A tweet from one of my ALL TIME favorite comics:
@CalvinandHobb3s: It is man's indomitable nature to scare himself silly for no good reason! #calvinandhobbes Calvin and Hobbes
[excuse me while I go get tissue to blow my nose.]
While my mind just went to an extreme event that will likely never happen with me, I have found myself nearly incapacitated over much more possible, plausible occurrences. Like a friend dying lost and without God, or someone I love having a terminal illness, or divorce, or losing a house to the ravishes of poor finances. Life is life, and bad things happen to good people all the time. The Bible tells us that it rains on the righteous and the unrighteous. No one is exempt of sorrow and pain.
The older I get, the more knowledge I have about how quickly life can flip on you. Life can go from unicorns and rainbows, to gargoyles & rainbow-shattering thunder in a second. The more this happens, the more you witness it's reality, the more knowledge you have of it. And that knowledge can be your greatest enemy.
There are multiple reasons why Jesus requires us to be like children to enter the Kingdom of God. (Matt 18:3) One of the reasons being a lack of knowledge. A child's mind, spirit, soul, and memories are a clean slate. Parents can write whatever they want on their child's slate! A child will believe in a myth without hesitation. Their inexperience and ignorance allows them to believe ANYTHING.
I'm not proposing God prefers us ignorant. The scripture, in fact, insists we attain knowledge. But when our knowledge of the hard-knocks of life starts to be more boss than God's reality, we have a problem on our hands. Albeit, a fixable problem.
Our knowledge plays out how and why a better situation, or a higher quality life ISN'T POSSIBLE. Our knowledge shows us who is preventing our success. Our knowledge is present because before we were in this awful problem, we saw other people in this same predicament, so now we know how our circumstance will play out.
And leaning on that kind of "knowledge," my friend, is straight up IGNORANCE.
Do you know why Saul and Judus took their own lives? (1Chron10, Matt27)
Do you know why the servant of the king was trampled? (2Kings7)
Because their knowledge wouldn't let them see God's love, mercy, and grace.
You can believe there was no hope for these people if you want to. But I've seen God forgive a blasphemous Saul-Paul. I've seen God forgive a doomed Ninevah. I've seen God bless an Esau whom he hated.
The more you know about life's difficulties, the less you can think once you're in your own crisis. You must daily, sometimes many times a day, cast down imaginations, & every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. (2Cor10:5)
Your knowledge is limited to your experiences. But God's knowledge sees the end already! He is the author! He is Almighty! He knew how to get a doomed rag-tag settlement of refugees out of Egypt's bondage. A Dead Sea didn't hinder God's ability! He knew how to feed four lepers and a city. An army starving out the city couldn't hinder God's ability!
What you know about your situation is BUNK!
Yeah! I said it! BUNK!
Cast down that imagination! Cast down your uppity, high-knowledge!
What you know about your situation is NOTHING compared to what the All Knowing God knows. He can be the author and finisher of your story, but only if you'll give him the pen! Do not let your knowledge of the normal process hold the pen and rights to your story! Don't suicide your physical self, or your spiritual self over your knowledge. God is a rescuing HERO! And he delights in making YOU the hero of your story because it makes HIM look good!
Cast down your imagination and EVERY high thing that exalts itself against REALITY, which is the knowledge of God. Your imagination and knowledge is not God's reality.
You wanna KNOW something? Know that God loves you! Know that nothing is impossible with God! Know that God is not limited by one thing in your situation!
Your situation is not too much, too hard, or too trivial for God to work out. We all are prey to habits that allow logic and knowledge to be our dictator. We must initiate habits that free faith to work! So cast your imagination & lofty thoughts down, lock 'em in jail so YOU'RE the boss of faith & hope. Get in prayer to take on the mind of Christ. When you have HIS all-knowing mind engaged in your thoughts you'll see glimpses of how God is planning to wow and amaze your life!
And those glimpses of God's reality are what we call "hope." If you're having a hard time seeing hope, get with people who can see hope. Let their strength and faith partner with you, fight with you, cast down imaginations with you.
Good things are coming your way! That's what God knows!
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