Instead of being grateful for the ultimate chance of a lifetime to walk the grace-walk with God, the first persons chose selfishness and shame as their new partners. Bad choice, very bad! Adam and Eve didn’t want to bow before God or walk next to Him any longer. No, they preferred to sit on his throne. Why? Why did they choose to rebel against Him? Wasn’t creation supposed to be perfect? Yes, of course it was perfect, but then according to God’s own understanding of the word. Perfect in his eyes means that the first couple was free to love Him in return, or not! God’s DNA will never allow Him to force Himself upon people. He never coerces us to love him back. God is a lover, not a conqueror. He longs for genuine community, not for people that worship Him out of fear.

But what about the fact that the first humans possessed God’s genes? Shouldn’t this have prevented them from making a wrong choice? No, of course not! You see, our genes at best only account for about 50% of our particular personality traits (Tellegen, et al, quoted in Joseph LeDoux, 2002. Synaptic Self, p. 29). At the same time we are not always true to our characteristics or personality traits. ‘The paltry 35,000 or so genes in the human fall woefully short of the task of prescribing the wiring of our 100-trillion synapse brain. The brain is therefore shaped by and etched with the traces of our experiences — the barrage of sensory stimulation that our peripheral nerves pass along to our brain, the skills we acquire, the knowledge we store, the patterns our thoughts and attention make. All these, and much more, leave their mark.’ (Jeffrey M. Schwartz  & Sharon Begley, 2003. The Mind & the Brain. Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force. Harper, p. 366). No, we are definitely not pre-programmed to behave like robots. We have the ability to make choices, good and bad! Unfortunately, Adam and Eve took the wrong turn. They chose the wrong option. Don’t follow in their footsteps.

Children are different from most adults.
Children learn.
Children take risks.
Children are curious.
Children ask frequent questions.
Children take ownership. (How many times have you heard small children say “It’s mine!” when they play with something and you want to take it?)
Children are not uncomfortable with ambiguities.
Children are not afraid of failure — well, not at the beginning of their lives at least.

Children are not finished products.
Children grow.
Children change.

Children are human works of art. No, they are artworks in progress, unfinished sculptures; paintings in the making. Sadly, too many grown-ups suffering from mental arthritis hold the paintbrushes that paint on their young canvasses. Sadly, too many adults, who are caught up in their own insecurities, fears and anxieties, do most of the chiseling on these precious young sculptures. And they frequently ruin young children’s lives by installing their own fears into them. Slowly but surely adults turn children around from adventurers into low-risk takers. We shape them to fit in, not to stand out. We shape them in our own inferior images so that we can control and manipulate them. In the end they become just like us — safe, routinized, socialized, sanitized and sterilized in terms of creative growth and new quests.

Let’s stop shaping children into our own image. No, let’s change. Let’s become children again, as Jesus told us to in Matthew 18. Let’s grow younger and smaller again. It is God’s will that we do just this. If we don’t unlearn and relearn the principles of God’s kingdom, we’ll remain stuck in adult-lane. Let’s rather unlearn our civilized, cynical grown-up attitude. Let’s grow smaller. Let’s become children in order to get taller in God’s presence. Let’s relearn by taking on this new quest of becoming children again, one that will fill our hearts with a reason to live. Let’s get into the habit of thinking new, childlike, creative thoughts!

Did you know we have the ability to think at the speed of a staggering 600 words per minute, but we speak at a much slower 100 words per minute? However, some never achieve the first benchmark. What a waste to talk 100 words per minute with a brain that’s not functioning at optimum capacity. It gives rise to a lot of non-sense escaping from too many people’s lips. No wonder that, between the ages of 45-80 there is a weight loss of about 20% in the brain of many adults. The good news is that your brain don’t automatically grow old like the rest of our body if you keep your heads in good shape. Your brain should always be growing and expanding with new knowledge, ideas, challenges and quests.

New neurological pathways are formed at the speed of about one million per second when we use our brains. But if we don’t, we run the risk of losing thousands of neurons every single day of our life. It’s really a ‘use it or lose it’ scenario. Now, losing 30,000-50,000 neurons per day doesn’t seem all that serious if you consider that we have billions of neurons and one trillion glial cells in our brain. But, on the other hand, who wants to lose something as precious as brain cells? Can we afford it? Well, apparently millions of adults live as if they can. They’ve stopped learning adventurously. They’ve stopped taking risks. They’ve stopped surrounding themselves with people that constantly challenge them to grow. They’ve stopped reading new books that challenge them to think. They don’t have any life-changing quests in their lives to follow. They lose out.

What happened to grownups? Well, they just grew up, that’s what. They just stopped learning creatively. They literally degenerated into adulthood. They sadly atrophied into boring human beings.

Let’s break free from this civilized way of life. Let’s join that crazy band of disciples who followed Jesus all the way deep into the storm. Let’s join Levi who risked everything by closing his shop and joining the Jesus movement (Luke 5). Let’s follow Zacchaeus who made his business part of God’s domain after he bumped into Jesus (Luke 19). Let’s celebrate with the 72 followers of Jesus in Luke 10 because a new era of salvation and hope has finally dawned. Let’s live our lives in the adventurous lane of God’s kingdom.

In last week’s Whatever! blog post I shared a story from my childhood days when a school friend’s father humiliated me. It happened because we had a person of color over for dinner one evening during the old Apartheid days in South Africa. I never told my parents about this humiliating experience. It would have broken their hearts. However, this one encounter changed my life for good. It turned me into a revolutionary of a different kind. It made me a rebel for Christ in my little corner of the world. It made me forever wary of religious fanatics who claim they have direct access to all that is holy, as well as of those who think they are God’s personal gatekeepers here on earth. It made me extremely cautious of those who love their own versions of right and wrong more than they love their fellow human beings or God, for that matter. It also made me see the difference between grace and religion for the very first time.

No, I didn’t turn into a fiery protester that day after my friend’s father verbally abused me. I didn’t become an activist who spent his early days in jail for being against the political system. Neither did I burn books, bad-lip politicians or tie myself to trees and buildings to show my disgust at the Apartheid system. Nothing like that. But in my little space here on the planet, I decided to never allow myself to ever get trapped in ideological systems.

At the same time I made a naive but real choice to become a full-fledged follower of Jesus. That decision would take me on many wonderful adventures from that day on. Undoubtedly, this was the best choice of my young life — to become a lifelong student of the Man of Nazareth. I enrolled in the disciple school of Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah. No, I didn’t join a club of Bible-bashers or a world-evading, sinner-judging crowd. My walk with Jesus from the start ‘detoxed’ me from popular religion. My readings of the Bible ‘discipled’ me. It covered me in grace from head to toe. It turned me into a real follower of Jesus.

The South Africa of the 1970’s was totally different from the one we live in today. The old South Africa was torn apart by apartheid, which is more accurately pronounced apart-hate and a-part-hate! Segregation between people of different racial backgrounds was the regime in which we lived. WHITES ONLY signs were visible everywhere — on trains, buses, in schools, movie theaters, hospitals… People of color were treated differently, with little or no dignity. They had limited access to proper education, housing or equal work opportunities. Apartheid created a racial chasm of gigantic proportions for decades.

At that time my dad worked for the South African Airways. His job took him overseas regularly, which broadened his horizons. He knew that racism was wrong. Surrounded by those ‘Whites Only’ signs, he brought us up to respect all people, irrespective of the color of their skins. At times it cost our family. I vividly remember one evening when my father invited one of his colleagues from Nigeria over for dinner. When I told one of my school friends about this the following day, he was very upset.

“What? How could you do this? How could you allow a black person into your house and eat at the same table with him? It’s wrong.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. Suddenly we were sell-outs because we had my father’s African friend over for dinner. It didn’t make sense. I decided to go to his house after school to talk things over with him. To my surprise his dad awaited me at their front gate. He wouldn’t allow me in because his son already shared the ‘shocking’ news with him.

My friend’s father didn’t greet me. With disgust etched all over his rugged face, he launched into a barrage of questions:

“Did that man use your toilet?” I did not have time to answer.

“Er… hello, sir,” I tried to start the conversion again, but he wouldn’t let me!

“Did he sit on your sofa in your living room?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What about your mother’s cups, did he drink from them too?”

Before I could answer, he launched another set volley of questions:

“And did he use your cutlery? I hope your mother at least had the decency to provide separate cutlery for him to use!”

I was stunned after this verbal onslaught. Silently I stared at the bulk of a man in front of me for a few moments, a very angry one at that. I thought he was going to smack me right there in front of his house, or something! How does a thirteen year old boy respond to such remarks?

“Speak up, boy! Did your parents really do that?”

“Yes, sir!,” I answered. “Yes, he sat on our sofa. Yes, he used our toilet. Yes, he drank from the same cups as we normally do, and yes, he also used the same cutlery as the rest of our family!”

My friend’s father looked as if he was ready to explode. Red dots appeared all over his face and neck. For a fleeting moment it was actually funny to see this fuming human volcano in front of me. But only for a moment, because in a rather funny sounding voice, he yelled at me:

“What’s wrong with you and your family? Don’t you have any shame? I have lost all respect for you lot. We cannot mix with people of color. Never! Then we will become just like them primitives…”

From somewhere I drew a few ounces of energy to interrupt his tirade:

“Excuse me, sir, but it’s not true. My family is not bad. All people are created equal in the sight of God. My father taught us this from the Bible. We aren’t different from any other people. We’re all the same.”

“What? Who do you think you are to lecture me from the Bible?”

Bad idea! Now my friend’s dad was really furious. He turned from red to an even stranger color purple.

“Don’t you dare lecture me, young man. I am an elder in my church, and a respected one at that. I know that God is against racial integration. Apartheid is the only answer to the race problem. Go tell that to your family.”

“But, sir, it cannot be…” I stood my ground. “What about Jesus’ teachings?”

“What do you mean?,” he hissed through his teeth.

“Didn’t Jesus teach us to love everybody and treat all with kindness?” I dared to ask.

But my friend’s father wouldn’t tolerate this challenge to his authority any longer.

“Get out of my house, you snot-nosed little sellout!”

Ouch, those words really hurt, even today when I type them here on my computer screen!

As I walked away, the big man yelled at me again: “Who do you think you are to lecture me? I am an elder! I work for God. Get out of here before I beat the devil out of you!” I left their house in shock!

Jesus’ first resting place here on earth was a manger. What a strange place to start his journey! It brought his speed way down. Suddenly, divine speed was much slower than ever. At the beginning of time God only had to slow down from eternity speed to walking speed when he did his first grace walk with Adam and Eve. But Jesus was way slower than this when he entered the world. He came as a weak baby in a manger. He came at sleeping speed. He had to be carried around at first. Jesus literally crawled into the world. He did grace at the slowest pace possible. At the same time, Jesus’ childhood town was Nazareth, a one horse town tucked away somewhere in the forgotten hills of Galilee. His disciples were a bunch of lowly fishermen and money swindling tax collectors. His followers included lowly tax collectors, sinners, women, children, the poor, the downtrodden — you name them!

To dream with one’s eyes wide open is expensive. Sometimes it’s highly dangerous actually. Jesus’ dream cost him his divine speed, his heavenly glory, his crown, his heavenly garments, the adoration of the angels, the safety and warmth of his Father’s heavenly dwelling, and eventually also his life. Jesus was downwardly mobile. He went from divine riches to sinners’ rags because he dared to realize his dreams to change the world. That’s why Jesus exchanged his heavenly crown for an earthly crown of thorns. He traded his heavenly garments for the dirty rags of a slave. He became a servant of the poorest of the poor and a slave to outcasts.

Learn from Jesus to dream with you eyes wide open. While doing this, take cognizance of the words of T. E. Lawrence who says: “All people dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous, for they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible.”

To live humbly in the presence of God and others is to follow a contrarian route. Humility is definitely not about turning into a spiritual jellyfish. Humility doesn’t entail that you have to surrender your own personality, views and opinions. (This is a popular misconception on the side of numerous believers and non-believers alike.) Humility is definitely not about losing your identity and becoming a no-body and a nobody in the eyes of everybody. It’s not about sacrificing your ego or your healthy sense of self. No, humility is about you becoming more who God created you to be by surrendering all those selfish desires to further your own aims at the expense of God and others. Humility is a daily choice to let God be God. It’s a conscious decision to live your life according to his gracious principles. It is to submit to his grace-hijackings every day. Humility is a living relationship with God that makes you more compassionate, caring, open, honest and sensitive. It connects you with others around you in new, more meaningful relationships. It makes you strangely magnetic. It gives your life a new sense of direction and purpose.

Humility turns you into the real deal in all relationships you are involved in — the ‘what you see is what you get’ type. Far too many relationships today are built on lies and half truths. People fear being honest. They are nice to each other on the outside, but that’s where it ends. It’s often just superficial face-talk, since they often confess each others’ sins to others behind their backs. By the way, we call this gossip! Recently a person ‘even confessed’ to me that he hates to spread gossip, but unfortunately the people he shares some details with about his friends’ mistakes have loose tongues! Followers of Jesus don’t talk behind other people’s backs. They have the courage to tell others to their face if they are out of line. Humble people cherish integrity-based relationships, even if it means taking the risk of losing friends. You always know where you stand with them. They will tell you, gently but assuredly, when something is wrong. They will graciously hold you accountable to your values, since humility is also about transparency. They will also allow you to “edit” them to be the best followers of Jesus they can be in God’s eyes.

In order for people to get ahead in this hectic-paced world of ours, they usually jump in at the deep end of the rat race. Faster, further, higher — that’s the solution to the never-ending demands of today. Even in the hallowed enclaves of the church I see throngs of burned out pastors who can’t keep up the pace any longer. This is unacceptable. Burned out workers in God’s vineyard — that’s supposed to be a contradiction in terms, the church joke of the year! Sadly, it isn’t… because nobody is laughing. When researchers concur that burnout is as high as 80% plus amongst the clergy, we need to ask serious questions. What is wrong? Where have we missed the point? How on earth is it possible that the church also joined the rat race? Who enrolled us in this viciously inhuman race?

Fortunately, Jesus is not a participant in the rat race. He’s not running or competing. Jesus has the power to break the rules of this terrifying, never-ending race. Jesus has the power to stop the madness. He has the power to walk instead of run. He’s not a victim, like so many of us. He doesn’t need to go faster to be more effective. He knows that:

• slower is faster, and
• less is more

Jesus prefers walking to running. He knows that sitting is even better than walking. He has the power to come to a standstill and to freeze-frame life. He has the power to look at us one frame at a time. This exceptional gift to freeze-frame reality, is an uncanny gift. People who are really good at what they’re doing can actually freeze-frame life. Jesus did this. He looked at life and others around him one frame at a time. Jesus refused to join the never ending race to nowhere. He set his own pace. The face of grace set the pace for grace. No, Jesus wasn’t a people-pleaser. He never tried to be all things to all people. He never pretended to be the one and only answer to every possible question, as the church often portrays him today. He unashamedly spent disproportional amounts of time with his favorite people — the poor, outcasts, sinners, his disciples and the sick. He came to an abrupt halt next to their broken lives. He froze all the frames of their lives to pay close attention to their deepest needs. He literally made time for them. Learn from him.

Did you know that there is not a single text in the New Testament that refers to followers of Jesus as sinners? Here’s a list with all references to the term sinner (the Greek term for this word is “hamartolos”): Matthew 9:10, 11, 13; 11:19; 26:45; Mark 2:15-17; 8:38; 14:41; Luke 5:8, 30, 32; 6:32-34; 7:34-39; 13:2; 15:1-2, 7, 10; 18:13; 19:7; 24:7; John 9:16, 24-25, 31; Romans 3:7; 5:8, 19; 7:13; Galatians 2:15, 17; 1 Timothy 1:9, 15; Hebrews 7:26; 12:3; James 4:8; 5:20; 1 Peter 4:18; Jude 15.

In the New Testament the term sinner is a soteriological concept, not an ethical term. In other words, it refers to people who do not believe in God or follow his commands. Sinners need God’s gracious touch. However, in the church the term sinner has turned into an ethical concept in the vocabulary of the church, referring to improper moral deeds of believers and non-believers alike in the sight of God.

God never refers to people who experience his grace in Christ as sinners, not even in 1 Timothy 1 where, at first sight, it seems as if Paul is referring to himself as a sinner in his role as follower of Jesus. The textual context clearly shows that God also revealed his grace to Paul when he still was the biggest of all sinners (past tense). Paul knows all too well that Christ died for us when we were sinners (past tense, yesterday’s news, a previous life’s identity marker — Romans 5:8). It’s a thing of the past now. The term sin/sinner is an identity marker that belongs to the past lives of all who follow Jesus. Sinners are people who are still trapped in UNgrace. Their words and deeds advertise a 24/7@365 addiction to thoughts, words and deeds of UNgrace.

Jesus did an amazing thing when he saved us. He turned us into icons/eikons of God again. In turn, God made us new from head to toe. He restored our humanity, our true iconic status. “Humans are by nature Eikons: that is who we are. By nature, we are designed with the inalienable right to be embraced and to embrace, embracing God who made us and embracing ourselves, embracing others, and embracing our world” (Scott McKnight, 2005. Embracing Grace, p. 26).

We were restored by Jesus to connect because we carry divine seed, the sperma of God, inside us (1 John 3:9). Sperma, the Greek word for seed, always refers to human offspring in the New Testament. So and so is the sperma, the offspring, of so and so. Sam is the sperma, the physical son, of Jack. This is the typical jargon of ancient genealogies. But now, unexpectedly, John uses the word sperma in 1 John 3:9 to refer to God’s divine seed that’s deposited in all of us who belong to him. We are his biological offspring. He conceived us; he brought us to life. His sperma, his seed, is inside us. No, wait, it’s not just inside us. John says we are the sperma of God. Every fiber, every muscle, every sinew and nerve inside our bodies now share in his original DNA of community and oneness. Our God-given capacity to live in community with him, ourselves and others, and our capacity to love, to show grace, to extend oneness, to heal, forgive, care, help, assist, listen, reach out and carry burdens have been restored to their rightful places deep inside our hearts. We cannot but love. This is our nature. We have God’s sperma. We are saturated by God’s grace and love.