Innocence

Hear my plea of innocence . . . 

 - From Psalm 17

If you're innocent, you'll know it.

That's not the same as being right, or correct. Innocent is not the same as factual. A person's status as innocent, or not, is not something that is tested and proven, scientifically.

There are things that transcend science, and fact. Innocence is one of them. Purity is another one, and it is related to innocence. Morality, also derives from the concepts of innocence and purity.

Science can "prove" a lot of things. Science can prove that innocence is highly subjective. Science, in the context of sociology, may find purity to be a changing social construct, designed by the power structure to keep masses in line. It can be proven, via a legitimate scientific process, that morality may be leveraged as a way to cause harm to people.

That is not the same as being right. Things that are factual may be held to be right. Your data may become more and more accurate. The more accurate your data, the more sound your conclusions.

Innocence is like pornography. It is hard to define it, but you know it when you see it.

Social agitation in 2020 is more linked to the idea of being right, than to being pure. Even the rioters, themselves, make no claims of being pure, or innocent. At our core, we know that morality, or purity, is too high a claim to make for ourselves.

Innocence, purity, and humility. They are above Science. Science doesn't know what to do with them.

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How is it, then, that the Psalmist maintains, throughout, that he is "innocent"? What about Job, who was steadfast in asserting his own purity before a just and powerful God?

Nobody's perfect. We all are sinners.

But in society, and in human conflict, it is possible for one to be innocent. You'll know when you're innocent. It's alright to protest against others coming at you . . . that you have done nothing wrong.

This thread runs through the entire Bible. Good people doing their best to be honorable and charitable - always, always having to defend themselves from people that don't claim to be pure, but that do claim to be right.

Look the mob in the eye . . . and see if there's a hint of compassion, purity, humility, love. When they look back into your own eyes, if they can even bear to do so, be sure that compassion, purity, humility, and love, are exactly what they see.


© 2020 Gordon Darr

Alone

Jacob was left alone . . . 

 - From Genesis 32

The most transformative events in history, that lead to the betterment of humanity, seem to happen when someone is alone; or at least, with just a few others.

When watching the nightly news, during the first part of the year, 2020, you see mobs of angry people doing what angry mobs of people do: commit random acts of violence, operate according to groupthink, moving about with the purpose of a beehave.

And yet, when a person wants to find wisdom, s/he always goes off into solitude, to a secluded place. To get to the truth, you have to get away from the crowds.

On the night when the nation of Israel was, arguably, born, Jacob sends his entire family, including his eleven sons, off ahead of him, across the river. He stays behind. He did not even keep any supplies. He wanted to be alone.

I would guess he wanted to pray. He needed time alone with God. He must have been deeply troubled, for he ended up wrestling with a strange representative of God, most of the night. The messenger had super powers, for it says that all he had to do was touch Jacob's hip, to break it.

Jacob prayed, and had an encounter with God.

Likewise, many centuries later, the Church was born. Jesus finished the Last Supper, and left His friends and followers as they slept, including the eleven faithful Apostles. He went off alone to Gethsemane. He took nothing with  Him. He wanted to be alone.

He wanted to pray, and to spend time alone with His Father. He was deeply troubled, for the prayer time was more like a struggle with God. Blood poured forth as sweat, in a look ahead to events of the next day. He prayed for super strength to last the next twenty-four hours.

Jesus prayed, and had an encounter with His Father.

As you watch invents unfold throughout the world . . . pray for the people in the mobs. Ask God to speak to each one of them. Maybe God will lead a critical mass of them away . . . where they too can pray and find wisdom . . . struggle with God and with themselves . . . and be forever changed.

Pearl

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

 - From Matthew 13

Eternal Life is the Pearl of Great Price.

Would we do anything, to live forever? Do we?

This parable of the Lord is saying, very simply, this:

If you want eternal life, you have to give up everything and follow Him. "Everything" means "everything." "Follow" means "follow." And "Him" means "Jesus."

And "Give up" means "Give up."

Who do you know like that? There was a Christian singer-songwriter, Keith Green. Except, I believe he considered himself more of a hymn rider. He wrote one of my favorite modern Christian songs (one of my favorite songs, period), Your Love Broke Through. Keith refused to receive royalties for his original songs. He said that the songs belonged to the Lord, and that he should receive no credit for them. This is in the spirit of leaving everything for Christ, He died at the age of 28 in 1982. I was just at a point of being aware of him, and becoming a fan, I was crushed at this sad news. Keith awaits the resurrection, and will be there when Christ returns.

This is the Pearl of Great Price. Imagine releasing your last breath. Instantly, life ends. But again, instantly, you wake up. It may be that very afternoon. It may be a thousand years later. But to the sleeping dead, time flashes by until Christ returns and restores life to all those waiting in their graves. Is there a flash of lightning? A great wind? Or perhaps the sound of His voice?

Either way, we wake up. And we never die again. You cannot place a price tag on this.

Jesus paid for it all by sacrificing His own life. That's what it's worth: the life of the Son of God.

Who eagerly gives up their life? My Dad welcomed death when it came. He had had a happy, full life and a rather brief fight with cancer. Quietly, in the wee hours of a March morning, he exhaled and his head turned briefly, to the side, and he was gone. But prior to all that, he had told me that he was ready.

Nobody knows, with certainly, the details of what comes next. But whatever it is, that's eternal, is worth whatever it costs.

Would you sell everything you have, and follow Jesus, for the assurance of eternal life?

Who does this?

Please visit my blog, My Prelude to 2020, here. 

Human

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view . . . 

 - From 2 Corinthians 5

"I'm only human" used to mean something. When's the last time you heard someone say that? When's the last time you heard someone respond to it with "Good point. Yeah, no worries."

When working on my MA in Educational Studies at the University of Michigan, I remember one of my peers making a statement to the class, with this preface: "I don't know how to say this the right way, so I'll have to say it the wrong way." This was a long time ago, 2006, and the rest of the cohort laughed with him in this lighthearted way to communicate a difficult concept.

What is it, to regard someone from a "human" point of view?

What does it mean to be "human," or "only human"?

When we say "only human," we're talking about being imperfect, selfish, corruptible, incomplete, mortal, anxious, fallible.

When we look at someone from a human point of view, we're projecting our own foibles upon them. We compare them to others. We compare them to ourselves. We see their faults. We consider them a threat. We begin competing with them.

We see them as poisonous. We see them as infected. We see them as contagious. We see them as people we must avoid.

We see them as wrong; The Other; hateful; greedy; materialistic; misogynistic; racist; evil.

We see them as Biden, Ocasio-Cortez, Clinton, Obama, Gates, Soros.

We see them as Cruz, Baio, Graham, Owens, Pence . . . Trump.

We see them not as God sees them.

We must not regard others through human eyes. People are human. They're fallible. They die. And we have got to love them as God does. We must replace our human filters with unconditional godly love.

Make the change today. Start to make the change. Stop regarding others through your petty, selfish, resentful, envious, biased, partisan, bitter, limited, wrong, and sinful human point of view.

Restless

Search me out, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my restless thoughts.

 - From Psalm 139

In recent times, I have reverted to younger days, childhood days, when at bedtime I needed a nightlight on, in the hallway, and the door slightly cracked. I have kept a dim light on overnight. The blinds are pulled. I close and latch the windows so that even the sweet night air, that I have always loved, does not enter my room while I am sleeping.

The slightest sound may awake me. Creaks in the house, to which I had long since become accustomed, awaken me. Before sunrise, I wake up, and begin my day. I want to be fast into my routine, while it is yet dark.

In troubled times, darkness is fearful. Evil always lurks in the shadows. Crime thrives, in the midnight hour. The world seems never to sleep, and a restless world is a dangerous world.

Our thoughts go wild. We imagine extreme cases. We prepare for the worst-case scenario and pretend it's realistic. We expect to be unprepared when violence strikes. Our worst fears will come true! We will be proven right!

But God knows every thought crossing our mind. If a computer can keep track of so much, so can God. We are able to let God inside our spirit, and our minds, to begin cleaning things up. By letting God in, we also are inviting Him to put us to the test. A cleansing always follows a period of challenge, and of agitation.

Night and Day are the same to God. Black and white. Dark and light. No difference.

Imagine living in such a realm. There are no shadows for evil to hide behind. Masks are ineffectual, for the light permeates everywhere. Thoughts are known. Secrets are no longer hid. You must act right, because you will be found out readily, if you don't.

The child, afraid of the dark, is soothed by the presence of even a little light. God removes the need for both darkness and light.

In recent weeks, my night dreads have faded away and I am getting back to normal. I am sleeping more restfully, which means I am better equipped to awaken suddenly, if necessary.

No matter what the world hands us, we should always be moving towards attitudes and behaviors that, if people didn't know any better, would be as thought it were high noon and we had nothing to fear./ Nor did we have anything to hide.

Bethel

He called that place Bethel.

 - From Genesis 28

Occasionally I will depart from my normal pattern in this blog, and not be so preachy. Today I'm struck by Jacob's experience in a dream he once had. He had placed a rock under his head, for a pillow.

Now, first, I have to comment on this thing from the Old Testament. Everybody's always using rocks for pillows, and that doesn't make any sense. Maybe they used a rock to lift their heads a little, but still covered the rock with garments, straw, or something soft, so that their head isn't resting directly on a hard rock.

Here it was, that Jacob dreamed of seeing a ladder that reached to Heaven. It's where the phrase "Jacob's ladder" comes from. He saw angels going up and down the ladder. It creates an image of God's high level of activity on earth. Angels, or messengers, are coming and going, constantly. At first, you picture it in your mind, and they seem to be processing quite orderly, staying out of each other's way. But what if it's all  chaotic? What if the angels coming and going look like a hill of ants, bumping into each other, in urgent movement?

Angels are God's messengers. Their role is to communicate with people on earth. Perhaps they are "guardian angels" but I don't know about any scriptural support for that.

Jacob comes to believe that he has found "the gateway to Heaven." He calls the place "Bethel," which I believe places it in the vicinity of Bethlehem, if not the exact some location. This makes the birthplace of Jesus at the gate to Heaven, which makes lots of sense. The symbolism of Jacob's dream, could not be more striking.

It is a major breakthrough for God's plan on earth. Humans are meant to dwell on earth. We are very "place" focused. We like owning a plot of land. In fact, control of real estate is everything . . . if you own a piece of property, you get to dictate what can and can't happen on the property. It's why out of one side of their mouths, rioters can insist their should be no borders, but out of the other, if they ever take control of property, they can't establish boundaries fast enough.

A place is now identified. The place where humanity encounters God, physically, where He abides. The place is Bethlehem. And from now on, in history, humanity will contend with itself, for control of that spot.

Sow

 . . . an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat . . . 

 - From Matthew 13

Time to eat all your words
Swallow your pride
Open your eyes

The familiar lines from the 1990 anthem by Tears for Fears, "Sowing the Seeds of Love" was a call to bring everything all together, to complete the forward social movement that had begun in the 1960s. With an upbeat tempo and smile-inducing feel, it was the perfect launch-pad to the 1990s. The decade almost closed the deal. But by the time 2000 came around, we had lost our focus and the descent into division and despair (still underway) began.

It had the wonderful imagery of "sowing seeds." I've done my share of gardening, and my favorite way to plant seed, is to sow it. In this way, you scatter it about. It requires very good, loose, healthy soil, as everything gets cast to the surface, and you need it to take root soon, without a lot of help. When you sow, it's like "casting your fate to the wind." It's a great act of faith. Your two tasks are to start a thing, and then wait.

There are two sayings: "You reap what you sow," and "He that sows to the wind will reap a whirlwind." They both are referring to The Law of Unintended Consequences. It is good to sow something like seed, which will grow into something good, like food. Sowing implies a multiplier effect. When you sow gossip, you are starting a process that will grow exponentially, as each succeeding wave of repeating the gossip gets exaggerated. If word gets around that you started the gossip, you could have very serious troubles, indeed! In fact, perhaps the most pernicious aspect of evil, is it's highly viral propensity to spread, and grow. The 2020 riots may be said to have been started by a couple people in Minneapolis, wearing goofy costumes, going around with hammers, breaking windows of retailers. Of course there were other seeds that were starting points: The George Floyd murder. The arson of a police precinct. Single, separate acts grew to a maelstrom that engulfed the continent.

But unintended consequences have come into play. Thousands of people hopped on board this movement typified by reckless, random violence. Destruction is fun, if you can get away with it. But it yields the ruining of lives of innocent people. We are, most of all, charged with making a safe world for our children and elders. But in our pursuit of social justice, we've introduced fear and dread into the lives of people that deserve to feel safe and secure. We let things get out of control. We have reaped the whirlwind.

In the parable, a reference is made to private property. Gardeners have great faith. Not only do they trust that their seed will take root, but they leave their work right out there in the open. Any passerby can step off the road, and commit damage to a field of grain, or a garden, quite easily. And the damage affects the well-being of people for months. One crop is good for one year. But a year is a long time. We plant so that we can get through the winter. Gardens are precious.

The evil person in the parable was bad enough. He just sowed some weed into the good crops. That's all. He left the good stuff alone. The rioters of 2020 did far more than that. They destroyed the good, and left bad in their wake. There's a thread in today's lesson, about leaving alone what doesn't belong to you.

There's a rippling effect. You reap what you sow. Harm someone else - count on harm coming back to you.