{"id":4455,"date":"2017-09-14T16:12:37","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T21:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedisciplemaker.org\/?p=4455"},"modified":"2017-09-14T16:12:37","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T21:12:37","slug":"how-to-stop-living-backward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2017\/09\/how-to-stop-living-backward\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Stop Living Backward"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

I once dressed myself, drove to the airport, went through the entire security process, flew to another city, attended and spoke at an event, and finally found my way to a hotel room late in the evening before realizing that I\u2019d been wearing my shirt inside out the entire time. Granted, it was a T-shirt, but throughout the entire day no one had casually mentioned the mistake to me. I felt a bizarre mixture of retro-embarrassment and disbelief that no one had pointed it out.
\nWhen we get down to it, our whole world is inside out, and humanity in general is completely unaware. But our utterly wonderful Jesus came to reverse all of that.<\/strong>
\nIn the Gospels, Jesus\u2019 words often have an urgent, almost perplexed quality to them. He is profoundly patient and compassionate, but at times He is exasperated. The larger narrative that seems to hover over everything about Jesus, as I read it, is that we\u2019ve got life inside out. We\u2019re living backward from how life is supposed to be, and our expectations are completely out of sync with how things really are.
\nTake, for example, the Sermon on the Mount\u2014perhaps the centerpiece of Jesus\u2019 teachings.
\nJesus was speaking to people who felt repressed and disrespected. They hung on His words because He spoke their language. He was one of them. He knew this repression and disrespect intimately as a fellow Hebrew and a fellow human.
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nIn their mind-set, a person who was punched needed to be willing to punch back twice as hard. This was the way to acquire respect\u2014through strength and resistance. And life had punched these folks plenty. The Galileans were known for their penchant for insurrection. They were squarely on the Roman radar. And these people wanted a liberator\u2014a godly leader full of charisma who could rally them all together to revolt and throw off the Roman occupation and oppression. This constricting sense of persecution was a low and simmering slice of their culture.
\nTo these people\u2014as is still often the case today\u2014the idea of accepting things as they were, or being merciful to an enemy, or actively making peace instead of being the resistance, were fantasy concepts<\/strong> for the most part. Sure, they\u2019d be nice if they were possible, but they were hardly realistic.
\nThis is why Jesus\u2019 words that day on a lovely rise overlooking the Sea of Galilee were both illuminating and alarming. Jesus called to something deeper in the people listening\u2014something more true and whole:
\n\u201cYou\u2019re lucky if you\u2019re poor and empty right now\u2014the Kingdom of Heaven is yours. You\u2019re fortunate if you\u2019re mourning now because you have comfort to look forward to. Those of you who actively accept the unpleasantness around you are blessed. It won\u2019t always be this way. You will inherit the Earth. You\u2019re blessed if you crave righteousness. That craving will be satisfied.”\u00a0See Matthew 5:3-10.
\nJesus articulated nine different affirmations comprising nine disruptive juxtapositions. In just a few short moments He had everyone\u2019s complete attention. He was weaving a completely different reality from anything they\u2019d ever experienced\u2014and in profoundly connected ways, different from anything we have ever experienced. Jesus flipped everything on its side, at once both magnifying the world the people wanted to live in and showing them the one they had created. Jesus described the flow and posture of human life as it was intended\u2014the deep exhale and utter relief of complete dependence on God.<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s as if Jesus were saying, \u201cYou\u2019ve got it inside out. The way you were made to live is almost opposite from the way you\u2019re living. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. But you\u2019re living backward, and it\u2019s not working.\u201d
\nThen he began to describe what life should look like, what normal humans should be like, and in the process He raised the bar on the Mosaic Law:
\n\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be more righteous than your religious leaders.” – Matthew 5:20
\n\u201cEveryone knows they will be brought to justice if they murder someone, but the underlying rage is just as big of a problem. If someone has something against you, go and reconcile, even if you\u2019re at the altar before God.” – Matthew 5:21-22
\n

\"\"<\/a>
Click the book to read chapter 1 or listen to an audio sample.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nOn and on He touched every soft spot of life and raised expectations. But was He only dishing out more rules no one can achieve? Or was our inability to achieve them actually the point?
\nThe reality of how much mercy we require each day and how much grace we\u2019re consuming to live is astonishing.<\/strong> We cannot live independent from God. Separation from Him lowers us to our basest animal selves and disconnects us from what we were created for. Utter dependence on God is supposed to be our normal reality.<\/em>
\nJesus described a spacious life with vast reservoirs of unity and opportunity and a clear heart\u2019s posture. One in which there is nothing between us and anyone else\u2014no anger, no racial tension, no misunderstanding, no war. This kind of life transcends mere action or raw discipline. It goes behind all of that to what is really going on inside us\u2014what our true motives are. And we can\u2019t look away because what Jesus was describing was shalom: the wholeness we long for.<\/a><\/p>\n
\n

You’ve been reading Sneezing Jesus: How God Redeems Our Humanity<\/em> by Brian Hardin. Read chapter 1 here.<\/a> Brian is the founder and voice of the Daily Audio Bible. Check out his work or get his book for a great deal at sneezingjesus.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I once dressed myself, drove to the airport, went through the entire security process, flew to another city, attended and spoke at an event, and finally found my way to a hotel room late in the evening before realizing that … <\/p>\n

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