Daughters, Prisoners, and Builders

To believe is to believe that you have been torn
from the abyss, yet stand waveringly on its rim.
– Christian Wiman, every riven thing, "Canyon de Chelly, Arizona" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2010).

1.  The rich daughter.

That poem segment captures the uncertainty of salvation. Here is a true story about life with unwarranted certainty about salvation.

A woman in her nineties was financially independent. But she had an unexpected property-tax bill. She needed a bridge loan to pay it, until money came in that she was expecting. She turned to her daughter, a multi-millionaire with property and airplanes and vacation homes. The foundation for the daughter’s millions was seed money from her mother.

The daughter has long seethed with resentment against her brother. She doesn’t want her mother to give anything to the brother in her lifetime or in her will.

So the daughter coerced her mother to put all of her wealth into an irrevocable trust that named the daughter as trustee. That gave the daughter complete control over her mother’s property. She also coerced her mother to forsake her right to write her own will.

When the mother demanded to get back control of her own property, the daughter stopped giving money for her to live on.

From relatives, the mother scraped together a small sum to sue to wrest back control of her property. The daughter hired an expensive, silk-suit law firm to fight the mother. The daughter paid the legal bills from the mother’s trust.

The daughter fought in court until the trust was bankrupt. Then she settled the lawsuit. A piece of property in the trust remains to be sold, but when it is sold, the money will go to the daughter’s lawyers.

The daughter is a proud Christian.

If she knew the gospel of Luke, the daughter might see herself as the rich man of Luke 12 who stored his harvest of grain and counted himself safe and happy. But death took him. Jesus said: "So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." (Luke 12:21(KJV).) I don’t see a woman who ruins he mother as being "rich toward God."

But I doubt that she sees herself in that parable. Instead, I suppose she has brick-solid certainty in her salvation. I suppose she expects to be welcomed into the joy of God when on her deathbed she whispers for her soul to go. I suppose she is sure that cruelty to her parent will not cause God to kick her into the flames like a viper coiled on his foot. Because if she thought that evil-mindedness and cruel actions would bar her from eternal happiness, it’s hard to imagine that she would ruin her mother.

I don’t write about this daughter who ruined her mother so that we can rejoice that we are better than she is. I write about her so that we can contemplate how we are like her. It is her – no doubt – assurance of her own virtue that soothes her conscience and enables her to do evil. Her story serves us poorly if it soothes our own sense of virtue, rather than provoking us to search and strengthen our souls.

2. Life prisoners.

 I represent prisoners who have life sentences. I try to get them parole. The prisoners who call forth my best efforts are those who make the most of their chance to win release. They stay out of trouble; they take self-improvement courses; they help other prisoners; they win the admiration of correctional officers; they take college classes; and they learn vocations. The ones who call forth my least effort are those who do the opposite – the ones who think they can get out of prison no matter what they do while inside of prison. They are hopeless causes.

God’s intervention opens the way to heaven for us. God opens the way to heaven, but salvation, while it is a gift, is also a partnership. To God’s divine effort, he expects us to add diligence, virtue, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. (2 Peter 1:5-8.) We do this to confirm God’s call and choice of us, so that we may be welcomed into his eternal kingdom. (1 Peter 2:10-11.)

I write about life prisoners so that we might be like the diligent prisoners who respond with great effort to the chance for freedom.

3. Foolish builders.
 
The alternative to adding these things to our souls – virtue, knowledge, self-control, etc. – is to be foolish builders. Jesus spoke of building a tower. Before you start, you should count the cost of finishing it, or you will lay the foundation and stop. Then you will be a laughingstock. (Luke 14:28-30.) Unfinished Christians will be the laughingstocks of Hell.

We must not be cruel daughters, un-reformed prisoners, or foolish builders. We must always add to our towers, brick by brick.