Kobayashi Maru

So am I the only one that occasionally gets choked at how things play out? How many times do we hear about other people being suddenly blessed by God? People who have way more to begin with have a huge “blessing” dumped in their laps. Does God like them more? Does he like me less? I know I am supposed to be all - “God loves us all the same and we should be content in our circumstances”, but hey, sometimes that’s difficult to say with integrity.

It’s not that I think God likes some people better than others. Actually I don’t believe that at all. (Though growing up in tornado alley in the States, I can say with some confidence that God hates trailer parks.) However, one cannot simply pretend that some folks don’t get to live fairly easy lives while others tough it out day by day. But is that God getting actively involved in thier lives to purposefully make it all good or alll bad? Methinks no.

I actually had a fairly thought provoking conversation with some friends the other day, who are obviously smarter than me, because I am telling you what they said rather than what I said… Anyway, they were of the opinion that God will allow some folks to “coast through life” beacuse they do not have the depth to handle extremem difficulty and it would crush them. The rest of us get as much as we can handle because it develops the elusive “character” that we hear so much about. The often talked about, seldom seen; under valued; under appreciated when present but greatly missed when absent - “character”. The thing your mom always talked about when you were a kid. “It builds character” with it being whatever horrible thing she was focing you to endure (from not having cookies before dinner to sitting next to your brother without fighting in the backseat of an unairconditioned car in the Texas summer heat after a double-header baseball game that you just played and lost both games of).

It’s actually kind of interesting. 15 years ago when executives of major corporations were asked what the most important leadership traits were for CEOs, they said things like “strong”; “unwavering”; “strategic”; “politically savvy”. Now the number one answer is “integrity.” Makes you wonder, was integrity NOT important a decade ago? Or was it assumed that you had that, and now we see that so few actually do have it that we feel compelled to state it as the one thing that is integral to leading over all the others. If you asked someone what was the most important thing they would do today, how many wouls answer “breathe”? That’s kind of assumed. Like integrity used to be. Now I realize that I am interchanging character and integrity, but I’m comfortable with that. They are fairly closely linked (assuming that we are referencing good character as opposed to bad character - which I am.)

Anyways, back to my friends’ comments. Their position is that God will allow you to go through serious crap as “refiner’s fire.” Those who could not survive that type of thing don’t get it. But the counter-intuitive piece of this is that we should want the fire. We should want the character. We should want the tough stuff. My wife, Ferf, talks about mining for gold in these times. Because these types of experiences are the ONLY WAY to get the type of development that Christ really wants in us.

So maybe, we are miss using spiritual terms. Maybe what we call blessings are not really blessings. Maybe God’s blessing is the difficulty of life. Maybe he blesses us with fire - as opposed to trial by fire. I was talking with my pastor T the other day and he said that the Catholic fathers referred to “God’s terrible mercy”. Terrible mercy!?! I think that they might have actually had it right. God is merciful enough to not let us stay in the condition (spiritual or otherwise) that we are in. It is his mercy that allows us to be refined. It is his blessing that we share in the suffering of Chirst. It is grace that we mistake for blessing. Grace is getting something we simply do not deserve. His blessing is granting us the opportunity to live out the stuff we sing about every Sunday. A blessing is not something that just makes out lives easier. For the purpose of example I give you the Beatitudes:

Matthew 5:3-12

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

So…Blessed are:

1. the poor in spirit - you are blessed if you are poor in spirit (though Luke 6 actually says, “Blessed are the poor.”) Not how we defined blessed toady at all. Yet there it sits. The poor in spirit are blessed. Why? Because there must be emptiness before there can be fullness, and so poverty of spirit precedes riches and grace in the kingdom of God. To be blessed you have to have everything stripped away from you first.

2. those who mourn - think abou this one for a second. Why would one mourn? Only from a deep penetrating sadness. Crying is not the same a mourning. Mourning comes from soul wrenching grief. 2 Cor says that “Godly sorrow brings repentance.” That is partailly where the blessing comes from, sure. But who of us wants to go to that place of mourning? Something devestating has to happen to get us there. Yet that is where the blessing is. It is interesting to note that the Bible refers to Christ as a “man of sorrows” and that while we have Biblical references to Jesus weeping, the Bible never mentions that he laughed…

3. the meek - this one is completely opposed to popular culture. All of us get that those of quiet and gentle spirit are blessed, but what we usually think of is a door mat. How many of us wake up and think, “I am so going to be meek today.” Generally we just don’t. Yet again today our culture thinks meek = weak. Though 1 Peter says, “the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, is of great worth in God’s sight.” Jesus even said of himself: “I am meek and lowly in heart.” Here’s the kicker…The meek are those who quietly submit themselves to God, to his word and to his rod, who follow his directions, and comply with his designs, and are gentle towards all men (Tit. 3:2); who can bear provocation without being inflamed by it; are either silent, or return a soft answer; and who can show their displeasure when there is occasion for it, without being transported into any indecencies; who can be cool when others are hot; and in their patience keep possession of their own souls, when they can scarcely keep possession of any thing else. They are the meek, who are rarely and hardly provoked, but quickly and easily pacified; and who would rather forgive twenty injuries than revenge one. Yeah, that last one kills me to…

4. hunger and thirst after righteousness - This one is easier at first glance. “yeah I do that, so bless me God.” But to hunger and thirst after, we must truly and really desire them, like we’re starving and dying of thirst, like we cannot be satisfied with any thing but meat and drink, so much so that if we get them nothing else matters. We are so hungry that we would trade all our belongings for a balony sandwich - that kind of hunger. The kind that most of us will never really know here in North America. Our desires of spiritual blessings must be the on the same level: “Give me these, or I’ll die!” Nobody chooses to be in that kind of gut cramping, knowing you will die a horrible death, type situation. Yet, that is what it takes to get this blessing - spiritaully speaking.

5. merciful - Merciful people are piously and charitably inclined to pity, help, and support persons in misery. We must not only bear our own afflictions patiently, but we must partake of the afflictions of our fellow man; pity must be shown (Job 6:14), and mercy put on (Col. 3:12); Sounds easy right? Not so much for some…you have to contribute all you can for the assistance of those who are any way in misery. We must have compassion on the souls of others, and help them; with the ignorant - instruct them; the careless - warn them; those who are in a state of sin - snatch them as brands out of the fire. We must have compassion on EVERYONE. If they are melancholy and in sorrow - comfort them (Job 16:5); if you have advantage against someone -do not be rigorous and severe with them; if they are in want - supply them. Yep being merciful doesn’t mean just not kicking someone when they are down. It means giving of yourself until it hurts to those who are hurting.

6. pure in heart - this is so far from me, I am not even going to touch it cause it’s just too damn convicting
7. peacemakers - see, to be a peacemaker - you have to by definition be in a context of conflict. You don’t make peace when there is already peace, at best you keep the peace then. God blesses the peacemakers. So nobody whose life is all peachy keen and sunshine is a peacemaker. You gotta get dirty in the midst of war to make peace. You have to put yourself in harms way between combatants to make peace. That’s where the blessing comes from.
8 & 9. those who are persecuted and when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you - seriously, do you need me to go on about these? Does this sound like the life of someone who has it easy?

SO I AM NOW POSITIVE that we have it all kinds of wrong when we look at people who have nice easy lives and think “wow, God sure is blessing them.” It’s the people whose lives are so bad that there is no way in hell that we would change places with them - THEY are getting the blessings.

So, seriously, you still want to be blessed?

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In the Star Trek fictional universe, the Kobayashi Maru is a starship that serves as the subject of a graded training exercise at Starfleet Academy, in which command division cadets are presented with a no-win scenario as a test of character. In this senario, any move you make will leave you worse off than you were before you made the move. But YOU HAVE TO MAKE A MOVE. That is the nature of the test. In combinatorial game theory it is called Zugzwang. The player would like to pass and make no move, but the fact that the player must make a move means being forced into a significantly weaker position - in effect it means that it directly changes the outcome of the game from a win to a loss.

I am begining to believe that we go through seasons in life that are designed to be Kobayashi Maru Tests. God cares less about the outcome and more about the personal character that it brings to the surface. These don’t have to be life and death situations mind you, just a state of affairs wherein it seems like there is no real way “out”.

Often God will allow us into circumstances where we can’t “win”. Now, more times than not, we use all our energy trying to develop a work-around that will allow us to escape. But I don’t think God is really into testing our ingenuity. I believe that he simply wants to see if our faith is what we claim it to be.

I recently talked to some folks about Abraham in Genesis 22 where the Lord told him to sacrifice his son Issac. He took him up a mountain and was prepared to kill him, but the Lord stopped him and provided a ram. Now, if Abraham had also taken a lamb with him (just in case God changed His mind) it would have not been the same story. The situation called for Abraham to fully trust God. What was Abraham thinking? That God would change His mind? That God would bring Issac back from the dead? That God would accept human sacrifice? The trip out to the mountain took 3 days…he had to be wondering the whole trip out.

What was the right choice in that situation? What must his wife have thought? I wonder if she was supportive of this? Heck, I wonder if he even told her. We know he kept Issac in the dark. We know he kept his servants who came with him in the dark. So, did he tell anyone? Probably not. Do you think they would have encouraged him to follow through with it if he had? So the “right” choice was to keep his wife in the dark, isolate himself with the knowledge, mislead his son untill he actually bound him, laid him on the alter and raised the knife over his chest. (Keep in mind this was his only son too.) There was no way to win this test. It wasn’t until he had proven his resolve to follow through that God stepped in with the ram.

That’s the point of faith isn’t it? If Abraham knew what God was going to do, it would not have required faith, nor would it have been the gut check character test that it was. The thing about character is that it only shows when the fit hits the shan. We can talk about character all the time, but we can only see it in the midst of difficult situations - usually when no one else is looking. I believe that is why God will allow us to walk into “Kobayashi Maru” tests. And while He will continue to do so. He has made it clear that He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to handle, but will with the temptation also provide a way of escape. But to get to that way of escape, you have to walk through a lot of shite. For Abraham, the way of escape came at the VERY end. How long are we, are you,am I willing to go to get to that escape. The escape that is often talked about but seldom seen - mostly because we give up before we get to it.

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