A Generation Gap?

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Recently Louisa and I were back in the Chicago area cruising the streets of our old neighborhood. We landed at a familiar shopping center, enjoying stores our Michigan neighborhood doesn’t offer, and I noticed the absence of one I’d shopped at many times during the decades we’d lived nearby: the GAP.

Located on the “power corner” of a giant parking lot, the GAP had been full of high quality, youthful clothes for men, women, children and babies, and seemed always to be full of customers. Now it was abandoned. The chain was founded in the late 1960’s, originally stocking only jeans and white cotton shirts that appealed to young people. They chose their name as a description of the gap between generations: adults bought jeans as work clothes, while younger people were starting to wear them every day.

Whenever I drove past the GAP, the store’s name would remind me of a different sort of gap, “standing in the gap” for a friend. My impression was that this phrase referred to one person praying for someone else when that someone wasn’t praying for herself.

For example, if a friend was battling depression, unable or unwilling to ask God for help, I could “stand in the gap” between the Lord and my friend, praying for the two to connect.

When Louisa and I got back to Michigan, I decided to find out if the gap-idea came from the Bible or was just a concept I wished came from the Bible. My concordance directed me to Ezekiel 22 and a narrative about the break or gap in a protective city wall. God said, “I looked for someone… who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.” (v. 30)

He was speaking in word pictures his people readily understood, about to deliver a judgment for their sinfulness. Viewing their many offenses as a break in the wall of righteousness, he was planning to lower the boom, but before he did, he looked for a righteous someone who might be “standing in the gap” for the rest of them. Such a one would have represented godliness amidst a people of disobedience and might have caused God to abort his judgment. No one was in the gap, so judgment came.

I learned that my original idea of being able to “stand in” for someone through prayer is probably accurate. And if so, what an opportunity! It brings profound implications to our prayers for others.

As for the GAP, Inc., Google said it’s been shuffling store locations recently but is still going strong in the clothing industry. As for the generation gap? I own a few GAP items myself, so I think it’s probably long gone.

“Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying…” (Ephesians 6:18)

The Right Kind of Righteousness

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Back in the sixties we might have heard someone say, “That’s really righteous, man!”

What they meant had nothing to do with real righteousness. In  that context it simply meant “cool” or “fine”.

Dictionaries define “righteous” as being just, virtuous, having a high standard of morality. But biblical righteousness has an additional dimension to it, although I wasn’t too clear about that in the sixties. Actually, it’s just beginning to dawn on me in my sixties.

Even when we make our best effort to be righteous, there will always be holes in it. To be truly righteous includes not just good behavior but pristine mental activity, too, and we know how hard it is to keep our thoughts from running away with us before we can stop them.

The biblical definition of righteousness is: a person who’s been judged to have led a life pleasing to God. But even that didn’t open my eyes to the full truth.

Because that definition is in the past tense, the entire Gospel is buried in it. When someone “has been judged,” the reference is to judgment after death. Approval at that point comes only through Christ’s righteousness. His sin-free life included his thought life, the arena most difficult to control. And because he succeeded 100%, his death and resurrection makes it possible for us to be wrapped up with him in his righteousness.

But I think the biblical word “righteous” means even more than that for Christians. In reading Scripture, I used to wish the promises to the righteous applied to me, but I knew I didn’t qualify. To label myself “righteous” seemed self-aggrandizing and prideful. What I’m finally realizing in my mid-sixties is that Christ’s righteousness applies not only to the hereafter but to the here-and-now, and he wants me to claim it.

Listed below are 10 goodies that are already mine. These and many more belong to anyone who is righteous in Christ:

  • My life will bear fruit.
  • My home will be blessed.
  • My prayers will delight God.
  • I’ll experience joy.
  • God will always rescue me.
  • I can live in God’s presence.
  • God will facilitate my escape from sin.
  • My grandchildren will receive an inheritance.
  • All my prayers are heard by God.
  • My prayers will get results.

And as they said in the sixties, “That’s really righteous!”
“People are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.” (Romans 4:5)

Figure it out.

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Nelson was about to arrive home after 8 months away, so I was outside Windex-ing the windows on The Bean in preparation for his reunion with this small, well-traveled vehicle. Window glass is the only Bean feature that could ever sparkle.

In the process, a tiny but sharp piece of acorn got wedged between the ball of my foot and my flip-flop. Every time I stepped, it was, “Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.”

Finally I took off the sandal, shook it, rubbed the bottom of my foot, and put it back on. But the ouch was still there. I repeated it twice more, never taking time to study the problem, but the sharp something was always there. Finally I put down the Windex and looked. The flip-flop was clean and smooth. Same for my foot. So I put it back on.

But still!

And there was nothing there. Slowly I rocked forward onto the ball of my foot, mimicking a step, and it poked again, but there was nothing to see. So I pulled it off and pressed my finger on the smooth place that mysteriously got sharp, bending the sandal like it was walking.

Ouch again!

Finally I turned it over. And there was the problem: a stubby sharp screw embedded in the sole, pointing straight up,  just deep enough to jab me when my weight pressed on it. I unscrewed it and had a good chuckle.

While finishing my window washing, I thought about God’s faithful efforts to prod me into following his instructions. His jab might be a sentence in a devotional book: poke.

If I put that out of my mind, he might poke again, maybe a radio program or a friend’s comment on that same subject: jab.

On and on his little ouchies go until I stop what I’m doing and turn my attention to the subject at hand, much like I took off the flip-flop and shook it out, rubbing my foot. But noticing something still isn’t owning it: poke.

Hopefully I’ll be troubled enough by God’s prodding to eventually investigate, looking beneath the jab in an effort to find the source of irritation.

Sadly, our obedience sometimes starts with irritation. We’re frustrated with a new path to walk, a new skill to hone, a new person to meet, a new risk to take. If we’re happy with the status quo, all this newness can be distressing.

But God’s love for us is strong: poke. And he hopes eventually the annoyance of his jabbing will outweigh our reluctance to turn our attention toward him.

I want to develop a quick, inquisitive response to his prodding. In the mean time, I’m thankful the pushy little screw ended up in my flip-flop rather than in The Bean’s brand new tires!

“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.”  (Isaiah 48:17b)