Vertically Challenged by Brady

Oswald Chambers once wrote, “If I am devoted solely to the cause of humanity, I will soon be exhausted and come to the point where my love will waver and stumble.” In this election season, I keep hearing which party is more devoted to the causes that benefit humanity. Whether it is healthcare, energy, climate control, abortion, or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, each party is asserting that they care more about humans than the other party does.

An instrumental part to the word hesed is that the vertical relationship we can have with God ultimately affects our horizontal relationship with others. But what I see many people in my generation doing is glossing over the vertical components of this word. In an attempt to “fix” the Christianity our parents have passed on to us, we have forgotten that you cannot love horizontally adequately without the vertical changing our lives. So we march forward building social institutions that are going to change the world and create heaven on earth, only to invoke the name of God when it can advance our cause. This is the reason I believe you see organizations such as Invisible Children blowing up in popularity and church attendance shrinking at alarming rates. Is it possible that our attempts to correct our horizontal image, we have become vertically challenged?

I think it is humorous that my generation believes it will eradicate hunger, disease, and war, yet it obsessed and paralyzed by consumption, acquisition, and greed. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach would say this is due to our lack of development on the vertical side of life. He says, “Incurable insecurity, Prozac, and Paxil are the rewards for a generation that has learned to define its very being through material and professional success—productivity—rather than through being G-d’s children, whose value is immutable and immeasurable. No wonder then that we thirst endlessly for more money, bigger homes, faster cars—anything to obviate the inner feeling of worthlessness that haunts us at every turn. Since we have failed to develop vertically by acquiring more depth and sublimity, we compensate by increasing horizontally, through acquisition and consumption.”

Not only do we struggle with vanity in the material sense, but also by believing that we can change the world. We can cure all diseases. We can solve all political conflict. We can reverse climate change. Yes we can! To me, there is nothing more vain or self-absorbed than the idea that an institution or human willpower can solve the world’s problems. No wonder there is no room for the doctrine of sin, depravity, and a need for forgiveness in popular Christianity today. If you look around, the majority of the popular and well known preachers are famous for either preaching self-help formulas peppered with verses from Psalms and Proverbs or social remedies camped in selective stories from the Gospels.

My pastor told a story a few weeks ago that I thought drove home this point really well. It was about a pastor of a small congregation who had a wealthy rancher who would attend his church every once and a while. One day, the pastor went out to this man’s ranch to visit him and got a tour of his land. They drove all over the property and the rancher bragged endlessly about his commodities. As they reached the top of a hill on the land and parked the vehicle, and the pastor confessed that he has been worried about how the rancher is doing. The pastor and rancher both stepped, and the rancher said, “Pastor, look around you in all four cardinal directions.” The pastor went along with him and followed his instructions. He went on, “No matter where you look, I own land as far as you can see. I would say I am doing pretty well.” The pastor thought for a moment and said, “I am not worried about how you are doing in this direction,” as he pointed around horizontally. He continued, “I am worried about how you are doing in this direction,” raising his hand and pointing towards heaven.

When you are growing and maturing physically, it is important to grow both horizontally and vertically. If you only grow vertically, you will be rail thin and not capable of normal physical activities. If you only grow horizontally, you will become overweight and not able to function properly either. And if you don’t grow at all, you will eventually die. My hope is that my generation does not becoming vertically challenged while attempting to save the world.