The Parable of The Indistinguishable Children

24¶He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field,

25but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.

26So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.

27And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’

28He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’

29But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.

30Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, "Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.""

36¶Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.”

37He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.

38The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,

39and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

40Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.

41The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,

42and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

I've known this story since I was a little girl, and there was one discordant thing about it that always puzzled me. It seemed to me that Jesus got the explanation wrong! I know, that's absurd, but let me explain why I thought that, and why now I finally see he was, obviously, correct.

I always saw this as a parable that was specifically about "the church." If I had a time machine I would go back to see whether or not it was actually taught to me that way. Regardless, that's what I have always pictured when I read it. 

In my head the story was about Satan planting fake believers in the "church" (or what I thought was "the field" in the story) and God saying they should not be rooted out of the "church" until the "end," because of the possibility of accidentally uprooting some of the actual believers. 

As a result, every time I read Jesus' own interpretation of his parable, I found it jarring to see that he said the field was the world. After that jolt, however, I would just shrug and keep thinking of it as a parable about "church," without ever stopping to ponder. 

Until now. 

Let's look carefully at Jesus' interpretation.  Jesus says that he, himself, plants the true believers, his own children, those belonging to his kingdom, in the world. Then, the Devil comes after and plants his children  among them. As they grow (time passes) the Devil's children are, outwardly, virtually indistinguishable in the world from the children of Jesus.  

Jesus resists the idea of trying to remove the Devil's children before "the harvest" (or the "end of the age"), because of the potential of harming some of the true children in the process. 

The plan that Jesus has is to wait until "the end of the age", or the end of time on this old planet, and then to finally send his angels to gather up the Devil's children to be thrown into the "fiery furnace." A grim end indeed!

This is a story of Christ's kingdom specifically within the setting of the world at large. Although his people are everywhere, the world is not able to distinguish between the true and the false children. The startling thing is that this does not trouble Jesus! At least not in the sense that seems most logical, and is represented in the story by the servants who are outraged at the deception and want to immediately root it out. 

Counterintuitively, Jesus' concern was for those true children who might be harmed by the premature removal of the devil's children! What does that even mean? 

I believe it means that, along the way, some of those in the world who are on their way to belonging to the true children of Jesus are initially deceived by the devil's children. They identify themselves with them. If Jesus allowed the imposters to be uprooted too soon, there would be people caught up in that number who did not truly belong with them, and he won't allow that to happen. When the time known only to God finally arrives, all of his true children will know the truth and will be where they belong. 

This actually gives me hope and comfort. My natural fear is that the very existence of people who call themselves Christians, but who are really children of the Devil, will cause people to be confused and lost. 

The reality is that God is the one who calls and draws his own.  Salvation is not a matter left to us to discover on the strength of our own intellect. It is revealed. It is gifted. On our own, not one of us would ever figure it out. (See Romans 3:9-18, John 6:37, 39-40, 44-45, 65.)

Why do I find that fact and this parable, that is not about the "church", per se, encouraging? 

Because in this parable, there is no institution, no organization whose reputation and purity must be protected! There are simply children of the kingdom planted throughout the world who belong to Christ, and most importantly, they are basically passive. They do nothing but simply grow until the harvest!!

The only ones acting in this parable are Jesus, the Devil and, at the end, the angels.  In the end, the children of Jesus emerge unscathed, while the imposters meet their fate. The story reveals that things were always well in hand, even when they appeared to be out of control. 

In verse 43 of Matthew 13 we see that the children of Jesus are called "the righteous", not because of what they have done,  but because of what Jesus did for them, earning by his blood the right to confer that status upon them! Jesus says that his children, "will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

He then concludes with the admonition, "He who has ears, let him hear." As uncertain as these times may seem, we can hear and rest in the truth that, despite appearances, Jesus has all things under control.

Maybe We Don't All Have to Get Along

My heart was heavy for a number of different reasons as I drove to the funeral of a dear friend.  I had put on Handel’s Messiah as I often do when I need comfort.  For me, nothing else quite encapsulates the power and hope of the gospel story, from beginning to glorious end, as that masterpiece does. 

A part of my sadness that day was the confusion I felt about the terrible division within Christianity over strong opposing convictions in the political arena. How could people I love, people who solidly agree with me on the central tenet of the gospel--that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone—position themselves at the opposite end of the political spectrum from where I was? I felt near despair as I pondered this rift, which also felt like a kind of death. 

As the miles passed and the music played, my thoughts turned to Jesus and his disciples. Jesus carefully selected those who would be his closest followers. They came from all walks of life and all points of view, but the most striking contrast, to me, was between Matthew and Simon.

Matthew himself seemed to highlight that difference in his list of apostles:

“The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;  Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.” Matthew 10:2-4

Aside from Judas, who was described starkly as the one “who betrayed him", all the other disciples were described simply by a family relationship, like brother or son; but, Matthew chose to identify himself as a tax collector and Simon as a Zealot. 

As far as politics go, you could not get much farther apart than a tax collector and a zealot. 

Tax collectors, under Roman occupation, were typically Jews who were colluding with the Roman oppressors. They were hated and viewed as traitors by their own people because they grew rich by forcing their fellow Jews to pay more than the already exorbitant taxes owed to Rome and then they kept the excess for themselves. 

If most Jews hated the tax collectors, the zealots utterly despised them. The zealots were a Jewish political movement who sought to incite the people of Judea to rebel against the Romans and expel them from their land by force. Tax collectors were collaborators with the enemy, so they were especially heinous in the eyes of the zealots. 

So, why would Jesus choose one of each?

The stock religious answer would probably be, to show that no matter who you were before Jesus found you, his love has the power to transform you.

I have another take.  Maybe the whole point is that, while we may see things completely differently, every one of us badly needs Jesus, and he wants us all. 

It’s not as if the minute Jesus picked out his group they all immediately joined hands, sang Kumbaya and began to live happily ever after. 

The primary picture we get of the disciples is of them asking Jesus dumb questions, missing the point of almost everything he said and fighting with each other over who was going to be the greatest in the earthly kingdom he had no intention of establishing. 

It appears that all of their time spent with him barely did anything to change them for the better. At his death, they still all ran away and hid. 

After his resurrection, they spent forty days with Jesus where he presumably explained some things to them, yet, when they all stood on the Mount of Olives together, the very last question they asked him was:

 “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Acts 1:6. 

They still didn’t have a clue!

“He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” Acts 1:7-9

After his ascension, they stayed in Jerusalem, as he had instructed them, and the Holy Spirit did, indeed, come upon them. We might think that, from then on, the ‘happily ever after' stage had finally arrived. 

We’d be wrong.

Peter had to be confronted because he was discriminating against the new gentile Christians whenever the Jerusalem representatives were in town. 

Paul and Barnabas split up because Paul didn’t like Barnabas's nephew,  Mark. 

People became groupies, saying ‘I’m for Paul’, or ‘I’m for Apollos’.

There was a Circumcision faction.

Some ate meat offered to idols. Others would rather die first.

The point I’m making is, there was never that Shining Moment when every Christian was in total, happy agreement.

And maybe that’s okay.

I know what you’re probably thinking, because it’s what I was thinking as I was driving pensively down the road. “But what about love? What about how people are supposed to know that we’re Jesus' disciples by the way we love one another?”

So, here’s the thing. For the most part, the disciples quickly stopped hanging out together, and went off to find the ones with whom they were meant to be. 

Maybe Matthew spent his time with a lot of former or even current tax collectors. Or maybe he talked to people who struggled with a need to feel powerful or wrestled with greed. Or maybe he talked to the poor who had been robbed by others like himself. 

Regardless of who his group was, his mission wasn’t so much to tell them how he had been changed and how they could change too, as it was to communicate that he understood the helplessness and the self-loathing they felt and to reveal to them the secret that would give them hope. His task was to use whatever common ground they shared to give them the only true answer, which is Christ.

Maybe Simon talked mainly to his fellow zealots, or, talked to those who lived in fear of the oppressors. Maybe he talked to those who thought the answer to their safety lay in their weapons. Or maybe he traveled far and wide, standing with the oppressed against the oppressor. 

His mission wasn’t really to tell people to stop caring about and fighting for justice and freedom, his task was to relate to them and share Christ, the one who came to truly set the captives free, perhaps even as they stood together, shoulder to shoulder.

Maybe the disciples didn’t actually have to like each other and see eye to eye on everything. Their differences might have been grating and irritating to each other, but, perhaps, that was inevitable, intentional and even beneficial. 

Maybe the plan was just for them to go out and find their “people” and love them, so that all of the different people out in the world would have the joy of  discovering that Christ was even for them, and that they weren’t so alone after all. 

Perhaps, if we believed that differences were okay and that belief in Christ was the only thing not up for debate, then we could let go of being “right” on the rest and just live and let live. 

“What if that’s the kind of love for one another that let’s the world know we belong to Christ," I thought, “the one that blesses each other’s differences, even the big ones, as we agree to send each other off to find the people to whom we are most drawn?”

And the choruses swelled with hope. Hallelujah. 

Worthy is the Lamb.  

Amen.

The Angels Did Not Lie

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”                            –Luke 2:14

“And in despair I bowed my head
There is no peace on earth I said
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men"

 – I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day based on a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I was listening to Christmas music the other day as I was making Dutch Apple Pie for Christmas, when the song, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day came on.  The words in the verse above struck me with even more force than they usually do.  I stopped my peeling and chopping for a minute to think about the seemingly insurmountable amount of division and ill will in the world right now.  The song continued to its crescendo of hope, but I was left pondering the seemingly failed promise of “Peace on Earth.”  Did the Angels lie, I wondered.  Where was this illusive promised peace?  Had it ever existed in human history?

The next day I happened to see a post where someone quoted Luke 2:14.  I stared at it and thought that it was misquoted.  I was raised with the King James translation of that verse which ends with, “And on earth peace, good will toward men.”  This English Standard Version rendering of the words jarred me.  

This peace, of which the Angels sang, was promised specifically to “those with whom [God] is pleased!”  If I didn’t know the gospel, I would have thought, ‘Well, that explains everything!  There may be a couple of people out there with whom God is pleased, but they are the only ones who have peace.  The rest of us are out of luck!’ 

I do know the gospel, however, and suddenly my spirits lifted.  The “peace” Christ came to bring is not the same “World Peace” for which every beauty pageant queen has wished.  It is the peace between God and man.  The very “Shalom” of God. 

It is the lost peace spoken of in Isaiah 48:18,                                                                                                “Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!

    Then your peace would have been like a river
    and your righteousness like the waves of the sea….”

It is the promise of restored peace as found in Isaiah 66:12

"For thus says the Lord:

‘Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river,
    and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream;
and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip,
    and bounced upon her knees.’”  

It is the peace, the reconciliation, that could only come through the one human with whom God has ever been well-pleased, his Son.  That baby, about whom the angels sang, was the only one who ever “paid attention” to the commandments of God and whose righteousness was like the waves of the sea.  His obedience alone allowed the river of peace to become an overflowing stream to the nations.  

The Angels’ song may not have promised the universal peace on this earth for which we long, but that unfulfilled longing points to its ultimate fulfillment for all who take refuge in Jesus, the promised Messiah.  First, in him, we receive, right now, our peace with God and from that peace we have the assurance that we will one day enjoy an eternity of peace in the earth made new.

Get Your Story Straight

I’m a story kind of gal.  I understand life best through stories.  Donald Grey Barnhouse reportedly said, “All of life illustrates bible doctrine.”  I have always taken that to mean that everything I experience in life can be put into story form to illustrate something about scripture.  The flaw in this reasoning is that my story will always be colored by my understanding, or lack, of the reality of what scripture actually says.

For a good part of my life, I read bible stories and most other stories, with a moral point of view.  I was either the hero or antihero.  The story illustrated the kind of person I should or should not be but, either way, it was all about me.  Then, when the gospel found me, I suddenly saw that I had been reading those stories all wrong.  The gospel taught me that Jesus is the hero of every story.  Even the best of human beings can be only a dim light pointing to the brilliant light of Christ.  The only parts that were about me were the anti-hero parts, and their purpose was not primarily to show me how to be a better person, but to open my eyes to the kind of person I really am and, thus, to my need of a savior.

We have a recliner that sits right in front of the picture window in our living room, but we seldom sit in it, preferring the sofa or the loveseat.  The other day, however, I plopped down in the chair and looked out, and there, right at eye level, was a cardinal sitting in a nest, looking back at me.  It was a relatively small bird, and, because it was hot outside, its beak was open.  “Oh, it’s a baby,” I thought, “and it’s probably waiting for the parents to come feed it. 

I was sad that I had missed the entire chapter where the egg or eggs hatched and where the babies cheeped incessantly and the poor parents had to make endless trips to meet the demands for food.  I was glad, though, that I would at least get to witness the last few days of this little one’s time in the nest.  It definitely looked ready to leave at any time. I did see a male cardinal zoom past a few times, but never witnessed the bird being fed. 

Then, a day or so later, I peeked out the window and saw that the nest was empty.  I don’t know a lot about birds, except their habits at my bird feeding station, but my husband, who knows a bit more than I do, informed me that once birds leave the nest, they do not return, so I resigned myself to the fact that the baby was gone.  However, later that day, the baby was back in the nest.  My husband was surprised, but not too worried.  I, on the other hand, immediately assumed that something was wrong.  The baby just sat there, with it’s mouth open, waiting, and as far as I could tell, no parents were coming to feed it. 

By then I had done some reading on birds leaving the nest, and I now knew this was highly unusual.  I began checking throughout the day.  Sometimes the bird was gone, and my hopes would go up, but it always quickly returned.  I confess that I sometimes stood near the window and talked to the bird, who couldn’t really hear me, but always looked right at me as I spoke.  “What are you doing,” I asked.  “Are you okay?  You really need to learn to feed yourself now.  It’s pretty clear that your parents are finished raising you.  You won’t last long if you keep coming back here and sitting in the nest all day.”

You can easily see how my advice to the bird and my penchant for stories that illustrate bible doctrine was lending itself perfectly to the moral storyline: "God has given us everything necessary to succeed in the Christian life, but we can’t expect him to baby us forever.  There comes a time when we each must  learn to fly and take responsibility for our own spiritual lives.  We need to stop returning to our little nests and go out into the world sharing what we have learned." Right?

But, remember the flaw, that my story will always be colored by my understanding, or lack, of reality? 

After several anxious days, I had a sudden shift in my understanding.  “Wait a minute,” I said to the bird, “What if you’re not a baby who won’t leave the nest?  What if you’re actually a small mother bird sitting on your eggs?”  The cardinal stared back at me.

It has been about a week now.  The small mother bird sits vigilantly in her nest, leaving only briefly to get food.  Yesterday, she and the male cardinal valiantly chased off a flock of birds who dared to land in the tree.  She is protecting those eggs with her life.  The baby birds inside those eggs are contributing nothing to their growth and safety.  Their nurture and care is total.  And, even after they hatch, their every need will be met.  The babies will still be utterly dependent. 

I was reading the story wrong.  It wasn’t about me and my responsibility, or you and yours.  As always, it was about God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—who incubates us, protects us, nurtures us and nourishes us.  It is about our utter helplessness and vulnerability, and how our needs are abundantly met through his provision, not our own. 

How precious is your

Steadfast love, O God!

The children of mankind

Take refuge in the shadow

Of your wings.

They feast on the

Abundance of your house,

And you given them drink

From the river of your delights.

Psalm 36:7-8

Solid Ground

Emotionally uprooted,

Not sure where I belong.

The things I once was sure of

Now suddenly seem wrong.

Unmoored, adrift and frightened,

No solid ground in sight.

I wonder where I'm going

And who will heed my plight.

Alone, unheard, unnoticed,

Afraid to lift my voice,

Afraid to be disparaged,

Afraid to make a choice.

Distressed, ashamed, remorseful,

Embarrased at my state.

I'm not sure how I got here

Or what will be my fate.

I lay my case before God,

And ask for his regard.

I tell him of my sorrow,

How life is just too hard.

I wonder, will he hear me,

Or will he turn away?

Will he be disappointed

At what I had to say?

I bow my head in silence

And wait for his rebuke,

Knowing that his charges

I'm too tired to dispute.

"My child," he gently whispers,

"I know you feel alone.

I know you feel uncertain

As you're facing the unknown.

"But know that I am with you,

I am your solid ground.

You feel as though you're missing,

But you are truly found.

"I see you and I hear you,

I know your every tear,

And I will never leave you,

There's nothing you need fear.

"My love for you is endless,

Dependent on my Son.

You cannot ever lose it,

That battle has been won."

In Light of the Vertical

 Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees,
    and the writers who keep writing oppression,
 to turn aside the needy from justice
    and to rob the poor of my people of their right,
that widows may be their spoil,
    and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
What will you do on the day of punishment,
    in the ruin that will come from afar?
To whom will you flee for help,
    and where will you leave your wealth?
Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners
    or fall among the slain.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
    and his hand is stretched out still.  Isaiah 10:1-4

Father of the fatherless and protector of widows
    is God in his holy habitation. Psalm 68:5

Do not rob the poor, because he is poor,
    or crush the afflicted at the gate,
for the Lord will plead their cause
    and rob of life those who rob them.  Proverbs 22:22-23

 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.  Deuteronomy 10:17-19

Since the election, many of my friends, and even family, have wondered if I’ve ‘done gone and lost my mind’ because I have posted numerous articles and opinions which are critical of the current administration’s actions and policies. It has been suggested that I am off topic, the only real topic of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Some have thought that I am putting my trust in politics and politicians instead of God, expecting our nation and its leaders to fulfill the directives of scripture.  Others have made it clear that they believe taking a public political position will alienate people and might close their minds to anything “spiritual” I might have to say.  And, many think that I just can’t get over the fact that my candidate did not win the election and that I simply have a bad case of “sour grapes.”  (To that last one I have to say that I did not really have a candidate that didn’t win, I had an anti-candidate who won.)

Because I have never been particularly political, I am not bold by nature, and I care more than I really should about what others think of me, I have been brought up short by these criticisms, and have regularly retreated to ponder the truth of what was said or implied. 

For many years, I have had only one message, that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in the finished work of Christ alone.  I was highly suspicious of any talk, not just political, that hinted at how Christians should live, because I had been blinded for half my life by churches whose primary proclamation was Christian Living, where Christ was merely a footnote in the prequel. That deadly emphasis had kept me from having any assurance in Christ.  It kept my focus on me and left me either feeling, self-righteously, that I was doing pretty well, or, despondently, that I was a failure and a fraud. 

God’s revelation to me that my obedience did not save me, but, rather, that it was Christ’s obedience and his punishment for me, in my stead, which saved me, changed my entire life!  I was not willing to be confused again, or to risk confusing others, by engaging in any conversation about living in light of the cross. 

Then, two things happened.  The first was that I began to grasp the idea of the vertical and horizontal planes in relation to God and humankind.  The vertical plane is my relationship with God.  It represents the It-is-finished standing of salvation, accomplished by Christ for me, to which I contributed nothing but my sin.  It is a completed, historical fact.  I am secure in Christ.

The horizontal plane represents my relationship with those around me.  The way I relate to the world flows out of my vertical, settled relationship with God.  The vertical plane has an effect on the horizontal (the way I live).  The fact that I am secure in Christ and have been given undeserved grace and mercy will generate in me a desire to show that same grace and mercy to those around me.  The horizontal plane, however, does not in any way affect my settled relationship with God in the vertical plane.  My behavior in the horizontal will not “unsave” me.  God still watches over me, guides my feet, leads me, convicts me and sometimes disciplines me in regards to my behavior, but that is because I am his child.  My place in the family is not threatened.

The second thing was the election.

I have already mentioned that I have never been very interested in politics.  I’ve had my views which I almost never expressed, and I always voted my conscience; but, when every other election was over I paid little to no attention to what happened after I left the voting booth.  I’m not suggesting that’s a good or a bad thing, it’s just the truth.  But, for me, and for many others, this election was different.  I can’t explain it necessarily, but I haven’t been able to ignore it either.  It has created in me a sense of urgency, a need to speak up, to sound a warning.  No matter how hard I’ve tried to “let it go”, I can’t. 

I have been told that the policies this administration is proposing are not very different from previous administrations, from both political parties.  My research tells me this is, to some extent, true. I have been told by many who voted for this president that they felt the same urgency regarding the previous administration, and I believe them and respect their experience.  I know that some who voted for Trump are greatly encouraged by his seemingly miraculous win and have found hope, in that win, that his presidency will be a blessing for our country.  I have also heard many say they were so distressed by the choices they had in this election that they cried as they cast their votes.  Feelings are on the surface and are raw in a way that I have never before witnessed.  Regardless of how things may have been in the past, for me, things are different now.

I cannot answer for what anyone else believes they must do or not do in regards to living horizontally in light of the vertical.  I only know that as I watch my country moving in the direction of self-protectionism and pursuing fiscal policies in such a way that widows, orphans, the poor, afflicted, and even sojourners are being put and/or left in harm’s way, I cannot be silent. I must speak up for them, I must stand with them, and I must do whatever I can to help them. 

Pursue Freedom

I had a realization today. Strong negative responses are attached to actual occurrences, events, things that happen to us. We, therefore, might assume that we will have strong positive feelings about the lack of a negative occurence, but that is not always the case.

For example. I looked forward, in retirement, to enjoying not having to do certain things, like not having to work on weekends and holidays, or when it snowed, or when I was sick. And while I experienced fleeting satisfaction as the workless weekends and holidays came and went, for the most part, my life as I am now experiencing it, simply went on as per the new "usual". I merely gave a passing nod to the non-event.

This explains to some extent, I think, why, for many, after suffering all of the misery in an unhappy marriage, the freedom of divorce may not seem to deliver on its promise. The absence of the misery doesn't automatically produce equal and opposite feelings of relief or happiness.

This also relates to why the absence of a catastrophic event can never come even remotely close to having the same impact as a catastrophic event does. People, if told that a massive terror plot was just uncovered and thwarted, will give a relieved and grateful sigh, then go on about their day. Even if they are told that this event could have been of the same magnitude as 9/11, an event which they might have experienced to one extent or another, their response will naturally be minimal in comparison.

The negative feelings from experiences in the past are not erased or replaced with joy engendered by the cessation of those experiences; and negative things that never happened leave little to no imprint at all.

While we may receive actual benefits as a result of distancing ourselves from misery or narrowly escaping disaster, we may not experience emotional benefits.

So, if escaping the negative is not enough to produce the positive, what is? For me it is intentionally exploring what it means to live fully in the freedom found only in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Knowing that I have nothing to prove or earn, I can seek new experiences, create new life events, find things which give me a sense of purpose, that bring me excitement and get my creative juices flowing.

You can too!  We can find ways to replace the end of misery or the escaping of death with new life, new adventure and fresh hope. We can dare to pursue things with enthusiasm; dare to speak our minds and hearts. We can love. We can be pot-stirrers. People may think we're crazy, but let's go ahead and live boldly. Let's not just escape the negative, let's pursue the freedom we've been given in Christ. Let's dance!