Life in Tension

Two days before we were to fly to India, I was driving Kyle through a nice part of Dallas on historic Swiss Avenue. We’d just visited Dallas Theological Seminary on the same road, but this part of the street is lined with gorgeous mansions. Most of them about 100 years old and historically housing some of the richest and most powerful citizens of Dallas, the draw of these beautiful houses is undeniable.

Looking at one of the most spectacular on the block, I leaned over to Kyle and said, “It’s not bad that houses like this exist, but somehow it makes it bad that some people live here and some live on the streets or in slums.”

Kyle reminded me of my words a few days ago here in India, and they seemed even more profound and poignant repeated back to me.

Three miles behind us was downtown Dallas, where we’d driven past dozens of homeless people, some holding signs asking for money or some talking to themselves. We’ve all seen them. Yet the homes on Swiss Avenue have more rooms than residents and lie mere feet from ghettos where families fit six into a one bedroom apartment.

This is life in tension.

Beautiful, ornate homes are not bad. Looking at them I truly wish everyone could own and enjoy the luxurious comforts of a suburban house. The ideal is that everyone in the world could have a home like those on Swiss Avenue. The tension comes with the existence of poverty. People should not live on skid row in Los Angeles or in slums in India. The tension is the great inequality of wealth which pervades our country and our world.

Many other aspects of life find tension too:

• Eating good food while people starve 
• Building multi-million dollar seminary buildings while some communities still need a Bible
• Being faithful to excellence on a homework assignment while neglecting to listen to a friend’s troubles
• Sleeping thirty minutes more (to add to your 4 hour night) instead of getting up to read your Bible
• Feeling the fear of God after you sin while turning to accept His grace and forgiveness

There isn’t a solution to the paradoxes of life. Life on earth is certainly filled with many problems from the fall and yet still holds the remnants of a perfect creation, so tension will exist. We try to find balance between our options, but inevitably we have limited resources in money, time, and energy. We can only do so much. So what should we do?

The best answer we’ve found:

Live in tension.

We live between two worlds. We are pulled tautly between living well on this earth and living wisely in the spiritual realm. Part of our call as Christians is towards a certain type of unrest while on the earth. We seek “Shalom,” or perfect peace, for our own lives and for our world, but we will not see the tension disappear until Christ returns to make all things new.

Living in tension means that we will be dissatisfied with the world’s standards. As Christians, we cannot be complacent while people die of preventable diseases and pass away without hearing the Gospel. Work must be done. We cannot be okay with the sin in our own lives. We must fight.

Yet besides discontentment for depravity, Christians are to find a godly contentment to enjoy the good we find. Paul instructs Timothy to enjoy the gifts of God in this world:

“For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.” (1 Timothy 4: 4-5)

As Kyle and I have been learning to live in tension in India, we seek to enjoy eating a delicious pizza or living in a beautiful balconied apartment as gifts from God, but our pizza cost as much as some people here earn in a week, and down the road tents of palm and plastic house families. Giving away all our money doesn’t solve all the world’s problems, so maybe we don’t need to give up every yummy pizza we could afford. But maybe we could buy a few less pizzas and try to help one of those tented families.

Sometimes living for God means sacrificing the ability to purchase a new Mercedes-Benz to instead buy a pre-owned Honda. Sometimes it means you buy the Benz and drive it for the glory of God and enjoy Him in it. Either way, we’ve found (and in no way was it hidden) that the best way to go about these decisions is to feel the tension of the matter—to pray hard and search Scripture for answers and struggle with the decision.

Jesus didn’t ask every rich man he encountered to give away all his or her possessions. However, he did tell the rich young ruler to “go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Mark 10:21). Jesus was looking for a heart that was committed to Him and that possessions did not stand in the way of following Him. (If you’re still looking for an excuse to give all your money away, see Luke 12:33-34, Matt 6:19-21, Acts 4:32-37, 1 Timothy 6:6-10)

I don’t know if I’m supposed to give away everything I own and live with the homeless like Shane Claiborne. Or maybe I’m supposed to buy a house on Swiss Avenue. I don’t know if I should “act wisely” and start a savings account (after I pay off college loans), or if I should give to world missions all my income besides basic living expenses. I do know I should have a heart willing to accept whatever the cost to follow Jesus. I also know actions often spring from a heart's true condition.

Because there is tension in this life, we ought to struggle with decisions and choices we make everyday about how to live most righteously. We don’t want to become self-righteous or judge others’ decisions. We want to seek greater fulfillment in our own lives by drawing closer to Jesus Christ.