Saturday, February 26, 2011

Believing in Fairytales

One can only imagine the kind of responses one gets as an adult that believes in fairytales.  We are a dying breed.  I am not received well by others when they find out I have never denied the existence of Santa Clause.  I don't see why I should when there is no proof he doesn't exist.  I believe the burden of proof is on them, as they try to prove a negative.  Good luck. 

It's ironic to me that adults, who are consumed with discussions of freedom during these colossal upheavals in the Middle East, are actually in an extreme bondage.  There is a major lack of freedom in our world and it is the freedom to believe in something.  The irony is that one must not believe in anything, because to believe in something is to exclude something else, and excluding is considered hate crime in Today's public mind.  To think and reason is fine, as long as one does not draw a conclusion.  What a hopeless state to never be allowed to come to the end of a journey of discovery.  One can believe in reason itself, but one cannot actually have an outcome.  And Heaven help the one that comes to an outcome that isn't logical to the world around us.  Which is what Tabitha and I have done.  We have come to believe that the world we see is less and less real than what the world tried to get us to believe. 

I remember once as a kid someone showed me a hologram toy.  Put a penny in a slot and it would appear in the middle of a bowl.  Grab for the penny in the bowl and it wasn't there.  I believe that sums up how people try to grasp at the things of this world.  Tabitha and I are foolish enough to believe in another world, another reality.  We even dare say this reality is merely a hologram of the real, and we desire to find the real which God has hidden for us (Prov 25:2). 

We are finding more and more the truth of reality.  That Jesus Himself is the substance (Colossians 1:17) of Heaven and Heaven is what we desire.  At some point as Christians, we must say that scripture is the defining point of our thought/belief process.  The inspired, with out error word of God is either correct or wrong.  CS Lewis once said that we truly know what we believe when the belief becomes an issue of life or death.  Or G.K. Chesterton commented on people's habit of making absolutes out of correlations by saing we don't count on it as much as bet on it.  We have seen so often that first one must do this before this can happen, drawing a direct link, and do admit in reality there is no solid connection, merely a correlation.  We are on a search to discover what our hearts know to be true, that God is the only real thing.

Scripture says this in lots of ways.  Mathew 6:33," Seek first the Kingdom of God...".  We all love that verse, but rarely practice it as an absolute.  Just a few verses earlier, Jesus warns to build up our stores in Heaven where moth, rust, and thieves cannot touch them.  Hebrews describes the physical Tabernacle as only a shadow of what was real.  It was something that could be touched and experienced, but it was far from the real thing.  The Song of Solomon tells us that when the day comes the shadows will flee.  Tabitha and are doing our best, Holy Spirit in us is doing most of the work, to recognize the real, so that when the day comes, what we have devoted ourselves to won't be merely a shadow that disappears when the light of day comes, but something of substance that will be revealed in dimensions and beauty that we could never have guessed at.  So we believe more in what we can't see, as if NOT seeing it is better proof that it is real than the circumstances we are physically living out.  After all, faith is the substance of things hoped for and not seen.  The reality of all these things are found in Christ (Col 2:17). 

It may seem like we have begun some sort of risky venture, but it's not actually risky to us.  "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot.  The job, the apartment, and other tangibles, weren't actually real.  They were merely holograms of the deeper truth; God is provision.  We are so grateful that so many of you are traveling with us deeper into this Kingdom.  This fairytale where it doesn't matter how many dragons there are, the Prince will always slay them in the end.  Where maid doesn't remain in bondage to familial or societal tradition, and will one day become the Bride.  Where the poor will eventually inherit the Kingdom when the King arrives and sits upon the Throne.  We're so grateful that you believe in fairytales with us and we hope you will continue reading about ours. 

2 comments:

  1. Very well put. Francie and I embarked on our "fairytale" in July of '07. In general, people that we were once close to never verbalized their disapproval, but over time their silence spoke volumes. We too realized that there had to be more to Christianity than we, and our peers, were experiencing. Jesus didn't condition his whole being into obedience to The Father to present himself as a sinless sacrifice just so we could assemble on Sunday mornings in comfort. Stand firm on His promises.Welcome to the Carolinas. I stand with you in friendship.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "The mind is truly renewed when the impossible will look logical." from Bil Johnson's "Dreaming With God Book." I am still so very grateful that you gifted that book to me! Keep on dreaming you two!

    ReplyDelete