It's 100% or Nothing

[HKHaugan]

It's 100% or Nothing

In one of the replies to my '3rd World War' article the question of percentages (my 99 to 1 ratio) came up as well as time spent in our working career and the Lord's 100% obedience factor to His Father's will. Fair, very fair, I thought. Let me say first that for us as disciples of Jesus the bottom line is faith vs. fear. That's the basic theme behind not letting world issues distract us from our primary purpose as disciples. The whole percentage thing was an obvious exaggeration to get the point across that most of our time is spent with people and how we relate to them. I don't want to get into a numerical or semantic sidebar when the real personal issue is faith vs. fear. Fear dominates our national atmosphere and the media have no interest in faith nor do they have any earthly idea how to deal with it. We do.

But then I began to consider more deeply that 100% of Jesus' life was spent in a relational context with His Father, His disciples and the people with whom He came in contact. When He wasn't with others He was with His Father in prayer which means that 100% of the time He was in a relational context and the driving mindset of Jesus was honoring and pleasing His Father through 100% obedience to His will. His will was His Father's will. That is the goal for us, that His will be ours.

So, to be more exacting, those three considerations brought me to a very important combined way to express what we are about. As disciples, we too, are in a 100% relational context and that context is first spiritual, then personal and then relational. When you get right down to it the entire universe is in that context---spiritual, personal and relational. It was created spiritually, personally and relationally---Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We were created in that image! The mission of the Lord Jesus was to bring His image in us back from sin into that context---recovering, restoring and reshaping---each one of us through a relationship with Him. He is the perfect balance of mind, heart and Spirit to whom we are called to be conformed (Rom.8:29). That is why Mt.1:20 makes clear that, unlike us, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and further, born of the Virgin Mary.

Everything we do then, is in a spiritual, personal and relational context, Jesus being the central example and leader. Think about what that means. He is the living truth behind the statement “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Our first consideration precluding every thought and action is faith in our relationship with Jesus overcoming the every next moment of uncertainty that fear introduces. All fear is spiritual, personal and relational and Paul nails it with his conclusions that we have not been given 'the spirit of fear' to be slaves to it but the 'Spirit of adoption' who makes us God's children through faith in Jesus.

That faith is local in our relational experience with God and one another where we find ourselves all the time whether we are alone (but always in God's heart) or with others (always conscious of the Spirit working through us) at work, traveling, vacationing, reading, exercising or just whatever. The idea of always being in a local context, one on one, with a boss or colleagues or friends and strangers, with the Lord on a stroll; it's all relational. That is the life Jesus demonstrated and spent all His time in. And what was that life but a relational one with His Father, His earthly family, His disciples and the people with whom He came in contact. He neither had nor made political, national or economic concerns as His agenda. His agenda was the human heart in each of us. We were created to be like Him, images of Him, and we were covered by His grace, shaded by His love and given the gift of faith for our restoration to be shared relationally just like He did. The spirit of fear distorts that truth and leads us into a sense of frustrating aloneness where nothing but the ominous possibilities and despair rule. But heed this biblical thought, “Greater is He that is in me than he who is in the world (1Jn.4:4).” Jesus is our hope and our message where we spend 100% of our being.