The 'it' Factor

[HKHaugan]

When asked how I could possibly not see that man’s nature has evolved my response has been, is and will be, “Just read the headlines in your local paper, look at TV news and open your eyes to the conflicted people around you. And don’t forget to look in the mirror.” The accounts of international intrigue, terrorism, corruption, murder, mayhem, riots, discrimination, divorce, pornography, neighborhood squabbles, rampant lawsuits, the need for military and police protection, fraud, burgeoning jail and prison population, advertising exploiting our inner fears, non-existent school discipline, street smart elementary children, and on and on, account for fact. The world may be changing in its technology and population but man’s interior is unchanged and comes down to one incontrovertible fact. The human heart is being victimized from within. It’s called sin.

As I have said before none of us can absent ourselves from any of this. The very fact that we search, struggle and have those unexplainable inner dissatisfactions, guilts and insatiable desires, attests to our heart’s unsettled nature. The degree of our unrest may not be vented in the aggressive factors mentioned above but escape by comparison is self-denial. There is that something in our human nature that keeps us in a constantly adjusting mode. Many have tried throughout history to escape reality either through leaving their external surroundings for less interpersonal pressure or finding a mindset that avoids having to deal with the inner pressures that gnaw at our consciousness.

There is an old country song that expresses this kind of wandering, “My Elusive Dreams.”

Recorded by David Houston and Tammy Wynette
Words and Music by C. Putnam and B. Sherrill

T: I followed you to Texas
T: I followed you to Utah
D: We didn't find it there, so we moved on;
T: I followed you to Al-a-bam'
T: things looked good in Birmingham
D: We didn't find it there, so we moved on.

CHORUS
B: I know you're tired of followin'
B: My elusive dreams and schemes
B: For they're only fleeting things
B: My elusive dreams.

T: I had your child in Memphis
T: You heard of work in Nashville
D: We didn't find it there, so we moved on;
D: To a small farm in Nebraska
D: To a gold mine in Alaska
T: We didn't find it there, so we moved on.

D: And now we've left Alaska,
D: Because there was no gold mine.

T: But this time, only two of us moved on
T: Now all we have is each other
T: And a little memory to cling to.
D: And still you won't let me go on alone.

D: I know you're tired of followin'
D: My elusive dreams and schemes
D: For they're only fleeting things
D: My elusive dreams.

B: For they're only fleeting things, my elusive dreams.

This is human nature alone, searching, struggling, resigned to the pursuit of ‘it.’ ‘It’ is somewhere between a small farm and a gold mine, digging ditches to being a corporate president and finding that ‘somewhere’ West Side Story yearns for. But that is neither a place nor an achievement. It is an inner satisfaction waiting to caress the restless heart.

The ‘it’ is the relationship with God our sinful nature fights so desperately. ‘It’ is the heart emerging from its shell. ‘It’ is the mind having found its function. ‘It’ is the soul having discovered its motivation. ‘It’ is the connection between the visible and the invisible, the Father’s Mind, the Father’s Heart and the Father’s Spirit all bundled together in Jesus the Christ.

When the ‘together Jesus’ is taken seriously as the One who has the balance of mind, heart and spirit we have seen the ‘it’ factor. What makes us long for what He has is the fact that we know we are not in balance, we don’t have ‘it.’ The world is shaking for the answer to its deepest unknown quest for the ‘it’ factor. Paul puts it like this, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently (Rom.8:22-25).”

Without God ‘it’ remains both elusive and illusive. Elusive in that ‘it’ is just out of reach and illusive in that the world offers false promises of wealth and recognition in our search for ‘it.’

It is only by faith that we can begin to plumb the depths of eternal security, ultimate reality and our true development as persons, planting our feet where we are meant to be. It is the Person of persons, Jesus, who brings Himself into our midst and secures us in the here and now “on earth as it is in Heaven.” He in His Spirit is the ‘it’ factor. That’s what His Cross and Resurrection are all about.

The question for each of us who wonder how we communicate with those in this world who don’t know Him, do we fall back into the struggle between the small farm and the gold mine or do we rely on the ‘IT’ factor to emerge as we go out and about?