Spiritual Wellness

Step aside 9-9-9. This Friday, something will happen that won’t occur for another 100 years:  11-11-11! And, people are talking about it.  Wedding chapels are booked solid and nonprofits are promoting their cause.  The coolest one I’ve seen is the KEY2FREE Campaign to increase awareness about human trafficking.

ONE is a spiritual number. God is three persons, who are ONE.  According to the Bible, marriage is two persons who become ONE.   While these examples primarily speak to unity, there’s more . . .

Jesus teaches us to ignore 99 followers of Christ, to pursue the ONE who has drifted. Another Bible passage tells us that ONE day with God is as a thousand years.  The Bible also says, “There is ONE body and ONE Spirit, just as you have been called to ONE glorious hope for the future.  There is ONE Lord, ONE faith, ONE baptism, and ONE God and Father.” (Eph 4:4,5)

What’s all this about?  God’s Economy.

God’s economy is the way God operates. It’s how He handles transactions with us.  And, it’s quite opposite from our own capitalistic economy.

A corporate structure is all about “the man.” Occupy Wall St. activists have a discombobulated message; yet, all share one feeling . . . anger at “the man.” They’re upset with a system where the man at the top has greater value than the thousands in the mill and the mailroom. Until OWS can articulate their message and demands, there won’t be any solutions.  But, that’s not a problem for God.  God’s solutions are like Windex.  One solution solves many problems.

While I’m all for capitalism, we have to remember that it isn’t God’s economic structure. It’s just one of many worldly financial systems.  The problem with a capitalistic society is that we tend to think about God within the same context.  When we do that, we imagine that God is like “the man.”  We imagine that He’s like all the others – greedy, power hungry and uninterested is all us little ants scrambling around.

A capitalistic model is a triangle with one man at the top, and thousands at the bottom.  God turns that model upside down. God sent the ONE person at the top (heaven) to the bottom (earth), to serve and eventually die for the whole.  Jesus triumphed over death, and now we all profit.  Rather than lording over us, Jesus serves as the foundation for which billions of people will build their lives.

Jesus is Lord. However, not in the sense we think of it – He’s not a dictator or “the man.”  God’s economy is ONE person serving all.   Now, all transactions with God happen through that ONE person.

It doesn’t stop here . . . Jesus wants us to focus on just ONE. Consider again the scripture that says if one sheep goes astray, we should neglect the 99 to go after it.  Isn’t it also true that we should pause to help ONE hurting person, ONE hungry child, ONE . . . 11.11.11?  What would happen if we all focused on the ONE person standing in front of us?

capitalism, finance, kingdom, OWS, social justice