Category Archive: Allegories

Christian allegories which try to explain parts of my experience of God in ways that (I hope) do not trip over people's pre-conceived notions of what Christianity is.

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November 17, 2005

The Journey of Christianity

In the first century, Christianity was known as "The Way" in some circles. Since then allegories like "Pilgrim's Progress" and "Hind's Feet on High Places" have built on the idea of the Christian life as a journey we take. As metaphors for our individual progress in the faith, these allegories are fine; but I always felt that these stories implied that we all took the same exact journey and we each took it isolated from each other. I believe neither of these facts are quite true, so let me propose a different allegory.

I tend to think of the Christian experience as a vast land with varied terrain – mountains, forests, hills, deserts, swamps. Scattered throughout this land are altars which we must travel to. As we reach each altar, we are asked to sacrifice some part of ourselves on the altar; but for everything we sacrifice, God gives us a piece of himself to take its place, so that as we progress from altar to altar, we start to look more and more like Him. Some altars we must visit several times, giving up small pieces of ourselves with each visit, while others represent larger steps in our transformation.

The altars are all connected by roads of various kinds, where each road leading to a given altar is designed to prepare the traveler for the sacrifice they must make. A road through a dark and spooky forest leads to an altar where we must sacrifice our fears. A steep climb up a mountain leads to an altar where we release those things which burden us. A path that leads across several narrow boards serving as bridges lead to an altar where we must sacrifice those things that unbalance us.

There is also a maze of other roads in the land, all of which lead to nowhere, looping back on themselves or ending abruptly.

Each of us is called to travel to each altar; but not all in the same order, nor by the same routes. Each of us has a unique and individual route through the altars which God has planned for us. We each must look to God to discover the route we personally must take, and we must follow his directions lest we get lost in the mazes.

In our travels, we don't always succeed. Perhaps we start up the mountain trail and become too tired and turn around before we reach the altar. While God is saddened by such failures, he continues to work with us, sending us to some other altar next instead, only to bring us back to the road we turned back on at some point in the future so we can try again. Some of us know the feeling of being brought back to the same road time and time again until we finally make it all of the way to the altar.

In all this, the church is a kind of wayside inn - a place for us to gather, rest, and be refreshed; but most important it is a place where we fellow travelers share the stories of our travels. I picture the dinning room at the inn to be filled with large communal tables that allow us all to sit together as we eat and share stories.

Sometimes we tell stories of victory – "It took me four tries; but I finally made it to the altar at the top of the steep mountain road!" – giving the others at the table a chance to rejoice with us and (for those who have not made it yet) be encouraged that it is possible.

Sometimes we tell stories of defeat – "I got so scared in the forest, I could help myself, I ran back out before I reached the altar." – giving the others at the table a chance to comfort us.

Sometimes we tell stories of experience – "I discovered when taking the winding road through the swamp, that if I stayed in one place too long, my feet sunk into the muck, making it harder to move. To get to that altar, you really need to just press on, no matter how weary you get" - giving the others at the table who have not made it to that altar yet some help when their time comes.

All of us have the responsibility to tell our stories as we gather at the table, and to listen to everyone else's stories as they are told. The easiest way to become lost and discouraged in our travels is to spend all of our time at the inn hiding, alone in our rooms. That is bad for us; but it is also bad for our fellow travelers. You never know when your stories (even unsuccessful ones) are just what someone else needs to hear in order to succeed in the next leg of their journey.

The inn, by the way, has no staff. Some of the travelers, as they stop at the inn in the midst of their own journeys, take turns cooking the food, serving it, changing the sheets on the beds, doing the laundry for everyone. In doing so they give others a chance to focus more on their own travels; but we mustn't forget that those who serve are fellow travelers too, still making their way through the sequence of altars God has prepared for them. We must also remember that theirs are not the only stories to be told or listened to, they serve in order to give us all more chance to share our own stories without being distracted by the chores.

Posted by Steven at 05:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

November 04, 2005

Life, assembly required

Consider a man who buys his young son an unassembled bicycle, with the hope that the two of them would be able to have some nice father-son bonding time in the process of building the bicycle (perhaps the man had fond memories of similar time spent with his own father). Let's say that the man is actually quite skilled mechanically, and was looking forward to passing some of his experience on to his son.

However, when the day comes, the man's son isn't interested in his father's help or even company (and not because of anything the father has done). The son is proud and willful and wants to build the bicycle completely on his own. The father watches, and tries to help - pointing out that the washers need to be put on before the nut, or offering to tighten the bold on the handlebar which the son was not strong enough to do; but the son ignores him.

In the end, the experience is doubly disappointing for the father. Not only has the opportunity to spend time bonding with his son been lost; but the result is that his son's bicycle is at best nonfunctional and at worst apparently functional but unsafe to actually ride.

If you can imagine how the man would feel under such circumstance, I think that is how God often feels about us.

God gave each of us an "unassembled life" kit, and I believe he was looking forward for the chance to spend time with us helping us assemble our kit. As the creator of the kit, he certainly knows how to assemble it so the result provides both maximum performance and maximum safety.

Yet most of us, most of the time, choose to assemble the kit ourselves, ignoring God's desire to help us. In this we loose doubly - we both end up with a less than ideally constructed life and we miss out on the chance to spend time with God as we are building it.

Note, in my story I did not have the man hire a mechanic to help his son build the bicycle - the message here is about relationship. I appreciate those who are apprehensive about taking someone else's word about what God intends, and I believe God feels the same way. As in the story, I believe he wants to develop a relationship with each of us personally where he can work with us on constructing our live, not have someone else work with us.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 19, 2005

Two soldiers

Consider the case of two soldiers.

One is a great athlete, physically fit, able to run all day with a heavy pack. He is also a crack shot and an expert in hand-to-hand combat. All of the skills used by soldiers he has in abundance, with one exception - he doesn't listen to his commanding officer. This soldier guards what he thinks should be guarded, marches to where he thinks he should march, and fights those enemies he thinks should be fought, regardless of what orders he is given.

The other soldier is a more average individual. He is in average physical shape, an average shot, an average fighter. He is entirely without note, with one exception - he does (to the best of his ability) what he is ordered to do. He guards what he is told to guard, he marches where he is told to march, and he attacks those enemies he is told to attack.

My question is - when there is an important mission to be done, which soldier will be sent? The one who does what he is told, of course. The other might well be better able to accomplish the mission; but how could you ever know if they would do it?

And so it is with the Kingdom of God.

We tend to think God uses those who more righteous than others, those who have achieved some significant level of maturity in Christ; but that is not the case. The simple truth is, God uses those who allow themselves to be used, regardless of their skills or righteousness. The Bible is full of stories of flawed individuals used by God, and in fact finding a major character whose narrative does not contain some story of moral failure is difficult. God is not looking for people who have their acts together to serve him. He is simply looking for people who when he calls their name respond with "Here am I" as Abraham, Jacob, Samuel and many others did.

There are two lessons to take from this.

First, when we look at a big church or a successful ministry, we tend to think "The leader of that ministry must be a holy man (or woman), they must be righteous for God to use them like that." Then when, inevitably, the individual's moral failings become evident we turn our backs on the ministry, or worse, on God. Yet our disappointment is founded on a false assumption - that the individual was used because of their morality when in fact the reason they were used is simply that they responded when God called them. God may well have asked many people to create that ministry; but most of them, even ones who might have been more skilled or more moral, ignored him; so God used the one who answered his call, despite that person's faults.

I'm reminded of the joke about the man who was on a busy highway where everyone was speeding. Suddenly he sees the flashing lights of a police car behind him, and so he pulls over. As the officer is writing him a ticket for speeding, the man complains "Why are you writing me a ticket when everyone else is speeding too?" to which the police officer responds "Because you were the one who pulled over."

The second lesson to take from this is that we often look at ourselves and our own faults and say "God can not use me, I am too messed up. Given me a chance to get my life in order and then I'll serve God." Again, this is built on a false assumption that we need to have our acts together to be used by God, when in fact it is clear from the Bible this is not true. All God wants in a servant is someone who is willing to answer his call. God does care a lot about morality (just as the army would care a lot about helping the obedient soldier become a better aim or more fit); but it is not a prerequisite for service - more often it comes as a consequence of it.

Posted by Steven at 05:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 13, 2005

Allegories

One problem I have when sharing my faith with other people is that the words I would like to be able to use often mean different things to the people I talk to. I say I am a "Christian", and that brings into people's mind some image of intolerance or irrelevance. I say "prayer" and it conjures images or boredom or futility. People's pre-conceived notions about faith speak louder and faster in their minds than I can ever respond.

I am starting to come to the conclusion that the best way to communicate my own experience is through allegory - stories that express what I experience via metaphor and analogy. Allegories are by nature imperfect (one should not read deep doctrine into them); but if they can help people understand that my experience may be a bit different from what they expect, it might be worth it.

I am therefore initiating a new category on my blog for me to post Christian allegories. Here's the first one:

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Imagine the ultimate gymnastics tournament – bigger and more prestigious than the Olympics. In fact, to qualify to get into the tournament, you have to score a perfect "10", not on just one apparatus; but on every apparatus. Those are the standards and they are non-negotiable. There is however a loophole. Once a team qualifies, they are permitted to send a substitute gymnast in place of any qualifying team member.

Now the organizers of the tournament sent their own team to qualify, and they passed – they got a perfect 10 on all apparatus and thus qualified to attend the tournament. Then the team set up a gymnastics school to train people how to become great gymnasts. The deal with the school was if you join the school and allow them to train you, they would send you as a substitute to the tournament even if you couldn't actually score a perfect 10 on any apparatus; but you had to be willing to let them train you to be as good as you could be.

In the school, the coach (who had qualified for the tournament) would work with the students individually. Some days he would work with one student on their dismount, and another student on their grip and another student on tumbling. Each student however received personal instruction each day. The coach also encouraged all of the student to support each other – cheering each other on as they practiced, talking to each other about what they were learning; but always reminding them that he was the coach, not them.

There were some student the coach put in charge of organizing things – making sure the all of the equipment was ready, making sure people got to their sessions with the coach when they were needed; but while they had these added responsibilities they were still students like everyone else – they weren't even the best gymnasts; but the coach trusted them to create an environment in which the others could learn.

Now people reacted to all this in a number of ways.

Some people just didn't care, and they ignored the tournament entirely.

Some people tried to qualify for the tournament on their own, and while a few people managed to score a 10 in one apparatus, none scored 10's on every apparatus.

Some people signed up at the school so they could get into the tournament; but then ignored the coach and sat on the bench all day. Many of these even got worse at gymnastics because they weren't exercising.

Some people signed up at the school but always argued with the coach, telling the coach he was doing thing wrong (even thought the coach had qualified for the tournament and these people had not). Some of these even started to pretend to coach other students and often left them very confused and poorly trained.

Some people worked eagerly with the coach for a while, then when they reached a difficult part of the training gave up and went to join those sitting on the benches.

Some people eagerly accepted their training; but as they learned they began to pick on other students who hadn't learned the same things. One student might have learned from the coach to get better as tumbling; but then they picked on the students with whom the coach had been working on balance and who therefore had not been training in tumbling yet.

Finally there were those who joined the school and just focused on doing what the coach said. They encouraged the other students; but never tried to coach them or pick on them for their weaknesses. They were the ones who got the best scores at the tournament because all of their energy was focused on what the coach was teaching them.

Posted by Steven at 08:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)