Know Your Terrain

We’ve been using the metaphor of an expedition in considering our walk with God. We’re explorers who have been challenged to investigate unfamiliar territory that has been opened up for us through the death and resurrection of the Christ. When considering the nature of this territory the prospects are both exhilarating and daunting at the same time. It amounts to getting to know our creator God whose reality encompasses all that exists. The notion that we can know Him personally and learn to walk in His ways is a difficult concept to get our minds around. However, that is what the Christian life is all about.

How this relationship develops will be different for different people. The beginning of course is the common denominator. Recognition and repentance of our sin and affirmation of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the common starting point; but just as a good father recognizes that his children are not all the same, so too the Father of us all sees us individually and not simply as part of a congregation. We bring different gifts and capacities into the mix. Some are part of who we are from the beginning, before we embrace the Gospel. Others are bestowed on us as part of what the Bible calls the “equipping of the saints for the work of service.” (Ephesians 4:11-13, Romans 12:4-8)

Regardless of who we are, and what distinctions we obtain, the Lord calls us to engage Him on a personal and intimate level. Our progress in the faith is a journey to know the Lord and engage Him in all that we do, both within the Church and in our navigation of the world. It’s up to each one of us to pursue Him diligently and take responsibility for our walk with Him.

This brings us to a consideration of the surroundings in which we engage our Father’s calling on our lives. We have been raised in a particular environment. Our church has been established in that environment as well. It’s an environment that shares some common features with other countries, as well as some features that are uniquely American. We’ve been taught to understand ourselves and our world through our engagement with our surroundings: our family, our school, television, the internet, our church.

These days there are certain common ideas that are shared by most people throughout the world. The value of family, the power of science and technology, the need for order in society; these are ideas that are shared across borders. How these ideas are embraced and applied can differ greatly but there is a commonality at the root. And because ideas like these are so fundamental we may not realize how they affect our thinking. We understand ourselves and our world in terms of the categories of thought that pervade our surrounding culture.

People use the phrase, “thinking outside the box.” One way of applying this principle is to assess a situation without being overly influenced be the current narrative on the subject. This isn’t easy given the amount of interaction that goes on with social media. Some ideas defy reevaluation because they’re affirmed by so many people. The term “everybody knows” provides the basis for believability. It’s uncomfortable to take a position that is in opposition to something that “everybody knows.” Some things are so commonly accepted that they aren’t even assessed by public opinion. They’re a given. Like the law of gravity, everybody knows that what goes up must come down, so why argue the point. However it’s also understood by many (most) that the power of gravity is not exhibited everywhere; and it’s fascinating when that can be displayed; like when astronauts are televised on the space station and demonstrate the effects of zero gravity as part of their presentation.

What am I getting at? The world is informed by all kinds of ideas. Some ideas are held by everyone, everywhere. Some ideas are affirmed by majority opinion. Some ideas are affirmed by commonly held traditions. For those of us who want to explore the Kingdom, investigating the revelation that is the Gospel and to press in to know the Lord in a personal and intimate way, we need to be aware of the power of commonly held ideas, and to be willing to evaluate them in a new light. That’s because the Kingdom is a different realm, a realm where God presides. It’s a realm that will ultimately replace the current reality of our existence, but one that we can begin to experience now.

This notion is presented in scripture in various ways. When Jesus performed miraculous actions of healing and deliverance He would point out that these were actions that presented the coming of the Kingdom of God. And He also challenged people to seek this realm and to find their way into it. At the same time there is an anticipation of a full realization of this Kingdom when the Christ reappears. To better understand this take a look at Luke’s gospel starting at Chapter 8 and take note of how many times the Kingdom of God is mentioned.

Commonly held ideas about our world and its inhabitants do not reflect the existence of this realm. And our effort to understand and embrace this truth will often be hindered by those ideas without our realizing it. That’s why we need to evaluate our circumstances carefully. We need to compare what we’re being told, what is being assumed, by the world, with what the Bible is saying and determine whether it conflicts with scripture. Doing this can be uncomfortable; it can also be difficult to perceive. We’re so used to some ideas that we don’t even notice them or realize how they’re affecting us. If you grew up in a town where all the horses were black and everyone told you that horses only come in one color, you wouldn’t know that some horses are white, or brown. If someone came to town and told you that horses were white where they come from would you believe it? Even if you did believe it would you be willing to tell other people what you’d been told?

The Gospel presents some ideas that are pretty far-fetched to an unbelieving world. What’s more, the world has taught us to understand things in a certain way even if we’re not aware of it. Some commonly held ideas are so fundamental that we can’t even conceive of thinking in any other way. And to the extent that they inform our understanding of the Gospel, they may work to distort this good news. The lyrics of a song I know demonstrate this point. The phrase that was used stated: “when the lie’s so big it doesn’t make any noise.” It’s possible, even probable, that everybody can be wrong about something. And isn’t that essentially what the Gospel is saying. We are not naturally occurring beings; the world is not simply the product of a series of physical processes. Rather there is a self-conscious reality who is the inaugurator of all that exists. What it means to be human has to do with our association with and reflection of the One who is the source of all that exists.

How this plays out in everyday life is the question being raised here. Believers affirm the reality of God in the abstract but the challenge being presented here is to let that truth inform every aspect of our lives. Is human existence supernatural in its origins and in its progress from day to day? Is the human condition the result of our environment and our ongoing interaction, or the lack thereof, with holy God? Is our relationship with God pivotal in all that we’re about and are we on guard against the undue influence of the world to deceive and distract?

The challenge here is to watch what we’re doing and seek the Kingdom.