my artist rendered sketch

Posted: February 11th, 2010 | Filed under: life | 7 Comments »

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. -Psalm 119:105 ESV

I think that when this life is over and we are let in on the mystery, our biggest regret will be not trusting God more. If you think about it, everything boils down to trusting God, so maybe it will be our only regret.

Imagine you’re a name in a completed book (because you are) and you’re only a few chapters in. Books have authors and you’re not your own. It’s hard to imagine an existence that is bigger than ours. It’s mind twisting to imagine being subject to something (Someone) more powerful than us.

Mostly people want to reject the idea that they’re not in control. It takes the ego away. I wouldn’t say these things if I made them up. The scriptures are clear and I’ll never apologize for what they take away from you. Especially if you consider what they give to you. Your loss is your gain.

Doom to you! You pretend to have the inside track. You shut God out and work behind the scenes, Plotting the future as if you knew everything, acting mysterious, never showing your hand. You have everything backward! You treat the potter as a lump of clay. Does a book say to its author, ”He didn’t write a word of me”? Does a meal say to the woman who cooked it, ”She had nothing to do with this”? -Isaiah 29:15-16

The instructions I wrote about are clear and simple. They help us navigate an existence we can’t see. They’re our guide while we walk around in this strange territory. They’re our ‘light for the path‘. You know, ‘a lamp unto [our] feet.’

He says ‘don’t worry,’ ‘don’t be afraid’ and all of these other things and we wonder how to carry it out. I say, you can carry it out if you know that He knows what He’s talking about. He has seen what’s ahead and His words are coming back to tell us not to worry and not to be afraid. He’s looking at the outcome when He tells us that. He’s the best ally in life because He’s in eternity and telling us the secrets of life and time. (More complex than a time traveler, but if you need something really simple to mentally grab, try that one.)

He’s this whisper in your spirit telling you that making a friend out of an enemy will lighten your load or that giving your coat to a shirt thief will make you like Him.

I can understand why Jesus used metaphors and similes (parables) so often. This ‘Kingdom’ stuff is cheapened by trying to explain it in plain language. It doesn’t make sense and doesn’t cover it quite right. Take my examples as an artist rendered sketch. I’m constantly trying to improve my ability to paint word pictures so I can show you what I see. I may not be the best artist, but I can see the most amazing things. It drives me crazy when I can’t get my ‘painting’ quite right, but when I do, …there’s nothing like it.

Christians have earned the reputation for being ‘detached’, but not for the same reasons that Jesus has the reputation. Christians, in general, don’t check out what they’re swallowing. Jesus was intensely intelligent. It takes an unbelievable amount of mental strength to not be distracted by everything human when trying to stay focused on the Truth. Imagine driving down a winding country road in the middle of the night with fog and a cartoonish amount of wildlife skirting your path at every moment. That’s what our ‘here and now’ life is like.

Jesus never bought into the same things that the others did. He was like a sane man in a mental institution. We, non-God’s, all have an understanding. We all have our own ‘medication.’ He gets it because He’s spent time in our world, but He’s trying to get us to get Him and His world.

‘Don’t worry, don’t fear.’ We think those are ‘pie in the sky’ notions, but they’re direct instructions from someone who’s been there and knows what He’s talking about. When He says something, drop everything and listen. We’re ‘here’ and ‘now’, He’s eternal. We’d be idiots to not risk everything on Him.