If we get the problem wrong, then the efforts we make to address it are efforts to address the wrong thing and the real problem will never truly be addressed.
What pride, the world, and the devil concoct brilliantly is the wrong problem. Over-emphasis on one aspect of life. Complete detours to address inconsequential things and invest heaps of time, money, and energy into the irrelevant. Yet, if it is presented in a certain way and appeals to itching ears and untamed desires, before you know it, marches through the streets of cities and protests outside institutions are arranged in the deluded hope that things will “change for the better.”
I subscribe to the view that to appreciate the good news, there must be an acknowledgement of the unwelcome news. Just as in the darkness, the light was called out, so there must be an agreement that darkness requires light to defeat it. The darkness is not really hated. Anyone who genuinely loves knows the rightful place for hate—for hatred is essential to dealing with whatever opposes love. Not tolerance, irritation, or annoyance; a legitimate response to that which opposes love is hate.
The darkness is the existence of active rebellion against God. In that darkness is the stumbling and bumbling around, making claims of right and wrong on our own and setting up systems to perpetuate that. As we do so, we give the impression we know what we are doing whilst chaos ensues, however sophisticated and respectful that chaos appears in the structures and systems of the world. That is a dark situation eagerly encouraged by the devil that stokes our pride not to acknowledge the consequences of those actions or the innate evil in the problem.
Life presents many opportunities to see that problem for what it is and as many deviations and distortions put in place to avoid recognising it for what it is. I understand that. If we acknowledge the problem for what it is, we will have to take responsibility. If we take that responsibility, we will also have to admit our preference for it rather than yield to the need for someone greater to deal with what’s happening in our minds and the world. That is a lot to take on and a lot to give up. Do we want to do that? Really?
It is remarkable how caught up in myself I can get because of pride. How insanely deluded I behave and maintain that behaviour when on a roll in my pride. It makes the grace and mercy of God something I cherish even more when I am alerted to that. What a fool I was. A total fool. To negate and neglect God in pursuit of the folly. Yet He reaches me, He opens my eyes to see the problem and gets my heart to respond with the sense of gut-wrenching remorse that not only sees the mess for what it is but also considers a sense in which I can’t fix it and my efforts to do so only make matters worse.
Thank God for that mercy and grace. Thank God for revealing the real problem and the truth of the solution available. The truth discovered day by day walking alongside the Way, the Truth and the Life who delivers me from the evil one. The truth unveiled moment by moment by the indwelling Holy Spirit that inspires the light of life in its fullness as it dispels the darkness.
Thank God that He freely offers this mercy and grace to those who wish to accept it. And He reveals this through those who yield their lives to Him to be a vessel to convey these glorious realities. My prayer at this stage of the journey is that I will be such a vessel that won’t soft-soap the nature of the problem but be overcome in delight by the God who offers the only true solution.
For His Name's Sake
C. L. J. Dryden
Shalom
