Adrenalin and Novocain

This is excerpt from my book with the working title: Faith Like a Child

Life stinks! It isn’t fair! This kind of stuff always happens to me! Do those phrases sound familiar? That’s because they’re true and somewhere deep inside we instinctively know there is something not quite right about life. That not quite right something is sin. Of course personal sin is a huge factor in each of our lives, but it is the overall sin of the world that affects life in general. …through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned – Romans 5:12 In the moment Adam sinned he transformed our world, interfering with the purpose for which it and we were created. The current state of our world was never the intention of God, rather His intention was to walk in the cool of the day with Adam and have fellowship with man. However we have the choice because God forcing us to love Him is like mom forcing you to kiss smelly Aunt Margaret. Even though you might do it, you don’t really mean it. However, through the freedom of that choice, sin entered the world and with it death which has a continual disintegrating effect. Can you imagine the Earth with no death, with no decay, a world where nothing perishes? Yet we wouldn’t dare to point our fingers because we each deny God in some way everyday, seeking after our own things and we would have behaved in the same manner as Adam.

Like Adam each day we engage in the battle between God’s good and perfect will for our lives and the sin that works to erode it. In the book of James it is clear that sin arises as each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed (1:14) When you break down temptation into its simplest form, it is just choosing what you want over what the Father wants. The concepts of obeying, sacrificing and waiting are lost in this instant, microwaveable, fast food, disposable everything world. As I was snowboarding one day, I overheard two guys discussing which runs they should take and what jumps they would like to hit. In the end of the conversation as they began to ride away one said to the other, “You choose man, it’s you’re your life, I’m just living in it.” Riding away in another direction I couldn’t help but be amazed by the profound simplicity of the statement and its implications on the Christian life. Particularly because snowboarders are not known for having brilliant things come out of their mouths. Try to imagine that conversation between yourself and God. Is it your life and God is just living in it or are you struggling everyday to live in a life that belongs to Christ? Often times rather than living our lives centered on God’s will, we live it self-centered. We frequently get caught up in the media driven I’s, me’s and mine’s of life and when we allow our own agenda to push out God’s calling, the seeds of sin are planted.

Sinful is an ever-present adjective used to describe our sorry existence as we scratch our way through the dark valleys of this life. And so we try to distract ourselves in one of two ways, the first of which I refer to as Novocain. We make vain attempts to numb ourselves to the pain and frustration that is inevitable in this life. Drugs and Alcohol are probably the most common examples of people using substances to escape and the damaging effects of such behavior are clear. No matter how many times you check, the answers to life’s enduring questions can never be found in a puff of smoke, a baggie of powder or at the bottom of a bottle. But I would like to bring to the surface some other seemingly benign diversions. For me a couple of the easiest ways to flee from life are to sleep or catch a movie. For many of my friends I’d like to throw in playing video games, anything that helps us to be distracted from the problems pressing in. Not that these thing are bad in themselves but when they replace daily devotionals, fellowship with other believers or healing and dependence on God’s spirit, suddenly we have allowed the decay of sin to take over our life in Christ.

So how do we break the cycle of injecting Novocain into our lives, attempting to numb the hurt and dull troublesome thoughts? We have to realize two things the first of which is that we should feel blessed that our lives are a struggle. In Romans it is clear that ...we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. (5:3&4) When (and notice I didn’t say if) we have struggles in our lives it shows we have been found worthy. We are found worthy to be attacked by the enemy, Satan, which means that he must find us to be a threat, but more importantly we have been found worthy by Christ. This however is not by any greatness of our own but instead it is more like a sculptor choosing a stone to work with, the beauty lies in the shaping of his hand and all the rock has to do is be willing to be shaped. That is what trials are in our lives, God’s chisel tearing away our rocky exterior to expose His image in us. As we patiently endure His shaping, the character of the rock is revealed and in the strength of that character which God has given us we find our hope. Not only is this shaping the source of our hope in Christ but it is also a source of God’s enjoyment which is why He takes the time to involve Himself in our lives. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure - Philippians 2:13. The other thing we have to realize is that trials give us a unique opportunity to share in the sufferings of Christ so that we can join our lives with His. Rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy – 1 Peter 4:13. When we suffer as Christ suffered we are gradually conformed to His image and in these experiences we grow in our understanding of the savior. Yet, the key is to go through the suffering and grow out of it, not to hide ourselves away and avoid this invaluable experience. Hope and blessing are probably not the words that echo through your heart in the midst of tribulation, but let me remind you of this promise from Romans.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us – 8:18

The second distraction I call Adrenalin and it is just the opposite of Novocain, rather than attempting to dull the sensations of a painful life it is an attempt to fill an empty life with sensation. I make no bones about being an adrenalin-junky. Whether it is riding close to 70 miles an hour and flying upwards of ten feet in the air on my snowboard or dragging my toes through a turn on my motorcycle, I love to do things that get my heart pounding. But there is a fine line between fun and foolish and a few months ago when I took my bike up to 150mph on a road near my house, I’m sorry to say it was not my finest moment. So often we pull things into our lives to in a vain attempt at fill the gnawing emptiness we find within. These things take on so many forms such as hobbies, work, possessions, money, and relationships all in an attempt to fill our heart with fun, worth, status, happiness, and love. Again these things aren’t inherently bad but out side of a growing relationship with the Creator we find them to be the exact thing we were trying to fill, emptiness. In James we find that strife comes from the desires for pleasure that war in your members (4:1). Everyday we struggle to stuff life with enjoyment, sugarcoat it, then wrap it in a Disney-style happy ending and when we fail frustration and despair inevitably ensue. I hate to be the one to break it to you but the life of self is not good and is rarely sweet, particularly when such sentiments are our goal. We convince ourselves that if we feel good we are good though in actuality there is none who does good, no not one – Romans 3:12.

So than how do we fill the need for Adrenalin in our lives without stuffing it with more emptiness? Christ came to give us life, and not just the pitiful, scraping by type of life but that we may have it more abundantly – John 10:10 He provides the only life worth living and that life is powerful and amazing. The power that was used to raise Jesus from the dead is the same power that gives us life in Christ. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you – Romans 8:11. Everything this world has to offer is a worthless proxy designed by Satan to rob us not only of the gifts God desires to give us but also to cheat us out of the blessing of serving God’s kingdom rather than ourselves. Every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights – James 1:17. It seems to me that the most important key to finding true fulfillment in this life is to discover what you were created for and do that everyday to the best of your ability. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before hand that we should walk in them – Ephesians 2:10. We are created by the Master Craftsman to be used for good works, yet we allow our sin and selfishness to make us ineffective. If we are willing, God wants to use us as a tool to accomplish His work that He already has in mind. The plan for us as His children is that of the most fulfilled, perfect life which is better than we could ever hope for. God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
– Ephesians 3:20&21