For This Reason 41

[HKHaugan]

Now we want to begin the quest for spiritual maturity. This is a search for real treasure, eternal treasure. But we have to start with a willingness to want spiritual awareness and sensitivity, to accept entrance into the spiritual dimension. The spiritual dimension is where the physical universe began so we have to accept the basic premise upon which we came into being. That is, we are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Why we need to begin there is because our human consciousness begins by our birth into the physical dimension and it has to be respirited. The reason will be stated shortly.

None of us hears, realizes or senses the call from God at the same time. Parents may hear it ahead of their children. Their children may hear it ahead of them. For each of us it happens at a unique time and place. It's God's timing not ours. Also we don't develop the same way, have the same mind, feel with the same heart or know with the same spirit. The conditions out of which we come are different even though we may grow up in the same family because we live in different bodies with different ways of reacting to the same stimuli. So when we see one another we don't know the circumstances that have made us the way we are or why we think and do the things we do. Our culture changes and does so at an increasing pace in our age. It's for these reasons we can't judge one another, we can't say this is the way they should think or act just because it's the way I think it should be. We can't even read our own selves with any real accuracy. It's hard to sort out what happened along the way to shape us; our emotions, our reactions and our self concept.

Our perceptions of parents, people and the world in general are flawed. Childrens' impressions of their parents many times later surprise those parents since things that are remembered were perceived differently than intended. We all may hear statements or feel emotions and interpret them opposite to what was originally meant. What made us and them the way we are? Do we have the perfect memory or assessment to make those kinds of conclusions and even if we did, have we put them together in such a way as to give us a perfect read? Isn't it always interesting that we know how to correct other people's issues but have a hard time resolving ours? It's always 'What they should have done...or, if only they had thought it out like I do...or, everybody knows that is the right thing to do.' I always know what others should do but when I have similar issues I can't follow my own advice. We have to accept people where they are the way they are not the way we think they should be. The Lord is the guide and the Spirit His worker. Let Him do what He does best.

There are some general things we can say that enable us to understand our human nature. The first one is most important and that is 'I am a sinner.' I was born spiritually challenged. That is, unlike the first man, I was born missing the Spirit of God. By Adam's failure to be obedient I am now like him, plagued by sin's spirit of lonely self-indulgence. Every human being has inherited this spiritual condition which has caused us to put spiritual concerns last instead of first and us first instead of last.

Sin limits my view of myself, keeps me apart from God and, because it makes me self-centered, definitely limits my view of, and relationship with, others. Second, because of sin, traveling as a human being is a solitary experience. It's a lonely journey. A road map would certainly help. There is no question that a personal companion that understands the problem would make all the difference in the world. A friend with reason, a person I can trust and a person whose faith motivates me to move like he does would go a long way to getting my attention. Jesus is that person.

But sin is a subtle thing. It has a way of getting us to focus on our horizontal desires instead of the our vertical relational needs. We can see it especially in our music. Funny thing about us humans is that the best songs we write are about romantic love, you know, the horizontal stuff. If we can just find the girl of my dreams, life will be all peaches and cream. Check out these words from an old Dean Martin song "My Heart Cries For You,"

My heart cries for you
Sighs for you, dies for you
And my arms long for you
Please come back to me

If you're in Arizona I'll follow you
If you're in Minnesota, I'll be there too
You'll have a million chances to start anew
Because my love is endless for you

My heart cries for you
Sighs for you, dies for you
My arms long for you
Please come back to me

The bloom has left the roses since you left me
The birds have left my window since you left me
I'm lonely as a sailboat that's lost at sea
I'm lonely as a human can be

My heart cries for you, please come back to me
An unimportant quarrel is what we had
We have to learn to live with the good and the bad
Together we were happy, apart we're sad
This loneliness is driving me mad

My heart cries for you, dies for you
My arms long for you
Please come back to me
(Please come back to me)

See what I mean? But if you really hear the words spiritually you discover they are a deeply emotional heart plea for the kind of a relationship only Jesus can bring us. The heart's trajectory is God but all of us stop short when we see the neon lights of our desires flashing the promise a physical pot of porridge to satisfy the moment. That's sin at work. You know---the applause, the fame, the wealth, the status and the trophy mate or mates. Our aim might be on what we think these will give us vertically but even in the horizontal they fall short. We miss. The dust, the rust, the grave, anonymity and history swallow them all. Until we realize that it's only God who can fill our spiritual emptiness, we wander in the temporay. With Him the door to eternity opens and becomes the present. The life of the risen Jesus is the now of eternity. As Jesus said 'I have come to give you life and give it to the full while we are here and after we die. With Jesus eternity is now. His is the quality of life we were made to experience. Only God can fill us full, fulfill us.

What we long for horizontally is impossible until we shift that horizontal longing from “Some enchanted evening you will find your true love” to “What a difference faith makes if you say with your lips Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart He is risen from the dead (Rom.10:9).” Then everything shifts from the horizontal to the vertical and everything vertical becomes horizontal so that relationships, purpose, professions, longings, desires and life, fall into place. Where God is involved “Love is a many splendored thing, the April rose that only grows in the early Spring. It is nature's (God's) way of giving a reason to be living, the golden crown that makes a man a king. Once on a high and windy hill (Calvary) in the morning mist two lovers kissed (Loving kindness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other Ps.85:10) and the world stood still and her fingers touched my silent heart and taught it how to sing (We have been singing His song ever since), Yes, true love is a many splendored thing.” Spiritual maturity begins when we see the depth of the Spirit as the ultimate personal dimension of which this world is a copy and shadow and for which we were designed.

More to come.