You Are the Fire of God

     There always seems to be an unstated question (or often actually stated) in regards to reading the Bible, especially the Old Testament, and looking at the world today.  This question is, why doesn't God bring down a pillar of fire for all to see like He did for Elijah?  Why doesn't God send plagues of grand proportion to nations that displease Him as He did with Egypt?  Why does God not act in such visible ways as to inspire His followers into acts of admirable courage and devotion?  

The Way it Used to Be

     There is a bit of mistake in thinking that God acted constantly and always visibly "back then."  In fact, most of the big miracles God performs are separated by hundreds of years.  A worldwide flood, splitting rivers, and fire falling from heaven did not all happen within the lifetime of a single man.  The Israelites sometimes passed through several generations before another big miracle happened.  Just as we sometimes feel alone and abandoned by God today, so often did the Israelites--and often they were in much more dire situations.  The fact is that often enough people were able to reason in their own minds His absence from or His ambivalence towards the world.  They too did not always recognize the actions of God in the world.

Is God Really Working?

     The reason we often do not see the work of God as plain and obvious is because we look for that fire in the sky.  However, in searching for these signs, we will always be disappointed.  It seems that instead God prefers to work through people.  Instead of sending down a bolt of lightning to scare someone into belief, He sends a person to communicate with another.  He sets people in our path that we have the opportunity to aid or to learn from.  He sends people to give us hope and He sends them to give us direction.  God loves more than anything to work through us to accomplish His will.  He sends us to be His hands and feet in the world.  Not because He is incapable of acting (He could easily accomplish what He wanted to Himself, like when He struck down more enemies in a battle than the Israelites did ... using hailstones) but because He loves to work though us.  We are the fire that God sends to the earth--the fire that compels others to believe in Him and serve Him.  

Being the Fire

     So what does this mean?  This means we work to be the salt and light of the world.  Interact with others.  Help where you can and learn where you can't.  Don't be so set in your ways as to ignore wisdom when it is set before you.  Pray.  Read the Word daily.  Be a follower of Christ.  Christ lit the world on fire with His actions.  We should aim to do the same.

Make of "The Man"

     As I missed my last two posting dates (I was out of town, apologies), I figured I might pick up with the same theme of "The Man" for this post.  I believe this will be my last blog on this topic.  For now at least.

     

Watson - "People don't have arch-enemies."

Sherlock - "What?"

W - "In real life.  People don't have arch-enemies."

S - "That sounds a bit dull.  So what do people have in their real lives?"

W - "Friends, people they like, people they don't like, boyfriends, girlfriends ..."

 S - "Like I said, dull."

     I wanted to start with this bit of conversation from the BBC show Sherlock (which I highly recommend if you have not seen it yet).  This quote relates a lot to our topic of today.  Now, I would have to place myself somewhat in disagreement with Dr. Watson in his claim, but I will explain later that I also agree with him in a manner. 

An Enemy to Oppose

     In life, we all strive to find meaning.  Some people find meaning in their work, some in their faith, some in adventure, some in their relationships, and there are a million other ways that people find meaning.  The most simple way of finding meaning in one's life, however, is in adversity.  

     Just think: how easy is it to be the defender of something you love?  How quickly do you jump to the defense of those things you invest your time into at the slightest inkling of attack?  To be the defender of a cause makes one important, if only in their mind.  The cause might seem menial and worthless to one but to another it is a cause to die for.  Those that rush to the defense of a cause often make a caricature of their enemy.  They become twisted picture of all the things that are evil in the world.  Sometimes they are a single person or, more often, they take the shape of an organization or group.  

     Some go as far as to take it personally.  This self-made antagonist to their life story exists for the destruction of them, the hero of the tale.  And like Don Quixote they sally forth from their home to engage in mortal combat against an enemy like whom the world has never known.  In finding a cause to defend, people find an enemy to oppose and a meaning to their brief existence.

An Imaginary Mantle

     How often are specific people displayed under a single light in the world of the media?  Almost always a single source will apply a few strong traits to the characters they display for the simplicity of their information.  In a similar way, we tend to only apply a few traits to those that we have little access to.  For example, an increasing number of people apply simply "dumb" to their image of President Obama.  Now, these traits we apply to people may be true or not (as it is in this case - few dullards make it far in the realm of politics).  It seems somewhat ironic, though, that often people will characterize their personal arch-nemesis as lesser than themselves though they will ultimately fail their quest as it was impossible from the start.  The Obama that most criticize holds no position in reality.  He simply does not exist.  And thus we find most people living their lives fighting phantoms.  They swing their swords at enemies that exist only in their mind while others look on like they are crazy or foolish.  As we discussed in my previous blog, those that we place as our enemies rarely deserve the hatred directed towards them.

     And here I want to leave you to question those empty causes you might champion.  While it is healthy and good to have those things that you enjoy and stand up for, do not do so at the cost of another.  This is the problem that we face in the US: we stand ready to die for every last menial cause while those causes that matter find themselves without the necessary defenders.  Go and find meaning in your life, but make that meaning have meaning.

Morality of "The Man"

     In continuing with our theme of "The Man" this week, I want to look at "The Man" and his status as an evil figure in one's life.  Let us first look at some common (and popular) manifestations of "The Man:"

 - The government is definitely one of them today.  As an entity that has so much influence over the lives of so many individuals, it is bound to viewed in an unfavorable light by at least a few.  Often this "Man" gets people down by taxing the people, outlawing different things or activities, and exerting its power.

 - Corporations get a big hit on being "The Man" as anyone who has attained such wealth and power privately is bound to gain the ire of more than a few individuals, even those with the morality of saints.  Corporations get people down by "stealing" peoples' money, bullying other businesses, and corrupting the government.

 - I feel the police have a special place in being "The Man" even beyond their government position, because they so often are the face of the government to the people.

 - Your boss likely is a version of "The Man" in your own life.

 - Teachers are "The Man" in the lives of kids.

The list could go on and on, because it is inhabited by anyone who might hold a position of authority over someone else.  

     Now look at the practices of these groups that earn them the disfavor of those under them.  As we discussed in my last blog, the source of this comes from the desire of the individual to have control over their own fate.  The instant someone steps in and says, "you can't do that," suddenly that action becomes a whole lot more important to that individual.  I wonder how important marijuana might be had it never been controlled.  I wonder how big a part of life drinking might be to teens were there no legal limit to the drinking age.  People so often flock to those things that they cannot do they forget the long list of comforts they are afforded by the absence of those few.  "The Man" is the one who says, "no."

     Now, there are a variety of reasons this particular individual in power chooses to exercise power over another.  Maybe they are really evil tyrants out to ruin the days of all they hold authority over.  Maybe they do have some selfish motivation to hold another down for their own advancement.  But maybe they also have a good set of reasons for their actions.  Maybe they even have that denied individual's best interests in mind.  

      I don't want to say that all those in power are benevolent.  But I do want to point out that they, like you, are fallible humans.  They are not villains like those in cartoons out to ruin the day of another for no other reason than the please of it.  "The Man" might be a man or a woman who has a lot of legitimate concerns regarding the position they hold and the responsibilities they bear.  Do you ever stop to consider your own place as "The Man" in the life of another?

     The purpose of this blog was to get you thinking about who those individuals are in our lives that we do not give a fair amount of humanity to.  We all like to place an arch-nemesis in our lives to give purpose to our actions and to add motivation to our roles, but this isn't fair to do.  We could be missing out on a tremendous amount of growth.  We could be missing out on great opportunities.  We might even be missing out on a great friendship.