I'm not a blogger. I'm a lousy blogger. I'm only blogging because of the pressure that is being exerted upon me by my colleagues. Why don't you just give me a call if you want to know what I'm thinking? Yeesh.
However, my recent assessment based on the Enneagram, Myers Briggs, and other psych tests (um, not phil-might-be-crazy-tests--just work-related evaluations...) concluded that indeed I "require an outlet for writing and motivating in order to maintain balance in (my) life." So, I'm just reaching for straws here, and thought I'd comment on something that came up in class today...
Do you really think that a good Christian ought not assert their rights as a human being?
As followers of Jesus, Christians are rightly concerned with the great law of life--the law of agape, or self-giving love. But does this mean that it is wrong for followers of Jesus to feel they have rights? And is it even worse for them to assert these rights?
I don't think so.
I think sometimes we forget that in order to practice self-giving love there really has to be a self that is doing the giving. I cringe a little at the romantic and sentimental sense that I hear in church language that assumes that this self-giving love will "just happen" because we've invited the Self-Giving One into our hearts. Authentic self-giving love--even that which appropriates the great work of the indwelling Spirit of Christ--requires volition. We (our selves) have to give, and in doing so we really are giving something up or giving something away.
Further, I think that the practice of self-giving love (not just the idea of it) does not diminish the validity of the rights of each self but rather most fully validates them. It is in willingly and actively (as opposed to passively) giving of ourselves that our rights are most fully affirmed. I think it is wrong to suppose that a follower of Jesus should shut up and suffer. This isn't agape! Rather sin must be named, wrongs must be condemned, violence opposed, injustice resisted and deception exposed--and the forgiveness and grace of self-giving love must be extended and expressed nonetheless. This means naming and identifying the evil "that has trespassed against us," but refusing allow evil to beget evil in our lives--refusing to allow our rights that have been transgressed to become twisted into the weapons of rationalization and moralization of our own violent or vengeful reactions. It is in knowingly laying down our rights for the sake of God's kingdom and for the great law of agape that we most fully affirm our rights. Not as passive victims, but as active participants in the agony of love.
Finally (although this is far from finally), I think that the acknowledgment of rights is essential to the pursuit of justice and love. I mean, really, what do we think/feel/believe when we see people being trampled by more powerful people or unjust systems? I sometimes wonder if our weak-kneed aversion to asserting rights might have more to do with our aversion to taking responsibility for what's happening to others in our spheres of influence than it has to do with self-giving love. After all, love that does not have justice as its end is not love at all, but rather sentimentality. To truly practice agape is an active, participative joining in the sufferings of Jesus Christ. It is to identify sin as sin, and extend forgiveness nonetheless. It is to name what is broken and bent among us, and extend fellowship nonetheless. It is to acknowledge the real areas of sickness and filth and disease, and go into them to bring healing nonetheless. These strong expressions of right-relinquishing agape ultimately affirm the rights of selves--of your-self and those of the other.
What do you think?
Phil in Canmore... up really late.
