Anxiety is not only a pain which we must ask God to assuage but also a weakness we must ask him to pardon—for he’s told us to take no care for the morrow.
~C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.
~ Proverbs 18:2
When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia. But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
~ from 2 Corinthians 2
One of the deepest pains of a person dedicated to the truth is that most people are not. Even those of us truly dedicated falter and stumble into fibs and lies of our own on the way through life. It is is like the truth is some sort of commodity to be traded based on our base feelings. Though those of us adherents simply know it is not.
We make agreements with people – even put them in writing – and other people toss these agreements aside like they are just some sort of impediment to their current need or desire or convenience. And if a person who tries to hold to the truth even brings up the question, they are dismissed as some sort of graceless pharisee, and derided for their narrow-mindedness.
And even if we simply ask for some sort of re-leveling of expectations, most people will simply throw some sort of balderdash back in our face, or shift the blame onto someone who either cannot be held accountable, or who is unable to make the wrong right.
It is exhausting to live in a world where most people simply do not care about reality.
Or is it?
The problem for those of us who claim to hold to the truth, is that when we are feeling anxious and drained, that we also are abandoning the Truth in the matter. Scripture makes it abundantly clear that most people will reject the truth and freedom offered by the gospel. Even a large proportion of those saved from hell, are really never saved from themselves and will lose immense eternal inheritance and privilege in the Kingdom of Heaven. The way is very narrow.
And so, to most, the Truth is a stench. Most will be repelled by it. Most want nothing to do with it, especially if the truth has anything to do with changing our stubborn minds. This fool of a writer lives in a part of Asia where ‘face’ trumps ‘truth’ almost 100% of the time. Even among professing Christians, there is this deep perceived need to NEVER-EVER BE WRONG.
So, while this is a tragedy for most, it is exceedingly good news for the rest of us. There are a few who, by His grace, have chosen to allow the Truth to begin to work on us. And in coming to understand that the Truth does not change, we are suddenly able to exit the anxious state that most people live in.
Can we see it? People who force the truth away from themselves in any proportion, force the the One who is Truth out of their circumstances. And in forcing Truth away, they bring ever-greater weakness and confusion to their lives. Just as a magnet is made more stable when – through attraction – it joins to another magnetic body, the same is made more unstable as it springs away in repulsion.
And as someone recoils from the Truth, we have to come to realize there is nothing we can do to bring stability and agreement to the situation. The only thing that is possible is for the other to change their own mind (turn in repentance) and be drawn back into the Light and freedom of Truth.
The only thing we can (and ever should) do, is speak and live the truth in such a way that we might be unified with them – in His Truth – if the other ever choose to repent and believe. Chasing after someone who will not believe is just as goofy as using the south end of a magnet to catch the south end of another.
A while ago, in a crushing vision of what He would have me do with the rest of my life, i came through the birth canal of preparation into a mission that is simply impossible in the natural. This is the mission and calling He gave me.
