Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“The poor and needy search for water,
    but there is none;
    their tongues are parched with thirst.
But I the Lord will answer them;
    I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I will make rivers flow on barren heights,
    and springs within the valleys.
I will turn the desert into pools of water,
    and the parched ground into springs.

• Isaiah 41:17-18

However, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them as long as you live.

• Deuteronomy 23:5-6

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

• Matthew 6:33

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

• Luke 11:9-10

“There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there’s never more than one.”

• C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

I have written about the ABC mentality in the secular world, Anything But Christianity.  Yet, people keep seeking when the answer is right before their eyes.  God is a spirit, but He reveals Himself in so many ways.

I have known far too many people who seek what is missing in their lives.  They gain a moment of euphoria when the latest fad emerges and they jump on board, but the euphoria fades and somehow, they feel even more disjointed than before.  The answer is Jesus Christ, but out of social pressure or the misunderstood youth when they went to church – tried that and it did not work type thing.

But actually trying Jesus means an “all in” move, a step toward Jesus means never turning back, and when you try Jesus with a lifeline attached to the secular world, you have never really tried Jesus.

I am not saying that Jesus is the answer to every question.  The schoolboy was told by his teacher that he had flunked the test.  The pastor may have told him that “Jesus” was the answer, but this was a math test.

But when I read this quote from C. S. Lewis, I had read it many times before, but this time it spoke to the concept of no objective truth.  For those who are true Christians, think back to when you did not believe if you can remember that far back.  I know, it can get very scary.  The entire world seemed to be a disjointed world where bullies ruled the playground, parents said “no” without explaining why, and it seemed you needed to tie a bone around your neck to even get the dog to like you.  If someone said, “There is no such thing as objective truth” you might jump on the bandwagon.

But once you have Jesus in your heart, even the tough times in life make sense.  You do not always get an answer to the “Why” questions of life, but enough of them.

And once you firmly grasp that there is objective truth, the anxiety in life also fades.

Why worry?  The objective truth is that God is in ultimate control, and He loves us.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.