Monday, June 06, 2005

One For The Schup (You Know Who You Are)

I was at work today when a friend of mine asked me about something I had said earlier on in the conversation. There were three of us and much talk while we worked away on a basement renovation so I lost track of what it was I said. As I pondered it over the course of the day it finally came to me so I thought blogging it would be appropriate.
It started out from the statement that rock bottom is where we live. I came on this paradigm shift while working through some of my issues and it has stuck in my thinking ever since. It finds its basis in Romans 3:23 where the playing field is so famously leveled. When we come to a place in our life where we feel we have hit rock bottom we haven't actually fallen there, it is the place where we as humans exist. Even when I feel I am at the highest height I am still, in reality, at rock bottom. This is where the coolness starts.
Usually when we see someone at 'rock bottom' we think that it would be best if someone with the proper training and experience would deal with them rather than do it ourselves. We may even put on some gloves and protective clothing and help them get to that more qualified person. Now experience and training are great and essential tools as is the recognition that we may be in over our heads, but there is One who lives for these moments. One who lives for when the darkness is so thick that the soul pants for light. One who lives to go to the mat for those who are at rock bottom. Of course Christ died for us all, but not all of us see the need. All of us are at rock bottom, and it is in this most surreal place that our saviour meets us. Not after the house is cleaned up, but before we even know what needs to be cleaned up.
There will be a time when this revelation will truly hit home, and that is when we see Him face to face as He truly is. It is in the true knowing of who He is that we will truly know who we are. Apart from a deep and intimate knowledge of God we cannot know ourselves. It is akin to looking in a mirror with the lights off. Of course when the lights go on we are dazzled by the brilliance of it all. As the eye adjusts to the illumination the image in the mirror becomes clearer and we steadily see more and more of ourselves. If this gaze is long and steady we will grow as Paul did. He went from proclaiming that he was not less than the chiefest of the apostles to stating that he was the chiefest of sinners. The paradox is that in the perfect light of the love of Christ is the safest place to divulge and divest of our deepest darkness. What a Saviour. Truly there is none like Him in all the earth!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You are a realy good writer Brad. You kept me hanging on each word. Good thing you are writing a book. Keep it up. Unfortunatly what I was refering to you saying the other day was not mentioned in your write up. Maybe the Lord will recall it when it is needed. Oh well.