What does society tell us we were created to be? Does it tell us anything? Are we told we’re the product of our parents’ choices? Or perhaps we are an unintended accident or conceived in an act of violence? (Many youth and young adults are taught that we’re nothing more than the product of western norms and culture, and that we bear all the privileges, arrogance, and biases of it.) Are we told that in order to live a fulfilled life we should maximize our earning potential, and then strategically use our abilities to get the most comforts and conveniences possible?
Are we told that what we really are is whatever other people perceive us to be? Thus, the appearances we make in the world with our car and our clothes and our choices are of supreme importance.
Or are we whatever our economic and political views are? Are we driven to fit in with the views of those around us so that we get a sense of belonging?
Are we told that our value lies in our educational attainments, or our net worth, or our job performance in the last year?
These are all powerful forces that pull on our lives, and in many cases, can rule our lives. But none of them are true.
In Jeremiah 1:5 God says to the prophet, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Those were probably both comforting and frustrating words for Jeremiah. If you know his life at all you know it was not an easy one. He often railed against God for what God pushed him to do. But he did it anyway.
The thing is, those words go for more than just Jeremiah. They go for all of us as well. I do not mean that we were all created to be prophets to the nations. That was Jeremiah’s role. Possibly it is yours, but I do not know. What does go for all of us is the truth that before we were even conceived God knew us. God created us with purpose and for purpose. I’ve preached many times that we are not accidents and we are not junk. God created us good. God invites us to do meaningful and important things.
This is all good news! But it is not automatic. For if you want to do something important and meaningful it is going to require endurance and discipline, and a lot of them!
Hebrews 12 is a chapter about just those things. Last week we read Hebrews 11. There we found a list of heroes of the faith: Abel, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, and the prophets. None of them had easy. They all endured trials and tribulations. Through endurance they developed discipline which kept their faith centered on God. Now Hebrews 12 adds Jesus to the list. But before Jesus was added we read, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1) It then goes on, “…looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”
We’re to get the image of all of us being in an Olympic style race, running alongside each other and great heroes of the faith, with Jesus ahead of us and drawing us forward. The idea is not that only one person gets to win, or that only three people will get first, second, and third place medals, but that we are all striving towards God’s promised future.
If you’re going to be an athlete it takes discipline and focus. It may mean months and years of regular training. It means straining yourself and pushing the limits. No one ever was sitting in the stands in the Olympics eating a hot dog with one hand and a beverage in the other, and then decided to set them down, walk out onto the track, and run in the race and win. That’s not how it’s done.
Our society today does not like discipline. That goes for pretty much all times and places. The author of Hebrews knew the readers didn’t like discipline. He wrote, “Now discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant a the time.” Of course. Humans would rather indulge and have fun. And we do need to indulge and have some fun at times. But God made you with purpose and for purpose. You’ll never achieve that purpose without discipline.
Think over life. There is nothing – nothing – worth having that came easily. The things we value the most are the things we’ve worked and struggled the hardest to obtain. People who have big wins in the lottery or have a sudden great inheritance almost never fully appreciate what they have received. Many of them squander it. Few have fulfilled lives.
God disciplines us for our own effectiveness. Hebrews uses the example of parents disciplining their children. Even something as simple as telling a child they cannot have a snack before dinner is discipline. The child is hungry. He or she wants food. Not getting food is painful. The parent does not (or should not) enjoy causing the pain. But the parent knows the discipline of not indulging every time a child is hungry teaches a child to know satisfaction when they do it. It also teaches that you should eat healthy things and healthy amounts. No parent truly loves a child that indulges the child in everything.
I do want to make the same aside Hebrews does in all of this and note that while parental discipline is the example used for God’s discipline, not all parental discipline is perfect. The author wrote, “[Parents] disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them…” Indeed, parents don’t know their children perfectly. Discipline may go awry, or some parents may be abusive. But the image still works. God disciplines us.
It seems that in many areas of society, especially the social sciences, there is a division being made between victims and oppressors. Oppressors especially are: male, white, heterosexual, and in leadership. Victims are: female, colored, homosexual, and disabled. The more qualities you have in one category or the other the more you are oppressor or victim. And much of current social science teaches that it is the victims who have the highest morality. And oppressors are incapable of moral deliberation because of their privileges.
I don’t want to get too political with all of this, because it quickly becomes that, but the whole notion of splitting humanity into victims and oppressors, with victims having morality and the oppressors being incapable of morality is both inaccurate and unhelpful.
Many young adults have been taught to see themselves as victims. They are to look for traumas and abuses in their past from their communities or their parents or their peer groups. They are told that these abuses are the defining characteristics of their lives. This approach is also inaccurate and unhelpful.
You are made by God with purpose and for purpose. If you define yourself as a victim then you are letting your abuser be your definer. While it is true that severe abuse and trauma impacts a person’s development, those things do not define a person. Nor do they give them moral high ground over others.
When abuses and traumas occur, our faith takes us to Romans 8:28. “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God.” Or it can be translated, “in all things God works for good.” And remember how the passage continues, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God… who are called according to his purpose.” There we have that word purpose just like we had in Jeremiah.
Hebrews 12 told us, “Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.”
That is an attitude that stays true to God’s purpose. Life was not meant to be easy. It was meant to be meaningful. Without discipline life has no meaning.
This does not mean that you should put a smile on your face every time something hurts. This does not mean that you should see all of life’s hardships as God’s discipline for you. But it does mean that with your faith set on God’s purposes, all things will build you.
Rejoice with God when life is easy and good. Accept that God is with you always, even when things are hard. And that in order for you to have a purposeful life, endurance and discipline will be necessary. The joy of the fulfillment of God’s promises awaits.
