Implicit Bias: A Christian perspective

            Our brains are continually pattern-recognizing, observing stereotypes, and making generalizations. These ordinary, benign brain functions can also cause bias, which is widely referred to as implicit bias. Implicit Bias (IB) differs from explicit bias as the former is an unconscious attitude, preference, thought or feeling that may result in an action. For example, the tragic incident involving a 25-year-old black man named Ahmaud Aubery jogging in a residential neighborhood in Brunswick in Glen county, GA, was assumed to be a burglary suspect on the run was most likely resulted due to IB. Implicit bias is prejudice[1]; as such, it violates the sixth commandment and contradicts Jesus’ command to love thy neighbor (Lk.10:25-28). How can we understand and respond to IB biblically?

            IB is an alien thought as the one injected by the Enemy into the minds of our first parents, who have only experienced the shalom[2] in the very presence of God in Eden. Strangely, Adam and Eve subconsciously felt they were being deprived of something good in God’s prohibition from the tree amid the Garden. Thus, God becomes the first-ever victim of IB, even as unbelief infects humanity in the Fall. Instead of believing in God, Alief becomes humans' default state of mind (Rom.1:19-20). Alief in psychology and philosophy is an automatic and habitual attitude that stands in tension with explicit beliefs, responsible for several belief-behavior discordances, including IB, phobias, fictional emotions, and bad habits[3]. Therefore, one can argue IB is at the root of human rebellion.

            IB is complicated as the agent of IB remains unwilling and unable to report it. Are agents of IB genuinely unaware of their biases? Some scholars assert, based on evidence, that agents possess partial awareness[4]. In the Old Testament, contradictory beliefs or cognitive dissonance[1] are prevalent among wayward Judahites (Jer.17:9-10). Our daily Christian walk marked by the often-inexplicable struggle between faith and unbelief (here akin to alief) further affirms this behavioral-belief contradiction.

Some IB measures, such as the IAT – Implicit Association Test, make people aware and curtail its effects. These implicit measures are helpful in self-identifying IBs to predict group behavior on average, but they cannot predict individual behavior.

Does IB create a conflict between what we know and what we value? Social categorization is a fundamental human brain function. Our intentional self-censorship based on ethical grounds makes it impossible for agents to be rational and equitable[5]. Apostle Paul in Titus 1:12 seemingly stereotypes – ‘Cretans are always liars…’, while mentioning it is not him who is making such a claim, but one of their prophets. Also, Paul says the criticism strengthens their faith (v.13) not to cast them as intractable.

Change based-interventions such as intergroup contact and counter-stereotype exposure are introduced to overcome IB. Christianity offers the most diverse community-building faith system there in the world with a call to make disciples of all nations (Matt.28:19-20). Jesus Christ came to the earth to reconcile man to God and heal the fractured humanity.

In the story of the tower of Babel, and subsequently, in the call of Abraham (Gen.11-12), we see God’s judgment, mercy, and redemption, through God’s promise to bless all nations. Despite this revelation, the Hebrew nation claims a monopoly on God’s blessing and builds a wall of separation to keep the Gentiles outside the temple. Addressing this issue, Tim Keller says human sin turns the gift of God into racial prejudice. Still, God radically reverses this racial exclusivity by breaking down the wall of separation through Christ (Eph.2:11-22). The book of Acts narrates the emergence of an incredibly diverse community of believers called ‘Christians’ (Acts 11:26) through the power of the Holy Spirit based on the miracle of Christ’s resurrection.  

While on earth, Jesus told many parables to illustrate God’s kingdom and its nature. The parable of the Good Samaritan is a classic counter-stereotype exposure that shocked the Jewish lawyer who asked Jesus, ‘who is my neighbor?’

The Bible is not silent on addressing sin and its effects. It commands us to repent of our sins while holding us morally responsible, especially for our attitudes and actions towards our neighbors created in God’s image endowed with dignity and the beauty of diversity.

Christian worship and liturgy provide healing and change for our IBs toward our neighbors; they restore our relationship with God and others. The celebration of the Lord’s supper with bread and wine symbolizing the body and blood of Christ not only commemorates the sacrificial death of Christ for our redemption but also unites us to Christ and one another in the body of Christ, with all its diversity through Christ’s spiritual presence. It removes alief and restores belief.

 

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[1] John Frame, Doctrine of Christian Life (Phillipsburg, NJ, P&R Publishing, 2008), 663. Prejudice means judging or evaluating someone before such judgement is appropriate.

[2] Wholeness, wellness

[3] Tamar Szabό Gendtler, Alief and Belief, (The Journal of Philosophy, 105(10), 2008), 634-663

[4] Ibid

[5] Tamar Szabό Gendtler, On the epistemic costs of implicit bias, (Philosophical

Studies, 156, 2011) 33–63.

Book Review: Playing God by Andy Crouch

 

Playing God, by Andy Crouch. Downers Grove, InterVarsity Press, 2013. pp.288

            Power is a gift to make something of the world. Andy Crouch unabashedly says his definition of power is from his fellow journalist Ken Myers, as he did in Culture Making. Human beings, the image-bearers of Creator God, are endowed with the power to make something sensibly of nature’s raw material for flourishing. The inspiration for Playing God came after Crouch and Jeyakumar, the director of World Vision (India), paid a visit with emancipated kids from child slavery. The flip side to the life-giving power is idolatry, which is making god by seeking greatness, gaining control, and the ultimate satisfaction, resulting in injustice - playing god, as the twin by-product of abuse, distortion, and misdirection of power. The second part of the book focuses on concrete ways in which idolatry and injustice creep into the way we use power. When misdirected, the distorted power surfaces as ‘coercion and violence (12)’. In part three, Crouch explores institutions as conduits of power for image-bearing or when they go wrong, bringing dreadful consequences. Fourthly, the book deals with taming power under the lordship of Christ through the practices of the sabbath, worship, and other disciplines. Crouch’s remarkable biblical ‘explorations’ interspersed under each section amplify his points.

            A biblical understanding of power flowing from God to His image-bearers for flourishing dismantles Lord Acton’s proverbial dictum ‘Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” God’s ‘absolute love transfigures absolute power,’ and its refraction is seen through God’s image-bearers as evidenced in child-rearing throughout all cultures (44-45). In Eden, we see the power in multiple, creative displays for flourishing in jussive, cohortative, and imperative forms for the image-bearers to imitate to fulfill the cultural mandate –multiply, fill, and till for thriving (29-36). Using the game-theory understanding of the zero-sum transaction, Crouch elaborates on the Nietzschean view of the power – all of us are on a quest for omnipotence to become ‘master over all space.’ This distorted view is about ‘conspiring together for power’ to rise in this conquest to control space, resources, and dominance. Both idolatry and injustice – god-making and god-playing, are essentially the same in this zero-sum conquest of power conceived as a limited resource.

            Crouch moves on to describe the exercise of power apart from its creative, flouring end in its various other forms: violence, domination, force, and coercion. ‘Violence is wrong by definition’ as it exceeds legitimate bounds depriving image-bearers dignity and liberty. Augustinian ‘just war’ theory allows for accountable governments to exercise measured force for the common good. At the same time, ‘privilege is a special kind of power’ that flows from the ‘ongoing benefits of past successful exercises of power (150).’ Most of us enjoy privileges of some kind that might not be necessarily bad; they are ‘still dangerous’ as we can use them to ‘insulate us from risk, and God and other people. (154)’ It can blind us to our god-playing tendency unaware of its demeaning impact on fellow image-bearers.

            Though devalued with cynicism in the postmodern culture, institutions are vehicles of powerful transformation and flourishing handed down to future generations. Crouch attributes four ingredients: artifacts, arenas, rules, and roles, and in a span of three generations, the institutions emerge as potency agents. As institutional examples, American football, the practice of medicine, Facebook, the Hebrew nation – Abraham, Issac, Jacob’s descendants, the church, and the family, are presented.

            It is remarkably convicting how much our behavior is influenced by a subconscious awareness of a zero-sum view of power. Such Nietzschean ‘ethic’ drives board meetings, committees, and politics in and outside the church. Positive-sum, creative power that makes room for others - for the teeming of life, flows from God, to shape our lives; we need actively find our places in the Gospel story revealed in Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. Crouch’s delineation of the very nature of idolatry and injustice addresses the perineal problem of pitting evangelism and social justice against each other. Both evangelism and justice are means by which the image-bearers capacity for worship/relationship is restored, and the condition – i.e., shalom, for image-bearing is made possible.

            Nevertheless, the possibility of benevolent god-playing is closer than we realize as our god-complexes are exaggerated but often invisible. Crouch highlights this danger in short-term missions regardless of their orientation – evangelism or justice. ‘Benevolent god-playing happens when we use the needs of the poor to make our own move from good to great - to revel in the superior power of technology and the moral excellence of our willingness to help. (73)’

            Power places us at the crossroads between ‘creation and destruction, flourishing and violence.’ If Crouch’s example of the inauguration of Barack Obama and the smooth transition of the presidency in January 2009 highlights the flourishing of power (138), the January 6th, 2021 incident at the Capitol illustrates the wrong turn at the crossroads in the exercise of power.   

            Crouch’s exposition of John 13, where the ‘Messiah wrapped in a servant’s grimy towel’ to wash His disciples’ feet, Jesus voluntarily and consciously gives up His rightful status and privilege.  The one who holds all things in hand demonstrates His power in forgiving, healing, proclaiming, feeding the thousands, and calming the storm was averse to accruing privilege and status. Here we see the redeeming love and absolute power in humble service as an example to imitate.

            The role of institutions for positive-sum impact for flourishing is vastly relevant for our time. Since the publication of Playing God, marriage has been redefined in the USA, severely undermining society’s foundational institution – the family. The rules are altered; thus, gender roles in marriage can change, inflicting a violent assault on the image of God in humanity. Anti-institutional activism, whether in the name of climate by teenage Tunberg or the swell of ‘nones’ – religiously non-affiliated, with the decline of church membership below the majority for the first time in America, are portent reminders of failures of institutions. The rise of the prosperity gospel in the church is due to the loss of its institutional artifact: the promise to Abraham, Moses, and David is a covenantal ‘posterity gospel’- it’s a lasting, generational shalom with eschatological hope. And the abuse allegations emerging from organizations such as the RZIM, the Southern Baptist Convention points to collective failures of institutions – its overlords, underlords, and trustees.

            Paul’s letter to Philemon and the ‘zombie’ institution of slavery was analyzed in a biblical exploration. Slavery birthed out of the distortion of the Fall required violence to survive. In his powerful letter to Philemon, Paul’s radical appeal has no coercion or imposition of authority to take back Onesimus (a runaway slave) as a ‘dear brother’ display the power of the Gospel to reorient power structures distorted by the Fall. Yet, slavery in its various ‘peculiar’ forms still exists today – more humans in bondage today than ‘were trafficked in the history of the Atlantic slave trade.’ The challenge is placed before the image-bearers to deal with (as Paul did), including other image-breaking institutions like abortion and the prison system in the USA.

            Crouch is brilliant in weaving personal stories with humility and transparency, connecting biblical stories, examples to make his case. Playing God is highly recommended for seminary students, organizational leaders, and reading/discussion groups.

            In the final part, spiritual disciplines of solitude, silence, fasting,  Sabbath observance, confession, study, tithing, and prayer are prescribed to tame misguided, distorted power. They are radical interruptions of power and privilege against our tendency to play god and ‘intentional pursuit of secret defeat’ allowing our merciful Creator to confront us graciously ‘with the depth of our idolatry and injustice.’ The church is the context where we behold God’s power and love in action in God’s story of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. The sacraments are rehearsals of curbing our powers to close in baptism in ‘trembling awe of the memorial of the moment when God’s own Son gave up His power’ to defeat the power of darkness. 

Book Review: The Healing Path by Dan Allender

 The Healing Path, by Dan B. Allender. New York, Waterbook Press, 1999. pp.257

            The pandemic, political polarization, personal losses, trauma, and many other adversities abound these days. Dr. Allender’s book is a timely balm for the soul. Every believer in Christ longs for the shalom will find deep solace in the healing path, in which Allender lays out God’s redemptive purposes for the human malady of suffering through the triad graces of faith, hope, and love. ‘The redemption of our hearts begins with our first cry and ends with our last breath (107).’ In this existential landscape, every human story has a past, present, and future. We traverse from our past to live at present, the threshold to the future. The memory of our history and the dream of our future profoundly impact our present existence. Christian faith, hope, and love undergird and fertilize earthly life’s redemption over the mountains of joys, valleys, and deserts of betrayals, pain, and sorrow.

            Dr. Allender is a Reformed theologian and counseling psychologist; he uses his master storytelling skill to relate compelling real-life examples to drive home his points. The book is organized into four parts: Part one deals with the inevitability of suffering in life and the need to deal with it for healing. In part two, Allender highlights causes of suffering, namely betrayal, powerlessness, and ambivalence, as manifestations of loss of faith, hope, and love or desire. Part three focuses on how God’s redemption works by growing faith, hope, and love in us. Part four is the application of these principles of faith, hope, and love in living radical lifestyles, touching others with the love of God, and walking in the community of other kingdom workers.

            ‘To live is to hurt’, but humans have devised ways to avoid life’s pain. Our approach (or lack thereof) to suffering can lead us towards God and true joy or move us away from Him. In our painful walk, through the valleys and deserts, God divulges our heart idolatry that clings for escape/pleasure and security and turns our hearts to the one ‘who leads us to safety.’ Allender contrasts the psalmist’s confidence in Ps.23 to the desolation of the prophet in Lam.3, but in the end, he waits in hope despite the seeming darkness (23-24). The healing path is like embracing life: God, people, and circumstances, with an open heart, waiting in anticipation and encircling others, and then letting go.

            Betrayal, powerlessness, ambivalence are evil onslaughts on our healing path of redemption. ‘Betrayal is the breaking of an implied or stated commitment of care…When we break covenant toward another and refuse to care, then we have betrayed ourselves, our God, and that person. (53)’ Betrayal shakes the foundation of trust and confidence in others and ultimately corrodes away our faith, and memory of goodness - the faithfulness of God and His redemption. With a lack of faith, we feel powerless caught in the web of the world, flesh, and the devil, unable to move forward in the transformative path of redemption. ‘Everyday faith and hope lead us to love, or betrayal and powerlessness drag us into ambivalence and shame. (90)’  

            Human memory and our stories shape our life of faith. Two stories from our past compete for allegiance in our lives – one of betrayal and harm, and one of redemption. ‘The wager of faith is simple: Which stories will win my heart?... The wager is won only when even the smallest story of redemption means more to us than the greatest betrayal and loss…(128-131).’ Biblical hope dreams of the future beyond the shattered remnants for a far more glorious rebuilding than before the loss. Love- remembered (past), dreamt (future), enables us to live lovingly – i.e. ‘responsibly’, in the present instead of closing our hearts.

            The path of healing leads us to live a radical life shaped by our unique stories to be more and more like Jesus. We would engage in redemptive conversations with others relating our past, present, and future to lead others toward the path of healing. Finally, the journey toward healing involves walking with other sojourners in community.

            Allender prosecutes his thesis that faith, hope, and love lead us in the path of healing by contrasting the opposing tendencies that work against the graces of redemption. Four common human traits of the response to pain are paranoic, fatalistic, heroic, and optimistic to avoid it. Betrayal and powerlessness lead to ambivalence which robs the freedom, sanity, pleasure of giving and receiving in life interactions. To manage powerlessness, the routes we take are: self-righteous sufferers – i.e. martyrs; or turn belligerent to make someone pay; or disengage and get lost in the fantasy of winning a lottery or buying a new car,  or, in countless vicarious other lives. By exposing what is underneath the rocky soil where redemption cannot take root, Allender furrows readers’ hearts to embrace the Gospel, others, and the path of healing.

            By employing stories from life examples and Scriptures, Allender draws readers to identify with the stories’ characters and their struggles to find the healing path. The accounts of Katrina, who was raped by her tennis coach in her teens, John, who was unfairly terminated from his job, and the author tells his own stories of betrayal and redemption to lead us to listen and understand the competing themes we give in. It is a life-long process to listen to the core stories of our lives. And the ‘themes don’t smack us in the face when we look for them; instead, we must actively arrange, rearrange, and create the order that makes the most sense at any given point in our lives. Allender reminds God is a storyteller who weaves His presence into Scriptures, tells ‘two core stories: the Exodus and the Cross; all other human stories will mirror to some degree the drama of his rescue and redemption’ (116-130). ‘God will woo us to the desert in order to win us back to himself. (20)’

            As a pastoral counselor and theologian, Allender applies the gracious themes of faith, hope, and love to heal human heartaches and pain. He challenges us to embrace the immanence of the transcendent God in the pouring of His Spirit and His resurrection power for us to lean into suffering by exercising faith, hope, and love in the path of healing. Allender calls us to lean into our future like a downhill skier leans down to gather momentum and speed. We are to look back at our past in faith – our memory, dream of the future that is our hope to incarnate the love of God in the present radically. Our ‘hope is leaning into the unknown, risking our lives for a future promised in the Word’. The pleasures of this world are scandalous windows to the glory of the next, and they grow our hope. Allender cites the French Christian existential philosopher Gabriel Marcel at several points to exhort living fully in the present moment with ‘response-ability’ –i.e. ‘the capacity to hear the call of abundance (or lack thereof) and pledge myself to the good of others in that moment.’

            It is a dance of love. It is a life of freedom (Gal.5:1-6): ‘God gives us the frightening freedom to find our own way after naming the path to follow Him.’ Similarly, love in the healing path does not grasp and hold onto others but allows others to respond or reject it. We embrace, encircle in anticipation, and then let go.

            In the last section of the book, Allender challenges us to grow more and more like Jesus as we journey on in the path of healing. The challenge profoundly impacts readers after exposing our escapist tendencies and our human devices to eschew pain and suffering. The radical life we are called to live is wishing the redemptive purposes and the healing paths for our neighbors who are image-bearers of God. It invites others to live, engaging in redemptive conversations in the ‘agora’ – marketplaces, with people in pain by becoming ‘an actor in a new story that God is telling on behalf of us all.’ Finally, we live this dance of love in a community of ‘motley crew’ sojourners – family members, political enemies, and people of ‘wild’ backgrounds. The Healing Path is for all believers to journey on who dream of shalom amidst earthly life’s agony.

 

In response to Dr. Warren Ward's article "Sooner or later we all face death. Will a sense of meaning help us?"

Wonderful article.

This article captures the ambivalence of living with a materialistic worldview (all that is real and matter in life is material things) and our innate yearning to have meaning and purpose in our existence and quest for life. Materialistic or scientistic (note not scientific) view of life doesn't give a reason for the latter - i.e. the meaning and purpose in life, enjoyment of beauty, relationships, and the want of experience that to the fullest. 

Here the Christian worldview makes absolute sense by reminding us we humans are created in the image of God and possess dignity and honor that is unique and special compared to "rest of existence: the rocks, oceans, trees, birds, and insects." We have a longing for life- the need for love, appreciation for beauty, want of meaning and purpose. We are created to worship as psychosomatic (body and spirit/soul) beings integrated never to exist in separation. Aristotle's view that we are embodied souls fits right within the biblical view of humans as opposed to the Platonic view which is the predominant in the Western mindset. 

We are created for a reality that is not just physical but spiritual. Christ entering into the physical world and rising again in the physical body and ascending to a spiritual realm is solid evidence and hope for this new reality called the new heaven and new earth. It includes heaven and earth (the spiritual and material) and we are taught to pray for heavenly reality come to merge with the earthly one. The earthly reality is under corruption and decay but we are called to renew, reform, and restore what is broken, corrupt. Such existence gives one tremendous purpose, meaning, and enjoyment of life. Yet, the sufferings, death, sins, and evil within and around us remind us we need to be rescued from a predicament that is bound to decay as the gravitational force always pulling things down. God coming in the flesh is for the very purpose to rescue us and opening the door for us to enter into this new heaven and new earth right now. This is the Christian Gospel - good news. We are invited to enter into this new reality but only through a relationship with God we can do this. Faith in Christ who broke into the material world from the spiritual is necessary to enter into this new heaven and the new earth where all our aspirations for life are fully realized and affirmed. Suffering and the fleeting nature of life and its imminent end at any time reminds us to yearn for this new heaven and new earth by relying on God instead of trusting in our own wits and efforts. It keeps us humble. 

May 31st 2020

His Kingdom is Forever

His Kingdom is Forever

It is Saturday evening before Easter 2020. I just returned from a short drive to drop off something at the doorsteps of a friend’s house. I was listening to National Public Radio (NPR)[1]. The music was terrific and was played by unknown musicians from their homes with acoustic guitar and piano. And the comments by the host doing the show from his home studio in the Brooklyn, NY seeing the rainbow drawn by kids on a wall while walking his dog reminded of the promise to Noah. It moved me to tears that I had to double-check whether I was listening to NPR or a new and better Christian station on the air. A poem appreciated a junk mail leaflet for sale of sofabeds pondering the work went to produce the sofas, the marketing people, graphic artists, and it went on to express how much the author misses the ordinary interactions with people, his drive to work, etc. God is up to something with people who are on shutdown due to coronavirus outbreak.

In Luke 24, we read Jesus was appearing to His disciples on the day of His resurrection, the first Easter. Jesus did appear many times in the days following until the day of His Ascension for 40 days. The central theme of His encouragement during His appearances focused on the Kingdom of God. The resurrected Jesus is indeed the Lord and the promised Messiah. The God of the Hebrews, Yahweh, is indeed the Lord Jesus, the Christ in a resurrected body. The palpable first fruit of hope of God’s eternal kingdom. This message needs proclamation starting from Jerusalem, where Jesus was rejected and crucified to Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

The witnesses whom Jesus would choose to testify are the remaining apostles who are to stay until the promised Holy Spirit to come upon them. These apostles and rest of the disciples (120 of them in total) remained faithfully in prayer to receive the Holy Spirit, Who would fill them as promised in the Old Testament (OT) on the day of Pentecost. The day of Pentecost was a day of feast and celebration of wheat harvest, and special sacrifices were offered in Jerusalem as prescribed in the OT. Also, in Judaism, the festival was associated with the renewal of God’s covenants with Noah and Moses. The Spirit of wisdom, joy, and power would fall upon a church devoted themselves to prayer. What an encouragement to prayer so that the church of Jesus Christ today would be filled with the Spirit of God to bear testimony to God’s kingdom. Prophet Joel envisioned the pouring out of the Spirit of God on people in the context of a plague of locusts on Israel (Joel 1-2) as an impending judgment. But when the people responded in repentance, the Lord heard them and reversed their fortunes, promising them plenty of harvests. 

We are amid a pandemic during this Easter season. As we look to the days ahead, let us remember God is calling His church to Himself and the faithful proclamation of the good news of His kingdom and resurrected Christ as Lord. The people are looking for answers and yearning for connection with other human beings who are image-bearers of God. May we pray they would seek the Author of Life. May we also pray as Israelites in Joel’s day in repentance and faith so that we are filled with joy, wisdom, and the power of the Holy Spirit to bear witness and that God would heal this pandemic. A day of celebration of harvests would dawn.

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[1] https://www.livefromhere.org/ broadcast on 04/11/2020

Our Savior is Born

"...She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."  Matthew 1: 21

Sin is a reality that distorts God's natural order of His creation.

Sin is missing the mark of God's ordered trajectory, His perfection. Like a javelin's path is curved by the gravitational pull so is sin distorts and derails the path of life (Shalom) God intended for humanity. Sin makes us dead to any awareness of this distortion of God's creation order. We cannot see this unless we are awakened by the Holy Spirit. Sin is so perverse it continues to remain hiding, diminishing in our minds its malignancy, its destructive power. We excuse ourselves by comparing ourselves to 'others' - those despicable ones who deserved to be punished. Or we continue in our sinful existence and allow others' by saying things like 'to err is human'.  Some times we find ways to cover itself behind outward morality. It's deception is so deep that we think that we can earn God's favor and merit by this outward obedience and we elevate ourselves and look down upon our neighbor. 'Sin is the underlying trauma of all trauma' said my Pastor last Sunday. It's a poison that presents itself as sweet wine and in its promised stupor oblivious victims stagger towards their sure and slow demise.

The Jewish nation longed for God to save them from physical effects of sin, their slavery and oppression under alien nations as well as their burden of spiritual disobedience, the breaking of the law of God given to them through Moses. The endless sacrifice of innocent animals to atone and purge their guilt before God got them tired and they longed for God's salvation. God's deliverance came through Jesus, the promised Messiah, the anointed one. Yes! Jesus will save His people from their sins! The great news is that it is a universal call to all of us who suffer under the burden and effects of sin. May we meditate on the wonder and amazement of this potent call and let our pains, sufferings and anxieties over the next year be absorbed by this healing message that Jesus will save His people from sin, the malady of all maladies and the trauma of all trauma! May we draw near to Jesus and find His grace greater than our sins, a balm that heals our sorrows this season and in the coming year. 

"Orphan Girl" is one of my favorite songs by Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings. As much as l love this song and easily identify with my default orphan tendency, the Gospel calls me to enter into the household/family of God in the present reality, with far greater intensity. 

Paul lays out this glorious Gospel in Romans 8 wonderfully. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (v.1) and freedom (v.2). The Spirit of God who dwells in us is the Spirit of adoption and we are sons and daughters of God to Whom we call out as "Abba! Father!" through the same Spirit. By this Spirit we put to death the deeds of the flesh (v.13) We live in the present reality, what N.T. Wright calls the 'interlocking of heaven and earth' facing trials and sufferings as we identify with Christ as our Prophet, Priest and King. We face sufferings not as orphans but as children of God in close communion with Him through the intercession of the Spirit of God who dwells in us; also, it tells Christ Himself interceding for us (v.34b). And in this context Paul tells the believers that 'all things work out for the good for those who are called out for this purpose'. The purpose is to dwell in the present reality- the 'interlocking of heaven and earth', to intercede, suffer with hope as God's image bearers (divine sons and daughters) longing with the rest of creation for the glorious fulfillment of the kingdom. 

Another great song with the orphan theme is Mark Heard's 'Orphans of God' which does indeed capture the existential reality of the adopted ones (in the sight of the world they are 'orphans of God') living in the tension of the interlocking of heaven earth. Nevertheless, the orphan tendency comes out quite easily in the midst of our trials unless we constantly remind ourselves of the Gospel truths. Children of God are not to suffer as orphans!