Participating in the Drama of Redemption

 

Photo by Annie Gavin on Unsplash

Summer Post #1

Series "What is my motivation? - How to participate in the Drama of Redemption."

Intro

Much of life can be boiled down to our desire to extend our delights and minimize our sorrows. The fundamental question is how to go about accomplishing such a feat. We all are confronted by this question regardless of our cultural makeup and preferences; yep, no matter what we have accomplished or what we lack in life, no matter how we attempt to make sense of what's happening around us, we all are driven by the need and desire to find a satisfactory answer to this question.

Consider Whitman's poem...

O Me! O Life!

Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,

Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,

Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)

Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,

Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,

Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,

The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

                                       Answer.

That you are here—that life exists and identity,

That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

In this series of posts, we will address this question and provide a practical way to implement the different components of its answer. To reach our goal, we need to consider:

1. A realistic depiction of this life and of the approaching glory
2. The nature of being human
3. The Person & Work of the Triune God of the Universe 
4. Our need to celebrate His Person 
5. The call to participate in His Work

Even when the last post of the series will include a summary and practical instructions to implement the conclusions, each post will also contain a healthy balance of theological foundations and practical guidance.

I am not developing this series naively, thinking it will be easy to process or that it will not be offensive to our hyper-sensitive, pride-filled hearts. The reader needs to know that I am not exempting myself from what I am writing here; this is the truth, and as such, it applies to everyone. The good news is that also as the truth, what we discuss here can be verified.

The Beginning

Let us start with a definition,

drama

noun

An exciting, emotional, or unexpected series of events or a set of circumstances.

The drama that concerns us is what we call the totality of the here and now, all of reality, including this life and the approaching glory, and all of it is His Work. The foundation of this drama is that the Only True Living God, the Triune God of the Universe, is neither silent, inactive, nor hiding.

We, then, can know this God only because it has pleased Him to make Himself known - accepting this truth constitutes the first step for our participation in His Work, the Drama of Redemption. So, yes, you and I can know God, not totally but for sure, and not because of any of our attributes or accomplishments; we do not deserve to know Him, but He has condescended, and He has revealed Himself to us - in a way, we can understand and verify - because of His grace, goodness, compassion, and generosity.

Practicum

Nowadays, our culture, aided by our sin, promotes the idea of independence, of somehow pulling our own weight and, in doing so, demonstrating we are worthy of all the accolades success owes us. So then, extrapolating this idea, we wrongly conclude that we can similarly approach the Almighty, i.e., we can earn our way to God.

Now, consider the truth: We depend totally on His character and pleasure to know Him. What differences should this truth make in the way you approach all of life?