Kingdom Thought

As some of you know I am reading a book called City of God by Augustine. The book is actually a collection of books or chapters written to a friend of Augustine who lived in North Africa named Marcellinus. Marcellinus was friends with a man who was very anti-Christ(ian), and the book was an argument constructed to help Marcellinus "win" him over. Basically this guy was contending that the fall of the Roman Empire was due to the influences and eventually domination of Christianity over the former polytheistic spirituality of Rome. In a sense he was saying that Rome was successful at world domination for 700 years before fully accepting Christ, and when they finally did it quickly lead to their downfall. The context the book was written in is the decade following the invasion of Rome the capital (410-420), something which hadn't happened for nearly 800 years.

This book is loaded with good stuff. Augustine systematically pieces together a commentary on some of the hardest questions ever asked all while maintaining a concise and readable style. His incite into the nature of God and His present kingdom is a big part of the foundation upon which our faith is now based. All that said, I found this ex script particularly applicable to my life today.

Blessings and disasters often shared by good and bad

"No doubt this question will be asked, "why does the divine mercy extend even to the godless and ungrateful?" The only explanation is that it is the mercy of one "who makes his son rise on the good and on the bad, and sends rain alike on the righteous and the unrighteous". Some of the wicked are brought to penitence by considering these facts, and amend their impiety, while others, in the words of the Apostle, "despise the riches of God's goodness and forbearance, in the hardness and impenitence of their hearts, and lay up for themselves a store of wrath in the day of God's anger and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will repay every man according to his actions". Yet the patience of God still invites the wicked to penitence, just as God's chastisement trains the good in patient endurance. God's mercy embraces the good for their cherishing, just as his severity chastens the wicked for their punishment. God in His providence, decided to prepare future blessings for the righteous, which the unrighteous will not enjoy, and sorrows for the ungodly, with which the good will not be tormented. but he has willed that these temporal goods and temporal evils should befall good and bad alike, so that the good things should not be too eagerly coveted, when it is seen that the wicked also enjoy them, and that the evils should not be discreditably shunned, when it is apparent that the good are often afflicted with them.

The most important question is this: What use is made of the things thought to be blessings, and of the things reputed evil? The good man is not exalted by this world's good; nor is he overwhelmed by this world's ills. The bad man is punished by misfortune of this kind just because he is corrupted by good fortune.

However, it often happens that God shows more clearly his manner of working in the distribution of good and bad fortune. For if punishment were obviously inflicted on every wrongdoing in this life, it would be supposed that nothing was reserved for the last judgment; on the other hand, if God's power never openly punished any sin in this world, there would be an end to belief in providence. Similarly in respect of good fortune; if God did not grant it to some petitioners with manifest generosity, we should not suppose that these temporal blessings were his concern, while if he bestowed prosperity on all just for the asking we might think that God was to be served merely for the sake of those rewards, and any service of him would prove us not godly but rather greedy and covetous.

This being so, when the good and the wicked suffer alike, the identity of their sufferings does not mean that there is no difference between them. Though the sufferings are the same, the sufferers remain different. Virtue and vice are not the same, even if they undergo the same torment. The fire which makes gold shine makes chaff smoke; the same flail breaks up the straw, and clears the grain; and oil is not mistaken for lees because both are forced out by the same press. In the same way, the violence that assails good men to test them, to cleanse and purify them, effects in the wicked their condemnation, ruin, and annihilation. Thus the wicked, under pressure of affliction, offer up prayers and praises. This shows that what matters is the nature of the sufferer, not the nature of the the sufferings. Stir a cesspit, and a foul stench arrises; stir a perfume, and a delightful fragrance ascends. but the movement is identical."

It is a timeless question; why do bad things happen? In my own life his response adds perspective to many difficult situations. I especially like the lens of looking at the good and bad things happening around me as "temporal," and remembering that His blessings (or curses) are all designed to purify me of my sin, and to sanctify my life for Him. He is right when he points out that even as godly people we still covet the same things as the "wicked." It makes me ask myself where am I finding my true joy. If it isn't in Him then I am no different than the world. It is important to remember that even the good things in life are empty cisterns compared to His surpassing glory. Do I really long for the sin of the world, or more personally, the sin in my own life to be burnt away? Do I really desire for God to come and make me His at EVERY expense? Do I want His will to be my will, really? Ultimately I think this is a question of perspective; when I look at my day to day life, some days might be great, some terrible, and if I focus on that, I too will fluctuate with my interpretation my circumstances; but if I can focus on Christ, He is unchanging in His glory. It makes me think of Romans 8:28 "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

I want to see the world like Augustine must have for a little while. I would like to get to a place where I don't see the individual blessings or hardships in my life, but instead see everything that happens as the handiwork of God designed to help me better understand who He is by becoming more the man I was designed to be. I want to stop thinking about whether or not God is justified to act as He does, and start thinking about what God is saying about who I am and who I should be.