Danger!

            “Dominion and awe belong to God; he establishes order in the heights of heaven. (Job 25:2)

Praise the Lord, all his works everywhere in his dominion. Praise the Lord, my soul. (Psalm 103:22)

He who is absolute in dominion; the mots pure, the most simple, the most spiritual of all essences; infinitely benevolent, beneficent, true and holy…

One of the questions asked in Life Without Lack is how many kingdoms there are in the world. The answer is that there are just a few short of 8 billion kingdoms. Most of them are tiny, consisting of one person as a citizen/monarch, and a few “migrant” workers – kings and queens of other kingdoms - who float from one kingdom to another, performing tasks like selling a loaf of bread, holding the door open, or taking their turn at a four-way-stop. Many may be in a constant state of war with others or with themselves. Sometimes, alliances are forges, and often, their treaties with one another are broken.

And that’s the problem. Sometimes our spheres of sovereignty are malleable. They flow through, over, and around the next person’s sphere without damaging or being damaged. Other times, they crash into one another, the immovable object meeting the irresistible force, or a soap bubble popping against the point of a pin.

And this is the problem when our kingdoms encounter God’s dominion as well. The only real hope we have for co-existence is to make a treaty with God that places our kingdoms under His authority. Even once we have done that, there will be times when our soap bubbles will burst, or we will find ourselves stymied. This is the problem. We don’t want to submit. We want to be submitted to, and that’s not how God works. Therefore, that’s not how the universe works. 

God’s in charge. He has dominion. Trying to reject or deny that is rather like a gnat going to war against a hurricane. It brings to mind a time when I walked past a salamander. It did it’s thrashing routine that is supposed to tell those who see it that it is a mighty Salt-water Croc. My thought was, “Oh really? How cute.”

And yet, when it comes to my dominion, all too often, I thrash like the salamander. Why? Because I want to be in charge. But even if I can set that aside, I thrash because I don’t believe that the big thing I’m trying to convince I’m important and dangerous actually cares about me. I don’t believe in God’s benevolence or beneficence. Oh, I may say I do, but I tend to have the same reaction no matter what authority figure comes along. Their approach sets off my Robby the Robot – “Danger! Danger Will Robinson.”

That’s OK. We should approach God with respect and proper fear. We should acknowledge His approach to us with respect and fear. The real issue is not whether we should feel fear, but whether our response to that fear should be courage and love, or cowardice, antagonism and hatred. We have to decide every time until we have build the habit, and then we have to decide about half the time.