"God Will Provide" Poverty & Martyrdom
Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount that we should be anxious for nothing because God provides for us just as he provides beautiful clothing for wild flowers. Jesus must have believed God was providing for him, and yet he died a brutal death at the age of 33 without owning a home, marrying, producing children, or writing a book. God's providence for Jesus wasn't the kind of providence most of us hope for. Old women at church say "God will provide," but if he provides for us as he provided for Jesus then we might wish to forego his providence.
What God provided for Jesus was similar to what he's provided for many of his followers. The prophets were often homeless, depressed, and socially ostracized, Jesus' apostles all died violent deaths (save John), and the lives of the saints have often ended in torture and martyrdom. We, the remnant of faithful Western Christians, are getting drawn deeper into our civilization's downward spiral. This spiral involves accelerating rates of intolerance against our worldview, our lifestyle, and our moral values. Our lives are being undermined. The heroic among our ranks will rise while the lukewarm are sifted out.
The meaning of the phrase "God will provide" should be reevaluated. The strength of our faith and trust depends in great measure on how we understand it. If we understand it to mean God will provide us a bourgeois lifestyle then our faith and trust will weaken when God "fails" to give us the comfort we think we deserve. If we understand it through the lens of what God has always done for his chosen people then our courage will rise and our worldly expectations will sink.
No one makes it out of life alive (except Enoch, Elijah, and Jesus), and if our king and his twelve most trusted servants suffered uncomfortable and "unfulfilled" lives then we should be prepared for nothing better. Jesus' life is an example of how low God will crush us in order to provide for us. We're right to fear God's will. God's will for our lives is likely horrifying from the perspective of our comfortable ambitions. Our white picket fence, career, and good reputation are just potential casualties in the service of God's campaign for full spectrum dominance. We often lack faith because we understand, perhaps subconsciously, that God isn't following the life-script we wrote for ourselves. His priorities are too high and holy for our petty lusts.
How do we prepare ourselves? We prepare by accelerating the death of our personal desires. God wants it all, and he's willing to destroy anything that stands in his way. Only when the whiny child perishes can the hero rise, and God is still forging saints in our world of "last men." This decadent age requires Christians willing to destroy themselves to show the world real beauty. Our martyrdoms will likely be slow and plausibly deniable. Perhaps we ourselves won't even notice them, or the world will succeed in confusing us into believing we're killing ourselves. As we sink, as we "fail," let us meditate on Jesus' example and remember that we still have lower to go.
What God provided for Jesus was similar to what he's provided for many of his followers. The prophets were often homeless, depressed, and socially ostracized, Jesus' apostles all died violent deaths (save John), and the lives of the saints have often ended in torture and martyrdom. We, the remnant of faithful Western Christians, are getting drawn deeper into our civilization's downward spiral. This spiral involves accelerating rates of intolerance against our worldview, our lifestyle, and our moral values. Our lives are being undermined. The heroic among our ranks will rise while the lukewarm are sifted out.
The meaning of the phrase "God will provide" should be reevaluated. The strength of our faith and trust depends in great measure on how we understand it. If we understand it to mean God will provide us a bourgeois lifestyle then our faith and trust will weaken when God "fails" to give us the comfort we think we deserve. If we understand it through the lens of what God has always done for his chosen people then our courage will rise and our worldly expectations will sink.
No one makes it out of life alive (except Enoch, Elijah, and Jesus), and if our king and his twelve most trusted servants suffered uncomfortable and "unfulfilled" lives then we should be prepared for nothing better. Jesus' life is an example of how low God will crush us in order to provide for us. We're right to fear God's will. God's will for our lives is likely horrifying from the perspective of our comfortable ambitions. Our white picket fence, career, and good reputation are just potential casualties in the service of God's campaign for full spectrum dominance. We often lack faith because we understand, perhaps subconsciously, that God isn't following the life-script we wrote for ourselves. His priorities are too high and holy for our petty lusts.
How do we prepare ourselves? We prepare by accelerating the death of our personal desires. God wants it all, and he's willing to destroy anything that stands in his way. Only when the whiny child perishes can the hero rise, and God is still forging saints in our world of "last men." This decadent age requires Christians willing to destroy themselves to show the world real beauty. Our martyrdoms will likely be slow and plausibly deniable. Perhaps we ourselves won't even notice them, or the world will succeed in confusing us into believing we're killing ourselves. As we sink, as we "fail," let us meditate on Jesus' example and remember that we still have lower to go.
