God is an aquired taste

I think God is an aquired taste.

Today I saw the biggest idol yet while living in Nepal. It was a huge snake with many heads (and a long tail). I truly don't get idols, espeically snake ones, but that is not very surprising, is it? (I also don't get why they put most of their idols behind a locked gate. Wouldn't stealing an idol be terrible Karma and send you down the "evolutionary" ladder?). I guess that they at best remind people that there is something beyond smartphones and semi-funny Youtube videos. At worst, they lead people astray to eternal damnation.

It seems as if God and the thirst for God is everywhere here in Nepal. You don't have to convince a Nepali that there is a spiritual side to life, which is nice because that is half-way there, but since Hinduism is a pantheistic religion it sort of makes God, or religion, a little bland. It's like the American (bless their hearts!) obsession with having Everything. Right. Now!
In Sweden we have a pastry sort-of thing that is only available between New Year and Easter.

Everybody loves them but you can't get them in June. Had it been in America you could've had them 24/7/365...home-delivered for $2,99. But then it loses its charm.
The point being that if you have something that is always around you and is always available it becomes less special, less important and less valuable. Nobody treasures trips to Wal-Mart and I wonder how special the garden temples and gods are around here when everything is kind of holy and "special".

Well, I'm not Nepali so I don't know the answer to that question but I do know that I have a book that is called "When God is gone everything is holy". I bought it based on the title alone and I found it very sad. Not "sad" as in "I don't like it" but sad because it tried so hard to make "year-around Semlas" a good thing, knowing deep down that it doesn't work. Everything is not  holy when God is gone because the very definition of holy is something that is ontologically different from "everything" that isn't God.

The Christian God, who by default is not a pantheistic God, is an aquired taste. He is not like the stuff we know and see all around us. He is someone who time and again surprises us humans with just how different he is. This makes sense to me because it is a clear indication that God is God and not an invention of man. Sometimes really smart non-believers argue that God is a human invention, for example Freud who said something to the extent that God is a fabrication of innate human desires and urges...a universal cute and kind grandfather figure in the sky to help us with our problems and love us no matter what. For the record, that is never how the Bible talks about God.

The main reason for God being an aquired taste is thus that he is not like anything we are used to. "Everything" is not God and therefore God is not something that we have aquired a taste for here down on earth in our earthly little lives. Another way of putting it is:
We are sinners. I know, how old-fashioned and depressing, but wait(!), being a sinner expalins why we don't run into the arms of God and hug Him forever. We don't like the "taste" of God because God is simply so different from us and everything we are used to. By default we now run the other way. We seek to fulfill ourselves and become "all we can be" without God. Who's that working out for us, you ask? Read the paper...

That is the most basic understanding of "sin"...that it is the antonym of "holy". God is like a semla that we haven't had for a really long time. We have forgotten what God "tastes" like and so we hold back. Sit at home. Seek to quench our thirst for the divine semla with substitutes. Sin, as per the description, is a desire for anything other than God, the divine semla. It's the ultimate mistake, the final confusion...to dance around a golden calf when God is just up the mountain. Rather a mute statue of finest gold instead of a Holy God on a burning mountain talking to you.

But all is not lost. Like the fragrance of a delicious pastry wafting through the air, we can find traces of God everywhere. We can aquire a taste for God. He hasn't closed the Heavenly bakery. In fact, God must be part American because His word seems to indicate that we can have Him 24/7/365. He has not left himself without a witness, a scent (like Paul calls Christians) if you will, among the perfumes of humanity that are designed to cover up the stench of our sins. It's called grace and it is the Holy Spirit who visits us with this most precious delight.

Easter is upon us. Smell God's grace in his sacrifice of love on the cross for us, sinners, and aquire a taste of His goodness and holiness.

Being rich (for once) in Nepal...can a rich person be saved?

Well, of course, but hear me out.

Living in Nepal has brought the rich-poor divide into the open. When I lived in Norway there were plenty of times when I didn't know if I had enough money in my account to pay for the groceries I had just put on the conveyor belt at the supermarket. Here, money isn't an issue. At all. Ever. I make 20 times more money than the average Nepali.

So I have been thinking about something that I realized back in Norway. Jesus said one time that it is "impossible" for the rich to get saved. Something about a camel and sewing equipment. Only with great difficulty can they be saved, presumably because their wealth made their focus remain on money and self-sufficiency.

So is that why rich western (and particularly northern Europeans) don't care about salvation and why the churches (well, those that still try) struggle to preach and reach people with a message of salvation? I mean, by Jesus standards everybody (more or less) is rich nowadays, right? So perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that our fellow Swedes and Norwegians and Danes don't get seek salvation. It's a divinely established truth that it is really hard for a rich person to be saved and since everybody is rich...voilá, we have empty pews. (John Wesley wondered this as well, that when poor people got saved their lives got better through education and vocation which inevitbly led to a lessening of religious fervor). We try something else instead, like gospelchoirs or language classes for immigrants (all good things but not salvific things).

I have never been poor so I should, perhaps, have some insights into this dilemma since I am in fact "saved"...but I don't know. I actually don't think it is about the money. I think it is about self-sufficiency. A rich person believes that he or she can handle life no matter what because that is how I feel when I am here in Nepal. I can handle any problem imaginable with a quick visit to the ATM.  My friends here in Nepal don't have that luxury. The smallest problem is a rally big thing to them, usually a problem with no solution but to "suck it up" and move on.
For them, a salvation free of charge into a life of holiness and love sounds like a pretty good deal...even if it comes with that outdated condition with it that we "discipleship". A following. A giving up of authority and self-rule. To a poor person it makes sense and even feels good to give up self-reliance and self-sufficiency for some grace and salvation and a promise to be taken care of. It can't get much worse, can it?
For a rich person, it sounds "fishy", as if we wonder if it's worth it and if God can do a better job than we can about giving us a good life. I mean, why risk giving up control when control has served us well so far? Self-sufficiency.

The irony is, of course, that it is people who are more like me, who are rich and don't really feel crappy and low and worthless and poor, that are said to be in danger of missing out on the whole thing...even though we rarely struggle with God. We feel like it is the most natural thing in the world that God should love us and forgive us. After all, why not? We/they are not bad people and, without bragging, pretty decent guys and gals.

But we are wrong. It is the poor, and the poor in spirit, that are blessed and who will get the Kingdom of God.
But it doesn't seem like it, does it? Doesn't it seem as if it is the people who have it all together who are more likely to get saved? Doesn't it seem as if the rich are "blessed by God", as we so often tell them?

I wonder.

But if it is true that "poor" is the better way to be if we want to meet God and enter his kingdom, what does that mean in practice? What does it mean for me here in Nepal? When I go back to Norway? I don't know, but I have a feeling that it has to do with an attitude more than my bank account. My bank account can be a hindrance to what I attitude I choose, but I think the big struggle is not how much money I make, or don't make. I think the key is whether we think that we can make the most of this world (and the next) on our own or not. Self-sufficiency.

Perhaps this is something you have already figured out.
Perhaps you always knew that self-sufficiency is the main culprit in why we have empty pews in churches.
Perhaps you alrady figured out that self-sufficiency is why people flock to churches when disasters happen...for once, people realize that they are not self-sufficient...until a few days later when it's all forgotten.

But I think it is a good idea to instill in my head that I am not self-sufficient and that I live in a reality where such ideas are not only delusional but also dangerous. If nothing else, I have little stone idols everywhere to remind me that although those idols themselves are worthless they represent a reality that I for sure can claim to be self-sufficient in. There are more things in the world that what we can handle, all the time, and it is by God's grace that your and my "everyday" go as well as they do.

Blessed are those who know that their spirits are poor and those whose bank accounts don't block their view of our utter dependence upon Jesus Christ, our Sustainer.

Those clear moments

I remember a class in seminary where the teacher drew a line on the whiteboard, marked off the extreme edges and then asked students to put an X on the line between the two extremes and back up their answer. For instance, the question would be predestination and the left extreme would state that everything is predestined to happen the way it does and the right extreme would state that everything is random chance. As a student, you would then put your X and explain why. I loved that class!

One of those questions was "When can a person be saved?" and it really made us think. Is it all the time or only at certain times? Is God always willing and ready to save? Is man always able to be saved, even Himmler in the camps on a Tuesday? Can we save ourselves by calling on God when we want to or do we need God's grace to even know that we need salvation?
It is not an easy question but I remember that most of us agreed that day that God is always ready to save but that we are not AND that therefore there exists "windows of salvation" in people's lives when the grace from God is able to find us, as wind through an open window, as it were. Most of the time we have the window shut.

I call those moments "clear" moments when we open our spiritual windows, by God's grace. I consider it such that it is me with my volition who chooses to open the window but it is God who enables my volition to see why I should.
In my experience I find that most people have relatively few "clear" moments. There is a lot of intellectual and spiritual haze and most of the time also a lot of distractions. When you consider that the only thing separating you from the wind of God's Spirit is, at all times, just a few "millimeters" of "window pane". Those distractions and the spiritual haze that is so prevelant in these days are what I call that window pane, shielding us from the power of God for good and for bad. Mostly for bad.

Today I stood watching the rain fall here in Pokhara outside my window. It was the first time it had rained here since we came here in January so it was just a little mesmerizing, or unusual, to see water fall vertically...and as I stood there watching out of my window I had a "clear" moment. Not a moment to be saved but a moment when I could feel the Spirit of God blowing his gentle breeze over my Spirit. Nothing mystical, just a "clearing" if you would.
Perhaps it had something to do with that the power had gone out, the internet router was dead, there was a nationwide strike so no taxis or shops were open and I had just finished reading my book. In other words, no distractions were available. Just me and some rain outside my window.

The clarity brought a message with it. The message was: the joy of the Lord is better. I know, it sounds super spiritual and like God spoke audibly or wrote something with fire on the wall. That's not the case. It was just clarity...for once.

It's like that worship song that sings that the love of God is the air that they breathe and you think, "- Really? The very air that you breathe?"...and you dismiss it as poetry. Well, what if it isn't? What if some people actually live like that? What then? Would you like to have that kind of life? Faith? Love?

There, at that window, I caught a glimpse of it. Later in the everning I remembered that such spiritual clarity usually involves something intimidating. Well, it is intimidating to the natural self, or the "old man" as Scripture calls it. It is a relinguishing. It is a change of heart. It is a different way to live.
All grand statements, to be sure, but they all begin in the insignificant, the smal and the irrelevant aspects of life. The question is, is holiness (becoming like Christ) and living as if Christ is the very air that I breathe worth it? It would certainly change a lot, wouldn't it?

So, is it worth it? There, at the window this morning, the word was better. Now, at the window in the evening, the question is...yes or no?

Further impressions from Nepal

Life in Nepal is lived in spurts.

There are normal days of school and chores and there are days of visiting the Mother Theresa nuns and singing to old people, riding scooters along the Fewa Lake or visiting the Ghurka museum trying to navigate Nepali traffic in the same tiny scooters.
Some days we go on photo safaris, trying to learn how to see the world from a different angle. Other days we don't leave the apartment at all.
Some days we book white water rafting trips or ziplining events, other days we eat noodles and eggs.

However, it is the stuff that happens under the surface, unseen, that we are interested in the most. That is why we are here...to connect with that current of the Holy Spirit that blows where she wants and includes anyone interested in going.
I have to admit, it is a long way back to the point on the path of holiness that I sort of left a while back...or perhaps not left but at least decided to to travel (at least, it seems long). Found myself a nice little reststop and sat down, finding and enjoying distractions of all kinds of different sizes and colors and shapes.
Of course, that is not true, at least not in the sense of enjoying them. In reality, the path of holiness with God is the ultimate "enjoyment". It is the distractions that are un-joyful. No one feels joy on Facebook or Twitter. Smart or clever, perhaps, but not joyful.

The "under the surface" stuff also happens in spurts, unfortunately. Where do you start if you want to find your way back to the path of holiness? Or if you want to find it in the first place? Are you even on it?

For me, the path is found to begin with prayer and Scripture and talking with my wife about spiritual things. On prayer...
I 've noticed this thing about prayer. There are two different kinds, useless and effective. Have you noticed the difference? Can you tell when you pray a useless prayer or an effective prayer? I kind of can.

Tonight my youngest son told me that the reason he wants someone to stay with him when he goes to bed is that he is a little scared of "the bad angels" that we have told him/warned him about. The spiritually ignorant and Biblically illiterate dismiss demons as fiction but the true Christian know better...and of course, they are scary to a young boy (or anyone else, for that matter!).

So I told him that Jesus is stronger and that angels prevent the demons from hurting us. I prayed to Jesus for protection and thanked him for winning over the devil and for "being stronger". As I prayed, I realized that I meant it, like really. Embarrassing, I know, but sometimes that is how it is.
A wise monk was once asked "How long do you pray for?". He answered "- For 5 minutes, but it takes me 15 minutes to get there." There is wisdom there.

So I will pray prayers I mean and decide to mean them before I pray them. We'll see how that goes.

There is much to tell from our time here in Nepal, such as the "Festival of colors" this Sunday, but that is for the next post.

Until then.