Jack Pelham

Until Jesus is enough for you, no person or thing will ever be.

Steven Furtick

This meme may sound awfully right and satisfying to some, but I think it’s messed up. I think this was written from the point of view of somebody who doesn’t know Jesus very well. But let me start first by examining the “tone” of it.

Come, let us discover, new friend,
Which are the things I might discuss at ease
With a fuller person, but
Dare not mention to you.

We are free to choose the words we use, yet we use the same word to describe God as we use to describe ice cream, do we not?

I want to write a brief article today because I don’t have time to write the book(s?) that the topic deserves. But even so, brevity takes its time, too. So here’s a thesis statement aimed at giving you hope that reading this short article is worth your time:

Perhaps you have got them labeled as “strong”,
And have made up your mind that they are
Worthy of your stout and silent respect,
But it’s likely that you have little idea
What all battles they have to fight
To be the people that you see.
And I’d like to suggest that
One of those battles is
To keep it all going
Even when they
Get next to
Nothing
From their
Quiet admirers,
Who think that the
Strength is certain to
Stay as it is without good
Encouragement from those
For whose benefit it is served
Up so courageously and selflessly,
And even when they don’t feel like it.
To remain silent is to rob them of
Nature’s best encouragement,
Leaving them to whatever
Nourishment they can
Provide themselves
From their own
Convictions.

Looking at this photo of some kids at a party in 1947, I think that if I were to spend an hour considering the differences from then to now, it would be an hour well-spent.

Let us observe that
the tall husband―
who can get things
down for you―
may also,
from time to time,
put them
up too high.

How is it, O man,
That after all this time,
Knowing all these people,
You still do not know
What people are like?

Christians are all over the place when it comes to their understanding of what God requires of man before he will grant him eternal life in that Holy City. I think that naturally, one could consider the idea that “God requires nothing”, as a possibility to be covered in due diligence, but that once he sets one toe over that line of zero requirement, he steps out onto a slippery slope that will whisk a great many people away to a conclusion that do not find agreeable.

And the question, of course, is whether God finds that conclusion agreeable―whether it is the right and true conclusion, whether we might tend to think so or not. So this article examines that slippery slope, and what seems to be on each end of it, and how most people tend to reason their way up and down that slope, avoiding the landings at both the top and the bottom, preferring instead, the frantic life of trying to live somewhere along the slope itself.

I’ve made a rough list below of example positions below. It is surely imperfect in several ways, yet useful (I hope) in sketching out the gist of the quandary that plagues so many, and the various ways they dispute the particulars.

Books and books could be written about why I believe what follows, but I have forced myself to keep it very brief. And if you want to understand my reasons (beyond the tidbits of reason that are interspersed with my predictions below), you’ll need to contact me privately, or get busy reading my writings on such things. (Almost no one ever does.)