Actually, you could say he feared rural areas because they had too many trees. Another friend of mine, this one from the Midwest, was afraid of New York subways. Both friends feared what they did not know - or more correctly, they feared what they knew from the movies!
All my city friend knew about rural areas probably concerned big bears in the woods and monsters eating rowboats. My Midwestern friend's knowledge of New York City was probably limited to Wall Street, Gangs of New York, and stories of Times Square from the 1970's.
We operate the same way when it comes to our perceptions of God. The world around us is the movie from which we have gleaned inadequate and wrong ideas of God and what His world is like. We may have mean-spirited authority figures (often this includes the religious) in our lives and in our past have heard messages teeming with unholy judgments. Thus, we think of God as being mean, critical and judgmental.
Besides, God is supposedly bigger and more powerful than anything, so it only makes sense to us that He is the archetype of such behavior. After all - He created this whole thing, DIDN'T HE?!
We are used to having secondary motives to our own actions, selfish slants in every opinion, and a hope that we can control our lives long enough to either have some happiness, more happiness or at least survive a bit longer. We also tend to form whatever we serve - our "god" -into our image.
The good news is my friends visiting the country have really no chance of being mauled by a bear while driving in upstate New York, my friend visiting Manhattan is more likely to get lost on the subway system than robbed, and we have made God the target of far more criticism than He has given us. In fact, He is not nearly as critical as we assume. His root is love; His anger is only momentary - and primarily concerned with that which separates us from knowing His love.
The problem isn't that The Invisible God doesn't make Himself clearly known; the problem lies in our constant inability to listen to Him, or - to put it another way - our pension to listen to everything but Him.
We know He (The Invisible) has sent an Invisible Man to lead us into the entirety of Truth, who teaches us about Himself (Jn 15:26) and is always present, everywhere. He Himself is an Invisible God that displays Himself through every seen and created thing. He made Himself touchable and transparent in an only son and now through many sons and daughters, as Invisible Diety placed in obvious frailty. Each of these are clear and indisputable displays - yet each requires us to stop, listen and press through the veneer of learning, piety, perception and pretense.
Faith does not rest on what is seen. Faith is the conviction of things not yet seen, and this gift of faith opens The Invisible to us. It causes The Invisible to be seen, to become tangible to us as conviction becomes substance. This happens because we realize that true faith is not just from Him, but of Him, and as it expands, He expands in us and what we thought was intangible has become tangible. This happens spiritually, emotionally, in our minds and physically. It happens to you as an individual, or it can happen corporately - in any setting.
Since the beginning, God has been clearly seen through what is made. It is only because we give ourselves over to twistings (perversions) of pure desire - feelings that are foreign to our eternal selves - that we do not see, hear, or comprehend that The Invisible really is The Visible and revealed.
As it stands now, we only know of Him as Invisible, so we might understand which of our gods is being represented. To us, lust seems visible and tangible, yet committed love is somehow distant and slippery. Entertainment is fun and in-the-moment, while true fulfillment is unattainable or a metaphor for something else. We feel shallow relationships help us for the moment, but as trust and intimacy start to open their reality, their tangible nature scares us - so we revert to what we've always known and our current life becomes what is bearable, what is normal, what is within reason. And what is visible and apparent to us in this state is not love, not hope, not reason, not anything like what we were made for. And nothing like what we've dreamed.
As it stands now, we only know of Him as Invisible, so we might understand which of our gods is being represented. To us, lust seems visible and tangible, yet committed love is somehow distant and slippery. Entertainment is fun and in-the-moment, while true fulfillment is unattainable or a metaphor for something else. We feel shallow relationships help us for the moment, but as trust and intimacy start to open their reality, their tangible nature scares us - so we revert to what we've always known and our current life becomes what is bearable, what is normal, what is within reason. And what is visible and apparent to us in this state is not love, not hope, not reason, not anything like what we were made for. And nothing like what we've dreamed.
Thankfulness opens our eyes. Hope brings light into our squinting and dim perception. Faith focuses this enlightened perception, turning intangible concepts of shape and color into definite lines that can then be moved by love, and love is a man who you can only come to see as you allow Him to be visible in your heart.
In the The Invisible posts, we will explore the nature of The Unseen One, and how that which we call invisible becomes vicerally palpable, touchable, and seen. He becomes intuitively obvious as we press forward and into Him.
The first post you can find right below; it was written just a month prior to this post.
Rewritten and reposted December 2008
The first post you can find right below; it was written just a month prior to this post.
Rewritten and reposted December 2008
