Author: Lynn Green

The holiday season at the end of 2020 was a time of provocation!  I was provoked to think about family.  Family is a design feature of God’s creation that demonstrates his commitment to love and humility.  I will explain what I mean, but first, a story.

GOLDEN      

At the beginning of the Christmas celebrations, December 19^th to be specific, Marti and I celebrated 50 years of marriage.  I am still tempted to think that number is a figment of my imagination; I am simply not old enough to have been married that long!  Then I look in the mirror.

The day was not as it might have been because Covid restrictions were in place, which meant that the usual big celebration was not possible.  We knew our four children (can we still call them that when they are all in their 40s?), along with their spouses and children, were planning something that would be appropriate, but they kept it very quiet.  We were just told to keep the day free and they would be making dinner for us.

At midday, Mark and family arrived with the first course of the menu.  From then on for the rest of the afternoon, each of our other children, Michael, Stephen and Sharon arrived with the next course.  This enabled us to share that course with each of our children, their spouse and their children – one nuclear family at a time.  It was a day of pure joy!  During the day, and as we reflected on it later, Marti and I agreed that the disappointment of not seeing so many of our long-standing friends was compensated for by that condensed experience of family. 

AMAZING DESIGN

That wonderful experience provoked me/us in many ways; we reflected on God’s amazing creative design.  There would have been many ways God could have populated the earth, but he made us “male and female”—wonderfully, intricately, intimately complementary.

He designed us so that we would have the mysterious experience of deep attraction.  We have so many different names for it:  love at first sight, infatuation, having a crush and many more.  Each generation will have their own unique phrases for that moment when one person finds another romantically attractive.

IT WORKED FOR US!

I well remember when the final student arrived, right at the end of 1969, for the lecture phase of our School of Evangelism in Lausanne.  In my imagination, I still see her pausing at the doorway, evoking me to think, “Uh oh, I’m in trouble!”  That was because I had made a sort of promise to God that I would not get into any relationship with a girl for that year.  I had to decide whether my promise was a bit too impulsive or that I had to avoid this very attractive young woman.  I decided the promise was a bit rushed and shallow.  Within a few weeks I had proposed to her and she had said yes!

During our courtship, we talked about so many things and enjoyed the emotional, intellectual and physical process of becoming closer and closer. (Not too close, of course!)  One of the things we agreed on was that we wanted children.  That was another of the amazing design features God built into human beings.  We didn’t decide that after thinking deeply about sleep loss, expense, inconvenience, loss of some of our freedom, the challenges of raising several children with all their differences and different demands on our parenting.  We were responding to a deep, Providential desire to bring the result of our love into the world.

LOVE, SACRIFICE AND HUMILITY

As the children came along, we never had to remind ourselves to love them—at least not often!  We just did.  We were designed to do that.  We raised them to the best of our ability, often sacrificing some of our own desires along the way.  With the benefit of hindsight, we can see some mistakes we made, but parenting is partly designed to keep us humble.  Now, with great joy, we watch and help as they raise the 11 grandchildren they have produced.  We had sometimes been–at least a little– bored by grandparents going on about the joys of having grandkids.  Now we find we too can be incredibly boring to anyone who shows the slightest interest in our grandkids.

(That reminds me of a story I have been wanting to include in a blog.  An American friend was at a drinks party where he was making new acquaintances.  An English gentleman asked him a question and my friend went into a lengthy explanation of what he thought.  At the end of his monologue, his new acquaintance turned to walk away and remarked, “I’m afraid you have greatly overestimated the extent of my curiosity!”)  That’s just a warning that a bit of interest in our grandchildren can provoke a lengthy speech illustrated with photos.)

MULTI-GENERATIONAL FAMILY

Our family arrangement is unusual for modern life but was common for countless past generations.  We all live within about a mile of each other, so the three generations are together a lot.  Our children and grandchildren drop into our home to talk, mooch snacks, borrow tools, ask if we need anything from the shops, etc.  The three or four generational model was part of God’s design and it is full of richness and challenges.  We are so proud of our family and, at the same time, our family keeps us humble.

We can celebrate the accomplishments of one another, but a lot of grace, forgiveness and long-suffering is also required.  Our Creator designed family so that we could not escape the cost of loving relationships.  I have tried to think of one word that encompasses the qualities required to make family life thrive and the only one that does it justice is:  Christlikeness. 

LIVING PROPHETICALLY

Most of us will know people who have a good family life, but do not claim to be Christians.  They can only do so by developing the character qualities that Jesus incarnated.  Good character is within reach of people who do not have an active Christian faith, but how much better to be able to call on God’s grace, read his word and consciously follow Christ’s example!

In the Western nations, that is those that have been deeply, historically shaped by Christian values, family has been understood to consist of a man and woman in a life-long covenant relationship who usually produce and nurture children, who then go on to produce and nurture children and so on.  But for the past 30 years or so different minority groups have worked hard to undermine and change that description.  As a result, many governments have redefined marriage, gender has been separated from biological sexual identity, governments and other institutions have eroded parental responsibility for, and authority over, their children. 

The pain and confusion resulting from these attacks on family are being felt in many ways.  Children especially are suffering.  Depression, loneliness, suicide attempts, identity confusion, anger, hatred of parents and lawlessness have all increased exponentially.  A passage from the Bible describes these kind of days as “the last days”. And says:   

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God… “ (Timothy 3)

An anti-family revolution has been underway for several decades and has had much more “success” in my lifetime than I anticipated.  I am committed to a counter-revolution!  My strategy, along with my wife and family members is to pay the price to maintain loving family ties and to cling to God’s original design for a man and a woman building a family together.  Are you committed too?

Photo by Daniel Reche from Pexels

 

SJW.  Most people surely know that those letters are mean to describe people, mostly young, who are demanding change in our political, economic and social systems.  They are Social Justice Warriors (SJW) And they want that change NOW.

I am one of them—though I don’t fit the usual age profile.  I want change and I want it NOW.  I see injustices in every direction:  Some people get all the breaks and others get none.  A very small number of people control up to half of the world’s wealth while clean water, good nutrition, healthcare and good education are beyond the reach of hundreds of millions. 

That must change!

 

HOW?

So, that begs the question: “How should I go about achieving more social justice?”

The biggest, most effective social justice movement in history began at a worship meeting in a very small town in an insignificant province of a mega-empire.  It is a great story, one that has been written about countless times.  One of my favourite books about it was written by Tom Wright, The Day the Revolution Began.  I highly recommend it.

The original leader of that revolution stood up at a religious meeting and read the following passage from an author who was well known to the congregation: 

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me,
    for the Lord has anointed me
    to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to comfort the broken-hearted
    and to proclaim that captives will be released
    and prisoners will be freed.

This declaration of revolutionary intent was not lost on the audience.  They knew he was referring to the idea of jubilee, which was one of the founding values of their nations, but which had not been practiced.  It was meant to be a part of the social justice process commanded by God for the ancient nation of Israel.  It heralded a time when there was a complete reset of the national economy.  Land had to be returned to the families that had owned it 50 years earlier.  Slaves were set free.  Prisoners were released. When Jesus went on to say, in Luke 4,

“The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”,

the people knew revolutionary change was being proclaimed! 

Jesus of Nazareth went from that meeting and began to gather crowds across the region and the headline of his message was always the same: 

“Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”

THE REVOLUTIONARY STRATEGY

It doesn’t take much clever analysis to see that he had more than a revolutionary declaration; he also had a strategy.

I am writing this article after a day and night of violence in Washington DC. Supporters of President Donald Trump stormed Capitol Hill and broke into the Congressional building.  As I write it has been reported that one woman, according to her husband, was shot “in her neck” by a policeman and died shortly after.  It has been widely reported that three more people died, but no identity or cause of death has been mentioned.

Over the past year, mob violence in the USA has been recorded and broadcast more times than I can count.  Some of it has been labelled as “right wing” and some as “left wing”.  They each have demonstrated that they have a strategy; left and right are much the same on that count.  Their actions state that they want to destroy the current social/political/economic order with disorder, chaos, lawlessness and violence.  Whether they are from the left or the right, their aim is the same: undermine and dismantle the current system and then create a fairer, free and just society.

What are their chances of success? 

Crowds of violent revolutionaries are not new to human history and their rate of success is not encouraging.  When violence is the method, if they are successful then violent people end up with power in the new order and that spells tyranny.  Mobs do not attract capable, honest people of integrity and the leaders of mobs are intent upon gaining power for themselves, not for others who are more competent.

History is littered with the stories of violent men gaining power and then imposing tyranny—like Pinochet on the right and Stalin on the left.  I guess I could work with a couple of friends and come up with at least 100 illustrations of the point.

A BETTER WAY

Jesus’ method was to target the individual.  In his wisdom, he knew that individuals of good character can change political and economic systems, but good systems cannot change lawless individuals.

My generation of young people in the Western World inherited reasonably healthy systems, when viewed in the light of human history.  We can point out the weaknesses, as some academics are at pains to do, but we have had opportunities and prosperity that have generally been rare in human history, and that goes for people of all races, ethnicity and religions, though sometimes unequally so.  The systems we inherited needed, and still need, improvement and each generation has an obligation to take the good and make it better.  In both the United States, where I grew up, and the United Kingdom where I have lived for 5 decades, we have made more strides towards equality of opportunity.

But the best systems ever created will not survive a population that is dishonest, self-centred, hateful, immoral, greedy…. this list can be very long.  We are well down the road to destruction now.  Our politicians are often corrupt, as are our business leaders, our journalists and editors, and our media magnates.  Society has fallen for the oldest lie ever recorded, “You shall be as Gods…”, from Genesis 3.  The atheistic philosophers of the 1960s have triumphed. Now most people believe that they can decide truth for themselves and no one can tell them any different. 

While we have made systemic improvements, we have lost our grip on objective and universal truth.  The result of that is loss of trust in one another.  And, low-trust societies do not thrive.

TRUE TRUTH EXISTS

That ultimate revolutionary leader, Jesus, said, “I am the way, the TRUTH and the life.”  They way he lived, the way he loved, the values he taught are the true path to fair and just and prosperous societies.  That’s why I want my message to be the same as the one he declared.

Yes, I am a serious Social Justice Warrior. I want to see change, but I know it must be achieved one individual at a time. 

The Biblical narrative demonstrates that God’s order and rule is coming in its fullness, but until that day, we are to do all we can to implement his loving, kind and just ways in our societies, governments, families, economics and arts.  His message must be our message, “Repent of your sins and turn to God…” 

MULTIPLICATION WORKS!

That approach may seem to be too slow and insignificant, but it works through multiplication.  Every life that is truly transformed will act as light to others, so we can start with one and end up with hundreds of millions.  May His Method be our method and may the Holy Spirit demonstrate the power of the Gospel to thoroughly change lives!  Liberty and Justice for All!