the second mouse

The sign out in front of Farley’s Watering Hole read:

THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM. BUT IT'S THE SECOND MOUSE THAT GETS THE CHEESE.

That’s what I believed about Jesus for a long time. He was the first mouse. It went like this: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans something:something). Because God is just, he cannot allow sin to go unpunished (some other Bible verse). God sent his one and only son, Jesus, to die in my place (John 3:16). If I accept by faith what Jesus did for me, then I get to go to heaven forever after I die. (several Bible verses). If not, I go to hell. (several other Bible verses). This was known as “the gospel”. It really sounded like a good deal. Although there was no way to prove it, nobody wants to go to hell when they die. Everybody knows that heaven is better than hell. Better not to take chances. Be safe (saved). And even though there were all kinds of other interesting and enigmatic things Jesus said, this was “the gospel”, the big cheese.

Ironically, this put me in a very precarious situation. Of course I didn’t come to see this until afterwards. Even though I was voting for the right candidates, protesting the wrong things, buying the right music, and taking a stand against the wrong agendas, personally I was very…dark…like a second mouse…looking for that cheese. I would reach for pornography when I could get alone, try to find ways to “shelter” my money from taxes, and entertain thoughts both murderous and lustful that would stretch MPAA’s rating system.

This was excused by Romans 7, though, where Paul wrote about inwardly burning. The excuse was that even though I was going to heaven after I die (because of the First Mouse), for now I was still a rotten, stinky, worthless sinner, doomed to eek out an existence in the rotting home of a world (that was condemned and waiting demolition). But I had one thing going for me—supposedly Jeremiah 17:9 promised me that my heart would be wicked and deceitful, two things that come in handy when you’re a second mouse, especially if there are third and fourth mice lurking around. I must admit that this was full of holes, though, because it required there to be some kind of switcheroo the moment I died that would in a flash change me from a scumbag to the image of holiness and virtue. I had a really hard time swallowing that.

But really, that’s not what was happening. The reason I snuck around is because that’s where I really thought my life was. I believed that life was in waiting for the first mouse to get popped, and then when no one was looking, grab the cheese.

Eventually, I believed it so much that it became like an entitlement. I shouldn’t have to suffer. Jesus did. (“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” – 1 Peter 2:24; Isa 53:5) I shouldn’t have to become poor. Jesus did. (“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” – 2 Cor 8:9). I shouldn’t have to be cursed. Jesus was. (“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” – Gal 3:13). I shouldn’t have to go through hell. Jesus did. (“He descended into hell…” – the historic Christian creed). It was like everything I wanted for myself was already paid for, so I could just take it. But somebody should have let everyone else in on this, because they didn’t understand all my rights very well, and they kept moving my cheese.

I guess a lot of Christians believe this in one way or another. This is a given. The debates that rage are not whether the second mouse thing is true, but whether the land o’ cheese is here or in the afterlife. It's a lot easier to put it off until the afterlife, and that is how I dealt with the difficulties of this theory. But really, if you want to go with what Jesus is recorded as saying in the Bible, it is in this life. “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life.” – Luke 18:29-30.

And there were some other things that didn’t fit, either. Martyrs, for example. Or celibates. Parents who are divorced. Children who are raped. What about their cheese?

Two things are helping to give me a new understanding of God. First, is that the second mouse doesn’t always get the cheese. Second, is that the second mouse is just like the first mouse.

Second first. This all started when I was forced to consider that the New Covenant that God was making with all men, even me, was something real. It was not based on a technicality or a switcheroo. It was based on true reconciliation between God and Man, and there was a real gift being given. The gift is a new heart. God promised to do it in Ezekiel 11:19 and 36:26, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you”. Back then, God called it a “new” heart, an “undivided” heart. Jesus called it a noble and good heart in Luke 8:15. So the offer is not that Jesus is the Good Mouse who dies, but I am the Wretched Mouse who lives. The offer is that if I “follow” Jesus I get to be just like him.

And that leads back to the first thing. I don’t always get the cheese. In fact, my life is not about getting the cheese. Christ did not come to save me from the mousetrap. He came to save me from that cheese. Christ didn’t get the cheese, and he offers me the blessing of no cheese, too. But how is that a blessing?

Christ wasn’t really offering me more wives, children, parents, houses, and cheeses if I would put him first, trading him my wife, my children, my parents, my house, my cheese. He wasn’t really offering to free me from my first wife, children, brothers, house, and cheese to give me better ones. What he is really offering to free me from is my cheese god, my deep seated belief that my wife, my children, my house, and my cheese are my life. What he really offers to free me from is my infatuation with getting that cheese, my need for it. And when I am free, I find a much larger family, a much larger house, a much larger story to live in. It’s a story where anywhere is home and everyone is family. And then things like pornography and tax shelters and fantasies, different flavors of cheese, are lost on me.

But how does this happen? When does this happen? If you’re still fixed on that damned cheese how do you get free? Well, everyone is different. But everyone is the same. To say everyone is different is to say that you have to walk with God and listen to him FOR YOURSELF. But some things are the same for everyone. When God talks to me he tells me that I am his son, he is proud of me, he delights in me, he loves watching me, he is pleased with me, he has more things planned for me to do. He says these things in lots of different ways. And this is really brilliant of him, because with every word I hear my heart gets fuller and fuller, and that cheese’s offer gets emptier and emptier.

I used to reach for the cheese. I don’t anymore. I did it because I believed I was that second mouse. I did it because I believed the trap was already sprung. I did it because I believed I needed it. I did it because I believed that even if I died reaching for it, that somehow I would get to go to mouse heaven anyway. I did it because I was hungry, and it must have been for cheese.

What I'm finding is that a mouse doesn’t live by cheese alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. And in this kind of life, trap-free cheese is everywhere, all kinds of cheese, and it is delicious.