Bibles. Different translations, several study versions, small ones that fit in a pocket or computer bag, some other old ones kept because notes jotted in them are a little journal of our personal growth – a typical serious Christian collection. Oh, I forgot the one on my laptop.
God’s Word. Scripture (the first time I heard someone say that it sounded so reverent). The Sword of the Lord. The Old and New Testaments. But one thing all the versions and sizes and ages have in common – they do not speak unless you pick them up (or click) and read them.
And even then you have to understand what you’re reading and believe it before you hear what it’s saying. Until then, they all sit there, doing nothing.
Well, the books, the pages, do nothing. The truth inside them of course is always doing something; you read the Book and find the truth and learn what it’s doing. But it’s not doing it in the pages. It’s doing it where we live – in the whole world. The truth in the Book says, “the whole world is filled with His glory” but you have to lift your eyes from the Book to see it.
When you do lift your eyes you see a show. And like with the Book you have to open your eyes and understand what you’re seeing and believe it. But it’s there, all around you, all over the world, and you’re always – always – in the middle of it. But like many things you’ve grown up with and still live in the middle of, you don’t really see it. I don’t. But I’m starting to. Aren’t there some things that when you finally see them you’re shocked, thrilled, can’t believe you missed it until now, and your life is never the same?
Missing Majesty
There’s a scene in Travels with Charley where Steinbeck drives into the Redwood National Forest anticipating this staggering reaction from Charley. Charley’s a dog and no one appreciates trees like dogs, right? So Charley’s in for an awesome adventure. Steinbeck even hides Charley back in the camper so he won’t see anything until he finds the perfect three hundred foot “grandfather of Titans” to unveil. This is gonna be so good.
Steinbeck knows “The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always. No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferrable. From them comes silence and awe…The vainest and most slap-happy and irreverent of men, in the presence of redwoods, goes under a spell of reverence and respect…One feels the need to bow to unquestioned sovereigns.”
Steinbeck is even afraid Charley, tree connoisseur, “might be translated mystically to another plane of existence” by the experience “for this could be dog’s dream of heaven in the highest.”
But once out of the camper Charley is clueless. No comprendo. He walks in the weeds and drinks from the brook and looks for something to do. Steinbeck grabs his muzzle and points it up so Charley can see the majesty, then even rubs his nose against the the wall of the mammoth trunk. Charley doesn’t know it’s a tree. It’s too far outside any kind of dog expectation or experience.
Steinbeck finally cuts a branch off a willow sapling, sharpens the end and sticks it in the ground leaning against “the godlike thing.” This, Charley can appreciate and he does what dogs do – a little promenade, aim and fire.
You and I of course, would never miss something so obvious.
Have you taken the Awareness Test?
Crammed with heaven
For the last few years we’ve enjoyed a few days each summer in Hilton Head, SC. I get up early, walk to Harbour Town, get a cup of coffee at the General Store, sit and watch the boats bob and feel the breeze. And think. And read. The only book I read is Pursuit of God and for these last few years this has been the only time I’ve read it.
This year I get to chapter six, The Speaking Voice, and see: “The Bible will never be a living Book to us until we are convinced that God is articulate in his universe.”
As Tozer says this he talks about how it’s easy to have a ”divided psychology” and “jump from a dead impersonal world to a dogmatic Bible.” He asks, “Is God mute everywhere else and vocal only in a book?”
He doesn’t mean that God is speaking new or different truth in his universe, but that the truth spoken in the Bible is also being spoken in the rest of his creation.
I could see thinking this might mean the Creator has “left clues” about himself in what he’s created, or hidden himself for a few fortunate ones to find. Or is it not mysterious at all but as purposeful as what he wrote, with the intention that the speaking in the universe be understood same as the speaking in the Book?
But like giant redwoods and moonwalking bears can be missed when you’re looking for something else, so maybe can this Voice speaking in the universe.
And every common bush afire with God:
But only he who sees takes off his shoes,
The rest sit around it and pluck blackberries.
--Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Willing to see
When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ – Exodus 3
Moses sees the common bush and notices something uncommon. All he knows at that moment is that it is a “great sight.” He does not know what it is or understand it. He does not know that it is God. But he stops plucking blackberries and re-aims his attention.
This is the starting point. Something is there. You’re not only willing to find out what, but you stop what you’re doing and turn aside to see. Only now can you discover what it is. Then from this discovery comes revelation and understanding and the challenge of what to do with it.
Vague stirrings toward immortality
In the old days I loved music and bought hundreds of albums -- some mainstream rock and roll, with lots of eclectic things mixed in. After Jesus, I lost interest and went many years without listening to any of my albums or tuning around on the radio. I only listened to music containing a direct spiritual message. Not because of a “should” – it’s just what I was interested in.
Much later, I occasionally scanned around on the radio and as I heard the songs I used to listen to, I realized I was hearing them differently. Soaking up the Bible for years had morphed how I listened and opened up things I'd never noticed before.
I heard the passion of being human, of being a slave to desires, of longing for perfect love and being heartbroken over missing it. Indirectly, I found some songs very spiritual – examples of hungering for something undefined yet real, as if there’s something floating invisible and unnamed in the air and an artist can snatch it and capture it even though they can’t say what it is or where it comes from.
I mentioned earlier Tozer’s book Pursuing God and The Speaking Voice chapter – I think he nails there what’s going on:
“Every good and beautiful thing which man has produced in the world has been the result of his faulty and sin-blocked response to the creative Voice sounding over the earth.”
And “Could it be that a genius is a man haunted by the speaking Voice, laboring and striving like one possessed to achieve ends which he only vaguely understands?” He says people “may miss God in these labors...he may even have spoken or written against God” but these are still “vague stirrings toward immortality.”
I don’t hear these stirrings in all songs. But in many, I almost worship, as singers unknowingly reveal the futility of striving for satisfaction apart from God.
Oh yeah, like what? Well we could start with one that's not vague at all: the search for truth, the gap to get there that you can’t cross, the yearning for something sacred that seems like it was taken out of your soul -- something not lost but stolen. It’s the theology of redemption from the personal view of the unredeemed, unenlightened person, all packaged in a catchy, entertaining pop performance that disguises the hungering search within.
More vague stirrings
The search for escape, rescue, redemption, heaven, the promised land and a savior. How it feels to know there’s something better and to believe it’s meant for people to have it.
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“Maybe a great magnet pulls all souls toward truth,” but Wisdom calling is not alone – on the other corner Folly is calling also. Every human being without Christ is trying to find fulfillment their own way. There’s a constant craving that can make you a slave to various passions and pleasures, and at the same time there’s a constant craving for lasting fulfillment and acceptance. It can seem so futile. Is there an escape from the futility that this constant craving has always been?
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And what becomes of the brokenhearted who can’t stand this pain much longer and have got to find some kind of peace of mind? If you’ll be searching everywhere can you find someone who cares?
Romance and homeruns
If you’re a woman don’t you just love some stories and movies and books? Isn’t there a common journey they take you on? You get to know the characters, a story comes together, then there’s problems and a crisis and tension that leads to the threat of harm or breakup or death, and then there’s resolution. Maybe you never thought about why you like certain movies and stories, but if you did, isn’t this a theme?
And if you’re a guy do you love sports and battles that have a winner and loser with no middle ground? Don’t you love that macho high that comes when certain loss shockingly turns into victory? I can still remember high school and a basketball game and being part of the deafening crowd reaction filling the gym when all that had gone wrong suddenly went right. Forty years later I still know the final score -- 92-79. Why?
Romance and drama and happy endings and sports. Can you see the format, the imprint, the outline of the Gospel story of a perfect place and an enemy and a man and woman kidnapped and led astray into a life of crime by an evil mastermind, and the dramatic and selfless efforts of a hero who loves them and rescues them against insurmountable odds, sacrificing himself to pay for their crimes and set them free? And the end is happily ever after and there’s a final score that can’t be changed. It’s like we’re wired to react to that kind of thing.
See, it really is like a show. A show is something on display, intended to be seen, but like so many things God does, this show is subtle and quiet, not Hollywood-ish. It’s a general Voice speaking in the universe that all hear but that is easily missed. It’s also perhaps a show specifically broadcasting on several set channels – which is where we’re going next.
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