Headcheck?

One of the strategies of winning in Indian politics is "the blame game" - accusing the other party. The opposition party will accuse the ruling party of all the lapses and create barriers in every action plan while the ruling party will accuse the opposition of their lapses in the past. Recently while the current Indian govt was drawing flak from all sides and accused of serious lapses and inconsistencies in it's governance, it came like a shot from the blue for the opposition when media came up with a finding that showed one of the key leaders of it's religious faction in a web of corrupt practices - of doing the very things that he accused the ruling party of doing. This was like "pot calling the kettle 'black' "!

Unfortunately, I found myself in a similar situation some days ago and it was quite disheartening to see myself in this quandary. Well I know this has been dealt with and hence I don't hesitate to be transparent and make myself vulnerable here in this reflection. I reckon that I'm a sinner saved by grace and still grapple with issues of my "fallenness" and we all have to experience this as long as we live here in a fallen world. It was one of those dull days when I was not at my best on the interpersonal paradigm, to be honest I'd actually been a bit reckless, just going through the motions and not in complete control. In a terribly vulnerable moment I did something without thinking to end up hurting someone dear. It took a heavy toll on me and pushed me into a shell of remorse and self  reflection. The damage has been done and it's indelibly etched in the minds and no amount of apology will actually undo my fault. The wounds heal but many times the scars remain. But it takes a tremendous amount of grace to get over this especially when you know these dear ones are truly gracious people. It dawned on me that often I found it so easy to point a finger at the flaw in another person while conveniently overlooking my own flaws which were much more serious.

Well, don't we all have our blind spots which only others can see quite clearly? I'm reminded of my driving lessons and learning to drive in the UAE is quite an experience.  One of the most important things I had to learn was what they call here, "head check"! This is nothing but turning your head and looking over your shoulder to check the blind spots which are not captured by the rear view mirror of the car. It is only after  a head check is done can the driver make a move to turn. How often it is easy to ignore our blind spots and end up crashing in our human relationships. This is what I have been reflecting ever since this fiasco happened to me. I'm actually fighting within to search and weed out all such traits.

Jesus said it beautifully to the pharisees who were constantly doing it -finding fault with others especially with Jesus and his disciples. The Message bible portrays it beautifully. “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor."  Mt 7:3-5. Quite harsh, ain't it? How important it is to examine our own lives before we can point a finger at someone else. How much are we aware of our own failures and shortcomings? How much do we repent of those? How much are we actually mindful of introspecting into our own lives? When we do it on a regular basis, we begin to understand God 's amazing grace and human relationships become more precious and valuable to us. The more we realise that we find ourselves wanting in the scales of God, the more we will want this grace.

The Psalmist constantly took time out for introspection as we read it in many of the Psalms. He keeps looking into His own life and sees the need for someone higher than him to save him.

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I - Ps 61:2.

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. Ps 139:23-24.

The Greek word for grace is "charis" from where the words "charisma" and "charismatic" come from. To me, the ones who have truly experienced the forgiving grace of God in their lives and who freely forgive others are the truly charismatic people in a literal sense. As we go through this lent season, remembering the redemptive work of God, having found unconditional love, forgiveness and acceptance from God, can we take a moment to "head check" and evaluate our own lives instead of pointing a finger at somebody else and realize His marvelous forgiving grace. Can we come to God in humility and ask for more of His grace to be gracious? He promises more grace to the humble.

God bless!!!

God Complex

All through history we have seen innumerable stories of slavery, human oppression and injustice. Powerful people elevating themselves to a higher plane, throwing their weight around and lording over those who are inferior in some human parameter. We have studied about Britain ruling a large part of the globe colonising people and subjecting the natives to untold misery and hardship. We have studied about the blacks taken to America as slaves to work in the farm lands of the white and the rest is history. There is a basic instinct in creation where the superior lords over the inferior, the strong rule over the weak, the rich over the poor and the moneyed over the pennyless.

In an Indian context we can see it even today in various ways. The moneyed engage the muscular and the muscular become moneyed in the process. Together they are a deadly collaboration which becomes what we call as the 'mafia' on a larger scale. Sometimes these forces exploit the victims, grab their wealth, control an area, an industry, a government and a whole economy too. In extreme cases they even take it across international borders. In Indian parlance it is called as 'dadagiri'. This complex gets aggravated by another social evil linkage called as the "varnashramadharma' which classifies people into a social hierarchy called the 'caste' system. In this evil system which appears to be superficially not so harsh, the rich and the high castes ensure that they remain in their social pedestals by oppressing the poor low caste. The deep truth is that the victims are physically, socially and psychologically driven to feel utterly worthless and they resign to it thinking it is their 'fate'. The worst forms of injustice, oppression and demonic dehumanisation is what we see as a result of such evil forces even today in a post modern age.

This uncontrollable desire to rule and to be high handed is what we call as the "god complex". The powered have a god complex over the powerless and bask in the glory of being looked upto. The flip side is that the weak readily subject themselves to the strong, mainly out of fear of the powered overpowering them as they are powerless. Once the powered extend a favour, the favoured are entrapped into a life long obligation of servitude to the one who favoured him. The benefactor establishes his lordship over the beneficiary to create an obligatory chasm. This, over time has become a culturally indispensable scenario especially in the developing world and the victims of this malady are the poor and the powerless. The moneyed and powered oppressors deliberately keep the poor unempowered in order to maintain their powered status.


It was this god complex that was there in the Romans who ruled Judea at the time of Jesus. The Jews having been through such waves of oppressions over time in history cried out to a God who seemed silent for more than four hunderd years after Malachi the prophet had spoken. They longed for a Messiah who will come, overpower the Romans, dethrone Caesar and establish a kingdom more powerful and just. It is in this context that Jesus was born in a very insignificant town called Bethlehem. But His arrival was not the kind that the jews expected. Contrary to all their expectation of a powerful Messiah, He came as a babe in swaddling clothes. He lived among ordinary people and ate with sinners. He healed the broken hearted, healed the sick, raised the dead and talked about a kingdom with values far different and much higher than the kingdoms of the world. Some find it hard to understand it even today and are lost. He came not as any other highhanded ruler, 'dada' or a thug, but as a meek individual riding on a donkey.

As we go through this season of lent it will be expedient for us to reflect on the fact that Jesus did not come down with a god complex. But He laid it all aside and came down in humble obedience to His Father's will in human form, lived a sinless life, showed the path to eternal life and finally surrendered himself to be utterly abandoned into sinful human hands to be murdered cruelly on the cross - a symbol of curse. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted (Isaiah 53:4). He did it cause we are precious to him and He loves us so much. As he emptied himself in total surrender even to the point of death on a cruel cross, the Father was well pleased to give him a name above all names that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.

Philippians 2:6-11

New International Version (NIV)

⁶ Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Is a god complex lurking in us somewhere? The more we are stuck to our god complexes the more complex it becomes for God to work in us. What are we willing to let go during this lent? Jesus let go everything for us. He deserves the glory !!