Truth is not enough

As an avid reader and occasional writer, I know that words without context are incomprehensible. Words without context are the ones most often confused and misinterpreted. “Shoot them” makes one kind of sense with a doctor providing medicine shots to a group of people with the same medical need, another to an assassin being encouraged by a partner, and another by someone being told to protect innocents from a murderous attack by terrorists. There are so many contexts that will completely change the meaning and intent of that phrase.

I listen for context when people speak to me about their faith. Are they talking about the God they know personally or only know about. People who know about God can be the cruelest people because they are full of truth that has no love, compassion, and forgiveness. Justice without compassion is abusive. I’ve been hurt by persons who were wrong and others who were right. The context made all the difference with both.

One person cruelly created a disaster in my life that took years to overcome and still has an impact today. However, I later realized that he was doing the best he could with the partial information he had and was intending to help, not harm. His intention was only experienced long after the injury when I learned about what happened, why, and how. I began to heal when I was able to forgive him. My forgiveness did not make his mistake less so. It created a context within which God could work to bring restoration and redemption. The facts without forgiveness would have never made room for healing.

The Ten Commandments are the most powerful rules for teaching right from wrong. They provide a guideline for excellent laws: love God, be accountable and responsible, and care for others. They show a standard of my rights should not keep you from having your rights. Yet, without love, compassion, and forgiveness, these laws can create the worst kind of brutality when people hold others to standards that no one can keep perfectly. Knowledge without the interaction and relationship with a living God can be horrific. Only God, who is superior to His creation, is the only one who can mediate and create the correct context for truth. Men speaking for God often can not. Listen for the truth, and the context. Listen for God.

I love the story of Cinderella. She was always a wonderful person in the story, only her circumstances changed. Life was good when her dad was alive, bad when he died, and fabulous when she was discovered by the prince. You might see a parallel in a Christian’s timeline. Good while small and under someone’s protection, bad when we are on our own and our own values and strengths, and fabulous when discovered or discover, the Prince of Peace. I know it is way too general, but there can be some commonality.

I imagined a Cinderella comparison in my life. I saw the negativity in me, yet many of my former students have said nice things to me and about me, and I’ve been called a “favorite” teacher by many I’ve come across. Some have even made an extra effort to contact me through social media and other methods. So where is the real me? The guy I often see in the mirror or the teacher students generously accepted? I compare this to either a person sticking his head in a pumpkin by trying to be a good person in his own awareness and strength or the person riding in a wonderful carriage made from a pumpkin. The difference in the story is a fairy godmother. The difference in my life is Jesus. He creates the beautiful carriage I get to ride in, which is so much better than me sticking my head in a pumpkin.

Without Jesus there is no carriage or values that would create a lovable, respectable person. Love and the qualities of God (called the fruits of the Spirit in the Bible) are a manifestation of God wherever they are found, even when found among persons who reject God and intentionally fight against Him. Love can’t exist if God is not somehow present in some way.

The joy of Christianity is that Christians know who provides the true qualities of joy and beauty and can connect with the author of life. God created the pumpkin carriage through His constant work to grow me past my total commitment to selfishness. He added His generosity to show me grace when I was unable to be what He and I prefer me to be. I rode in a carriage pumpkin instead of wearing a pumpkin with my head shoved in it because God gave better than I had to offer while He was (and is) still working on my transformation to better.

The desert sands are the dry tears of the earth, the deep tears too precious to share, the pain beyond expression. Yet, there is beauty and life in that most desperate climate and ecology. The plants that grow there are all the more precious because of the rarity and hardship in their life requirement. How beautiful must be the fruit birthed in the suffering of a person that arrives in the climate of their utmost pain.

Compassion often arrives to a suffering soul through the life of one who has likewise suffered. It is the offered arm of one who, without judgment, wants to lift up and strengthen his fellow. It is the warriors bond of, “We can stand as we support each other and continue the fight.” It is a love that goes over, under, or around the walls of judgement that separates people from each other. It is the care that sacrifices itself for the genuine need of the other. It is the quality that marks the work and/or presence of God in us by not having ourselves as its center or key component. It is a beauty beyond most or all others despite its circumstance. It is the desert flower both vulnerable and enduring, strength bonded to weakness. It is the quality that the story tellers hunt for in the history of people and their survival in the tumult of life.

I would that I could be an oasis for others who travel the desert places I sometimes inhabit. I would hope to provide a drink of water during a time of their dryness and a place of shade for rest in the heat of the journey. I hope that my time in the desert would provide a respite for them as has been provided for me by those who put themselves aside for my benefit and need. The Israelites wandered in tents, from well to well or water source to water source, through the dry and sometimes harsh environments of their trail. A perfect image of our wandering process of growth development through the often inhospitable circumstances of this temporary world. Yet, like the desert, we have opportunities to see and taste the beauty of that which is to come when the deserts are no more.

All people are creatures of faith because without faith we are unable to move from where we are into any next place or idea. Faith is the belief structure upon which we rely to operate our lives and function. Our culture teaches the currently popular ideas and procedures until it changes. Culture changes by the faith of people who change it for good or bad. Where it was once normal to see a large portion of our population in slavery and treat them as subservient, now, thank heaven, it is not. People operated in the culture they knew then as we do now using the trends as the faith stepping stones to operate from here to there, even as faith pushed change in the culture. Culture is a path of belief, of knowledge-to-date, of tradition, and of current values.

There are trends within trends. Some areas of human activity are more likely to suppress religious faith and express faith in non-religious ideologies than other areas. I find it curious that the need to control, be self sufficient, and serve self-oriented values appear to be evident in the non-religious trend, while values superior to man’s needs or control appear more prevalent in the religious trend. In these things I look at general patterns instead of specifics because there always cross-overs in every trend of culture and faith structure whether in God or without God.

I wonder why anti-God would serve in some areas rather than others? People who are passionate about their wealth tend toward anti-God and more self. Yet, people who love God might well create the healthy, compassionate work places that are actually more productive and successful in producing than the wealth builders create. Reading a book on personnel management showed me that without mentioning God, studies verified that the values of God work well and better in the workplace than the common practice of criticism, and other popular misbehaviors and oppressions. Praise, appreciation, compliments, and affirmation that are critically absent in the work force, or at least in most of the jobs I’ve every worked, including thirty-three years in the public school system, are opposite to the values taught in scripture. They are also opposite to the needs of the people involved in the business, both management and employee. I wonder why the contrary patterns are chosen over the healthy and life giving ones.

A person might ask me why I believe in Jesus. One of my answers is because I continually see individuals, including and especially myself, working against or in ways contrary to their own best benefit as proof of the Bible. The Bible tells us that all men sin. I see it and believe it. It also says that all men need salvation. I also agree and see. The only one who can rescue is He who is outside the destruction or pattern of destruction. Jesus is the one.

I am a failed atheist because I began to think/realize I didn’t have sufficient faith.

I was a committed atheist for a while in my life. I was impressed with all the appearance of logic and facts. I bought the image of Christianity being like a great myth and emotional safe place for people to hide. I was even able to beat up some beginning Christians with my logic and reasoning as it was at the time, a fact that now grieves me because of the harm I caused in my arrogant ignorance.

I began to realize that atheism is its own faith. It requires a perspective that overcomes logic and fact gaps with an unwillingness to listen as well as speak. To really be logical is to hear without prejudice in an effort to examine all possibilities in their own contextual integrity. That wasn’t available in the atheist point of view or in the ability of insecure Christians. Truth must be able to stand on its own strength regardless of the people or their perspective or their need to make themselves feel good or secure. I, in my examination, have to recognize my own limitations in being part of the system of life that I’m examining. This point of humility is not common due to the creature need to assert its own value.

I spoke to an avowed atheist and asked him to explain the foundations of his faith. The more he talked, the more he evangelized me toward my own faith. I could not understand, based on his own comments, how he didn’t immediately realize that he was justifying a divine creator. The shortest, and probably inadequate, way to abbreviate his statements was to say he explained a well ordered universe, which is beautifully knit together in sustainable systems, being created as a product of complete randomness. I asked him to define random because he was obviously seeing something I didn’t. His reason for atheism requires more faith than I can muster. I was equally challenged by other reasonings and explanations he provided about science versus Christianity which I do not see as oppositional.

This brings up science. So much of atheism seems to say that science disproves Christianity. My perspective is that science proves Christianity. The only fight is the perspective of the talker. A person who does not believe sees his facts as proof God doesn’t exist. A believer easily sees science as proving God and the creation. Either way, it takes faith. The advantage I feel I have is that, as God is alive, He is able to speak for Himself and verify Himself to each new generation. The debate requires two people in the limits of their understanding to argue their perspectives with the facts they know. A living God who interacts with His creation is a verification that makes being a Christian the easier faith. I don’t have to know everything to know Him. The atheist is sort of his own god because he does not believe in another. He can only speak to himself and respond to his own thoughts. A Christian can speak in prayer to a living God and expect a response that is not of his own making.

There is so much I don’t understand and moments when understanding comes easy. Marriage is a constant education for me.

I didn’t need to understand when we became engaged and married. I knew I loved her. I believed she loved me. We had a relationship. We began our timeline of life together with more ignorance that we could imagine until later. Later, we had learned more and realized how little we knew in the beginning. Each stage of the timeline was much the same. We saw how much we didn’t know and how much we had learned, and how much was left to learn. One thing was and is consistent throughout the journey, the relationship.

Our commitment, our relationship, carries through the ups and downs, the known and unknown, the confusion and the order. It provides a strength and unity when it should not exist. It provides a bubble of hope with the simple holding of hands in times of uncertainty. It creates a stability within instability and a reference point when no map coordinates are available. There is a world in our life together that is like its own planet that has all the complexity within and without which can never completely be grasp. Yet it works. It continues. It is a seed that creates a plant that grows creating limbs that stretches itself into its environment shaping the air like a sculpture and interacts with all other life. A marriage is a created thing that becomes its own life, a living connection, that builds and grows. It is often described, yet beyond complete description. It is a miracle.

Marriage requires humility because without humility, it is impossible to love. The marriage constantly pressures the partners to put themselves aside for the other, creating a joy that defies logic to people who prefer “me first.” It is the joy you find when you are not the most important. It is the completeness you experience when you are not trying to complete yourself but someone else. It is a you first mentality that defies the common preference of humanity. It is the truth that defies common knowledge.

Marriage is also one of the most common example of the relationship that God wants with people. It is a relationship that lives among all the gaps of understanding with a kind of confidence and strength. It is a sharing and communication that can live a healthy life despite the leaks and potential wounds of broken or shattered pottery. It is a joy beyond understanding and a connection that grows and produces life through all challenges and all victories. It is an eternal miracle. It is life and life giving.

The recent deluge of storms in southeast America have had profound effects, killing far more than we would expect, destroying homes and property, and wiping out infrastructure that is creating its own injuries and harm. The focus is often on the horror and harm. Discussions revolve around the problems, possible solutions, and timelines for healing the wounds, but I wish to consider another aspect of this time.

Seemingly out of nowhere people arise to help and heal. People of every religious and non religious backgrounds are suddenly mobilized to help others. People without power and water in their own homes become part of the brigade for others in hard or harder hit areas. People who work for power companies all over the country go from working a job to a missionary zeal to rescue and rebuild. People unable to assist themselves offer what they can in money, encouragement, and prayer for those who can put hands to the task. An army arises from every corner and circumstance to create hope and help. Amazing! Stunning!

Despite this great service, the human tendency is to see it from a labeling and self serving perspective. It sees all its own kind that have risen to the challenge instead of the whole of the event. It discounts others of a different type and may even use disparaging terms and phrases like, “Good works don’t . . . ” and forget the General who called the masses to work, regardless of their background and knowledge. It is easy to forget that the Author of creation values the ones who hear the call and respond. The Creator is the head warrior against evil and destruction, and it is His values and His personhood that calls across creation to rise and follow.

We are the created. Our goal is not just to listen, but to hear, not to just look, but to see. He is the one who puts “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” in the hearts of men because it is His character. These characteristics in humanity, any humanity – regardless of the label given them – is a reflection of the Creator’s influence or presence in our world. These qualities don’t exist without Him. We have a choice to focus on the creator instead of the created, the influencer instead of the influenced. All benefits come from the love of God whether people hear or see or not. The greatest joy comes to those who engage in Him and let Him install His character within them. It is important that we express thankfulness to those who hear and respond, and go to thanksgiving and beyond to the One who inspires people to be more and better.

A teacher recently confided her awareness that students were excited by the current series of storms. They were hoping to get out of school and lit up by the excitement. The horrors and potential damage did not appear to enter their thinking. The older see the damage to home, property, life and limb. We count the cost when the young see the thrill. We older were once there and may yet have areas where thinking and emotions haven’t caught up to maturity.

Storms build maturity. They force people to face that which is beyond their control and require them to show the true quality of their hearts. Some will rise up in helpfulness, extending themselves to sometimes extravagant levels to provide hope and help to others. Some go into survival mode, working their way through the challenge, some others may actually go into victim/blame/self-pity mode making their situation tough and tougher for those around them. Each person is given a chance and choice in the challenge to see who they are, how they operate, and assess the possibility of staying the same or growing forward. Challenges are the bullies that push people off of the fence and make them commit to grow or no grow.

Challenges can be as small as a discomfort or inconvenience to as large as a violent storm or other catastrophic event. Sometimes the continuous small challenges are really preparation for the bigger challenges that always come. It is not good to put off the small challenges thinking that saving up for the big challenge is a good idea. Practice and rehearsal are always necessary for a good performance. Failure in the small can often lead to failure in the large. All challenges prepare people for the next things on their personal timelines. All can push toward positive growth as an individual, quality person. Each choice makes a difference in what comes next. Each decision creates the future that is waiting for your arrival.

Storms introduce humility. The most powerful person on planet is not in control of the planet or all the circumstances within which he/she stands. We live in the illusion of power without the substance of it. We influence, but don’t control. Weather proves human need for humility, the realization of the greater that is more than any and all of us. God is greater. Humility allows us to see Him and realize His truth for our lives. Humility makes an individual teachable and provides a conduit for personal growth, development, and relationship. God may not want the storms to hurt us, but He can certainly use the storms to grow us. He is able to turn anything, good or bad into something of great value and benefit. The storm may not be good, but God is.

Mysteries are often lying around, all over the place, waiting to be discovered and understood. Mysteries, to my mind are real and true, not inventions of human imagination. The marvelous creatures being discovered on Facebook are stories, not mysteries, unless you want to consider the story tellers motivations. I love the one of the shark leaping out of the water after the man on the helicopter ladder.

Lightening and electricity were mysteries until they came to someone’s notice and began to be revealed in understanding. I wonder how the few who realized the mystery and undertook understanding were elected for the job. Everyone was affected, but only a few saw the mystery and accepted the challenge of discovery.

Faith is like that, lying around waiting for discovery and to challenge the believer. It affects everyone, and everyone finds a way to express faith or things to believe. The questions is “why” faith: because all men worship something? because of the desire for faith to support our point of view, or because faith has discovered the greater who has the wisdom and power to correct and change – overcome the limitations of man, humanity, and world? There is always faith, even to trust that a chair won’t collapse under you. Faith is everywhere like fall leaves on the ground or spring leaves on the trees. The why is the challenge, truth of the one who creates lightening or less, the impact and control of lightening by men.

I had a student who was a professing Wiccan. I was stunned because he was such a sharpe person, so I asked him why he worshiped the creation instead of the creator. He laughed because he was doing it to aggravate someone who was an authority in his life. We prayed together to the creator. Faith can have nefarious purposes and is determined by the believer.