Time To Get Real

[HKHaugan]

Let’s get right down to it. Everyone needs salvation. Salvation is the process of restoration. If restoration is a process then the question must be, what are we being restored from and to what? The immediate answer is obviously from sin and to God. But what is sin and what has sin done? We have to get
real and face honestly the condition of human nature in each of us. This can only be done when we have a common authority to analyze that condition. This is why we turn to the Bible. It’s our reality manual. In its
pages lie the common factors that have brought us to where we are in every generation. It is the similar
experiences we have as we look inward and discover the realities that make us what we are. Our most common shared realities are not what we can see physically but what we can’t see. OK, let’s get real.

The first reality we share is being alone. Being alone is the one factor every human being wrestles with each and every day. It is the awareness of self, of being alone in our physical bodies, of being an individual who thinks and senses being isolated, apart from and distinct from every other being around. From that point on whatever takes place in those bodies is only known as the hearts and minds in those bodies are willing to share their internal workings. The internal workings of the mind and heart are the core of our reality. This is where we determine identity, meaning, purpose, communication, goals, dreams, emotions and the way we process our daily living experience. And, when we really have to think about ourselves we realize no one else can do that for us.

A second reality we all share is fear. The interesting thing about fear is that to deny we are afraid is the proof that we are afraid of fear. We fear what we can’t see both in ourselves and in others. We fear what we don’t know and understand. The very fact that we have to ‘face our fears’ is an internal working out of our aloneness. One extension of our fear is our pride. The fact of pride is seen in our need to defend ourselves when we sense in our mind, our heart, and our emotions, that our worth is being challenged. The fear of not appearing right, not appearing to ‘have it together’ causes
that inner reaction.

A third reality following on the heels of fear is moral sense. There is a need to be right as opposed to wrong. We are very aware that we have to make judgments about what is right and wrong and then act on those judgments. Fear, pride, anxiety is all mixed up in that process because action exposes us and exposure even if you ‘feel’ right is laced with a certain amount of trepidation. Add to these ingredients guilt, remorse, regret, denial and we see the wheels of our aloneness spinning in a relentless cycle.

A fourth reality we all share is a need to blame. When our personal worlds are threatened, out of balance and not meeting our expectations, we immediately look outside ourselves for a reason. Someone or something out there is to blame. This indicates that we share another extension of fear and that is the need to be in control. We want the world to fit our personal agenda. The problem with placing blame
is that when the source is determined there is no satisfaction nor is there a change in circumstance.

A fifth reality we all share is the need to hide. If you read Genesis 3 you will find we inherit that need from Adam. It seems everyone is looking for a safe haven, a retreat house, a cave, a place to feel emotionally and physically secure. But that hiding place can be very illusive when the mind has to face the fact that hiding can find many locations. The more obvious are those that are socially acceptable, that is others who are suffering from the same need to hide justify their use of them. Our jobs, families, clubs, games, leisure activities, degrees, diplomas, projects, homes, possessions, church, charity involvement, TV, radio, computers and other general ‘busy-ness.’

A sixth reality is contained in the fear/pride techniques of hiding, self-justification and rationalization. Being alone we look for answers to that condition. So we construct excuse mechanisms. They are rationalized as ways we meet the need for self-worth, social acceptability and that inner need to be right. When we
have that sense of being right we are self-justified. We made the right choices, the right goals and believe we are, therefore, filled with the right intentions. We are just plain right regardless of what others think.

A seventh reality lies at the heart of what it means to be human. We have relational needs. We need to find relationships with others. This is probably the most fear laced need in the human condition. We desperately want to be able to relate freely and openly with others but the fact of our aloneness and its individual
limitations, we don’t just reach out and make friends. We find ourselves ‘parrying and thrusting’ until we find safe friendships, groups and places to relate. Again that ugly sense of fear dominates the human condition. We fear being alone but we also fear the possibilities of rejection. What we want most we fear most.

The eighth reality is spiritual reality which is really the one in which everything is contained. It has two parts, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness ruled by the devil. This is the one human beings avoid yet the only one that will satisfy the crowded self-justifying, rationalizing self. It is in spiritual reality where true relationship begins. It is the one offered by God in Jesus Christ. We are spiritual beings adrift in a sea of aloneness, separation from God and separated from one another. We have to face the fact that we are separated, isolated and alienated from God by sin, which is the driving force behind our hiding, excuse-making, self-justifying rationalizations. Sin is why we go through the acrobatics of playing it safe.

Sin is the fountain of self-centeredness. Its author is the arch manipulator who is the master hider, the devil. His unholy spirit is sin, the spiritual disease that exploits our tendency to hide. Sin has so consumed
the individual that he neither sees God nor has any sense that the devil exists or that he is the source of our problems. The very idea that I can control my own destiny, that I can make right choices and decisions about who I am and where I am going without God, shows the nature of sin and the nature of the one who hides in the shadows of ourloneliness. Sin makes us completely self-absorbed, self-indulgent and self-controlling to the point that there is no room for the One who made us.

Where do we get all this understanding of reality? Check it out in Genesis 1-3. That’s where we begin to get real.

The only One who understands all of this is God and He has sent His Son to reveal everything
necessary to overcome the conditions in which we find ourselves. He sent His Son into the aloneness we all experience from birth by being born into the flesh, into a family, into a world where everyman is literally an island unto himself. He embraced the total human condition, died on a Cross and was resurrected. His life is the means of restoration and recovery, which is what salvation, being saved, is all about. The risen Jesus actually moves into the heart of each person. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, to bring Jesus into the heart that is exactly why the bottom line in Scripture is Jesus. Because Jesus is real He promises us that we can get real like Him.

More next time………