Skip to main content

Changing Course

           I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. (Job 19:25)

 

“I believed,  until… (name that catastrophe.)” But, “There are no atheists in foxholes.” We sometimes seem to think that a great crisis somehow changes our faith. But when Job lost his family, his wealth, and his health, he maintained his faith. What made him an exception? Was he an exception? 

If we go back to Newton’s Second Law, and apply it psychologically, a person’s beliefs will continue in the same direction, at the same speed, and with the same intensity until or unless acted on by a larger force. A crisis should produce such a change. The problem is that we have only considered the force that pushes us off course, or, in the case of a direct hit, breaks us into many pieces. Another force acting on us is gravity: our own internal gravity that is the soul, and the external gravity of an even greater object, like the sun or God.

Even if we are thrown off course due to a sudden or overwhelming crisis, that does not mean that once the pressure is off, that we won’t return to our old course, or one similar to it. Job had a lot of forces working on him, but ultimately, he either didn’t change course, or returned to an improved, more correct version of his old course. The good thing about this is that it shows that we are not doomed to lose our faith when the going gets tough. This is the reason Scripture talks about enduring and persevering. The whole key is to keep going, but the truth is that we will tend to keep going as we have gone, even if that’s not the direction we like to think it was. We can either rejoice in this fact, or despair, and then apply our choice to this reality.

 Tomorrow, we'll return to the solution.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Pure...

            The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5)   I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16) I’m probably cheating - or mishandling the Bible, but earlier I was thinking about love being pure and purifying. And hatred being pure and purifying. And anger…joy…patience… fear… jealousy… courage…lust… and other strongly felt feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. Today’s verse brings purity and love together, so it’s the verse of the day, but it’s not really the focus. That means my motive for sharing it with you probably isn’t pure. As you read through my list, you   probably thought, “Yeah” about some, and “What’s she on?” about others. But consider how much hatred, a...
Post a Comment
Read more