What's good about the Christian life?
Everyone says that modern life is complex, fast-paced and chaotic. We struggle to meet the competing demands of work, family, fiends and personal interests. It is disconcerting then for Christians to discover that knowing the Lord who redeems and gives meaning to all things only makes it more complex! The compelling call to serve the living God now sounds like a clarion through the clamour of our daily demands and desires, making the struggle even more intense. We are often left frustrated, guilty and confused.
But Mikey Lynch, in this his first book, wants to reach out to those caught in this dilemma with a helpful and biblically informed response. It is a complicated book. Not because of its style, which is clear and contemporary, but because Lynch refuses to give the routine answers of Christian ‘folk wisdom’ – avoid burnout, observe a set hierarchy of priorities, feel the cost of sacrifice, imagine ‘what Jesus would do’. Nor does he reach immediately for theological categories, however sound.
Rather, Lynch makes us pick our way carefully through the complexities of navigating daily life as a Christian, all under the searching light of scripture, and so uncover how little biblical support there is for much of what passes as ‘Christian’ common sense. Instead, Lynch wants us to develop biblical wisdom, moored in God’s revelation and not in our own pat answers.
The careful reader can see the theological principles undergirding this wisdom. God’s creation teaches us that he has made a diverse world, with a host of competing spheres and demands ‘built in’. His sovereignty determines our very particular circumstances – who we are, when we are and where we are – that do not allow every avenue of service to every believer. His word is our guide, not our imagination of what Paul or Jesus or Calvin or Amy Carmichael might do, and not the enthusiastic analogies pressed by over-eager preachers.
Most importantly, our situation in the last days, waiting for Christ to return ‘when the time is short’, will mean that good things will sometimes be sacrificed for what will be far better, a tension running all through the New Testament. I found his treatment of Christian freedom using I Corinthians 7 particularly helpful. Lynch stands with the Reformation in arguing we are not only free from the curse of judgment but also from those human authorities, however well meaning, that go beyond scripture to dictate to our consciences and thus stunt their growth. Christian freedom means there must be more than one right answer to the common dilemmas of daily life. Not just old-fashioned legalism, but the subtle legalism of our program-driven churches that deal in ‘typical’ ministry paths and the ‘wisest option’ for believers here receive from Lynch a carefully considered rebuttal. The principles Lynch outlines will be fodder for my own meditation for a long time to come, and I would invite you to join me in reading and thinking through the implications of this important book.
You can purchase Mikey's book at The Wandering Bookseller.
The book review was first published in Fellow Workers, the magazine of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, Summer Edition, 2018, p, 11.
