Resurrection 16 In a Perfect World.......

[HKHaugan]

Resurrection 16 In a Perfect World.......

In a perfect world...sure, we all have ideas what that would look like. There would be no conflict. No need for security, it's built in. All your out-of-sync physical and emotional needs would be met because you start out being perfect. Relationships between men and women would result in having no pain and perfect children in harmonious families. Hobbies, inventions, vacations and discoveries (would they be necessary?), all exciting and life in general would be serene. Stress? Never an issue. Of course sickness and death couldn't possibly happen. Work, labor, planning, goals, accomplishment, winning, losing, achievement, satisfaction, good, evil...what in the world are those? There would be no words like Utopia, Shangri-La, Valhalla, Olympus, Paradise. They're completely foreign to perfection since it already exists. They are words describing man's fanciful attempts to describe, search for and even work for an environment based on ideals which are borne out of imperfection.

The problem with any human concept of an ideal environment is the fact it is based on the negative not the positive. Get rid of bad experience, bad weather, bad people, bad emotions, bad endings, whatever bad is. So whatever is the opposite of bad must be good and whatever is good we need to strive for; the elimination of the bad and the promotion of what is good. So pick out all the bad stuff and that defines good. Define the bad and, presto, you have the good. It's that simple. Well, maybe not. What human definition of good and bad does is to open the door to avoiding reality and 'Pollyanna' emerges to pretend everything is a rosy experience. Or we go to the other extreme and depress ourselves into hopelessness with all the shades of difference in between. Escape reality by making your own. Find that inner and outer calm by roving from place to place, job to job, person to person. It's out there somewhere. Sure.

Resurrection people have another way of looking at the world. Reality is not out there in a physical place, position or palace. It's within. But what if you find you are alone within? Now you're on the right track because what we fear the most is what we must courageously face. We don't live 'out there.' We live within, inside our skin, where the weather is thin and the real problem is fear of being alone and there is no way to solve that. Human activity for the most part is an attempt to escape that inner solitary experience by being busy, doing something, anything, to get away from that inner dread. We have a deep need, probably our deepest, to be right, to be able to justify our selves. So we invent ways to compensate for what we don't know or understand so we can tell ourselves we are OK and what I come up with to do life is OK. Resurrection people know reality is more than what the unbelieving world calls it.

So just what is reality anyway? Resurrection people know it's spiritual, personal and relational.

First, reality is this: everything is both seen and unseen. Everything has a spiritual source and meaning. Human beings are spiritual beings created by God who created a physical universe and a physical body for them to live in. We have a spiritual mind, heart and spirit in a physical body with a brain, heart and movement. However, 100% of physical living is motivated by what you can't see. That's what makes it spiritual. How we choose to use the physical is an invisible process based on what we think is good versus bad. As soon as you get into that you're talking morality and that's just a part of spiritual reality. Tell me that's not real. Spiritual reality trumps all other ways of thinking about what's real.

Secondly, reality is spiritual choice. What we base our choices on is that, as images of God, we choose to use our mind, heart and spirit the way the Creator God directs. What we are faced with is a spiritual process of choice and decision every day. There are only two bases for that process, both spiritual. It's what the Creator has chosen or what we choose apart from Him. Personal reality is that everything involves personal choice.

Thirdly, reality is facing who we are as individuals in a society of people like me and the culture we exist in. It's what my mind believes is going on, what attitude my heart is using to trust facing the world of others and the motivation driving me to act out my attitude. Reality is the unresolved self within that feels the imbalance of desire that has both good and bad physical and emotional results. These are fraught with guilt and anger and a need to be right but I'm never really sure that I'm ever there. I can't seem to ever get it together and I'm beset with the fear driven pride to deny any problem exists. Relational reality begins by choosing to relate to God and then to others based on how we relate to God.

Reality is me facing my internal struggle to be right, feel right and act right. I need to face the spiritual issue that causes this unrest, sin. Sin is the pebble in the shoe, the burr under the saddle, the stubbed toe and the thorn in the paw when it comes to being totally confident. It's that inner insecurity when it comes to making right happen. To avoid that issue is to never ever get anything right inside. It's not until we cry 'uncle' and 'I give in' that we can receive the answer which is to turn to the God who made us. He alone knows us, our problem and how it needs to be solved. We're separated from Him. Sin is what does the separating and God has proved a way for us to rob sin of its power. He gave us His Son Jesus so He could work in our heart and mind relationally. Open the heart, admit the issue of an unresolved mind and heart and He will step in and ease the situation.

Now others will say they have a way to deal with our inner issues. Since, as we said, 100% of everything we do is motivated by what we can't see, who can we trust to be our guide in the unseen? That's right. Only someone who is personal and relational and has been in the seen, died and is now in the unseen. That puts the Lord Jesus in a lone category. We have the record of Him dying on a Cross and the many witnesses who saw Him risen from the dead. Add to that the amazing growth of the number of believers, ministries and the moral foundation He established in history that has shaped education and governments. Even the calendar is dated from His birth.

Those of us who have believed know that He is always present through the Holy Spirit and we have His longstanding Word to guide us in our daily living process. Jesus is personal, relational and spiritual, the basic form of our being made in His image, and again, always present. He is the One who gives us belief for the mind, trust for the heart and faith to motivate our spirit. It's spiritual rebirth into eternal life. We don't stop being sinners but we are growing out of sin by His forgiveness and into His life through His grace, truth and love, learning day by day and moment by moment.

Now about a perfect world. Forget that. Our task is to do the best we can to follow Him in the Holy Spirit, reconciling that part of it we live in to Him, by bringing individual hearts to Him. The ultimate perfect existence is wherever Jesus is. It won't be based on the opposite of bad but on the new revelation of perfection, His presence. It is where He has prepared a place for each one of us to be called Heaven. That's where the image of Him, that we are, finds ultimate fulfillment spiritually, personally and relationally forever. You see, wherever Jesus is, that is Heaven, the perfect existence. This is what a Resurrection people believe, offer others and look forward to together.