July 1, 2002

HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL REBEL

I heard recently from a woman whose rebellious teenager threatened to run away. She responded to him: "So, you're mad at me, and you want to run away. That gives you a ‘from,' but it doesn't give you a ‘to.'" When she told me this, I said, "Huh?"

She went on to explain her meaning: "A person who's making a radical change needs something he's going ‘from' and something he's going ‘to.' If he has the ‘from' but not the ‘to,' he's only going to hurt himself in the process."

Conversion to Christ is an act of rebellion. There is a clear "from" and a clear "to." The apostles wrote about it this way:

"You are . . . God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." (1 Peter 2:9)

"He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son . . . ." (Colossians 1:13)

". . . you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God." (1 Thessalonians 1:9)

For Peter and Paul and the early believers they were writing to, there was an awful "from" and a glorious "to." Because they saw the "from" of their lost past so clearly, the dramatic "to" of God's redemption was all the more impressive. Because they had known what it was to worship idols, they rejoiced in "the living and true God" they now served. Their existence in the realm of "darkness" made the brightness of "his marvelous light" very evident to them.

With second generation Christians, the "from" was not nearly as dark and idol-worship was a distant memory. Therefore, their experience of the "to" tended to be muted a bit. And the third, and fourth, and twentieth generation could easily drift into a casual conversion, more like a step from beige to ecru than from darkness into light.
What faith generation are we? Some of us come from families that have been "Christians" for many centuries. We're born in a certain Christianized culture, and we're pretty comfortable staying there. It's hard for us to be aware of the intense "from"/"to" of Christian conversion.

It's a pity. We can't fully appreciate God's "marvelous light" when we've never known heathen darkness. "What then? (to refocus Paul's words in Romans 6:1) Should we sin that grace may abound? Should we worship idols so that we can truly appreciate the living God?"

Of course not. That would lead to more pain and suffering, to ourselves and to others.

And yet we must get things into better focus. Particularly, we have to appreciate more fully what we are saved "from." We can do this by:

   Sharpening our sensitivity to the sin around us and to the consequences in peoples' lives, rather than becoming desensitized and complacent.

   Having among our friends people who are brand-new Christians and have not lost the wonder of the "from" and the "to."

   Becoming keenly involved in support and prayer for missionaries in frontline areas, where the encounter with darkness and evil is very real and tangible.

   Praying that the Lord will make us more and more aware of the darkness and idolatry still resident within us, always sensitive that there is evil to escape "from" in our very nature.

These disciplines will not only clarify our "from," but will prepare us for a joyful revival in our experience of the One "to" whom we run for our salvation.

–Pastor George VanAlstine