Are we dead or alive?

"If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
If we endure, we will also reign with him;
If we deny him, he also will deny us;
If we are faithless, he remains faithful -
   - for he cannot deny himself"
                      (2 Timothy 2:11-13)

There are certain things in this world we can call opposites.  I love the satisfaction of a good critique (in the positive sense), of finding the positive and negative attributes of something.  My wife and I watched a ten minute critique of cutting boards on PBS last night, America's Test Kitchen.  Thoroughly satisfying, though I am not in the cutting board market right now.  Expensive and Cheap, Durable and Flimsy, Beautiful and Ugly.  Even cutting boards.

There are some things in this world that are different, but not opposites.  We call these choices a False Dilemma.  There is actually no need to chose between them.  Sometimes you can chose both, other times you may ignore both.  We are about to chose a president, two will debate on TV tonight, but you may vote for some unheard of other.  They may all be good options, more likely they may all be scoundrels.  But there are infinite possibilities.  Not just two. No way to find opposites.  

There are some things in this world that stand alone.  There is no opposite of it.  I doubt there is an opposite of lemonade; it is simply a thing.  It is a good thing.  God made the world, and called it good.  I assume lemons and lemonade are a way we see the goodness of God.  Especially when we are anxious for cool weather and summer persists.  It is simply good.

Am I dead or alive?  I will work may way back out.

God, and Christ and his faithfullness stand alone.  More Satisfying than Lemonade. There is no opposite.  He is not conditional on us.  He is alive.  He is life.  In him all things hold together.

I am not God, but I try to be.  It's why I want to be President, or better...King.  When a newspaper asked "What is the problem with the world?" G.K. Chesterton (A British Theologian 100 years ago) responded "I am."  I am the problem.  I bring pain into the world.  The opposite of good is not evil; Evil is the corruption of Good.  And there are many corruptions seen here and there.  So we must not deny...we must endure.

So if I die with Christ, I live in Christ.  Buried with Christ, raised to walk a new life.  So I wonder if I am dead or alive.  These opposites haunt me.  How can I die to who I am?  How can Christ be alive in me?  When my natural self is placed on the cutting board, what will be found.  Divide my soul, my spirit, my body.  Am I dead or Alive?