Understaning Our Need

Originally written - January 2, 2007

So this past week I have been in Winter Park, CO, acting as a leader for a camp called FOCUS (this is an acronym that stands for Fellowship Of Christians in Universities and Schools . . . pretty clever huh?) Let the record state that for those people who crack jokes like: do you focus at FOCUS?, I am done with you. I actually don’t dislike these people, but c’mon, do you really think that was that clever? Do you actually believe that no one has ever made that joke before? Let’s get serious. This happens all the time. My brother’s got a friend at school named Inigo, which immediately made me (and hopefully you) think of:

“My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die”.

However, knowing that he must get that shit all the time, I refused to make the joke directly to him, and decided instead to mention it in passing or to make fun of all the people who actually believe they were the first to make the connection. A good way to approach this problem is to say to the person: “I bet you get the Princess Bride thing a lot don’t you” or in the FOCUS case “how often do people tell you to focus at FOCUS”. Anyway moving on . . . to my real subject, and issue in mind.

The question is this: when are people convinced that they actually need to be saved?? What triggers this desire for a savior? More directly the question could be asked: what makes people need Jesus? Or think they need him?

The purpose of the camp I just finished is to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to students in high school. FOCUS’ mission is to make faith relevant to students, and for them to experience the Grace of God through fellowship with leaders and other Christians, worship (praying, singing, dancing, playing etc.), Bible Study and fun. One of the things I love so much about FOCUS is that I have the time of my life whenever I am a part of a program or hanging out with other people who are involved with the ministry. The bottom line for FOCUS is this (obviously with my personal bias): to experience the freedom, liberation, joy, truth and love of Jesus Christ alongside other people. The camp I just attended is known as an evangelical camp (not the terrifying evangelical camps that you hear about or read about, or watch movies about i.e. Jesus Camp) in that it presents the basic tenants of the Christian Faith and allows students the opportunity to accept or refute its claim to truth and its claim to their life. Instead of thrusting or heaving the message of Jesus onto people, such that they feel attacked or put on the defensive, FOCUS allows the truth to do the work itself. If God is real, and Jesus’ claims were true than these are enough, and no coercion or guilt are necessary for people to believe. Truth makes itself evident to people, and in the case of Christianity, I believe its truth speaks for itself.

So, if Jesus’ claims are true and God is, in fact real, than what makes people believe that they need Him. Many of the students that attended this camp hail from the upper crust of America. They attend the best schools, and are the children of wealthy and influential parents. In many ways they are brought up in the lap of luxury, with nearly all of their basic needs provided. (by basic I mean food, shelter, clothing etc.) FOCUS is a ministry designed for private school students (in the way that Young Life is for public school), and is presented with the challenge of proclaiming the necessity of Jesus to people whose needs are largely met. By no means am I declaring that private school students, or wealthier people in general, have no needs but that in a material sense they are usually quite comfortable. They usually have nice meals, big homes, new cars and cash at their disposal. The schools they attend equip them with the tools needed to succeed at the top colleges and universities in the world. These colleges and universities in turn supply them with the education and reputation needed to succeed materially in this world. SO, again the question remains: how do people come to realization that they need the grace of Jesus, especially if they don’t feel like they NEED anything. This is challenge. In the gospel of Matthew Jesus proclaims “that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”. The people who he says this to are confused and frustrated asking “Who then can be saved?”. He replies: “With man, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” So what’s the point of all of these implications? What does this mean? First I’ll tell you what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean that wealthy people are screwed and that they better sell all their stuff in order to gain salvation, nor does it mean that the students I have spent my time with the last week are doomed. What these verses do imply is that it is very hard for people who are in the “have” to accept their own brokenness and understand their need to be saved.

I have gone on two mission or service trips in my life, to Mexico and the Dominican Republic respectively. In Mexico we built two houses in Juarez for families who, in a material sense, had very little, even when compared to the other poorer people in the area. And in the D.R. we built the second level to a church located in a run down area of Santiago. In both cases I was shocked at the contentment of the people residing in these areas. More than anything else I hear from people returning from these trips is the surprise/shock/ awe they felt when meeting people who had so little, yet were so unbelievably happy. This calls into question, of course, the relation between happiness and possession. So many of us believe that happiness is directly tied to possessions, or to the security that wealth provides. The people who we provided this service for provided me, and the students/leaders who I attended these trips with, a view of true contentment found in Jesus Christ. These people were forced to actually rely on Jesus, and he came through for them. Obviously in these areas the threat of disease, poverty and early death are more real that in upper class America, but the hope that Christ provides for their future and for their immediate reality is enough to supply them with an abundance of joy, such that few wealthy people experience. This is not meant to be a commentary on the virtue of poverty or the vice of wealth. Rich people aren’t fundamentally worse than poor people. We are all in the same place when it comes to our shortcomings, failures and deficiencies. The difference between these two classes is that poorer people are in basic need. Whereas the rich have these provided for, the poorer simply don’t, which fosters the spirit of want, and the realization that God can and does provide hope.

People come to Jesus when they realize how much they need him. And they realize they need him when they don’t have their material needs provided or when they realize how fucked up their lives are. People don’t and can’t come to Jesus, and can’t accept the need they have for His cross until they come to grips with their own brokenness. This brokenness can stem from material, spiritual, psychological need. It can stem from the acceptance of ones own selfishness, cruelty, resentment etc. For me, I am in process of recognizing my own need. As stated in previous blogs, I am coming to terms with how much of an asshole I am and how pitifully short I fall in being the man that I want to be. My life, up until a few months ago carried very few pressures for me. Pretty much everything that I had had been given to me, as far as my basic needs, and I had spent my first four years of college not going to class and living only for myself. I knew that I was messing up, but I just didn’t care enough to try to fix it, or to rely on God to restore it. By no stretch have I completely changed; nor do I believe I ever will. All I can do is trust in Him who has provided me with hope for a better life, packed with meaning, truth and my salvation.

So, it is my understanding that in order for people to realize their need for God, they must realize their own “fucked up-ness” (I am copywriting this term). We are all a disaster, we are all failures, and we all have needs. These are more evident in people who don’t “have”, but still exist in the lives of the wealthy and provided for. Perhaps this is why it easier for people who are poor to approach the Cross. They know they need it. They know that only Jesus will provide hope and meaning for their lives. The wealthy have a more difficult time recognizing need because so many of them are addressed. But no amount of money, no car, no home and no job will no provide them with true meaning and the real hope of Christ. I don’t care who are or where you come from, everyone on earth wants truth and desires meaning: it is carved into our humanity. Possessions don’t provide this, and that’s why Jesus said what he said and did what he did. By accepting our need (the need for a savior) and humbly stepping towards the truth and hope of the Cross we find and fulfill this desire.

I have been consumed lately (since the summer) by this one line from Superman Returns. If you remember, or if you haven’t seen the movie I’ll explain the context, Superman leaves the earth to return home to Krypton. His love interest, Lois Lane, is a journalist and receives acclaim for her stories pertaining to the Man of Steel. Perhaps her most famous article is titled: “Why the world doesn’t need Superman”. So, upon his return, Lois is still resentful of Superman, in part due to her feelings towards him, and because of his obsession with helping others. This movie is not explicitly or implicitly Christian in many of its themes, but there is one scene which just kills me. Superman meets Lois on the top of her building and brings her up into outer space to observe the world below (I’ll leave alone the scientific implications ex: that its impossible to breathe in space etc.) We then hear the cries of people below who are in need and calling for help. Superman looks at Lois Lane and says “You say the world doesn’t need a savior, but everyday I hear the world crying out for one”. This just floors me, I get shivers down my spine when I think about it. The point of this quote, in reference to this entry is that we all need a savior. We all need Jesus: bottom line. And it is only when we accept our failure as people that we understand this. So for those people who’s needs are provided for remember: there will be a time when you are in need, and your hope will not be in people, jobs, homes, cars or money. Your hope is in Jesus . . . . and this is the truth.