A New Year

[My apologies that today's devotional is late for everyone except for readers in, say, Hawai'i. Carter asked me to put this together a few days ago and I've been unsure what and how to write. The responsibility here is mine.]

2011 is gone and 2012 is here. It's customary to reflect on the events of the last year and hopes for the new one, as well as to make resolutions for how we will be different this year.

2011, from what I've seen and remember, was not the best of years. Across the world, the results of an economic crisis that first manifested four years ago continue to threaten to bring entire countries down. Just in the last few days, some bankers were arrested in Iceland and Europe continues to be in a precarious position. The Arab Spring has ended multiple dictatorial regimes, but at the cost of thousands of lives, many which were lost in struggles that continue inconclusively or which ended with no regime change; the course of the governments that are still forming to replace the regimes which did fall is not clear. In Egypt, a change in power that seemed assured seems increasingly less sure as the military continues to hold onto power.

Closer to where I live, in the United States, I see not only the effects of the worldwide economic problems in the poor prospects I see for when I enter the job market, but the hate, spite and flailing emotion that only increases in our political system. Those elected cannot overcome increasingly personal differences or put aside partisan politics while those who do not hold office grow increasingly unsatisfied: the Right flails for a candidate, seemingly unable to find anyone satisfactory while the Left also shows signs of splintering, following the example of the Tea Party and creating their own populist protest movement in Occupy.

The human race has certainly seen much worse years as well as better years; we will hardly bring the World to an end this year, as some predict (when it ends, it will not end because of our choices here on Earth). What most of us experienced last year, and what we will experience this year, hopefully along with Joy, is Pain.

Buddhism teaches that the constant in life is Pain; it accurately diagnoses that Pain is the result of attachment to both ourselves and to other people that we Love. Buddhism teaches that Salvation from the Pain that is life (well, life after life, in Buddhist teaching, technically) can be achieved by removing attachments. While many Buddhists would probably disagree with my interpretation, this can be roughly translated as avoiding Pain by ceasing to Love.

Christianity, in contrast, teaches that Salvation is only possible through Love and Pain. The correct understanding of the belief (pisteuo) in Christ for salvation is an emotional casting of my lot in with Him that includes Love for Him. We love Him because He first loved us. In addition, God, who is Love, accomplished our Salvation by entering into the Pain of the Cross and the Wrath of God for our sakes.

There is another element in our Salvation that includes Pain, but it is not talked about very much in Protestant circles. While Protestants are correct in their assertion that Jesus guaranteed the Salvation of those who come to Him (in technical terms, Justification has been accomplished), they do not do much talking about the fact that, while guaranteed, our Salvations have not been completed. Both Paul and John discus this in multiple places. (Two examples: 1, 2)

In traditional Protestant teaching, this process which is part of Salvation is called Sanctification; it began when I threw my lot in with Christ and will continue until I die. Even then, when I die, my Salvation will not be complete, for I will be reunited with my body at the Resurrection, which is part of my Salvation as well.

What I have been growing to learn in this last year is that God accomplishes Sanctification through Pain; in this way, then, for both God and us, our Salvation is the result of both Love and Pain. When we throw our lots in with Christ, we choose to take up our own crosses and follow Him. The results of this for others have been torture, mocking, whipping, imprisonment and execution. Often, all we will experience directly for our stand in Christ will be mocking, but being a Christian also brings Pain in sacrifices that we make, choosing what is righteous over what is easy and beneficial. All Christians do not face the same level of Pain for their walk with Christ, but Christ said that all who follow Him must take up their crosses to do so. In addition, we experience Pain just by living; this Pain, too, is from God.

How, then, should we respond to this Pain? James tells us to rejoice when we encounter various trials because the end result of these trials (Pain) is that we will be perfect and complete (Sanctification). In contrast to the avoidance of Pain advocated by Buddhism, we should rejoice in the Pain that God brings into our lives because Pain is how He Sanctifies us, perfecting and completing us. This is how we work out our Salvation and this is what Paul talks about when he speaks of knowing "Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death."

And that's ultimately why we can rejoice in the Pain that God brings into our lives; Pain is dying, dying to ourselves if not physically dying, and, as Christ Himself said, "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world  and loses or forfeits himself?"

This year will bring you Pain; whether more or less than last year, only God knows. When the Pain comes, rejoice and use it to work out your Salvation, for "the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not seek so much to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.