Day 3321 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Psalm 14:1 NIV

Scripture makes it clear the signs of a fool, shame that we always insist we can see them only in others.

For the truth is that none is a greater fool than the self. There is no sillier foe than a selfish heart as such defines in us the ability to see only what we wish perceived, leaving then the inability to see anything beyond such boundary. Yes, we’ve become a people of great advancement in things such as science, art, artificial intelligence and the articulation of our many affinities. And yet, despite our increasing knowledge, it would seem that the further ahead we get, the further behind we fall.

Because the true gravity of life’s existence is not the sum of our accomplishments nor the enthusiasm with which we chase them but rather the humility which affords us the opportunity to understand that should we be the only ones who decide what life is meant to mean, life can then be only whatever we might have the courage to imagine.

And this is a monumental problem as it would seem that we’ve lost our ability to believe.

That’s evidenced by just how many deny their Maker. It’s proven in the increasingly sparse and thus entirely lonely existence of those upon the narrow. It’s seen and shown inside this society of service given only to self and thus leaving ignored all others. It’s felt inside the lack of faith and all that such emptiness creates in us. And yet we’ve all become so numb to life that all we seem to know of feeling are these incredibly fragile feelings which we waste away trying to protect and justify.

And when such is our assumed purpose in life, merely the defense of our desires and the protection of our preferences and affirmation of our affinities, it’s simply inevitable that we fall headlong into a life lived without once living life. For without faith, what can become of life? Or rather do we truly not understand the utter reliance of life on faith? Do we indeed not feel the things we lack as we list and laze outside of an adoration of God’s grace?

Have you ever once wondered as to what you’ve never felt inside a life lived outside of faith?

Because I’m here to tell you today that while faith does a many great things for those bold enough to believe, perhaps the truest gravity of grace is found and felt in what results in a life without that kind of courage. And yet such has become so overly normalized that I feel our faith paralyzed behind blinded eyes still so stuck inside assuming that seeing is believing, leaving believing a mere matter of whatever we think we’re seeing, and thus us never able to believe in what we cannot see.

But were we to put such violent complacency as that reliance upon our sight and senses aside for a second, perhaps we might find ourselves able to see the lack of legitimacy and the corresponding presence of insanity.

Because if we could think beyond our thoughts, see beyond our sight, believe beyond our boundaries of blaspheme and uncertainty, we might be able to begin asking questions that lead to answers that finally begin to make some sense out of life that leaves us finally able to actually live it for more than we see, more than we are, more than what’s here.

For example, why is it that we clearly cannot see that relying upon sight only requires us to assume that all of life is a matter meant to be seen? And if life is in fact entirely encompassed by that which is perceived only by sight, truly only a matter meant to be seen, then what of feeling? What of courage? What of humility? Honesty? Integrity? Responsibility? All things which cannot be seen nor proven with some sort of the usual evidence upon which our sense of sight has come to rely. Does this mean they don’t exist?

You see, this whole reliance upon sight to always lead the way seems yet another violent cycle into which we’ve stumbled, refusing faith in exchange for all that a lack of faith entails. Or again, having existed thus far so faithless, have we perhaps never seen that? Pun entirely intended because the question is entirely heartfelt.

Have we indeed never seen that living life by sight and thus without faith can only hinder all that faith is, brings, does, defines, deserves?

Or again, because our only belief seems to be that seeing precedes believing, have we never yet found reason to wonder such things as to what faith brings? Let’s, for the sake of this post for today, assume we’ve not, as I honestly don’t think we have.

For instance, what if I told you that a lack of faith demanded the presence of anger? Or that a lack of faith inspired impatience? What if we could understand that things such as expectation and it’s foulest of friend, entitlement, were a direct symptom of a soul starving itself upon unbelief? Because what actual meaning can life have when all we live for is what we allow ourselves to assume possible, which is merely only what has already been proven by seeing or otherwise widely assumed provable by sight?

It’s no wonder as to why so many so clearly seem so lifeless, lost, left to fend for themselves via the standard settlement upon selfishness. Because we can see the benefits of that. For if life is nothing more than what a person may or may not see for themselves, by themselves, then is not life merely a means of our own making as we live trying to make it into whatever we might see the way to be, to become? Indeed that is all that life can be when all we agree that life can be is what we can see, never then able to be anything more than our vision can perceive.

And this is utterly heartbreaking as each of us should know hindsight well enough by now to know that we’ve always known less, perceived less, seen less than we ever did in the moment in which we either made mistakes or missed something we now regret never knowing.

Which entirely defines the foundational demand of humility for faith to exist. Because we have to be willing, not able because we are entirely able already, but we have to choose to be willing to look beyond what we can see. Because the simple truth is that, along this path as it’s been both paved and proven a line of increasing pain and persecution, if we go by only what we see, we’ll eventually start looking for ways to give up and walk away.

For this road ahead, the narrowest one possible aimed at a promise we cannot even begin to imagine let alone actually envision, is one that will look impossibly arduous more times than not.

And so if all we can see are the fires and floods, we’ll see more than enough reason to assume we can’t make it and thus eventually convince ourselves that since such failure seems inevitable, well then we may as well quit and save ourselves the trouble. But friends, we’ve quit on Christ enough already. And our having done so as many times as we’ve chosen to rely on sight, or safety, or understanding, or assumption has only caused us to have lived a life never knowing life at all.

Because if we were to be honest, a life lived without belief, without imagination, without creativity inspiring inside an audacity to demand the impossible, what have we left but all that’s here? And though few ever feel like stopping to ask themselves such questions as the following, is that truly all we’re meant to live for, rely on, hope in? Just what’s here? Just what’s already been seen, already been found, previously been known or accomplished or purchased or prized and prioritized and preferred and popular?

Indeed, is this life spent hurtling toward its finality as demanded by mortality truly the time in which we’re supposed to put all of our proverbial eggs?

Seems the standard assumption settled upon by almost all of society. That we’re here for nothing more than following our eyes to the limits of our sight and staying safely within those confines as such afford for us the comfort of never having to risk being wrong. But my question then becomes, why does it matter as we’ve been wrong plenty of times before?

Why does it matter if we end up being wrong about God?

What will such a belief have actually cost us? And I’m not talking socially or professionally or politically or worldly. No, personally, what will we have lost, missed, misunderstood if we reach the end of this life and find that we were wrong about God? Because the social and professional and political consequences are as clear today as they’ve always been. We’ll be seen as fools, weirdos, freaks who follow a faith that seems make believe to those who think that seeing begets believing.

So what? Does such external opinion truly define us? Does worldly rejection demean our worth? Will persecution or pain or loss or loneliness truly mean our lives were worthless?

What will it cost us?

For if we reach the end of this life having tried our best to honor our belief in God above only to find out that, as many so clearly assume, He’s not there, will it have made our efforts pointless? Will we have regretted the parties we missed? Will we feel bad about the righteousness we tried to become? Will we feel shame over the choices to not share in the filth and frivolity of the world that wanted us only to blend in? Will it have been worthless, foolish for us to have practiced self-control, self-debasement, self-denial?

Or rather is such humility perhaps of far more gravity than almost everyone down here assumes?

Because you see, so many do in fact say in their hearts that there is no God. That faith is foolishness. That this concept of self-control demanding we ache for things such as patience and kindness and compassion and gratitude, all things entirely afterthoughts anymore, they’re all just that, they’re expendable. They’re unnecessary. Mercy and grace and honor and modesty and honesty and humility, they’re all nonsense to most.

But what other traits are clearly seen alongside those who hold to such hopelessness? Anger. Jealousy. Impatience. Hostility. Hatred. Malice. Immorality. Indecency. Dishonesty. Depravity. Darkness. And so thus, are not such things evidence of a lack of faith? For they’re all seen in increasing measure within this world and it’s way. And so, seeing as how this world sees faith to be foolish, does not that lack of faith explain the presence of such things as anger and impatience?

Because while faith does indeed bring a bounty of things such as hope and joy and peace and purpose, so too does it teach us things that this world cannot instill nor inspire. Such as patience. Kindness. Respect. Responsibility. Reason. Repentance. Forgiveness. Generosity. Gratefulness. Mercy. Compassion. Even love. This world teaches us only what all of those things are not, for this world is a faith vacuum in which so many are so lost being so reliant upon sight, upon sound, upon self, that none have time nor interest in considering anyone else.

God most of all.

Because He’s not seen in the conventional ways in which we’ve come to rely upon sight to work. He doesn’t have billboards or commercials or Instagram accounts. He’s not sending out emails or publishing best-sellers, well, actually He kind of did do that last one. But my point is that if we do as everyone else continues to and remain stuck inside this idea that all of life is meant to be seen before it can be believed, then sure, like they, so too will we find only more reason to doubt in Him than we do to believe.

Simply because life will continue on as it has been going, filled with wars and rumors of wars, laden with lust and laziness inspiring folks to give up and go along, consumed with consumption and excess and gluttony and greed fanning inside the flames of selfish desire and thus denying all that a self either can’t or simply won’t see or hear or accept or consider. And thus life here will be lived among the many who say in their heart that there is no God.

And thus, if to them there is no God, then nor is there any reason to fight for anything better than the anger and hatred and hostility and impatience and hopelessness and joylessness and purposelessness of what life has become as lived according to this world’s rampant lack of belief.

But here’s where this all must become entirely personal as we each must decide for ourselves alone which path we follow and what we expect along it. And friends, just to hopefully save you some trouble and struggle and stumbling, if you venture down this path expecting sight to remain reliant, you are in for a really rough ride. Because never once did Christ ask us to do as the world does, to expect what the world does, to think how the world does, to see believe as the world does.

Rather He makes it blatant that the ways of this world are perishing along with all who abide by them, in them. He speaks to the corruption of souls, the loss of sanity, the sacrifice of eternity, the missing of this moment in which we’ve this undeserved opportunity to turn from our death inside a life spent without faith and find for once the narrow door which opens unto an existence so peacefully perfect that not even time can matter anymore.

But that’s foolish. Yes, in this world hope is foolish. Peace is foolish. Meaning is meaningless. Nothing means anything anymore. Down here. Which is why I think it wise to refuse the invitation to walk within that same mindset as those who say in their hearts that there is no God and in turn live their lives in an utter lack of anything anywhere close to everything He now gives us the chance to be.

Because if this world wants to remain hopeless, joyless, senseless, aimless, soulless, lifeless, loveless, fine. As for me, I cannot agree. For I cannot manage to equate anger with peace, hate with love, purpose with preference, excitement with expectation, joy with pleasure, value with treasure, meaning with the mainstream, acceptance with applause, life with death, nor hope with here.

For if this world, as wise as if thinks itself to be, truly has the ability to define all the above, well then I guess corruption can be the only outcome. And personally, I just cannot accept that as it stands to reason that if something were to have become corrupted, there must have been a version that existed in betterment before such corruption came along.

And it’s to that end that I will hope no matter who says I shouldn’t nor what they think of me when I do it anyway. Because I know what it’s like to let this world define life, and simply put, I’ve never been more miserable than in those years spent trying to see things from the blinded perspective that this world has chosen. And to me, all that misery only makes it obvious that such isn’t the only option, and that there is indeed something far better than all that we’ve become.

And since we can see what we’ve become, I find more logic in now hoping in the unseen than I do worrying about those who are stuck to remaining inside all this obvious lack of goodness that we’ve found by following our sense of sight.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold