Teach me Your way, LORD, and I will live by Your truth. Give me an undivided mind to fear Your name. – Psalm 86:11
The talent of the illusionist is to hold the attention of the audience and focus it where he wants it. An illusion is effective because what we see is more convincing than what we know.
Even as we seek the truth, we find what our eyes see so convincing that our mind is too often divided. James reminds us: For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. I have more than once gained some insight only to be overwhelmed by the winds of circumstances, driven away from a solid anchorage in a gale of doubt when it came time to live by the truth I knew. Knowing the truth will set us free when we know to the point that our mind is undivided.
The illusion today is that things are out of control. This is the case for me personally, and, I suspect, for many others on a grander scale. It appears that chaos reigns, from senseless acts of violence to crashing financial markets to incompetent, power-hungry politicians. Who can but wonder: is anyone at the helm?
On a personal level, I see the people around me, the people I love, trapped in illusions. They are cast about from one crisis to another, suffering, yet refusing even the attempt to live by the truth, saying, in effect, there is no reality beyond the shifting relativity of the surface. I am rejected because I refuse to agree with their point of view and offer them, instead, a place to stand on the solid Rock. They would grasp the wind in their defiant fist as they are blown they know not where.
The psalmist called on the Lord to teach him His truth. The writer may have regretted that prayer, for when the Lord sets out to teach us, He teaches by trial and experience. James reminds us again: Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work … (James 1:3-4).
Endurance, patience, perseverance – to be tried is to be delivered from a divided mind.
Why am I caught off guard or surprised by the trial that follows my insight? Of course if the Lord is teaching me He will send the trial to make the new understanding real, to incorporate the truth in my very being, my heart rather than in my head.
Do not be surprised. Each time the low gong sounds it calls us to the arena. It is the shallow intellectual in me that fails to realize grasping truth is a little like Bilbo taking treasure from the dragon’s lair. It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations.
It could be that we have the beginnings of an awakening, both of truth and the trials that accompany it.
I been standin’ on the rock
Waitin’ for the wind to blow.
I been standin’ on the rock
Waitin’ for the wind to blow.
I been standin’ on the rock
Waitin’ for my seeds to grow.
--“Standin’ on the Rock”, John Dillon (Ozark Mountain Daredevils)
7 comments:
"It could be that we have the beginnings of an awakening, both of truth and the trials that accompany it."
What's the old saying? "Travel broadens, suffering deepens."
I protest that I already get it -- but perhaps it is necessary for me to get it deeply. All the "l'arnin'" counts for little if I fail to understand.
My wife is just finishing up the 11-volume Story of Civilization by Will Durant. While she has been reading that, she has listened to the entire Bible read on MP3 three times, and taken a break to read a 600-page book about the Old Testament. When I broach the state of the world to her, she agrees that it's a mess, but assures me "'Twas ever thus" -- and can back it up!
Nonetheless, this is when we're alive, so this is our test. As Exams go, this one is shaping up as a doozy.
The psalmist called on the Lord to teach him His truth. The writer may have regretted that prayer, for when the Lord sets out to teach us, He teaches by trial and experience.
My wife occasionally says, "You didn't pray that prayer again did you?" because when I do, the teacher of Truth does not visit me directly; it smites her first. It took me some time to figure that out. I'm never prepared for her suffering, but what more direct way to my heart?
I tend to believe now that to pray for oneself is vanity; that striving to know oneself is participation in the Big Lie.
Still, it's a tendency, not a successful practice.
I tend to agree with your wife that history is always a function of people who really haven't changed that much. Which may be the problem.
I am talking more about personal awakenings. See my non-prophet disclaimer. Though I do think history has an omega point to which it spirals, I doubt this is it. End of the road, no. Twenty miles of bad road, yes.
Robin, I have said that I don't see how hell could be that bad if it's just me.
If I am wrong I don't want to find out.
Still, the things that bother me most are a function of my love for others. Right now it is my daughter and granddaughter. If I could make them free and whole by being burned at the stake, I'd bring the matches and the lighter fluid.
The illusion today is that things are out of control. This is the case for me personally, and, I suspect, for many others on a grander scale. It appears that chaos reigns, from senseless acts of violence to crashing financial markets to incompetent, power-hungry politicians. Who can but wonder: is anyone at the helm?
Funny you should mention that. Note that I did not read your post today, before writing mine.
JWM
Mushroom-
Sorry for your continuing family troubles- my prayers for you all.
I appreciate it, Sal. I didn't intend to bring it up, but we do need your prayers.
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