Opening Our Space

A few days ago, I listened to a person describe their drinking problem. 

Their story was similar to other stories I have heard.  She said, “It started a little at time, but it increased over a short period of time.”  As she shared out of deep emotion, the following comment caught my ear:  “My drinking became more than “binge” moments.  It became a state of mind that sent ripples through the other parts of my life.  My binges weakened me in ways that I was not fully cognizant of at least initially.  I slowly lost the capacity for thinking about things that really mattered.  Things that used to get me attention – good things – lost their attraction.  I became rather dim-witted.  I was functional but mostly not present.  Though not “under the influence” all the time, I was sedated in spirit to any real sense of God’s presence in my life.” 

Her words jogged my memory about an article written by Dr. Keith Ablow entitled “America is Drunk.”  The article underscores the growing reality of how intoxicated people are becoming with everything from boos and drugs to celebrity culture to our total immersion in the surreal.  He makes the eye-popping comment that an increasing number of Americans are choosing to be “non-present” for large segments of their life. 

Deeper into the article he lays bare the real issue with these various forms of drunkenness:

“The fact that we are doing this as a culture is the single most ominous psychological trend we have ever faced.  I am not exaggerating.  Unchecked, it will literally create an absentee nation, unable to summon real vision to confront real threats, unable to summon real courage to defeat real enemies.” 

He continues, “Because drunks have no capacity to tolerate suffering or to see the future clearly or to summon extraordinary creativity from deep inside themselves or to stand up and double down with courage that resonates as so completely real, so entirely sober, that our adversaries buckle at their knees….See when you drug yourself five to ten percent of your life, that experience (or rather non-experience) can contaminate the rest of your life, too.  Because suppressing your truth – including your anxiety and your resolve – for one day in 7 days is enough to tip the balance of your thinking away from introspection, away from insight and away from real involvement with others and the world around you.” 

I think most people are familiar with Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18.  But, we miss the trailing comments Paul makes in 2 Corinthians 7:1-2. 

The English Standard Version reads:  Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God

The Message puts it this way:  With promises like this to pull us on, dear friends, let’s make a clean break with everything that defiles or distracts us, both within and without. Let’s make our entire lives fit and holy temples for the worship of God.

At first glance the text reminds us that our bodies are mobile temples of the Holy Spirit.  But it says a lot more!  Paul makes the point that God is present and working in our lives not simply because we have been baptized into Christ, but because we are opening space in our lives for Him to work. 

We can claim God’s gifts and promises but not separate ourselves for His purposes in the world. 

Our lives can fill up with all sorts of things.   While we may not get up in the morning thinking about pursuing sin, neither do we get up thinking about what it means to be an instrument of righteousness.  We essentially function in a “non-present” kind of existence.  And, Sunday morning assembly becomes the only “space” we have available for God.    

We can live our lives “drunk” on a lot of things:  self-medicating, experiences, money, travel, the surreal in any of its many forms.  The idea of temple can become nothing more than a place we go once a week – similar to what Old Testament Jews thought about spirituality shortly before God handed them over to the Babylonians.    

“Cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit.” 

I think Paul’s words remind us that living in the Spirit is much more than a touch-feely sort of thing or an hour and fifteen minute assembly experience on Sundays.  Walking in the Spirit is about giving ourselves over to the struggle to reach for “clarity and focus” and, evaluating what space we have available for Christ.  Is there something that has me distracted?  What is it exactly that has us in its power?  What do we need to clean out…in our behavior, actions, or spirit that has us in a perpetual state of sedation to the things of God? 

I think it was David who said in Psalm 139:23-24:

   “Search me, O God, and know my heart!
    Try me and know my thoughts!
    And see if there be any grievous way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting

O Father, help us to live in a greater cognizance of your presence and calling.  May our lives be your instruments for the manifestation of your reign in the earth.  Help us to clean out what needs to be cleaned out.  Awaken us from our sleep.  Give us the strength to live in the struggle that is holiness.  Our spirit is willing but our flesh is weak.  Increase our faith.  Amen.

Randy Daugherty

Stephenville, Texas