Why? Why not…
Someone asked me once, about a million different times, why I do what I do, and why I like what I like. Often my response was simply, “Why not?” A few weeks ago, someone asked why I blog? I paused, and thought about all the previous 1400+ blog posts, and thought, “Why not?” It’s easy. It doesn’t cost me anything. It often brings clarity as I argue the side of a post that might be unpopular, but represents me so very well.
And, I like talking to myself…
When you have no one else to argue with, then, like Jeff Dunham does with his dummies, you argue with yourself. Before you can have a successful conversation, you have to be willing to listen. But then, you cannot only be happy with discussing pro’s and con’s with your own self, no matter how much you feed your mind with opposing ideas. Even unpopular sources. If you are not strong to receive such ideas, then you must paint yourself into your corner of believing what you have allowed within and be happy that you cannot see the other side of another’s point of view.
Part of what I hoped the blogging would accomplish is presenting an insight that is needed by some, and wished for by others. Maybe it’s like a local news team that spoke of the presidential debates before the election, “We listen so you don’t have to.” Well, I did not listen to the debates, nor could I bring myself to listen to the news team present a possibly weighted view of the results. No matter what they said, it would be slanted from their own personal, and corporate, focus.
The other part of what I desperately wanted my blogging to accomplish was the application of spiritual insight to anything we face daily. Why? There seems to be a shallowness to the world that focuses on emotion, perceived slights and rights, my way and who cares what you think…
It’s a hollow world that can only see surface and miss the undertow of dangerous, or profitable ideas.
Who speaks that you listen to? What books or news sources flow into your world? When you say, “I can’t handle it anymore…”, there needs to be someone who can help bring clarity you can grasp like a drowning man clings to the only thing around that floats.
When I was about 6 or 7, we began taking swimming lessons. Since we acted like fish that desperately needed the water, the lifeguard-instructor moved us into tougher classes. He would pretend to be drowning in the deep end and it was our job to try and save him. How many times did he push me down to the bottom of the pool as he taught me to think about life saving a different way? Too many to think…
I was in a college class a few years ago, out of state and on campus, and a dissenting point of theology could be expressed in such a way to cause an unwary neophyte to be confused with their own belief system. I shared backwards that a new kid on the block may not be strong enough in their own belief system to withstand the onslaught. Think about it. Is this not what happens on every college campus around the country? Fresh minds are being focused down a singular path that makes them doubt everything they believed as a child? They are rewarded for thinking for themselves, but in reality they are only thinking the way the professor intends them to think.
This is probably true for anything we get involved in – career, business, family, hobby… You name it. There is one way we should think, the right way, and learn to refuse all other view points. Right? Well, this is true if you are easily swayed. This view has been around for centuries. Example?
“…that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting…” (Ephesians 4:14 NKJV)
What Paul focused on was a clear view of scripture that keeps followers of Christ on a singular path. Why? It is easy to fill the pool of knowledge with wayward ideas and thoughts that will keep people confused and arguing pro’s and con’s while the mission of life is missed.
Yet, Paul obviously had the ability to deal with these ideas and put them under the microscope of scripture and present them in a clear fashion.
How? Besides being “Spirit filled”, he was also highly educated by a Pharisee, a Doctor of The Law, named Gamaliel. Gamaliel name means, “Reward of God.” Paul had a great background! If anyone could keep the church moving forward, surely it was he. It’s like he had razor insight that could laser away every distraction, every wind of doctrine.
Not everyone has this ability.
“It is the mark of an educated mind
to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” ~Aristotle
One more thing about Paul. God had a plan for him. In the midst of his conversion, God sent Ananias to pray for him. Ananias was afraid of Paul’s reputation that preceded him everywhere he went.
But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.” And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 9:15-17 NKJV)
But let’s take this one deeper step. Paul received his “good news” training not by man, but through direct revelation of Jesus Christ. (Galatians 1:11-12). This was a far deeper school of learning that any man could teach, and without the Holy Spirit it is deeper still than any man could comprehend.
We all find within ourselves a result of some of Paul’s specific teaching, but under the umbrella of God’s great grace that gave us someone like him who could be that voice in the darkness pointing the church to a great light.
Here’s my thought. I believe God has a plan for each of us. Some can handle weightier matters of Law, others are simply true followers of a better path. Some of us are trapped between two worlds. So, like me, we preach to our congregation, witness to every person we can, and write to an audience we do not see. Am I doing a good job? Time will tell. Will I ever change my approach? Perhaps. But for the time being I work hard to reach this world the only way I know how to do… Will you join me?
Through my years of writing I have a paltry 24,000+ readers, and only a few hundred subscribers. But these readers represent much of the globe! Again, will you join me?
