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Extreme Environments and the Life Forms that Thrive in Them
The news headlines saturated the media, causing a national frenzy: “A pastor of a small Florida church threatens to burn the Koran…” Fortunately he reneged on his plan.
Whether you think that Pastor Jones was merely exercising his constitutional rights, or a nutcase who was given way too much air time, or both, it’s probably fair to say that he is a product of his environment—more specifically speaking, an extremophile.
In many ways, 21st century life is like living in an extreme environment, and I don’t just mean scientifically speaking either. Let me explain. Over the past decade, scientists have discovered that tiny life forms—microorganisms—have the capacity to survive and even thrive in the harshest of climates and physical conditions. Whether it’s living in acidic hot springs or the polar regions of the Antarctic, they are able to adapt and “beat” nature at its own game. Science calls these remarkable life forms extremophiles.
Ironically, many of us who dub ourselves Christ-followers are also becoming extremophiles. The question is— is living life on the extremities for good or for evil? In other words, are we barely surviving or are we thriving? Are we adapting or are we simply coping? Are we acting or merely reacting? It is true that desperate situations call for desperate measures, but we cannot thrive, adapt or act by becoming extreme ourselves.
God never called us to become reactive; rather we are to proactively respond to the needs and crises in our world with the love of Christ. And if our response is to be relevant and life-changing in the lives of others, we must adapt to life on the edge… and I don’t mean we compromise or simply fit in either! Adapting is more like discerning our extreme conditions in order to overcome them. But more on that later…
When we act like detonators waiting to explode, we fail to discern the good things that God is doing—that He is indeed at work to bring his plans and purposes to pass. When we press the panic button, we inadvertently and arrogantly assume that human beings, and we ourselves, have the final say in the course of this world. When we as faith leaders use words irresponsibly to stir up anger or fear, or when we beat people over the head with the Bible, or as my Mom used to say, “fight fire with fire,” we are giving the impression that we haven’t read the back of the book. The back of the book says that God wins and we his people overcome through the blood of Jesus! Yeah, Google it sometime!
Does that mean we sit passively by and wait for the apocalypse? Absolutely not! Does it mean that we don’t stand up boldly for the cause of truth and justice? Wouldn’t be living out our Christian faith if we don’t. But our words and actions should be seasoned with grace. After all, grace without truth compromises, and truth without grace condemns. And God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn it.
The “Us vs. Them” approach makes us feel like heroes and gets us media attention, but it just won’t work, especially in today’s political and social climate. Truth is, God did not call us to be against the world to the point that we are not able to compassionately and effectively engage in it. We are not to be so spiritually minded that we are no earthly good. Too many of us are spending way too much time and energy being against the world, rather than overcoming it.
For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. (I John 5:4)
Overcoming means thriving, adapting and acting, rather than surviving, coping and reacting. The specific word “overcome” used in that verse doesn’t mean “to prevail against” as it does in other places. Rather, it means to hold fast to one’s faith even to the point of losing one’s life for it. It has more to do with inner victory, rather than some rhetorical gun battle that does nothing more than create a culture of fear, and, brings to birth more extremophiles.
Like I said, not all extremophiles are bad. In fact, most are good. They show impressive resilience and strength as they thrive on the edge of life, living out the true expression of the gospel. These spiritual microorganisms are not often visible, but they are the stuff that overcomers are made of.
Faith versus Fate
Last week, Britain’s most famous living scientist, Stephen Hawking, contradicted his previous assertions and declared that the universe was not created by God. No motivation was given for his change of mind, but I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that reasoning and logic cannot completely explain the mysteries of the universe—it takes faith. In fact, it makes me wonder how many who call themselves believers and even creationists in 21st century America have traded in faith for fate… Have we become a “stoic” society? I don’t mean stoic in the purely modern sense of the word. In that regard, on the contrary! We’re a society of celebrations—parties, concerts, ball games, and a whole list of other ways to express our passionate convictions and emotions.
I’m just wondering if we’re like the ancient Stoics when it comes to spiritual things. Stoicism was a philosophical belief that was rampant in the first century Greco-Roman society. In the Stoic mind, there is nothing a human being can do to change his or her fate. Everything that happens to that person has already been fixed, and the world is in a downward spiral towards doom and destruction. The Stoics would reason that the laws of nature or the ordering of the cosmos is inescapable, so a person should just go ahead and accept his or her lot in life. One should just resign oneself to the fact that there is nothing that an impersonal God can do to change a person’s awful destiny.
That might explain why everything for the Stoic was material, even God. Maybe that was their desperate and futile attempt to get their hands around spiritual reality. So God was associated with nature—because if something could not be seen, explained, handled, or proven then it could not be real. You could understand how crazy Christianity sounded to the Stoic mind. They couldn’t understand the ridiculous notion of accepting the message of Christ through faith.
After all, faith is the confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. And it is a belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.
Faith is not passive and inactive. It involves the spiritual senses of hearing, seeing, and speaking. Faith involves all of who we are, which was unthinkable for the Stoics who had no tolerance for emotions. Emotions were seen as unnatural. The intellectual life was of highest importance. A stoic dealt with pain and joy in the same way—mind over matter. That’s why we use the word “stoic” today to mean a lack of emotions. Can you imagine a world where nothing moved you? Where you were taught to suppress your emotions as a sign of spirituality or intellectual sophistication? Where you needed a logical explanation for everything? It is unthinkable. And yet, so many apply these same principles to their spiritual lives. And, of course, quickly shed them at football games when they’re rooting for their favorite team!
It’s easier than you think to trade in faith for fate, because it happens ever so subtly. Perhaps it’s even justifiable… after a divorce or losing a child, or some financial devastation, or that terminal illness that took the life of your loved-one… It’s easy to resign yourself to the fact that life is on a downward spiral and there’s nothing you or God can do about it.
On the other hand, you may not see your life leading to doom and destruction. But the problem is that you feel that the charting of your course is totally, or at least mostly, up to you. And for all your good intentions and hard work, life has not given you the payoff you think you deserve. And, frankly, the future doesn’t seem particularly bright either.
How does one restore faith when fatalism has crept in?
Medical science tells us that when someone is dying, the last sense to go is the hearing. I think that is significant. Hearing is what inspires faith. And faith is what sustains life. I came to faith in Jesus Christ because I heard his message, and as I keep on hearing that message, my faith is strengthened and I am able to live and grow in my walk with Christ.
“Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
In the movie, Lorenzo’s Oil, Lorenzo Odone is a five-year-old boy who has been diagnosed as having a brain disease known as ALD. It is a condition so rare that no medical agency has even attempted to research the disease and develop a cure. The doctors tell Lorenzo’s parents (Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon) that there is nothing that can be done, and that their son has only two years to live. Desperate, the parents embark on a search for a cure and battle the medical establishment when they make astounding progress using humble olive oil…
In one scene, Lorenzo has miraculously lived to fourteen years old, but his brain has deteriorated to the point that he is in an almost vegetative state. Although the oil has helped to preserve his life, it would take a miracle for his full recovery. Well, faith triumphs over fate, and Lorenzo is able to live well into adulthood. However, Lorenzo’s mom had to first put faith in action through the power of hearing, seeing and speaking.
I particularly like the part where she whispers into the ear of her dying child: “Tell your brain to tell you arm to tell your hand to move your little finger.” Lorenzo’s mother’s words were simple. But they were accompanied by faith. Skeptics reject faith because it is too simple. It is the same reason why the medical establishment rejected the olive oil. It wasn’t something they manufactured in a lab; therefore it couldn’t cure anybody from a life-threatening disease. It is not very different in spiritual matters. People reject matters of faith because they cannot prove it logically. Furthermore, skeptical people dismiss the power of words of faith to heal.
Words of faith are not just words uttered into the wind. It is not even the power of positive thinking or positive confession. And I am not speaking about the “name-it-and-claim-it-blab-it-and-grab-it-gospel” either! Words of faith come from a heart that desperately clings to God despite the outcome of the situation. Truth is, God does use medical science to bring healing, but the problem comes when we attribute the power to human beings rather than to God.
Faith is an action word. Unlike fate, faith does not wait passively by to see what life is going to hand you. Nor does it take matters into its own hands, nor draw conclusions about God’s ability based solely on reasoning.
Furthermore, faith is not a denial of feelings or emotions. It is when your broken heart dares to trust God even when you can’t trace him. It is taking a firm grasp on to the intangible when the logic of your situation tells you there’s nothing there. Contrary to popular belief, faith is not for cowards. Faith is staring death in the face and declaring that it ultimately has no power over you.
This past spring, a precious ministry couple and friends of our family, Darryl and Martha Rodman, experienced a devastating catastrophe when Darryl simultaneously suffered a massive heart attack and stroke. Given only hours to live, Martha and her team of prayerful supporters dared to speak life into Darryl’s lifeless body. Five months later, Darryl is showing remarkable signs of recovery!
The truth is, faith doesn’t have to see to believe, but what is equally as true is that faith does believe to see. Can faith change the downward spiral of life? Millions have proven that it can. And I am one of them.
Choose to live by faith, not by fate.
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