The road never ends. Rather than allow that to frustrate us, it should prod us to begin all the sooner, with more vigor. The greatest difficulty is choosing the most direct route toward Light. Perhaps we should start with discerning where we are.
The Bible defines holiness as desire, not accomplishment. Recognizing that alone marks our place as far, far away. We live in a world where all that matters is concrete, things which can be measured, defined, cited as a known landmark. The very framework of our mind demands discrete objects, precise concepts with clearly defined borders. It's not simply how we have been shaped by our experiences with reality, but a concerted effort by those around us to place a higher value on things which are distinct and precise. The sum of a man's life is what can be measured in this world, but Scripture says otherwise.
This puts the fundamental nature of our minds at odds with the Word of God. The very pattern of our thoughts operate in defiance of God's revelation. To read it from this lifelong conditioning process means we will not avoid twisting the very most important elements of God's message to us. Even this discussion will raise questions in most minds, for we demand proof on this concrete level, when such is not the way of the Spirit. If proof were the way of God, then Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead in the presence of members of the Sanhedrin would have ended their persecution of Him. Rather, everyone who embraced Jesus as Lord did so on the basis of a move of the Spirit, bringing life to their spirits.
Jesus Himself explained this when some of those following Him around choked on His claim He was from Heaven, the Son of God:
Many of those following Him responded to this, saying, "This is a hard to swallow. How can we accept it?" Jesus knew in His spirit they were complaining about His teaching. He asked them, "Is this too much for you? What if I were to prove it by letting you watch me go back up to Heaven whence I came? This is a matter of the Spirit, Who brings life to dead spirits. Mere human intellect cannot handle eternal matters. My words are spiritual in nature, and bring eternal life. But some of you can't get it." (John 6:60-64, paraphrased)
Even in His day, people relied so much on concrete logical proof, they struggled to deal with spiritual revelation. The Jewish people had long since drifted from their old Hebrew ways of thinking, from the assumptions so common during Abraham's time. How much more we who live now in a world even more removed from the ancient culture from which the Bible arose?
Technology and science answer very well questions about how things work here in this world. We can measure and define just about anything we can touch, and a vast array of things we can only dream. We already reach into the heavens, yet cannot reach into Heaven. We cannot explain in clinical or technological terms the nature of things which cannot be directly observed, or for which theory has no framework for observing. There is nothing wrong with probing God's created universe, but it is impossible to use such probing as the means to understanding what He demands we do with this universe, and our selves.
Having received from Him the awakening of our spirits, we dismiss all the rest of His abundant grace gifts if we remain confined to what our intellectual minds can understand.
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By Ed Hurst
18 February 2009
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