Once saved, always saved.

It is hard to imagine an alcoholic showing up to a day labor site at 4 am wondering about his retirement. Its harder to imagine a fifty-five year old Mexican illegal and landscape professional not thinking about the life of his matriarch, mom, and kids with every swing of the pic.

It is not hard to imagine a evangelical Christian asking whether or not he (I say “he” because I cannot for some reason imagine a sister, a mother, or a grandmother asking this question) can lose his salvation. “Is it possible to lose your salvation?” This question is, perhaps, only pertinent to the “faith alone” crowd of Christianity. Because, if one believes his efforts contribute to the finality of his salvation, he does not ask, he only works and wonders about salvation. Or, if he’s in college he gets drunk and doesn’t wonder.

People consider the question at hand when a pastor sleeps with his secretary, when a father hits his kid, when anxiety turns to self-harm or when they read Hebrews 6 or 10. Our race wrongs themselves prolifically. Salvation, naturally, gets questioned.

Consider that salvation is never questioned in the Bible in this way- not of Samson, not of David. “Faith aloners” ask, “did he ever really believe?” Good question – maybe. Did he did believe? Or not? What is faith in the Bible but a slow walk to the heavens proving your faith. Abraham doubted through most of his life and proved his faith. So, the question is not “did he ever really believe?” but “does he believe?” Do I believe?

And, this is the only way to ask the question. You can not prove it in a moment. The only thing that separates the sheep and the goats is what they did and didn’t do.

This is tough to stomach: asking eternal security questions is like having too much time on the hands. Like a single college graduate – not sure of where to go and responsible to no one – he asks about who he is and where he’s headed because he is neither preoccupied with the taste that got him hooked and living for the day – or, like a Mexican illegal, devoted to a life of hard work because he is loved.

 

Cinderella & Sleeping Beauty

A “Cinderella Story”: when a college basketball team unexpectedly and fantastically goes from the bottom to the top.

Who is Cinderella? Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm begin her rags to riches story:

A rich man’s wife became sick, and when she felt that her end was drawing near, she called her only daughter to her bedside and said, “Dear child, remain pious and good, and then our dear God will always protect you, and I will look down on you from heaven and be near you.” With this she closed her eyes and died.

In Disney’s 2015 re-imagination of Cinderella Ella’s mom passes her legacy to the soon to be orphan child, “Dear child, be kind and have courage…” When the mom dies, Lucifer the cat (and other sinister creatures) chase the mice of charity and goodness into corners until the powers that be (in this case a fairy godmother and prince charming) find and honor them. Mice are made strong stallions. A wandering duck made driver. Scaly lizards made humble servants.

Disney’s 2015 Cinderella is wonderful. And, awakens this desire or, for many, fear: that we would be seen for who we are. That the pure in heart would be lifted up and that the sinister would be revealed and judged. And, that is exactly what happens in the story.