Who's carrying the handbasket?

"The whole world is going to hell in a handbasket!" I can't tell you how many times I heard this expression growing up. It usually came along with a rant about some kind of sin or deviant behavior that was taking over. And in most cases, it was a behavior that the ranter was not (or in some cases like abortion couldn't be) tempted by. I'm always reminded of this expression when I read Romans 1. Take the last verse of that chapter.

And it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!

Yeah! Those [insert pet sin here] are ruining our society. They're destroying the fabric of America. It's time to take this country back for God before all those [insert favorite scapegoat here] take us to hell in a handbasket.

But, if you read Paul's letter the way the original audience would have (rather than stopping at arbitrary chapter markings) then you proceed from this thought right into this one.

Those people are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors. But God isn’t so easily diverted. He sees right through all such smoke screens and holds you to what you’ve done.

 Oh, hold up. You mean it's me? I'm carrying a handbasket too? Wait, I thought it was the, ummm, I mean, but that guy, it was those, but what about all those people who. . .

I love the absolute, brutal honesty that Paul uses in his letters. He stands firm and calls a sin a sin, but he also never lets us think for a minute that because we have entered the forgiveness Jesus offers that we can look down on people who are still trying to figure it out.

I love the simple language Peterson uses in his translation of Paul's letter. "It takes one to know one." Why am I so good at identifying sinners? Because I am the chief among them. And only by the grace of God, the resurrection of Jesus, and the filling of the Holy Spirit is that fact not a death sentence for me. The good news is that it doesn't have to be a death sentence for anyone else either.

God does not have a plan for your life

I loved the show Lost. I thought it was exciting, well-written, complex, and thought-provoking. It tackled many subjects in its six year run that caused people to bring the show into conversations about God, faith, fate, and eternity. Oddly, the one thing that made it most relevant to conversations of faith was the same thing that made the most people angry each week. With every answered question, there were ten new and unanswered. The creators and writers of the show had not just a tolerance for uncertainty, but a deep-seated love of it. They understood that life is not simple, that there are not always answers to our questions, that we must figure out how to live, grow, and adapt in the midst of this uncertainty.

This is what it means to live a life of faith. God will not answer all of your questions. God will not give you a five year plan to follow. God will not lay out the path for you before you begin the journey.

At this point, you might be frustrated. You might feel like I used to the title of this post to troll you, as nothing more than a ploy to get you to click the link. Ok, maybe just a little. But, I have intentionally let you dangle for a bit to test your tolerance for uncertainty. Is this guy a heretic? Is he suggesting that God doesn't care about the individual? Surely he's going to offer an explanation, an exemption, a reason that I'm the exception to the rule. Well, not exactly.

I stand by my statement. If you understand God's plan for your life to be one of a micromanager, one where every detail of your existence is predetermined and waiting for you to walk the path, then I respectfully disagree. In that sense, God does not have a plan for your life. Now can we, in hindsight, see God at work in our lives, in the course of events that have led us to the present, in the decisions that we have made? Of course. If we had made completely different choices and led to a different present, could we look back and see God's hands at work? Of course.

You see, God's plan is so much bigger than your life. God's plan is to redeem, reclaim, and restore all of creation. The way in which God does have a plan for your life is this. Since you are part of creation, you are included in the plan. You are individually invited to be an agent of restoration, a participant in the redemption of all things. Isn't that so much cooler than whether or not God wants you to attend school X or school Y? You get to be part of the advance team. You get to be (if you choose to of course) a conduit of love, grace, and mercy.

I encountered this verse in Romans 11 as I was studying today. I'm convinced that this is God's plan for my life. This is from the Message.

In one way or another, God makes sure that we all experience what it means to be outside so that he can personally open the door and welcome us back in.

This is his plan, his master work. He stands before all of creation, a creation that has chosen to live in rebellion, outside in the cold, away from the blessings of its loving creator, and says, "Welcome home. I had big plans for you in the beginning, and your disobedience hasn't changed them one bit. Let's get to work."

That is God's plan for you. His plan is to lavish on you his life, love, grace, and mercy. His plan is to invite you into a relationship with him that will make you whole and complete. And he can accomplish this plan whether you are in Washington or Timbuktu. What is essential is to answer his call the same way the ancients like Abram, Samuel and Isaiah did, "Here I am."