Where is God on Monday morning? These are my posts where I examine that question, trying to find God in the every day.
Describing spirituality is tough to do for someone who isn’t particularly spiritual. Talking about how we see an intangible God working in a tangible world is quite a task at times. That’s why I’m very grateful for the 1988 classic movie starring ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper, ‘They Live’
Today, you are you. That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!
Dr Seuss
Earlier this year I had to interview with an office of my churches denomination in order to become an official Army chaplain. We came to an interesting point in the conversation that I doubt I will ever forget, because of just how perfectly (and bluntly) an observation about me was said. I was asked about my personality type (Meyers-Briggs; I’m an ENFP), to which I said there was really only one area I was uncertain of (the ‘P’). What follows is as close to a direct quote as I can recall:
“You’re definitely a ‘P’. You have a trailed of broken and missed deadlines behind you”.
He wasn’t being mean. He was just being honest. I had just never heard it put that way. And oh man, was he right.
There is a lot of inequality in life. Some of us have more money than others. Some of us are gifted leaders or entrepreneurs, while others of us are gifted writers or incredibly skilled with our hands. The truth is, no two people are entirely alike, with one notable exception.
We all have 24 hours in a day.
Time is among the most precious things God has given us. Given enough time, people can achieve some incredible things. People have changed the world in the span of a life time. I see people who make the most of their time each and every day.
The heavens themselves have announced the coming of a hero. Demigods, messengers to the gods, have announced that their champion has been born on this planet, who will bring balance to life, and help end injustice for everyone. Kings and beggars hear of their birth and come seek out this Hercules, Achilles, or Hector; this hero.
The hero, however, must run and hide, because the king cannot have their power challenged. Evil does not wish to be usurped, and so it hunts down a child. The child and his family must live as strangers in a foreign land, guided by the demigods, to hide out as refugees. They stay refugees until the messengers tell them it is safe to return.
The hero grows up, unknown from the crowd, until one day he goes to the local temple. The boy who was a refugee stands in front of the demigod’s worshipers and reads an ancient prophecy. For centuries the crowd had been waiting for this prophecy, eagerly anticipating the day it would be fulfilled.
The hero declares that today is the day it is to be fulfilled.
Today, he says, this ancient text has become reality.
I remember being asked what I would do if ‘they found the body of Christ’. Like, the physical body of Christ. Would I switch faiths? Have no faith? And so on. Truthfully, it’s going to be hard to convince me you found THE body of Christ, so this is largely a hypothetical exercise. But it is a worth while exercise.
What is the greatest challenge to your faith? What would be the greatest challenge to your belief in God? If you were to ever stop being a Christian, what would cause it?
The Dead Drop 