Love's Descent:

Love’s Descent:

Several years ago a friend of mine shared a bit about himself. He noted that prior to our becoming friends he had been engaged to his high school sweetheart...

It sounded like a storybook romance, but there was tragedy where we’ve been trained to expect a storybook ending. There he stood at the church with friends and family - waiting for his bride & the bridesmaids to arrive. Waiting turned to annoyance, annoyance turned to frustration, frustration to concern, and concern to fear. Then the call came. His soon-to-be-wife had been killed by a drunk driver just a few blocks from the church - only moments from the storybook wedding and “happily ever after.”

Jesus set our expectations for this life at the Cross. He said, unashamedly, “You will have suffering in this world.” Because of this reality the Apostle Paul wrote, “My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings...” Did you catch that? “The fellowship of His sufferings!”

In the ecology and economy of God self-expenditure is simultaneously the highest form and most naturally unconscious expression of authentic love.

Jesus didn’t need to read Carnegie’s book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” Our LORD’s goal was not self-improvement, popularity, or control, but simply the glory and praise of the Father.

The Garden of Eden was truly sacred space where humanity could peacefully, joyfully, and eternally dwell in God’s life-giving presence. The Enemy still lures us into thoughts of self “improvement,” rather than the simplicity of residing in God’s life-giving presence. We still fall for the original temptation: “when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The setting and package is slightly nuanced, but Satan is still running the same play, singing the same song, selling the same busted wares he always has... and, tragically, we still eat it up hook, line, and sinker.

The notion of prosperity and rising above our circumstance is contrary to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and Oswald Chambers notes, “Our Lord’s teaching is always ANTI-self-realization... If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain, but what He pours through us that counts.”

Just like Eve, who “saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom,” we select the fruit from the garden exclusively based on its appeal for self-improvement, self-advancement, and self-promotion.

Misery is rebellion’s offspring, and like misery - rebellion loves company. There is something tragically soothing about consensus. So in Scripture we read, Eve “took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”

In Hebrew the word “Gethsemane” means olive press. Like Jesus, we all must traverse Gethsemane; it is glory’s road. We’re all in the olive press of life that is inevitably and inescapably filled with tragedy and suffering.

Search for images of “Jacob’s Ladder” and you’ll see our idea of life and ministry: winged angels, soft light, puffy clouds. Ministry is certainly a ladder, but the epic failure of man is that we see the ladder as one to ascend rather than descend as Christ our Savior did.

Our Sovereign Creator, King, and Redeemer descended from heaven and was born into the sewer that is the world we wrecked - and continue to mutilate beyond recognition. He descended into a manger, i.e. a feeding trough, in an animal pen. He descended into discipleship. He descended to washing feet. He descended to the Cross. He spent 33 years descending - then He even voluntarily descended to the grave.

Like spoiled brats we desire Jesus for His gifts. We engage in religious ceremony for the benefit of comfort, security, and assurance, and recognition - but we abhor fellowship in His descent into suffering.

We embrace convenient, polite, self-help religion while simultaneously despising His ministry of descending in love.  All the while we have the audacity to question, deny, and impeach God for the evil and craziness around us - blatantly rejecting the fact it’s “around us” because it resides within us.

I met my friend who had lost his bride at the beginning of my walk in ministry. He wasn’t a professional - or even part-time - pastor, but he understood love’s descent. He certainly understood suffering. He used that experience to counsel others in their darkest times.

Rebellion and misery love superficial company, but company is not the same as fellowship.

Expect suffering. Descend in ministry. Share in its fellowship for the unity Christ’s Bride - the Church - and for the praise and glory of God Almighty.

So what about you? Have you convinced yourself - contrary to the Bible’s truth - faith and fellowship in Christ is a “private thing?” Are you going to church for self-improvement, for the warm-fuzzies, more biblical knowledge, or a social agenda? Or are you going because that’s where saints descend in love and serve our brothers and sisters in Christ? Jesus not only called all to love’s descent, but in fact said that’s how He would know His true friends.

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com