My wife thinks I'm a really good surfer, the fact that I can stand up on a board and glide across a wave is something she can't ever see herself having the ability to achieve. Why? She knows nothing about surfing or the ocean, other than what I have probably taught her. The truth of course, in the grand scheme of it all, and compared to those who truly are good, is that I am completely average.
Yes you may think your wife cooks the best roast in the world and your child has such an amazing voice they could win the next X-factor, but the reality is your belief is more founded on what you don't know than what you do know. Now if you force your uneducated misguided opinion upon them long enough they might just display their talents before someone with a vast knowledge and expertise in what they love to do, where they will be shocked to discover they cannot impress those who actually have a proper knowledge of that thing which they are doing.
As the song from Monty Python so eloquently puts it, "How sweet to be an idiot."
Yes no truer words have ever been written, life is one amazing new experience to the next when you have the intelligence of a goldfish. Your little round bowl in which you live is actually magnifying the world outside you. But don't worry it's actually more enjoyable to live this way, don't think about the little glass bowl your doing laps in, think about how big everything outside looks through that round glass and you will be perpetually entertained.
This is why we have fads and trends, endless cycles of the same old things dressed a little differently and made to look new. Next seasons show is always bigger and better than the last. But it's a happy entertaining world to live in.
There is one problem though, an ignorant person, is an easily controlled person and controlled people are taken advantage of. One of my favourite moments which demonstrated how we seldom question what society teaches us was at a church music concert years ago. The singer was up the front describing the wonders of God and the beauty around us when he said "Did you know that every snowflake is different to the next?" The church Pastor, who is known for his quick wit immediately answered from the crowd "How do you know!"
The singer, who was trying to set a serious mood, wasn't impressed. I on the other hand had a good laugh. Because it's so true, have you seen every snowflake that's ever fallen? The ones we have seen under a microscope may be completely different to the next, but what of the trillions we haven't seen?
We often think we know so much, but really we know so little. Society operates according to it's knowledge, which we probably think, is a lot. But is it? Or are we just going through the same old things over and over since we first discovered knowledge of good and evil.
So according to our knowledge every snowflake is different, yet none of us have seen every snowflake. Like the preacher in Ecclesiastes if we sit down and think about it all, we will conclude there truly is nothing new under the sun and all is vanity. This vain circle ends in death and our being forgotten and all we worked so hard for is lost or given to someone else.
Is there a point to everything I am saying so far? I don't really know, I guess it's just some small observations. I think the preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes almost got as lost writing about life as he did living it. But he brought it home in the end, Fear God and keep His commandments. That is all. It gave his observations meaning, it gave his life meaning, it gave him meaning.
We all get tired of the worlds viscous cycle, and despite the ominous threat, it won't end with the ice caps melting, the hole in the ozone layer, el nino or the swine flu. No. It will end when the kingdom of God comes. When is that? I like the designated day given in the book of Hebrews "TODAY" I'm tired of the world now, I want rest now and I want to be free now. I can't wait for the world to be perfect, nor can I wait for it to end, one thing I know, if I keep walking around in circles like everyone else I am going to perish with them.
But I believe the good report of the 12 apostles who saw the place where God dwells and found the consolation of Israel. I have to believe in another realm or I will never be free of this one. Jesus wasn't ruled by the day in which he lived, instead he ruled over it. Elijah and Enoch walked with God and never died. So not everyone fell victim to the common knowledge that all men are appointed to die.
I think for too long Christians have accepted second best based upon what we don't know. Church has entertained and impressed us not because we have revealed the kingdom of God, but because we have yet to be measured against the true Son of God. We compare ourselves to ourselves, We compete with the world, trying to do what they do in a better or more palatable way. But is that our measuring stick? Is that our purpose?
Maybe It's time to stop thinking we are the best church because we haven't been to another, or I am the best preacher because I speak better than the Reverend down the road. These are all thoughts and actions based on ignorance rather than true wisdom. The goal of men is not to be better than the next man, when your both dead we won't be able to tell anyway.
The Goal is the glory of God, if it wasn't a goal then we wouldn't have missed it. But we did miss it, all of us, badly. Well except one man, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He didn't fall short. He didn't conform to society either. According to Him, I can be in the world and yet walk in a completely different realm, not limited to the knowledge of those around me, but a life without limitation according to the power of God. I don't even have to die if I live and believe in Him.
Yes every snowflake is unique and different and there is no pattern descended from heaven that compares in beauty and splendour to the glorious Son of God. But that doesn't mean God can't make another one that looks the same. Who knows, maybe not every snowflake is patterned differently?
Joshua Robbie is from the Gold Coast Australia where he runs a painting and decorating business. He recently started a church fellowship with his wife Rene' in Currumbin Queensland. Though he has many interests, including basketball and surfing, he with Rene' have determined to give themselves in service to the kingdom of God in all aspects of life. .…....
Josh Robbie's previous articles may be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/josh-robbie.html