Last week, while we were discussing on the preparations for our short mission trip to China in early June, I suggested that we could use Jacob for Sunday school material in an illustration for work-place theology. One of my friends did not like the idea, "Jacob, no...". Jacob is traditionally considered "bad" in Christianity. As I have mentioned before, I have always liked Jacob ever since I was a kid.
In an angel-soaked world, life itself is a spiritual discipline... What Jacob experienced as a fleeting, extraordinary encounter under the older covenant becomes a window on the permanent, continuous and universal inheritance of those who follow Jesus...
Angela help us to distinguish between the spiritual life and the "spiritualized life". Spiritualized life is an add-on: God talk, religious activity, a pious veneer and theological prattle-- talking about God, as Job's friends did. But spiritual life is God-inundated life in which people like Job-- who spoke well of God (Job 42:7) by speaking to God-- tell it all to God with holy boldness, communicating with God in the thick of life. This Jacob did. There is more to Jacob than mere deceit.
You can SEE Jacob experienced God in his life. Which more than some seemingly "pious" Christians or even pastors. You can see him grow in God. You can see God does not just love a "good" person. What he wanted is what we want-- to grab the control of our own life, even though things often escalate and get out of our control.
Maturity is not something that can be obtained through self-help books. high-powered seminars and consumer-orientated religion. It comes only in the long, thick experiences of life, seasoned by some of the hardest and most disappointing experiences, which if directed Godward, become the crucible for faith formation and true holiness. This can happen in our marriages (or singleness); it can also happen in the workplace.
Our God is not Wong Tai Sin. We do not believe in Him just because we are blessed. We learn to trust God in the hardest experiences. Jessel Takover, a Jew wrote this prayer while preparing for pogram,
I believe in you, God of Israel even if you have tried your best to dissuade me to believe in you... I die in peace but not appeased, embittered but not cynical, a believer but not pleading, a man who loves God but does not say Amen to everything... All this will do you no good. You have done everything to destroy my faith, yet I am dying precisely as I have lived, saying, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, one Lord. Into your hands, O God, I commit my spirit."
(Again the excerpts in purple are from the book Down-to-earth Spirituality, a book I've been sharing here with you.
Related sharings:
Eating- the Story of Esau
Faith)
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