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pursuing the upward call with fear and trembling

just a 44 year old man seeking to share my meanderings with the world at large or the blogosphere at small

Sunday, November 26, 2006

reality and illusion

C S Lewis is truly one of the most prolific authors to have put pen to paper, and he does a remarkable job of telling tales to bring fiction into a reality-based setting. The Screwtape Letters is one of his more brilliant works, as he develops characters in the form of 2 demons who message back and forth in devising more devious,nefarious ways in which to confound christians from following and obeying Christ and the leading of the Spirit. I think satan can arguably be called the greatest magician and hypnotist of all time. He never ceases to divert our attention away from what is real into what is smoke and mirrors. He lulls us into a trance where we become oblivious to what is real and true only to pursue what is fake and illusionary.

Idolatry is one of the most grievous sins we commit against Almighty God. It's easy to look at the Israelites and the incident with the golden calf and to think we would never do such a thing..... but in reality of course we do. Our idols just have more glossy veneer, such as power,fame,affluence,lust,workaholism,and so on. *the grass is always greener* is an illusion that seems to happen over and over, no matter how many times we discover it just isn't so.
In my psychology classes i took in college , one of the first dynamics we learned was about attitude. There is what happens to us and then what we think/feel about what happened to us. The second often is truly more important than the first. How we percieve the impact of events upon us affects our actions far more than the actual occurrence of things in themselves. Adam and Eve had the perfect idyllic environment to live in as well as a perfect realtionship with God. They chose to violate that perfection in hopes of something better..... following an illusion a lie. I slap myself mentally so often because i find myself chasing mirages just the same way as they did. Why??? I scan across the blogosphere and see how often we as a collective whole are constantly berating ourselves for again chasing after things other than God. Why?? I am being rhetorical in the asking of why here. There are times when God and His love , grace , peace and majesty are just so prevalent and geuine to us we just bow and repent seeking to worship Him in total praise and gratitude. All to quickly though, we find ourselves seeking pleasure relief satisfaction or release in a variety of other ways. What is it that lurks so deeply inside and can cause us to lose sight in such a short time span of the awesomness of belonging to and enjoying relationship with our Creator Awesome Holy God????

Sin...... self-centered.... i want what i want when i want it and i want it right now!!!! I me myself and I..... ego self and all the other synonyms you care to use for it. We want to be god..... we want to call our own shots releive our pain make things run according to our desires and whimsy. I have just finished leading a Sunday school class on Galatians in my church. Onr of the key teachings made by Paul in the letter is that we are to be crucified with Christ. Dead to the world and the world dead to us. Yes, amen of course we all want that. Really????? pain, excruciating pain, selfless, seeking always Gods interests and those of others. Giving up our personal set of *rights* and not caring whether we recieve attention or acclaim at all. Living life totally focused on Gods will and His desires, seeing everthing and everyone as he does. I write these thoughts and just shiver inside seeing how far from living this out i am, and how I so quickly run from carrying it out. wanting some kind of shortcut some easier way. I am compelled by His Word however. To want to seek to willingly accept what He calls me to. To enter into His pain and realize he will be there always no matter how much satan or my flesh try to tell me otherwise.

God is love..... God is good...... God wants all of us to know to the very marrow of our bones just how intensely He loves us, to reflect on the price he paid to show us how much He loves us. I pray i will pursue these calls to surrender to Him more and more with a heart that wants to thirst and hunger for God till i am satisfied by nothing else but Him.

4 Comments:

At 9:28 PM, Blogger Holly said...

Great post Robert! Today's subject in church was "God is Love". How true it is, your post. I find myself fixated on things throughout the day, when I really should be in prayer with the Lord.

Just an overall great post, I can relate to many of your points!

Thanks for visiting my blog also. My name refers to the car! ;) Although I do like horses too..

 
At 7:31 AM, Blogger Nikita said...

Robert

I just found a comment you left on my blog referring to a poem I wrote - I just wanted to drop by and commend your blog, whilst thanking you for taking the time to read my rubbish.

Niki

 
At 12:59 PM, Blogger Gigi said...

excellent post

 
At 3:10 PM, Blogger Lynn said...

Wow....good stuff. Thanks for your comment. And yes, my ankle is much better. And yes, my daughters did inherit my sense of humor. Good or bad, they did!

 

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