Clean Hands, Pure Hearts

Does a morality gap exist today between what people say they believe and how they behave? Most people would agree. We have divorced belief from behavior. To our detriment, morality has become a take-it-or-leave-it kind of deal. As if we were making cafeteria selections, we have become adept at picking and choosing brands of morality. A portion of this morality dilemma is the privatization of living. For instance, people say,

As if we were making cafeteria selections, we have become adept at picking and choosing brands of morality.

"This is my life, not yours. I'll make my own decisions" and "It is not your business what I do." Richard Foster observes what he calls the "egocentric, hyphenated self-sins of our day." Among them he lists "self-indulgence, self-will, and self-gratification." Many of our societal problems have progressed down this trail. Pornography can be listed among the types of self-indulgent sin. Drug and alcohol abuse can be found there, too. Sexual abuse of children falls under the "self-will" of an adult being carried out on an undeserving, unaware child. For the conscientious Christian, however, withdrawing into false pretenses of personal preferences isn't a real option. The child of God belongs to God. Jesus' disciples believe the world and everything in it belongs to God (Psalm 24:1), and that belief changes everything. When we believe we belong to God, we have an accountability to live a particular way. "Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?" the psalmist asks. He then answers, "He who has clean hands and a pure heart" (Psalm 24:3-4). Having clean hands and a pure heart are the desires and expectations God has for us. This is a very clear call to how we are to live. The sliding scale of morality that is a part of our society does not fit in with these clear directives. The Spirit-devoted believer will gain help from Jesus' words: "Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light; but if it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness. Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness" (Luke 11:34-35, NRSV). If it is true that what is inside will always come out, perhaps we should be concerned with what is being put "inside." The eye is an organ designed to catch light for the body to use. When the eye is sound and right and light is shining, the eye enables us to fully use the light—we can see where we are, how to walk, and how to do our work. But when something is wrong with our eyes, we can't use the light—even if the world is illuminated by the brightest light, if an eye is damaged, it won't help. The whole body is then wrapped in darkness. This describes where society is today. Most people laboring under a selective morality will make changes only when their situations get bad enough and they face disastrous results. Jesus calls us to work earlier. "Consider whether the light in you is not darkness." Jesus calls us to commit to a disassociation with what is wrong in God's sight. We need to avoid anything that lowers our inhibitions. For instance, how does the use of alcohol appear in the light of such a test?

We have divorced belief from behavior. To our detriment, morality has become a take-it-or-leave-it kind of deal.

Set a watch at the door of your eyes. Lusting often begins with looking. Guard your imagination. Fill your imagination with "Whatsoever things are pure . . ." (Philippians 4:7-9). Do not run into temptation. Some associations and friendships are corrupting. Keep your mind occupied with Christ and the pattern he has given you. Having "clean hands and pure hearts" will require us to make choices about media and other influences, choices about lifestyle and sexuality, and choices about relationships and exploiting others. For the sake of God's glory in us, consider what lights your way. Michael Benson is chaplain at Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Illinois. Interview with Michael Benson HT: You are the University chaplain. Describe what that role involves. MB: The most obvious function is planning and preparing three weekly chapel services for the University community. But that is not my only service. I generally operate as the campus pastor, providing pastoral support for more than 2000 students, faculty and staff. This involves many aspects of pastoral work such as counseling, spiritual advice, pre-marital counseling, grief intervention, and more. These roles are very fulfilling to me. HT: What are the greatest rewards of serving on a university campus? MB: Ultimately the greatest reward is seeing a student make Jesus the absolute center of his or her life. Because of the variety of spiritual needs, we get the privilege of seeing quite a spectrum of God's work. In some student's lives, we see the initial "yes" to God's plan of salvation for them. We see others commit and consecrate their lives to God. Getting to observe these students and their steps with the Lord is enormously gratifying. HT: What makes your heart heavy as chaplain? MB: We are unable to connect with everyone. Sometimes we just miss it. Perhaps I misunderstood a student's needs, or perhaps a student was not totally honest with me. And, in the process, we just do not make the connection needed for my office to minister to them effectively. HT: You have oversight for the spiritual emphasis on Olivet's campus. How do you decide what the student body needs to hear? MB: Our staff spends concentrated time seeking God's direction for program ideas and how to specifically develop those plans. Besides holding weekly times of prayer, each semester we have a planning session and lay out ideas and themes for the coming semester. We have found that using chapel themes significantly helps our campus community to focus corporately on God's work in our midst. HT: Recently your theme was "Clean Hands, Pure Hearts." Tell us more about this. MB: The staff realized through our counseling and one-on-one contacts that our students reflect society at large as they struggle with today's moral issues. We felt directed to address the issues of moral choices being made by our students. In one of our planning sessions we began to lay out the themes we wanted to address. We listed topics such as helping victims of sexual abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, healing damaged emotions, pornography addiction, media choices, homosexuality and eating disorders. We named this theme "Clean Hands, Pure Hearts," using Psalm 24 as a guide for our praying. We then set out to plug in resource people to help us address these issues. In a semester full of intense chapel services, the God's Spirit faithfully met with us and helped so many of our students. We were able to secure Stephen Arterburn, author or Every Young Man's Battle, and Nicole Braddock. We secured Steve Seamands, author of Wounds that Heal, and resource personnel from the "Love Won Out" seminars produced by Focus on the Family. HT: No doubt with this kind of content, you opened "a can of worms" for some students. Can you share any stories of victory that occurred as a result? Or some of the consequences of bringing into the light sins that were once kept in the dark? MB: First and foremost we created an atmosphere of help and hope. We created a safe environment where a student with problems or addictions could seek help and counsel, and not worry about being asked to leave the campus. By scheduling these chapels and talking about these issues, we seem to have earned more trust from the student body. This is very encouraging to us. Of course, these are not problems with quick answers. Many of the students who came to us for help have been plagued by their problems for a very long time. For example, we know that young women who have been sexually abused often bury their pain deep within. Working through the events dredges up so many memories. Searching for wholeness and healing can take lots of pain-filled time. We anticipated the response to be high. So we met before these chapel services with several groups that would provide care to these students. The chaplain's office isn't the only entity that provides spiritual care to our students. Dozens of professors, staff, local pastors, and lay people minister to our students one-on-one. We called together local pastors who have students attending their churches. The athletic director arranged for us to meet with the coaches of all our athletic teams. We brought together those who work in the counseling center and the resident assistant staff. The chapel services during the "Clean Hands, Pure Hearts" series brought to us students we were not able to reach before. Most of the stories are very private and personal. I assure you we have seen many delivered from addictions, and many others well on their way to thinking and acting more positively as they have worked through the baggage they have suffered. HT: You obviously have great passion for what you are doing. What other initiatives and projects are you involved in as Chaplain? MB: Because the chapel services are the most obvious part of our work, my first months have been spent in getting a handle on them. We have started a chapel series for freshmen students called "FirstWords" and will focus much of our attention on these chapel services for first year students. I'm very excited about the potential of these times together. Beyond the chapels, I want to concentrate this year on student accountability groups. I feel these kinds of small groups are a key discipline at any age, but especially at this age. Small groups can be a highly effective spiritual formation tool used by the Spirit. We need to focus attention there for a while. Holiness Today, November/December 2004

 

< back to Archives