Stress

So a couple of things have been running around in my head for a while. First is a sermon from Stephen Gambill about two mountains - Sinai and Zion. Mt. Sinai represents judgement, condemnation. When the Israelites came to that mountain, God surrounded it. There was thunder, lightning, darkness. The Bible describes the mountain as melting before Him. Sinai was where God gave the law to Moses. Imagine facing that alone. An angry God and He's looking right at you.

Zion, in contrast, is open arms. God saying welcome home. Thunder and lightning replaced with bright light and tranquility. It's a stark contradiction from Sinai.

And both of them are real. God is the same God, the same person, who expresses Himself in both ways at the same time. Sinai and Zion are in tension. Two opposites that are both true and exist at the same time. My brain can't reconcile that.

Thing 2

This made me think about the tensions in our world. My friend likes to describe these as grey areas. I hate grey areas. I cannot hold two emotions at the same time. And the idea that there is an acceptable balance between them is completely foreign.

Tension is everywhere. There was tension this morning when Vania snuck in a video game she wasn't allowed to play. There's tension every Monday morning when I have to get up for work, but I love what I do. The fact that I have to creates tension.

Sin creates tension. The apostle Paul talks about the law of sin and death versus the law of life (the spirit). These two always stand in opposition to each other - tension. Darwin summed up the law of sin and death very neatly: survival of the fittest. The strong prey on the weak. It's every man for himself.

Survival of the fittest is how the world works left to itself. It's a world of erosion, excess, self-destruction. Every advance exacts a price (think cars and smog, or industrialization and environmental concerns). On its own, the world breaks down. This the law of nature. Everything runs out, winds down, and eventually dies. Even the sun will one day burn out. It may be a very long time. But it is inevitable.

Contrast that with the picture painted in Revelations, the lion lays down with the lamb. Picture that for a second. A full grown male lion, with a full mane, sitting on the ground, his paws wrapped around a lamb. Both are at complete peace. The same passage says that a baby (think of your grandchild) will stick his hand in an adder's nest. And nothing happens. Well, maybe the snake licks his hand and the baby squeals because it tickles.

This is God's law of life. The law of sin and death breeds fear. Approach a snake now, and it will bite you because it's afraid. Sheep are afraid of lions. Lions are afraid of us. We're afraid of the ozone layer, pollution, and dying.

Fear leads to the dark side (to quote Yoda). We do self-destructive things because of fear. Fear creates tension.

Wrapping It Up

How do you resolve tension? How do you reconcile two opposites that are constantly fighting? Each trying to kill the other? I don't know either.

We should be enjoying our world. Admiring a beautiful sunset. Eating good food because it's fun to taste the flavors. Standing in awe of a panoramic view as the clouds touch the mountain tops and the sun glistens off the lake. Instead, we worry about starving, rush to drive home from work, and stand back from the edge of the cliff. Why? Because that world is out to kill us.

We know, deep in our hearts, this is wrong. We know that it shouldn't be survival of the fittest. In X-Men: Apocalypse, Charles Xavier tells the strong mutants to protect those who are weak. And the audience applauds that as noble, heroic. That's how the world should be. That's what we want it to be.

And when this world let's us down, we find ways of hiding from the pain. It shouldn't be this way, but it is. We live on Mt. Sinai. We want to live on Mt. Zion. Tension.