To Life!

There is a long-standing and deeply held belief in the Jewish religion that life is a gift, that life should be celebrated, and all of life is to be lived unto God. In the Hebrew way of thinking, there is essentially no such thing as “sacred” vs. “secular”, nor do they really make a big deal out of flesh vs. spirit. If God is in the picture, all things are His, and all life is lived unto Him. They have a saying: “L’Chaim!” Which means “To Life!” Life is meant to be lived, to be enjoyed to the fullest, with all the pleasures that God has naturally provided. One thing I’ve been learning this past year is that it is actually this type of mindset–the Hebraic mindset–out of which our Christian faith has been spawned.

This way of thinking does not condone sinful practices (there is “clean” and “unclean”, even though there is not “sacred” and “secular”). But rather than suppressing those passions that are deemed “sinful” by most Christians, Hebraic thought believes that all passion is essentially good, and that sin is simply the result of misdirected passion. To them, holiness is not the suppressing of passion, but directing it toward God.

This was a revolutionary shift in thinking for me, since I grew up in religious church systems where there is common assumption that things of the world take us away from the things of God, that we can be more spiritual by being less involved in the things of the world. (For example, people are deemed more spiritual when they can spend hours a day secluded in prayer–too bad for those people who can’t do that because they have jobs and children.) This mindset actually causes us to try and suppress, to put a lid on, those impulses and passions that we believe will lead us to sin–when actually those passions were given us by God and should simply be aimed at Him rather than stifled or used toward evil.

It was eye-opening to me to see how much we religious folks do in our lives that resembles Greek gnosticism and dualism (the separation of spiritual and physical) more than what the Scriptures teach. Even if we teach that God wants us to enjoy life, we still act as though we shouldn’t enjoy things too much. What about the verse that says at God’s right hand are pleasures forevermore? (Ps. 16:11) What about the verse that says God richly gives us all things to enjoy? (1 Tim. 6:17) What about what Jesus said–that He came that we might have life, and that we might have it to the fullest? (John 10:10)

I know this idea is deeper than can be covered in a blog entry, and raises a lot of questions because so much of our thinking needs to be re-constructed. For now, I just know it has been very freeing–and a lot less of a burden–to think of my life and my passions as something to be lived out before God rather than something to keep stifled. Holiness isn’t just about not sinning, nor is this way of thinking by any means permission to sin. Holiness is about living life unto God. I rejoice to know God gave me my life so I could live it, and I am free to enjoy it. L’Chaim!

Some resources you might enjoy:
Books:
Our Father Abraham by Marvin Wilson
The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch
DVD:
Chocolat starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp (illustrates the difference in mindsets pretty well)