FOOL'S WISDOM, SIMPLE TRUTH, HUMBLE OBEDIENCE

There seems to be a repetitive pattern in human beings.  Since the beginning of time we have taken something that was a gift from God, broken it because we didn’t follow the instructions, and then try and fix it by building it again, with new labels, new forms, new structures, and new ways of doing things; our ways.  We drink from the incredibly beautiful fountain and then build our own cisterns; cisterns that always break and never hold water.  We take the simple gift and complicate it until it is no longer usable; and then blame it on God, deeming Him unworthy of our time and attention and certainly not relevant in our sophisticated world.

I enjoy studying all these new thoughts and ideas, but soon find that they aren’t new at all; just recycled from the waste of old thoughts and ideas.  “There is nothing new under the sun.”  I appreciate all the people who devote their time and energy to coming up with new ideas, new ways of doing things, and new paradigms.  But I don’t entrust my spiritual life to them.  “The best of men are merely men at best.”  It is the Holy Spirit that has the responsibility of teaching the Truth.  The Spirit within and the Spirit without must be in agreement; then there can be an absolute Truth that can be trusted and believed in and that can be seen and heard by those who call themselves the children of God.

Every human being is created in God’s image and likeness but not every human being has the Holy Spirit of God dwelling within.  We, as children, must receive the One that God sent and believe in his name; we must be born again, not of blood or of the will of the flesh, but of God.  THEN we will have the eyes to see the kingdom of God that Jesus reveals and THEN we will have the ears to hear the kingdom of God that Jesus teaches.  It is not finding the proper Practice or formula, or designing the right form or structure.  It is receiving His life that is the True light, which enlightens every human being; an enlightenment that doesn’t take us to a higher consciousness but makes us conscious of our nakedness and our absolute need for God.

I get intimidated very quickly and easily by scholarly, theological, and philosophical theories that develop new ways of seeing God and new things the church needs to do.  But then I realize once again that I’ve seen and heard these theories before; time and time again through out the ages; the repetitive pattern of humans trying to improve God and His ways to make them relevant and more like their ways. God didn’t use the worldly wise, great thinkers or philosophers in any age.  He sees no need to change His pattern.  He chose the foolish, the lowly, those not full of themselves and their great ideas; he chose the empty, needy, and humble to reveal Himself to and through.

“For consider your calling: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.  But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world,  so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (I Corinthians 1:26-29).

I think we need to stop our planning, our finding something new and improved, our way of twisting and turning God so He is relevant to our ways.

We need to stop, look, and listen to the heroes of old who simply heard God, listened to God, and obeyed God.  Fool’s wisdom, simple Truth, and humble obedience…there is a pattern I would, and do, build my life on.