A woman once asked Samuel Taylor Coleridge if he believed in ghosts. Then he answered, “With truth and simplicity, no madam, I have seen far too many myself.” What wise words these aren’t! In a certain sense you don’t have to believe in something once you’ve seen or experienced it. Then what you saw is a normal part of your reality. Just ask Thomas there in John 20. He doesn’t want to believe in Jesus before he’s seen or experienced Him for himself. When exactly that happens a few days later, a gripping confession leaves the lips of Thomas when he calls out at the feet of Jesus: “My Lord and my God!” Fear and uncertainty suddenly flees from Thomas’ life. Faith takes on a new meaning to him. Then it’s not merely to believe in someone else’s version of Jesus, but to experience Him firsthand. Such faith is the only lasting faith. Then all ghosts of artificiality and deadness disappear like mist before the morning sun. To believe is to see the Unseen!
To be wrong
The playwright Molière (1622-1673) said somewhere: “It infuriates me to be wrong when I know I’m right.” Let’s be honest — we don’t like being wrong. It often feels like our very identity comes into jeopardy when we’re wrong. We also like proving others wrong. The “highlight” of being right is precisely when we can utter those eloquent words: “I told you so…!” Then we won six-love. The other person or group is then thoroughly taken out. Yet, there is a high price to be paid for this type of “being right.” It breeds arrogance. It also destroys healthy relationships.
Cogito ergo sum – but we remain broken people
Many people consider the words of René Descartes: “I think therefore I am” (cogito ergo sum) as the foundation of humanity. Centuries before him, Augustine of Hippo said: “I am mistaken therefore I am” (fallor ergo sum). I wonder if today’s technologically driven people will say something like “I have a digital gadget therefore I am” (gadgetorius ergo sum). In any case, we remain broken people — with our thoughts and all. Still all of us following Jesus are under life-long reconstruction by the Holy Spirit. He stays busy with us until we blow the last breath from our lungs, only to then carry us over to our eternal home with God.
When others feel safe with you
A European pastor and friend told me about an atheist who is part of their congregation there in the Netherlands. When he asked this man why he attends their church, he answered: “You have become my friends.” Beautiful, isn’t it? There where the gospel really works as it should people easily climb over their self-made fences to others. There reconciliation isn’t merely a nice sounding church term. There it’s translated correctly and expressed in caring relationships.
Food for the long journey
The Czech philosopher, Vitezslav Gardavsky tells in his book God is not yet dead, the biggest threat that stares humanity in the face is that many people die long before they blow out their last breath. He speaks about a “premature death”, the death that happens inside your soul. A large crisis of some sort destroys the exuberance of some people. After that they are living dead. They just stumble from one dull day to the next.
Small enough
In a biography, it is told that Franklin Roosevelt sometimes watched the night sky with a scientist named William Beebe. After Beebe explained certain galaxies to to him, Roosevelt normally remarked that he was small enough to go to bed. No one is really big, not even the biggest leaders. That’s why the psalmist warns us not to place all our hope on kings and rulers. No politician, business leader or artist is big enough that their star won’t wane eventually.
God alone is the One who is big now, later and eternally. Only when we grow small enough in ourselves to spend a lifetime bowing down before Him, can we grasp something of his glory and grace. Then we become satisfied. Then we are, like David says in Psalm 131, like small children who found rest in our mother’s lap. The life-long art of faith is to grow backward — smaller! Retreating forward. Smaller to be bigger! Less to become more. Last to be first. That is the new route of Jesus like He explains in Mark 10:42-45.
Tennis and integrity
The well-known tennis player, Arthur Ashe, play a tough match in the 1970’s against an insulting opponent. After two hours of verbal abuse, Ashe suddenly walked off the court. When the chair umpire warned him that he would forfeit and lose the match if he does, Ashe answered: “I’m close to losing my temper. I’d rather forfeit the match than my dignity.” The next day the officials did award him the match. When I read this story somewhere, Ashe’s integrity grabbed me. Instead of falling to the same level as his opponent, he chose to sacrifice the match.
It is no joke to turn the other cheek, as Jesus teaches us in Matthew 5. You pay a high price to walk away when you know you are right. Still, this route of self-sacrifice is the route that glorifies Christ, It costs courage of faith to be quiet when others are wrong and you are right. But when you have made the commitment in your head and heart that the Lord is the most important Person in the universe and in your life, then his approval counts for infinitely more than that of people.
Longing
Psalm 42 tells in imaginative language of a deer in the desert desperately longing for water. The psalm writer says that he’s also thirsting for God in the same way. Everything in him calls out to God. He wants to be in the house of God, there where he will be safe and sheltered. He wants to experience God’s approving gaze every day. He wants to constantly experience the comforting presence of the Lord.
Do you also know this deep longing for the Lord? Do you know the persistent craving for God’s holy presence? If you know what I am talking about, then you will in the same breath also know that this yearning quest just never ends. Lifelong, day after day, you long for God’s special closeness. Continually you wait for him. No, you don’t necessarily wait for answers to your prayers. You aren’t waiting like someone in a queue to get something. Or to receive service from someone behind a counter. The right type of waiting, according to Psalm 130 and Psalm 131, is to wait all your life for the Lord Himself. Locked away in this waiting are deep encounters with the triune God!
Offended!
Well-known physician and author, Ben Carson, says that some people choose to feel constantly offended and disadvantaged. In every audience, family, workplace or church you will find such offended ones. They are always “deeply hurt” or “deeply worried.” They are the ones who walk out when the pastor is too innovative and renewing. They are the ones who will bad-mouth people behind their backs and write protesting letters about everything that is wrong with the country, the school and the church. They are better informed about what is wrong with the world, than about what is right with God and his people!
Balanced people spend too much energy on these human wells of objection. It doesn’t help. Recognize early those who have adopted protest as a full-time career. Stop trying to keep them happy. You won’t succeed in this. Rather fill your life with the Lord’s joy and share it with those who are open, receptive and teachable. Always sow good seed in fertile ground. Oh yes, and use Proverbs 26:4-5 as a guideline when the offended ones close in on you again. Determine when to answer them and when not to. Sometimes you will waste good breath on them, but at other times they might need to hear about their own foolishness.
From the heart
John Woolman (1720-1772), a tailor, single-handedly caused the downfall of slavery in American Quaker communities, many years before the American Revolution. He achieved this by talking against slavery wherever he went. This man of God’s quiet yet strong presence became known everywhere. He was convinced that God could not stand discrimination.
One day Woolman was speaking with a couple of Native Americans. There was no translator. Then one of the leaders got up and placed his hand on Woolman’s chest. “I like feeling where a persons words come from, then I can understand what they are really saying,” the leader remarked. It has always been moving to be in the presence of men and women of God that talk straight from the heart. Heart language counts infinitely more with God than dead head language. What a living blessing such people are! By the way, what does your heart language sound like? Is it soft and filled with warmth? Or do you have a hard heart? Fortunately the Spirit of God has a good chisel. He is constantly chiseling away cement layers of sin and deadness from our hearts. Just be good building material in his hands.
Echurch is an online community of followers of Jesus. But we have a large footprint offline as well. We take the charge to care for those who can't care for themselves very seriously.