‘Battered Image’ / ‘Sure Hope’
Our title / theme offers a ‘distressing’ / ‘consoling’ juxtaposition of the ‘anguish’ / ‘joy’ inherent in ‘social disorder’ / ‘spiritual peace’. The question is: are these perceptions reconcilable?
As always, we must first understand what ‘core issue’ is involved. At an ‘experiential’ level: each of us can ‘personally’ identify with these contingencies. However, as these ‘occurrences’ are individually unique, we need an ‘overview’.
So: what has God to say on the matter? He has GIVEN (i.e. created) MANKIND (i.e. creatures) a PLAYGROUND (i.e. creation) in which to ‘PLAY’ (‘Perfect Love Answers Yes’). That – as the Bible states – was all “good”. Unfortunately, this inheritance became ‘contaminated’ when Adam & Eve became ‘distracted’ & turned away – in a ‘self serving’ way – from God’s ‘PRO’VISION (vision: ‘Perfect Relational Order’). Hence, the human race became “stuck” in a kind of Limbo Land (i.e. ‘outside’ God’s Kingdom).
In this radically changed environment we were ‘forced’ – like the Prodigal Son – “to come to our senses”. The first stark realization – that entered our consciousness – was our (individual) ‘singular’ status (i.e. our ‘aloneness’) & prompted by ‘shame & guilt’ we “hid”. Eventually, we ‘picked up’ the courage to ‘peep out’, but all we could see were other ‘God forsaken people’ (like ourselves). Slowly, we ventured forth to ‘test the ground’ of our ‘social’ standing, but all we came up against were other ‘self seekers’ (like ourselves). As a direct consequence – of our ‘singularity’ & ‘duality’ (modes of living) being subjected to a continuous ‘battering’ by ‘contrary forces’ – we became ‘conditioned’ to our own ‘personal’ unique ‘default’ status / to our own ‘self’ determined ‘Battered Image’. That’s the ‘bad’ news.
The Good News is: God realized that Adam was not “walking with Him” (as per usual) & responded immediately by asking: “where are you?” The Bible presents the reality of God’s intervention: Old Testament ‘history’ / New Testament ‘testimony’. The ‘message’ & the ‘meaning’ of the central mysteries revealed — Incarnation / Trinity — is the Gospel presentation of our ‘Sure Hope’.
As we stated repeatedly (in these series of articles) & repeat here again, with particular emphasis: ‘all problems are psychological / all solutions are spiritual’. So, here’s the ‘PRO’FOUND answer to our ‘social / spiritual’ dis-connect ::: we are LOST when we live ‘“exclusively’” in SEPARATION from each other (i.e. within the limitations of “‘Single or Social”’ ways of living) ::: we are FOUND when we live ‘“inclusively”’ in COMMUNION with each other (i.e. within the abundance of “‘Single & Social & Spiritual”’ ways of living) :::
What God is telling us – whether we like it or not – is: everything (i.e. all creation) is an emanation of God & the “key” to His Kingdom is: Christ: Way Truth Life.
- All that exists is God’s Gift. It all exists to make God known to man & to make man’s life communion with God.
- It was on the Cross, at Calvary, that God in Christ dealt fully & finally with ‘self’: the nature from which all our sins flow.
- It is only in the ‘present moment’ that God & the soul can meet & bless each other & ‘PLAY’ (‘Perfect Love Answers Yes’).
The ‘batterings’ we take in life – eventually – bring us to a realization: that we live in an ‘upside-downside’ world, where “ME” has to give way to “WE”: that ‘self’ will never conquer ‘self’ – even if we stand on our heads – as it will still be ‘self’ “doing” its own thing : that our ‘shocking’ baseline truth is: we are all sinners & until we accept this ‘fact of life’ we are “whistling in the dark”. Note: we are not ‘sinners because we sin’, but, ‘we sin because we’re sinners’ (i.e. because of our endemic ‘fallen’ human nature).
Finally: to ‘wrap-up’ our LOST / FOUND conundrum ::: “only one thing matters” ::: the “yoke” that we have to “take upon ourselves” ::: The Cross (of Christ). So, let’s keep ‘tuned-in’ to our eBook sub-title : How to keep ‘FIT’ :::
- Flee to God always
- Invoke God’s help constantly
- Thank God in everything
Finally, Finally: Hopefully (with ‘Sure Hope’) – having ‘pondered & absorbed’ all the ‘contextual ruminations’ set out (above) – you will be ready to ‘devour’ the Good News of the Bible – where every ‘word’ (i.e. Father) is made manifest / where the ‘medium’ (i.e. Holy Spirit) is the ‘message’ (i.e. Christ) – for life / for eternity.