Hope knows that if great trials are avoided great deeds remain undone and the possibility of growth into greatness of soul is aborted.
~ Brennan Manning
After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, “Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses My servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
~ The ultimate Pep-Talk, in Joshua 1
Oh beloved, it is true. There is freedom, and all of us are looking for it. The problem that we have, is that we are trying to get it in the wrong place. And developments in the West tell us that things are really not going well for us.
What started out as simple politeness and manners in life has turned into something we had never expected. Instead of people working to make others comfortable (politeness), we have morphed into a culture that expects the right to not (read: ever) be offended.
Topics like bullying prevention and sensitivity have gone from reasonable (though impossible) approaches, to making nearly anything “wrong” to say. Terms like “microagression” are used to describe the behaviors of some “horrible” person who might ask you where you are from, or have the audacity to applaud at concert (and thus invoking anxiety for others).
It does get worse though.
Those who hold to such views are moving into positions of strength within the culture. And as always happens, power corrupts. Recently, a person who works at the highest levels of government in the US (the former land of free speech) called for the prosecution of anyone whose speech tipped towards hatred of a certain religious group.
However, this is nothing new. The weaker and more afraid we become, the more maniacal we become about controlling others around us. So, hopefully this is clear: the problem is not just in the realm of politics and university education.
No, the farther we get from having anything within us, the more panicked we become about keeping anything away from us that will either reveal our horrible emptiness, or to make us feel more empty than we already are.
We will, in fact, kill and steal and destroy others who even try.
Can we see it? In our emptiness, we are emulating the ancient Pharisees. And worse, those falling leaders were emulating their fallen father, the devil (cf. John 8:44-45). These empty men, with no courage or hope or real strength, sought to steal it from the innocent around them – all-the-while trying to look like they had everything together, and were in good standing with G_d.
Beloved, our culture is in crisis. But the answer does not lie in following the standard operating procedures of the evil one. No, there is no hope in trying to making other people behave in such a way that we will never be uncomfortable. This is simply the converse of trying to live a life where we please everyone. Both are impossible.
So, what to do?
Could this fool of a writer preach for a moment? When we are waiting on Him, and allowing His Spirit to fill us – out of us will flow rivers of Living Water. And in a state like this, the heart is unoffendable. We don’t even consider the idea that someone else could make our lives better – for now, in Him is our life that lives and moves and has its being.
Tonight is your night beloved. Time to get your comfort from The Comforter Himself. Fear not, He will not fail you.
