The Work of Faith

In the opening pages of Life Worth Living, the authors caution would-be readers that a serious engagement with what they describe as “the Question” has the potential to “wreck your life.” What exactly is the question? It is hard to say. And it is even more difficult to answer once you have some grasp of the question being asked. You’ve likely heard the question and asked it yourself in the following ways: What is the meaning and purpose of life? What is the good life? What matters most? What is the shape of a flourishing life?

For those of us who self-identify as Christians, we look to the Bible in general and the teachings of Jesus in particular. “Those who want to save their lives will lose it, but those who lose their life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:24). What does he mean?

In this week’s reading (John 9:1-12), Jesus heals a man who has been blind since birth, and his disciples want to know why he was born blind. Was it because he sinned or was it because his parents sinned? Jesus’s response, as usual, was perplexing and invites further questions. The man was born blind “so that God’s works might be revealed in him” (vs. 3). What kind of sense does that make? Does it mean that God caused an innocent person to suffer so that God can show how good God is? Creating a situation in which one has no control over circumstances in order to show up as the rescuing hero is called Narcissistic Manipulation. We know that cannot be true of God, so what else are we to make of what is happening?

It may be helpful to note that this event takes place at the beginning of chapter 9. Original manuscripts would not have included chapters and verses. Which is helpful to know, because Jesus’s stated purpose for coming into the world in John 10:10 (to offer abundant life), is part of the ongoing discussion that resulted from the healing of the man who was born blind.

The questions we ask (or fail to ask) are of immense importance. Eternal in fact. And the answers to those questions may wreck our lives, depending on how we view them. Maybe our lives need to be wrecked. Could it be that the lives that we cling to so tightly need to be wrecked in order to experience life in new and abundant ways?

You do not want to miss this week’s discussion. The stakes simply could not be higher!

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