Another country

The mind is a pliable landscape. Principles of neuro-linguistic-programming or positive thinking can change some mindsets, yet without Christ to free us of what we have resolved, we will end up replacing one stronghold with another.

I know of souls who never complain and say very little. Many a boss would laud them as being reliable workhorses, perhaps even of great EIQ. Wrong. Without a vent, those souls may be the first to go. They bottle it all up inside and never let anyone into their inner worlds. Eventually they will be found out, because the energy required to maintain such inner tensions will burn them out.

They work it all out introspectively, resulting in a storm of thoughts that will eat away at their health, psyche and well-being. How often the same stoics also battle to engage God in real faith, something they also rationalize or post justify, such is the power of the mind.

The prodigal sons offer a great illustration of this conundrum. The older son was quiet, dependable and trustworthy, but also unimaginative, boring and safe. He broke down eventually, despite his stoicism, when the apparent unfairness of life caught up with him and broke with a wave of reality to confirm that even the safe are never safe.

The younger son let go and faced life. He did not walk the safe path, but went off to find out for himself what life is and is all about. He also broke down, but did so quicker. When he reached a more obvious pigsty than the subtle deceptions that his brother relied on, he had no doubt he was in the poo. It was that obvious. As such, he also accepted his predicament and did something about it.

At that stage, his older brother hadn’t come anywhere near to admitting that he had a problem.   

Then the younger brother acted, but the older brother stayed, safely ensconced behind a barricade of pride and reason. 

The youngster relocated: a wise thing because God’s kingdom will never come to us. Instead, it calls us to move, to where it is, to relocate, to traverse deserts and ford rivers until we reach the land of promised dreams.

The youngster then returned to the root of his crisis, which lay not in apparent causes, but in an identity distorted by his childhood reference to the father of his youth. We all want to be like our dads and strive for their approval, but they cannot give what only the greater Father can. By turning back home, as Jacob did in returning to Bethel, we return to the roots of our deepest crises.

The prodigal then found what he needed, not in approval, so much as in acceptance and the ability to walk alongside his Father as a son in his own right. The other son had yet to outgrow his own self-reliance and his false concept of that father. He was in love with his alter ego, not his father.

The youngster, having crossed his desert places, reached a new landscape. There his mind freed itself of self-doubt and unbelief. He saw, in the world that we all live in, what the unbelieving eye cannot see – an invisibly reservoir of grace that sustains and advances all who do get it.

It is a world within a world, one with its own borders and gateways, where God rules and where we can enjoy a life founded on solid rock, besides still waters and green pastures. There He will anoint our heads with oil, until our cups run over. Surely, we will dwell in His house forever.

That land offers a new identity, one not vested in our selfness, but in our being part of the first family, that royal people and holy nation that is the apple of God’s eye.

What hope this offers to all of us. 

(c) Peter Missing: bethelstone@gmail.com