You can either take action,
or you can hang back
and hope for a miracle.
Miracles are great,
but they are
so unpredictable.
- Peter F. Drucker
The people who get on
in this world
are the people who
get up and look for the
circumstances they want,
and if they can't find them,
make them.
- George Bernard Shaw
Ecclesiastes 5
5 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.
2 Do not be quick with your mouth,
do not be hasty in your heart
to utter anything before God.
God is in heaven
and you are on earth,
so let your words be few.
3 As a dream comes when there are many cares,
so the speech of a fool when there are many words.
4 When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. 5 It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it. 6 Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, “My vow was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands? 7 Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God.
The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Ec 5:1-7). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Have we lost the idea that we should be in awe of God? Reading this passage, I am thinking about what we are doing with Christianity today. I have written previously about the dangers of legalism and my personal struggles with what we / I have made Christianity, but there is a danger in making God our buddy. He is God. To loose the awsomeness of that idea is to miss a big part of who and what He is. It becomes easy to forget His majesty and His power when we stop seeing God as The one true God of the Universe, both a personal savior and a majestic being, worthy of all honor, praise and glory.
It can be a tough balance to keep this perspective sometimes. We are able to have communion with God, He destroyed the barrier between us and He gave us grace, but it did not diminish who and what He is. We are told to take seriously what we say to Him. How many of us sing our sunday morning worship songs by rote? How many of us really consider the promises we are echoing to God? I know that I do not always live true to this passage.
I recently watched a disturbingly powerful movie. The title was V for Vendetta. The movie was set in England in a future that is too close to home. The basic premise of the movie is that the (Plot spoiler coming) government has instituted martial law following an outbreak of terrifying viruses that are threatening the existence of the nation. Unfortunately, and known to very few, the outbreak was created by those aspiring to power and used as a tool to catapult them into control. The only solution to the outbreaks was total government control, centralizing the power in a very "Big Brother" fashion.
The main character, originally bent on revenge for wrongs to him and country, realizes that overthrow of the government can only come from the people and only succeed with peaceful protest and with a little help from symbolic gestures, given power by the people, through an idea. The idea being that the muzzle of a gun works only so far, peace and words built on ideas and ideals are ultimately the most potent weapon available.
While this is a dark movie in many a sense, it is also one of great hope and also some truth. Among the notable quotes from the movie, to me, is this: "You wear a mask for so long, you forget who you were beneath it."
How true is this thought in our daily lives? Are we living with a manufactured mask of Christianity that makes us forget what we are underneath? Not only in the spiritual sense, but in the greater world view as well? Also, how many of us walk around with a Mask of composure, or professionalism, hiding the chaos or pain that we are dealing with underneath. We pretend everything is ok until it all seem very normal. Ignoring the underlying reality that shapes us every day, we compromise our integrity to be like our peers and be liked by our peers.
Another quote from the movie is particularly convicting and along the same line of thinking: "I'd only told them the truth. Was that so selfish? Our integrity sells for so little, but it's all that we really have. It is the very last inch of us, but within that inch, we are free".
Do we value that integrity that we have? Do we treasure it and act in a manner that befits the value? Or, rather, do we loose that freedom, sold for the price of "acceptance"?
