Riots, Anarchy and The Real Thing

[HKHaugan]

Riots, Anarchy and The Real Thing

“In Jesus, God showed the world what a real human being looked like. He was 'the real thing.”

“He came to show the true identity meant for every human being to be an image and likeness of Himself. In Jesus everyone can have an identity higher, lasting and more profound than any worldly definition. This is why the world atmosphere is full of hate for anything Christian because world powers can’t control believers through fear and intimidation. Theirs is a spiritual power that seeks not to intimidate but to love, to care and to bring stability and peace to the heart. Threats of government, economic, social and military power support the belief that ‘now’ is all there is and that the spirit of fear enforces the threats (last article).”

The real key to understanding the secular world is its obsession with satisfying the present without considering future consequences. Get what you can while you can. Now, I know the argument that if you can get what you want in the present, that will be security for the future. Forget that, remember this. Security is not in what you possess momentarily but in long term goals producing something that benefits others. Inner stability comes from the confidence you gain in working to achieve them. Generations change because new people are born every day. Like all of us, they need education and relational direction. Their life will be full of demands for momentary satisfaction just like the rest of us.

The bottom line for every human being is self satisfaction for identity, significance and purpose. How are they achieved? They can't come from within because everyone is born empty with a need to learn. The very fact everyone needs education for their whole being; mind, heart and spirit, tells us we are dependent from birth on some outside source to realize who and what we are and why we are here. Add to that we are born with a tendency to be self centered, self indulgent and wanting our way regardless of what it takes to make that happen, says we are imperfect from the start. We need help and hate to admit it. It's called sin. So who can we trust from the outside to get the job done? The inner struggle is in everyone's life.

For us as disciples of Jesus, we know we are sinners too. But that's why we reach out because Jesus forgave us. We are forgiven sinners which doesn't make us any better than others. If anything it makes us more sensitive and aware of the need to understand the dynamics of those struggling with this inner searching. We are going through it with the one outside source we can trust to recover us, the Lord Jesus. It's a spiritual struggle first and foremost but He is always with us. The confidence and security we never had is returning to us through our relationship with Him. He gives us spiritual life for this world; spiritual insights and ideas that balance us. We know it is only long term values covering every generation, every new born person, that guarantee balance in the growth of the mind, heart and spirit for relational living. Once we begin tampering with immediacy in needs satisfaction, in getting what we want in the moment, that's when we become anarchists.

Anarchy is every person for him or herself regardless of others. Everyone is an anarchist at one time or another. Anarchy tells every person they are their own leader, god and judge. The anarchists we see on TV are the ones who carry it out in unrestraint. These are the rioters, displaced egos and paid demonstrators you see at political rallies, World Summit meetings and other similar gatherings. They find leaders who will agree with them and give them an agenda that gives them a feeling of 'now.' There is nothing like one's inner needs that can be exploited so easily.

The interesting thing about activist anarchists is their total disdain for history, intellect and spirituality which are misused only as fuel for the moment of self satisfaction. Violence is their satisfaction, their mindless fulfillment for the moment. It is their emotional high, their simmering frustrations at boiling point. There is a lost sense of self, dissatisfaction with self, even self hate arising from some early family or other relational issues that ignite rage, anger and tempestuous action. This is planned pleasure for the anarchist. Find a perceived injustice, any will do (emphasis on 'perceived'), and take to the streets. Define the 'unjust' ones as the 'enemy' like corporations, conservatives (they make good enemies), the military, ethnic straw men (white, black, rich, Latino, Asian, etc.), faceless institutions. Hold them as responsible for all past and present problems. 'Society' is always a good faceless whipping boy.

Blind to their real inner problems the anarchists assault their society with violence. “My inner conflict is society's fault.” We've all heard that bleat. It's their only way. The violent moment is their justification. Jailed, they claim martyrdom, self declared heroes, inspired by inner conflicts lost in their memories but vented in the moment of their ignited anger. Then they slink away in the dark after the rioting, the venting, the emptied spleen--- and refuse to face the fact that nothing changes. Each rioter separates from the other and returns to their lonely room, their lonely thoughts and their lonely emptiness. The inner dissatisfaction is still there so off to the next whatever place they can feel momentarily useful. If only we could witness to the anarchist in their tired moments, their exhaustion, when they are in a one-on-one place, when they have found their pleasure isn't pleasure, at that point they could hear us when we tell them about the Lord. Pray for that, pray for missionaries to the anarchists.

If we can understand these dynamics are part of our personal picture and be spiritual witnesses wherever we are that will be a start. It means these struggles of the inner person are in all of us. We may not have been in protests but the same nature is there. The physical anarchist is a signpost pointing to the problem of sin for which Jesus is the only answer. The inner drive of misplaced faith in the moment as opposed to faith in a person you can trust for every moment is the spiritual reality every person born into the world needs to know. The picture of Jesus on the Cross is the declaration for every moment for every person for every mind, heart and spirit yearning for meaning.

The belief that ‘now’ is all there is, shows anarchists how they obviously have no feel for their own humanity. In fact they are fear driven and momentary violent pleasure is their self hate on steroids. What they can't face is themselves so when they attack others they are really attacking themselves and the dignity of humanity, theirs and ours. They need to be prayed for and face their self abuse. While we pray we want to be humbled by the realization of God's eternal grace that brought us out of the mire of our original spiritual condition. It is by the patient grace of God that our sin, our spiritual anarchy, was forgiven through the Cross and His Resurrection implanted on our heart.

All of this is why Jesus is the one person you can trust for defining humanity as it was meant to be lived and the One who makes us whole in an unwhole world.

Jesus is also the One who gives us our true purpose---to present Him as the only One who can be the solution for all people in all situations at all times.

Jesus is the One to whom we give our lives to fulfill the purpose for which we were created, to serve God and one another. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given to men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).”