LOSING SIGHT
LOSING SIGHT
You also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.
EPHESIANS 1:13-14
ears ago, my family and I were visiting the city of Bedford, England. In the heart of Bedford stands a larger-than-life statue of the famed seventeenth-century author John Bunyan. In fact, so imposing is the size of that sculpture that someone had painted bold, gigantic white footsteps from the edifice all the way to the public toilets. The message implied, sarcastically or otherwise, that Bunyan still lives.
Any reader of literature knows that though Bunyan has long been dead, his brilliant work, The Pilgrim's Progress, does indeed live on. That book has been translated into more languages than most other books in history, with the exception of the Bible.
So my family and I wandered through the museum built to his memory, where there was exhibited a copy of the book in every language in which it had been printed. We were quite impressed by the people of various nationalities engrossed in the display, walking from room to room, studying the exhibits.
As I was leaving, I commented to the woman at the front desk, "Isn't it amazing that a simple little book from the hands of a mender of pots and pans has won such worldwide acclaim?"
She paused and said, "I suppose that is true, but I must confess that I haven't read it."
If there hadn't been a hard floor beneath me, I would have voluntarily fainted.
Unable to help myself, I asked her, "Why not?"
"I found it too difficult, I suppose," she replied dispassionately.
If shock were to be measured along a scale, at this point I was nearly off the chart. What does one say to the person who sells tickets to a museum, the existence of which is owed to one book, while she herself has left the work unread? I recommended that for the sake of sheer curiosity, if not propriety, she might at least try the children's versión, so she could get a mild taste of what the interest was all about.
Bunyan's classic tale is a shrewd and an insightful allegory of the journey of life.
Christian, the lead character who represents each of us as pilgrims, struggles with a heavy burden. He encounters the testing of Vanity Fair, the Slough of Despond, and so on. It is only when Christian reaches the foot of the cross at the top of the hill that his burden falls off him.
But the journey doesn't end there. Bunyan writes.
Then he stood still for a while to look with wonder and amazement; for it was so surprising to him that the sight of the Cross should accomplish the release of his burden. Therefore he looked again and again, even until inward springs of water flowed down his cheeks. Now as he stood looking and weeping, behold three
Shining Ones approached and saluted him with the benediction, "Let peace be upon you."
So the first Shining One said to him, "Your sins have been forgiven." The second stripped Christian of his rags and clothed him with a complete change of garment. The third set a mark upon his forehead and gave him a scroll with a seal on it, which he directed should be looked at as he ran and handed in upon arrival at the gate of the Celestial City.
The first ángel meets his spiritual need, the second addresses his physical needs, and the third engages his intellectual needs with a map to guide and instruct him along the journey. The Christian's walk involves all three areas of life: the spiritual, the practical, and the intellectual. These are not mutually exclusive.
Yet, like the employee in the Bedford museum who had not read the work responsible for the museum's very existence, we may disregard the very Author of our lives. This is true not only of skeptics but of confessing believers and followers of Christ as well. How easy it is to lose sight and disregard the great inheritance promised through the gospel: God's own Spirit within us.
So, may we hold fast daily to His Word and His Spirit's indelible mark upon on us at the foot of the cross as His dearly loved children! God's Word and His indwelling presence are given to us to inform, enrich, teach, correct, and guide us to the "Celestial City." If we lose sight of these realities, we have lost the light that guides us on the journey, whether it is through the valley or around a hopefilled bend.
But oh, too, rejoice in the tenderness of God's gifts to us! He is complete, and thus are we, in what He gives to you and me: He forgives us. He robes us. And He guides us home—with the seal of His very Spirit upon us, both now and when we arrive to meet Him face-to-face.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. When does Christian's burden fall off of him, and where might you ñnd an example of this in the Bible?
2. What three gifts is Christian given, and how do they apply to the journey of faith?
PERSONAL APPLICATION
1. The Christian walk involves the spiritual, the practical, and the intellectual.
Take an inventory of your life. Where are you most in need of God's direction and indwelling presence?
2. Consider someone you've been trying to reach with the gospel. Of these three areas, what is his or her most pressing need, and how could you address it?
THE GREATEST
INVESTMENT
Two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesús himself carne up and walked along with them; but they were kept from
recognizing him.
LUKE 24:13-16
once visited the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, with my wife and my son. My wife, formally trained as a nurse, is a student of the fine arts. She studies every little thing while I do most things in a hurry so we can get to our next destination. As we walked through the museum, she studied every painting while I glanced here and there. I recall it being a magniñcent and historie place, but not much more.
Some years later I was reading a book by Henri Nouwen. He was teaching at Harvard and had just returned from an exhausting trip of lecturing when he encountered a póster he had never seen before. Two years later he resigned from his teaching post and went to the State Hermitage Museum to ñnd one painting: the one represented in the póster that he couldn't get out of his mind. It was The Return of the Prodigal Son, Rembrandt's depiction of the prodigal son coming home. Nouwen traveled to Russia and sat in front of that painting for four hours
—and it changed his life. After this encounter, he knew that he wanted to work with mentally handicapped children and joined a community in Toronto dedicated to this ministry.
Sadly, when I saw the painting, I paused for a few fleeting moments, then moved on to the next. I have lived to regret that loss.
One of my favorite authors, A. W. Tozer, once observed:
I have often wished that there were some way to bring modern Christians into a deeper spiritual life painlessly by short easy lessons; but such wishes are vain.
No shorteuts exist! . . . May not the inadequacy of much of our spiritual experience be traced back to our habit of skipping through the corridors of the kingdom like little children through the marketplace, chattering about everything but pausing to learn the true valué of nothing?
I went through the museum, as Tozer mused, skipping through the corridors, looking at everything but pausing to learn the true valué of nothing.
May I remind you how easy it is to do this, even as we are seeking after God?
Remember Jesús' disciples in the closing chapter of Luke's gospel? They were disillusioned, confused, and fearful. On the Sunday following Jesús' crucifixión,
two of them were walking to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking about everything that had happened the previous week when Jesús Himself appeared and walked along with them. But somehow they were kept from recognizing Him. Jesús asked them why they were so downcast, and they responded by asking Him if He was the only visitor to Jerusalem who didn't know what had happened there over the weekend.
The delightful irony of their question is that He was the only one who did know what had happened! Luke tells us, "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself" (Luke 24:27).
The seven miles flew by and before they realized it, they arrived in Emmaus.
True easterners, the two disciples invited Jesús to join them for dinner. As they sat down to eat, Jesús became the host and took the bread in His hands and blessed it. Suddenly, the disciples were stopped in their tracks and they recognized Him: Jesús! Whether when He broke the bread they were reminded of a meal shared with Him previously, or when they caught a glimpse of the wounds in His hands, their eyes were opened to Him. Though they had spent a couple of hours journeying seven miles with Jesús, they did not pause to take in the weight of all He shared with them until they were seated before Him.
Contrast them with a surgeon at work, completely focused on the delicate task at hand and the patient entrusted to his or her care. Think too of the hours one must invest in preparing for such a vocation and the disciplines needed in order to develop such skills. Or consider a mother with her children. Think of the hours she has invested to be by their sides and to understand what they really need.
Can we do any less in the discipline of study and preparation to finish the task to which God has called us? To echo Charles Spurgeon, the study of God is the highest Science, the loftiest pursuit, and the mightiest discipline. Its rewards are immeasurable: "Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart. . . . Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble" (Psalm 119:2, 165). Tozer concluded, "God has not bowed to our nervous haste ñor embraced the methods of our machine age. It is well that we accept the hard truth now: the man who would know God must give time to Him!"
Might we sit still long enough to take in what God has for us? That is the greatest investment we will ever make.