Reality Rules

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. -- James 4:8

I happened to pick up Oswald Chamber's My Utmost for His Highest this morning and read the entry for today. It's based on James 4:8 and is call "The Authority of Reality", so I am riffing on that. 

Faith is acting on what you know to be true, what you know to be real.  I have a spare tire on my truck and a patch kit I carry on my bikes because punctures and road hazards are real.  We stop at stop signs, drive on the right side of the road, stay out of certain parts of town after dark, pay our taxes, watch what we eat, and all the rest because of what we believe to be real.  For me, I know, it is difficult to believe in anything other than the material world I see and experience on a daily basis.  I am, after all, a native Missourian.  "Believe half of what you see [perspective] and none of what you hear [opinion]" was drilled into me from birth.

My mother used to check the almanac for the various moon signs or whatever they are.  By the signs, you are told to plant potatoes and other root crops in "the dark of the moon".  My father's response?  "I always thought they do better if you plant them in the ground."  My favorite, though, was castrating calves.  Dad didn't have any fancy equipment, just a classic stockman pocketknife with a scary sharp spey blade, and he usually kept some pine tar in the truck.  We'd see a new calf, determine it was a bull, catch it, and cut it.  In the summer, if we had it available, we'd smear some tar around the cut to keep away the flies.  Back at the house, Mom might wonder if the calf would be all right as the sign was in not in the feet that day.  Dad again, "The sign is in the knife."

Since then I have experienced things that were inexplicable in a material sense, usually having to do with the timing of events -- things happening or coming together at just the right time to benefit me.  I have been in the right place at the right time on multiple occasions.  I have been blessed over and over, and I have come to believe that God is Good, all the time.  Have I experienced upheavals and tragedies?  Have I seen bad things happen to good people?  Have I been taken aback by the utter stupidity and the malice of people?  I have certainly, especially that last one. 

Malicious people are acting on what they believe to be true, on what they believe is real.  Perhaps they are philosophical atheists or practical atheists who believe we are alone in a purely material world with no one to answer to except our fellow humans.  Perhaps they believe in some kind of vindictive god, or they are deeply religious pharisees who think they are better than other people.  I don't know, but I pity them.  However, if they come to my house with their evil, the sign might be in the Glock. 

I believe Jesus, the Son of God.  I believe He described the real world perfectly and completely, that He is Truth incarnate.  I believe He is with me, that, now and then, He has worked through me, that He has guided my steps even when I had no idea what was going on.  By all rights, I should have been dead forty-nine years ago and probably more times than I know since, but here I am, and I am going to do my best to act on what I believe.  The just shall live by faith.  The just do it.

Certainty

Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble. Say to those with anxious heart, "Take courage, fear not.  Behold, your God will come with vengeance; the recompense of God will come, but He will save you".  -- Isaiah 35:3-4 (NASB)

I haven't written much for a long time.  It is a spiritual discipline for me, and I have neglected it.  I'm not sure why, other than I have been doing other things -- often less constructive and beneficial to myself.  I'm not sure, either, that I am back to a regular routine.  I think I needed a break.  I started this around the time my father's age finally caught up with him, eleven years ago.  I began to neglect it sometime after my wife passed away, four years ago.  I've sorted through a lot in the last several years. 

I am more certain than ever of the goodness of God.  I am more confident that He knows what is going on.  I am a lot less certain that I do.  I think it used to be reversed.  I think I spent a lot of time trying to tell the Lord what I wanted Him to do.  These days my prayers tend to be more like, "Lord Jesus, have mercy on me."  

At one time, I could have believed I was a messenger of God, along the lines of the prophet Ezekiel, though writ quite small and modestly.  Perhaps I was -- to a person or two, thirty years ago.  I did the jobs that were given to me, delivered halting messages to best of my ability, struggled with my weaknesses and limitations, and moved on.  And I'm still here.  I wanted to be like Joseph.  I might have been more like Moses when he murdered the Egyptian in his self-righteousness.  I always wanted wisdom, but I knew a lot more than I understood, though I was certain I knew what needed to be done.  Without getting all megalomaniacal, I wonder if I have not been afflicted with the malady that hinders and binds the modern Church.  The Church seems confused, divided, and cut off from what is going on in the world with all its ugliness, vulgarity, hate, and violence.  Perhaps it's evidence of a surrender, perhaps just a recognition that Christians can't beat the world at its own game.  

The hope for me is summed up in the quoted passage.  God is not unaware of what is going on.  A person not cognizant of Scripture could be forgiven for assuming God doesn't know or doesn't care about the increasing insanity, the ongoing suffering, and senseless, manic actions that look more like an attack of St. Vitus' dance than ballet or even the boogaloo.  

The pendulum has swung far.  I would like to think it has reached its limit in the direction of chaos and destruction, but it may be a while before it swings back.  But swing back it will.  We may not recognize the world when that happens.  We may find it disorienting.  We may be appalled at the destruction this decades-long descent into pandemonium, this reign of flesh bring about.  The recompense will come.  The correction will come.  

In this time of doubt and questioning, of this I am certain:  if we trust in the goodness of God, in the grace of Jesus Christ, we will be all right.  We will come out whole.