlers, too. The only way that the Jacob in us can become Israel, the only way our faith can grow, is if we bring all of who we are to God. Everything. And that includes our doubts.

The British theologian Kallistos Ware said, "Faith implies not complacency but taking risks, not shutting ourselves off from the unknown but advancing boldly to meet it." Faith matures as it moves past the safe and predictable and into the dark, doubt-filled places. Faith refuses to reduce your dreams to the size of your fears. Faith doesn't hide from questions but passionately struggles with them.

Faith isn't about "inviting Jesus into your life," it's about stepping into His. Faith is when the real you surrenders to the real God.

Wrestling with God Stained Glass

Embracing the Luchador: Facing the God Who Asks You to Own Your Name

"What is your name?" (Genesis 32:27)

Why did God ask Jacob this? He knew what Jacob's name was. Something else is going on here. Like so much in the Bible, there are layers of meaning that push us past the surface. Here's what we uncover: God asked not for His sake but for Jacob's.

God wanted Jacob to own his name. He wanted him to stop pretending and open himself up to truth and grace. For years, Jacob had been living a life of deceit, running from God and others. He wasn't ready to come to terms with his Jacob-ness. So God called him out. God wanted Jacob to be honest about who he was, so he could make him into who he needed to be. The same thing is true for you and me. God wants to change us, refine us, and call us Israel, but that can only happen if we're willing to go to the mat and hold nothing back. 

That means having the guts to tell Him our name. 

It means being brutally honest about our doubts. 

It means peeling off the mask to let Him see who we really are.

It's impossible to wrestle with someone and not get uncomfortably close. Within seconds, you'll feel their hot breath on your face, their muscles tensing around you, their veins pounding against your skin. Wrestling with God feels the same way. He wants you to experience His presence ... He wants you to sweat, struggle, and strain. But, most of all, He wants you to be real.

Of course, this is just another way of describing prayer.

True prayer is feisty, untamed, won't-take-no-for-an-answer wrestling with God. True prayer weeps, shouts, groans, and actively waits for God to show up. Prayer is speaking truth about and over our doubts. Prayer is the space of expectation between your doubts and God's healing. According to the philosopher Peter Kreeft:

"Prayer is a way of opening up your soul so that more of God can enter." ... So when you encounter doubt, breathe it out. Give it to God. Then ask Him to fill you with Himself. First Peter 5:7 says, "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you." All your anxiety. That kind of prayer is deeper than authenticity; it's vulnerability. Authenticity says, "This is who I am. Accept me." Vulnerability says, "This is who I am. Change me." Vulnerability values transformation over affirmation. Vulnerable prayer breaks the defensive shell to lay open what lies beneath. Vulnerable prayer means giving God the space to patiently lead us to the place where healing can begin.

Being a Child of God: Saying, "Here I Am" to the God Who Loves You

"The angel of God said to me in the dream, "Jacob." 

I answered, "Here I Am." 

+ Genesis 31:11

Two wrestling matches bookend Jacob's "Here I am" ... Both matches begin in darkness, take place in or near water, and end in being named.

The 1st wrestling match is in his mother's womb. "Jacob" means "heel-grabber" or "trickster" because Jacob was born grasping his brother's heel. Jacob spends the first half of his life grasping whatever he can by whatever means.

The 2nd wrestling match is at night, beside a river. Here Jacob wrestles with an angelic figure whom he puts into a vice-grip, demanding a blessing. But more than merely blessing him, the strange figure renames Jacob "Israel" (which means "wrestles with God") "because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome (Genesis 32:28).

When God redeems us, he doesn't start over from scratch. Jacob is called to be who he is—the wrestler (i.e. luchador) God first created and is now redeeming him to be. That's why Jacob's new name, Israel, is different from but congruent with his original name. It's also why God's participation in your future story will one day redeem your whole history. 

Here I am ... wrestling with God. 

We are God's long labor of love—a labor God started by knitting us together in our mother's wombs, a labor God will bring to fruition as we are born again in Christ. The particular person God first created you to be is the same one He wants to redeem! 

Saying "Here I am" to God means letting God make us more fully who He first intended us to be. What are you wrestling with God about? As you wrestle, take comfort in knowing that this may be part of His plan to rename you. Being renamed doesn't mean losing who we are; it means losing who we are not. It means becoming who God first conceived, who Christ redeemed, and who the Spirit is now recreating us to become.

+ adapted excerpts from Chapter 9: The Luchador in When Faith Fails by Dominic Done and Wrestling with God: Jacob in 40 Days at Godspeed by Matt Canlis

+ Next post: CN | Taste Grace w/ Langston Hughes in World of Seculosity

+ Bonus listening: Becoming Who We Are Album by Kings Kaleidoscope

Here are links to other recent City Notes (CN) books:

A Time To Heal (Shalom); Red Skies; Story of God in a Sanitation Truck; The Artistry of What's Next; Days of Song on Spot of Scorched Earth; Seeds of Hope in the Rain & the Dark; The Church is the Most Corrupt Institution on Earth; The Seamless Life; A Good Calling; Inisheer Island

With presence, peace, and many blessings,

Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us