Excavation A Conversation About
david V. Smith
Theodyssey Group, San Jose, California
about excavation
ometimes, eye-opening discoveries are just below the surface. In March 1974, Chinese farmers set out to dig a new well for their town to drink from. Instead, they found a hidden army. Large pottery fragments eventually led them to the discovery of 8,099 life-size terra-cotta figures. It was an enormous contingent of soldiers, archers, charioteers, and horses, created to accompany the reigning Emperor of Qin into the afterlife. It took more than a million workers to create the army. Each soldier is unique, with different height and facial features. The statues of the infantry soldiers range between 5 feet 8 inches and 6 feet 2 inches; the handsome commanders are a sturdy six-and-a-half feet tall. For more than 2,200 years, this treasure lay undiscovered. All the time it was just under foot—right beneath the surface of everyday life. Sometimes reservoirs of memories and emotions sit just beneath the surface in our lives. Guilt and shame become anchors that we drag around, preventing us from ”running the good race.” Likewise, unforgiveness and self-hatred can pollute the subterranean wells of our thoughts and feelings, robbing us of vitality and hope. Sometimes we need to move on but we don’t know how. It doesn’t help to dig-up the vast terrain of our past just to look for shards of brokenness. We don’t need an emotional archaeology hunt.
Excursions 1.0/ common obstacles..........9 Barriers to wholeness in Jesus.
2.0/ FORGIVENESS........................25 The myths and realities of moving on.
3.0/ spiritual Baggage...........39 Unpacking what keeps us stuck.
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However, God does nudge us to invite the scrutiny of the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the true state of the world within, so that we can partner with his possibilities. King David’s words show us how to pray. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.1
Welcome to excavation!
Exaudi, deus. vae peccat is hominum! et homo dicit haec, et misereris eius, quoniam tu fecist i eum et peccatum non fecist i in eo. qu is me commemorat peccatum infant iae meae, quoniam
Common Obstacles nemo mu ndus a peccato
coram te, nec infans,
cu ius est nius diei vita su per terram? qu is
me commemorat? an qu ilibet tant il-
lus nu nc pa vulus, in quo video quod non memini de me? qu id ergo tu nc peccabam? an qu is uberibus inhiabam plorans? nam si nu nc faciam, non qu idem uberibus, sed escae cong ruent i annis meis ita inhians, deridebor atque re prehendar iust issime. tu nc ergo re prehendenda faciebam, sed qu ia re prehendentem intellegere 7
t was lunch time, and a bulging peanut-butter-andbanana-sandwich rested on a plain paper plate just in front of me. Each of my fingers were capped with a pitted black olive. (Don’t act like you’ve never done that.) Everyday stuff for five-year-olds. Without warning, the sky fell black, as if someone had tripped a cosmic dimmer switch. Having been recently banned from watching TV (Accusation: “mimicking the Three Stooges”), my little brother and I welcomed the diversion. We slid off our chairs, and sprinted out the door to stand under the canopy of walnut trees guarding the front sidewalk. There, in the gray quiet—olives still on fingers—we fastened our eyes on the white, jagged circle of fire blazing in the false night. It was a solar eclipse. Mom said not to look because it could blind us—perhaps like a twofingered jab in the eyes from Moe or Curly. Later in the week, a Sunday school teacher explained that an eclipse was God passing through the heavens, and that if you looked directly at him, you would get your eyes burned out. (I now recognize that to be a theological error.) Funny how certain events shape our understanding of life. Every Sunday at church I heard a sales pitch for God—an altar call—for those ready to cozy up next to him. But no sale here; only a lunatic would hang around an ill-tempered old man ready to scorch your eyes out for staring at the sky. It is my earliest recollection of “God.” Around the same time I was introduced to a Sunday School song, complete with hand motions, that went like this: Oh, be careful little eyes, what you see. Oh, be careful little eyes, what you see. There’s a Father up above, looking down in tender love, So be careful little eyes, what you see. Be Be Be Be
careful careful careful careful
little little little little
ears what you hear . . . mouth what you say . . . hands, what you touch . . . feet, where you go . . .
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Excursion 1.0
The message, even then, was hauntingly clear: You better not do anything wrong, because the hunchbacked guy with the temper (I could see through the “tender love” business) was watching everything we did and keeping score. If you wanted God to like you, you’d better be good. High school brought with it a series of End Times movies, all with a clear warning not to get caught doing anything The Lord wouldn’t approve of upon his return. Nothing could be worse than Jesus catching you smoking a Marlboro or making-out with a cheerleader during the Rapture. You could lose your seat on The Bus. The message, again, was that God watches every move you make, so no messing around. Period. Accountability and obedience were common topics: “God will hold you accountable for every thing you read or hear.” That is, if you fail to act upon a sermon you hear, or obey a Scripture you read, then you’d better keep an eye out (while you still had one) for the God who might short-circuit your sight. The key to being approved by God (and others) was to be the best. You were acceptable and good as long as you excelled. At this point, it’s easy to get your selfworth and security with God wound around the axle of performance. The trap is that it’s tough to be the best. When it comes to sports, school, and God, there’s only one Michael Jordan . . . one Albert Einstein . . . one Billy Graham. When I got my junior high yearbook, I immediately cut out the page in the sports section with the basketball season statistics. I was listed second in scoring (by less than a point, and I missed a few games because I had the flu—all of which I feel compelled to tell you). During my first year in high school, I was one of a handful of sophomores in the metropolitan area playing varsity basketball. At the winter sports awards ceremony I received a certificate and a varsity letter. Both went in the trash can on my way out the door because I had failed to distinguish myself as an “all-star.” My high school yearbook? Couldn’t bear to own one. It only represented what I wasn’t—not the valedictorian, not the winner of the most prestigious scholarships, etc. 10
College—same thing. No yearbook. I don’t need an overpriced lifetime reminder of all the things I didn’t accomplish. We know it’s time to move on when our current way of being no longer gives life. We need to remove the obstacles that keep us stuck. In order to do that, we must identify what, if anything, may be blocking our growth, and choose to deal with it. The alternative is B-A-U: Business As Usual. Dealing with obstacles involves unmasking myths—distortions about God, ourselves, and others. Some people need to forgive others or even themselves. Others might have to face and dismantle shame. For many, it means learning to say good-bye to what was, in order to embrace what can be. Like many things in the spiritual life, overcoming these obstacles to growth is simple, but not easy.
Removing obstacles: Three common barriers
Living with Jesus at the core of our lives means we can experience freedom from sin and guilt. Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience.2
God wraps his holy arms around people with a polluted past. All kinds of pasts. Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor practicing homosexuals nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.3
Sometimes, the full impact of Jesus’ death on the cross is not fully realized in our lives because of us. We often encounter significant obstacles in our thinking and behavior. Though transformation is entirely the work of the indwelling Spirit, we must partner with this work if it is to be fully released in our lives. . . .continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.4
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