Many parents love their children, but few parents know how to put that love into constructive action.  What I mean is, sometimes we think we’re loving a child when we’re actually harming her.  Love is not as simple as a kiss on the cheek or handing them 50 candy-bars a day just to appease their wishes.

Not being a parent myself, I can not assume I would be any different than countless well-meaning parents in Chicago – and my heart goes out to folks doing the most important work in the world, raising up the next generation.  It IS the most important work…which is why this question must be asked…

What does Love do?

I look to the perfect picture of familial love – the Father God and his Son Jesus Christ.  Review the Gospels to find what the most beautiful, ultimate parenting skills look like in action.  Re-read the Gospels with the eyes of how God ‘parented’ Jesus, and you may find that the Love of the Father sends his Son into Mission.

I’ve seen some parents walking down the street with their two-year-old running about 20 feet behind them, frantically trying to keep up; I’ve seen other parents let their kids shoot ahead of them unawares, running at full-speed toward busy streets, and still others keep their kids on leashes, never leaving them out of their reach (with literal leashes~ or a GPS on their teen’s cell phone)!

Watch the Father keep his Son intimately close for years, teaching him who He is and Whose He is.  At twelve years old, Jesus has a better grip on his identity and his mission than most adult Christian leaders.  Speaking to his earthly parents, who had LOST HIM at a city-festival, found  him in the Temple, and Jesus’ pre-teenage voice, cracking as he plainly said, “Why are you looking for me?  Didn’t you know that I must be where my Father’s work is!”  Potent — both intimacy and mission wrapped into one sentence…(Lk 2:48-50)

As Jesus’ life progressed, he was sent out as the Light of the World, doing incredible work and breaking through the hardest barrier in the Universe – the human heart.  Even still, as a Good Father, God was ever-present and affirming of his Son, attuning regularly with Jesus in times of intimate prayer and communion.

And it is in fact, the same relationship God hopes for all those chasing after the Jesus-Way.  We have a real opportunity to be “Fathered by God” – to find our true identity, and our true purpose and mission in life.  There are enough voices vying for our hearts and our dollars in this culture – it will take focus and intentionality to be fathered by God, but its worth it – not just for your own life, but for your children’s.

This is a great time of year to take the “slow-cuts” over the “short-cuts” on our ways to work, errands, etc — the leaves are changing, the final climax of 2011′s symphony is upon us!

In our day, there’s little respect given to the longer, sometimes meandering, but always intentional paths that lead us to our destination.  We’ve devised GPS systems and shot things into space in hopes of finding the quickest, most fuel-efficient way from A to B.  The least amount of time and energy from where I am to where I want to be.  That’s the generally accepted path.  But Jesus had another route he took…

Matthew 12:1-21 is an amazing fulfillment of the entire Old Testament – it reminds me of a mountain climber after several days of hard work, finally reaching the summit.  Or an engaged couple after months of waiting, finally hearing wedding bells.  In Jesus’ day, Jews and Gentiles alike were awaiting a traditional form of kingship – uprising, rebellion, and more – but Jesus instead quotes Isaiah 42; and remind us that the King Isaiah anticipated was different – “he will not fight or shout” –

The route to power through force and might has been tried, time and time again.  Its the quickest and easiest route to power in our world.  It works too!  Revenge, abuse, murder, cheating… they are all names for the same boulivard in the human heart – the highway that leads to “what I want.”  Trouble is, we end up in the ditch.

The way Jesus points to through his life (and specifically in Matthew 12) describes a new way.  Not another short-cut or get rich-quick-scheme; his is the only way not to trample over the weak and the outcast in your establishment of power.  Some people think that power is inherently bad - I disagree.  Power is like currency – it is amoral, it is the wielder of that power that invests himself into that power and through that power he becomes more of who he already is.  If you are a jerk, then with power, you will be an even BIGGER JERK!

But Jesus saw that his power was displayed through weakness, through healing the poor on the Sabbath, through dying on the Cross, and being raised by the Power of God.

— Jesus, I believe that you will eventually see the final victory – “Finally his cause for justice will be victorious.” I wait for that day – when we don’t have to take the compromised shortcuts in life, but all of us will be on the pathway you showed us – to the relational Kingdom of God.

I choose today to participate in that “slow-cut” toward freedom.

I want to find a way to cut out all my power grabs, personally, and in society. Help me Father to learn what areas of my life need a “lower-archy” introduced, so that I do not “crush the weakest reed, or put out a flickering candle…” You spoke out of a confidence of who you are as a Messiah. Let me be just as confident in my practices.

“This world’s basic fundamental principle is: ‘Survival of the Fittest’” — only the strongest will make it to that momentous stage of reproduction and thus pass on their DNA.

Jesus however, pointed his disciples to an entirely different set of principles — he set us free from a “survival” paradigm for something much, much better…

Jesus says that it is not about the “Survival of the Fittest,” but the “Redemption of the Weakest.”  It is in this context that the Kingdom of God is played out in this world, acting as a heckler to the clanging chorus chanting the Darwinian refrain from their Grand Temple – the Marketplace – where contending organisms, organizations, corporations and conglomerations all compete for the “#1 spot” before they are trounced and more lives are ruined (both the rich and the poor).

OK – so I’m off my soap box.  What does this look like in the practical?

It means - Not caring or “fighting for your rights” – something we Revolutionary Americans have drilled into us – Jesus points us not to defending our respect from others, but by being a servant with no expectation of worldly recognition.

It means that finally admitting to ourselves and confessing to our sex-obsessed culture, that “We can live without sex, but we cannot live without love.” (a quote by Shane Claiborne)

It means, in the end, that your survival is not up to you, and in fact, there is no such thing as “survival,” it is a myth – for even the mighty T-Rex, King of the Reptiles, which should have ruled the earth, was subject to the way of all things – we are all dust, and to dust we shall return.  

The “Fittest” among all of us is Death Himself.  Only he will “survive.”

This may come as a “downer” to most, (myself included) but when the striving for survival melts away, in Christ we can seek  a grander goal – Redemption.  The word communicates so much:

Redemption: (noun) An outside force bringing you to safety and completing in you your original and greatest potential. (my own definition)

When its no longer up to you and “survival” is no longer the goal, then being the “fittest” no longer preoccupies every moment of your existence, and you can give yourself over to better things – like compassion, grace, and promoting the dreams of others.

I’m not saying that “Survival of the Fittest” doesn’t exist in the world (Just watch any of the Mac Vs. PC commercials… or Animal Planet), I’m just saying that its not the only show on tonight.  Take a deeper look at the road that an Evolutionary Ethic takes you and takes our society.  Maybe Jesus’ basic commandments “Love the Lord your God with everything…and love your neighbor as yourself” is a good retort that creates dissonance in the siren-song of our culture – and brings us to a new matra:

Redemption of the Weakest.