Seeing God, Job forgets all he wanted to say, all he thought he would say if he could but see him.
~George Macdonald (1824-1905)
… And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” … “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that He can open the scroll and its seven seals.” … And when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, … “Worthy are You to take the scroll and to open its seals, for You were slain, and by Your blood You purchased a people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands (i.e., Millions of Millions), saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” … And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To Him Who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
~ A Scene with Jesus, King of The Universe at its center, in Revelation 5
Oh beloved, it is true.
There is no doubt, the world around us right now is in upheaval. Everywhere we look, we see those who are different than us. Everything we hear, has a different sound. Nothing seems synchronized.
Our politics are beyond a mess. There is simply nobody listening to anyone right now. And, the anchor of these United States: the Constitution, is being shown in a light that twists its current meaning, and the original intent of its authors. We have, it truly appears, entered into a bit of a nightmare in our 245 year American Dream.
This fool of a writer has come from the best of what our nation has been. I can, thankfully, trace my family back to 1612. And, all along the path my ancestors walked, I find work and fruit worthy of this nation. We have been preachers, teachers, doctors, artists, attorneys, warriors, and poets. My greats were men and women who loved people and peace enough to give everything they were to the efforts that brought America through her toughest and greatest moments.
And, my oldest son (oh wow, do I LOVE this young man), recently returned from a deployment that another warrior in my family has commented as being “20 years of combat in six months.” He went, to fight for our country, and to guarantee all of us silly civilians the right to argue about who we want want in office.
But, as he returned last year, I can’t help but imagine that he returned to quite a confusing scene. The bitterness and gall of our media, and our collective reactions to each other must have been disorienting to a man who went out each day, with courageous love, and laid down his ticket to a quiet life, as he picked up his gear and loaded 15 other men and their equipment onto the CH-47s that took them places you and I (and they too) should never really, actually have to go.
Can you feel it too? Something is amiss. Something is very wrong in this world. It feels quite unsettling. 15 generations of building by my family (and very likely yours) seems to be crumbling, and morphing into something very, very other – right before our eyes.
But…
Can we see it?
Actually, the world has always been this way. Actually, most of the world has been in this state of affairs while our American Dream has been running its course. And, thankfully, that dream – brought about by the Grace that G_d has shed on it – has made the nightmare of so many other places to be just a little bit better.
But, somewhere about the mid-1800s, the ‘scholars’ and ‘politicians’ in our Western world, began to listen to the most insidious of lies. We looked at the bedrock of civilization – Transcendent Truth – and decided to try to subjugate the eternal under the illusion of control we had wrenched from the world.
We really, really did think we were smart enough to not need a god. So, we made up others. First, Darwin theorized that we could have come from the muck and mire. Then, Marx and Hitler, applied this same theory to our politics. Everything since then has become little more than an ongoing game of ‘survival of the fittest.’ So much so, that our television and games have made this motto the bedrock of our behavior.
But, quite predictably, we have ended right back where we have always ended in all of human history: miserable, fallen, alone, broken, and wondering… Wonder just Who could be able to take us out of this mess?
And for all of us. YES, ALL OF US. Especially those of us who purport to say that G_d is everything to us… It is hard to put down our efforts, and thoughts, and politics, and ideas – and humble ourselves to pray to the only One Who can get us through all of this.
However, Beloved, we have actually been given a gift in our current social milieu. We have been shown that all of our technological and military might has left us just as poor as we ever were. We have been re-introduced to the Truth that there is No One Worthy to fix all of this, in this world.
We have run out of time in this world. There is no way through without the One Who Is Mighty to Save.
No One.
So, are you feeling everything coming apart in your lives and circumstances? Good. Time is running out. Everything is changing – except the One Who does not change, and Who has always been worthy and able to bring this whole mess to a beautiful conclusion.
Tonight is your night. Abandon hope in changing the world. Look to the One Who already has everything under His Good and Loving Control: Jesus.
On Time:
Fly envious Time, till thou run out thy race,
Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours,
Whose speed is but the heavy Plummets pace;
And glut thy self with what thy womb devours,
Which is no more then what is false and vain,
And meerly mortal dross;
So little is our loss,
So little is thy gain.
For when as each thing bad thou hast entomb’d,
And last of all, thy greedy self consum’d,
Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss
With an individual kiss;
And Joy shall overtake us as a flood,
When every thing that is sincerely good
And perfectly divine,
With Truth, and Peace, and Love shall ever shine
About the supreme Throne
Of him, t’ whose happy-making sight alone,
When once our heav’nly-guided soul shall clime,
Then all this Earthy grosnes quit,
Attir’d with Stars, we shall for ever sit,
Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee O Time.
~ John Milton
