We often feel the crushing weight of all that we have to do and all that is expected of us. I know that my emails regularly dictate my mood and generally at all times I have a ballpark number of how big my inbox is. This feeling of a long to-do list brings us face to face with our limitations. We are not all-powerful and all-knowing, that is not our job. In fact, it is a good thing that we are created creatures and it is an even better thing that God came as a human too, embracing all the limits and progress and growth of the creation He built.
This book helped reorient my thinking around our limits and guilt with that, our value as people in and of itself and not based on people's wisdom or utility and even the value of progressive growth and the struggle and win that can be.
We may all struggle with the question of whether I am enough? We may then frame that answer in things that we have done and achieved as if that is how God loves us. But that is not the case at all, and no matter how reformed you may be, sometimes our inner voice, or our self-justification to others may not communicate how God love us, even though we may feel like we have never done enough.
The incarnation is a key aspect in knowing what it means to be a human. Our bodily functions are not sinful, our limitations are not reason for us to feel guilty and our real bodies are good things. There is always a danger to idolised or demonise our bodies, but a proper use and understanding of our bodies that this is our embodiment on this earth, which we can use for worship to our creator - for as the first answer to the Westminster Confession says, our end is to worship and enjoy God forever, and we do that in our bodies.
One bit that rubbed me a little, which I used in a sermon was the idea that Jesus didn't have to be the smartest person alive to be the Messiah or to be be best fully human there was. The more IQ you have doesn't mean the more human you are. But Jesus may have been more human when He was living our people's purpose of being in relation with God.
Being particular and contingent, means we are dependent on our creator. Being also sinful means we do not get everything right and struggle with what is the right thing to do. One main image I took away from this book was the idea that when a baby is learning to walk and takes a few steps to the parent and they fall over, that parent is not cross with the kid's shortcomings and scolds them for falling short. They are full of praise and joy for what was achieved. They then might put the kid back to repeat the process and they may fail again, but we all know that over time, through the struggle and the falling that kid will soon learn to walk. The process is an achievement. Kapic framed some of our Christian growth like that. The process strengthens us. God sees us resist temptation more and more and though we may fail, He is not some temperamental grumpy Father scolding us for failing. Part of our blueprint is that we are finite, and our need for Him and our failing brings us back to Him.
In another section when dealing with all the things we are to do as Christians like evangelism, caring for the poor and downtrodden, church rosters, raising children, visiting those in prison, bible reading, and working hard, Kapic argued that it takes the whole church to reflect the one messiah. As a body, we should be doing all these things, but individually we can't. We need a community to help us live out our faith in all areas of our lives and society. We are dependent on God and also on each other to fulfil the whole mission of the church.
There were more points in this book, but this is the last one I will mention here. Near the end, there was a great section on the balance between lament and gratitude. Should we be happy with our culture and want change? Surly in the West, we have much to be grateful for we have come a long way and our laws and reforms, but if we still point out inequalities or terrible issues do we come across as ungrateful whiners, saying things are bad when really we are quite well off. It argued we should embrace both, as both lament and gratitude are concepts that bring us back to our dependence on God. People are finite and we live in a fallen world so there are many problems, but God is infinite, wise, good and present who is filled with compassion and care for his people, so there is much we can be grateful for.
Throughout this book, there was this gentle conversational tone that consistently pointed to a loving Father who cares for His creation. Kapic cames across as more socially active than some of the books I had recently read, and I appreciated his insights into these issues, making them more complex than one might think initially. Overall this was an encouragement to the busy person, the one who thinks God is judging them, the one who feels like they should individually have it all together. That is not the case. We are humans, with belly buttons that show we are not self-made, they point back to our parents and their parents all the way back to God who created our bellies in the first place.
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