Believing Is Seeing

I caught the second half of the film 'Loch Ness' this afternoon. 

 

I remember loving it as a child.  It follows an American scientist who is sent to Scotland to investigate the existence (or non-existence as he believes), of the Loch Ness monster.

 

At one point, as he is beginning to come round to the idea of the monster's existence, he says to one of the characters: "I want to see it so I can believe, too."  But she replies, "No.  You have to believe it to see it."

 

So often we can get caught up in the same cycle in our walks with God.

 

We want God to prove something to us before we believe it.  We want evidence before we will accept it.  We want to know that we can trust Him to provide if we give up our money.  We want to know what His plans are for our futures before we 'agree' to them.  We want to know if He'll answer our prayers before we bother praying.

 

But the Bible says,

 

"We live by faith, not by sight."

 

[2 Corinthians 5:7 NIV]

 

And in another translation, this same verse reads,

 

"It's what we trust in but don't yet see that keeps us going."

 

[2 Corinthians 5:7 MSG]

 

 

It would be wonderfully helpful to know and see everything that might develop and unfold in my future before deciding to trust in God.  It would be excellent to see the truths about Him being faithful and reliable before I decide to put my hope in Him.

 

But unfortunately, that's not the way faith works.

 

Sometimes we have to believe in order to see.

 

Sometimes believing is seeing.

 

 

 

 

 

Repainting

When I moved into my flat nine months ago, I took with me lots of paintings that I had done in the past, with the intention of putting them up somewhere.  Whilst I have done this with some of them, there was one that didn't seem to 'fit' in any room.

 

This was primarily because the sky in the picture was a really deep, vivid blue and the colours, in general, were quite bold.  The colours in my flat are quite subtle and subdued and it seemed garish in every room.

 

I had left it propped up  against the wall in my spare room and there it seemed destined to stay.  Until a conversation with a friend about it earlier on in the week, which drew my attention to it again.

 

We tried it out in each room, and it still didn't really 'go'.

 

Until yesterday morning, when I decided to repaint it.

 

It is still the same landscape and the same image.  But the sky is now a pale dusty blue and the harsh colours are softer.  The whole painting looks much gentler and calmer.

 

Before, it was dramatic and tense.  Now, it is peaceful and tranquil.

 

And it goes.

 

I was really pleased that I thought to repaint it, and I'm really pleased with the outcome.

 

And I found it really therapeutic, too, that idea of repainting the past.  The process of taking something old that didn't fit in any more, something which I didn't like as it was, and repainting it, making it new.

 

It is so easy to think that we are stuck with things that can't be changed: mistakes that we have made in the past, or lies that we believed, or people that we pretended to be.  We think that they are fixed and unchangeable.  But there is always the possibility of repainting the past.

 

The Bible says,

"God rewrote the text of my life

when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes."

         [Psalm 18:24 MSG]
 

 

I gave up a few hours to repaint the sky on a small canvas.  But God gave up His Son, so that anyone who wants to can be repainted too.

"This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!"

 

[2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV] 

 

 

The Grey Familiarity

I read this in a magazine article about photography today,

 

"In order to see we must practise looking beyond the grey familiarity of our everyday world."

 

The article was about learning to see things differently and to open our eyes when looking for photo opportunities.  To be purposeful in the things that we look for, and to look beyond the obvious.  Sometimes we become so familiar with what is familiar, that we forget to look beyond the surface.  We think we know what we will see and so we stop really looking.

 

I remember in Art GCSE we discussed this idea.  How often we think we know what we are drawing, and so we draw our idea of things, rather than drawing the actual thing.  I remember we went outside and practised drawing trees without looking at the paper.  It took a while to get used to, but what we actually drew was far more tree-like than if we had just drawn what we thought we saw.

 

It made us look properly and to see things afresh.

 

We can become so used to 'seeing' things in our lives too, without looking properly.  We assume we know what we are seeing and that we are seeing things properly, so we forget to look beyond the surface.  We end up settling for the grey familiarity of our everyday world.

 

We think we 'know' what our futures look like.  We think we know what our skills and talents are.  We think we know what we are capable of.  We think we know what other people think of us.  We think we know what God thinks of us.

 

But so often our thinking is wrong - it is based on the way things appear, on the surface of things.

 

But the Bible reminds us not to live by what we see on the surface, but to look deeper - to look beyond the grey familiarity.

"We live by faith, not by sight."

 

[2 Corinthians 5:7 NIV] 

 

I think perhaps I was drawn to this quote so much because of the name of my blog: The Golden and The Grey.  I started writing  several months ago because I felt challenged to look through the grey familiarity of my everyday life and to look for evidence of God's grace and glory.  To look for the golden in amongst the grey.

 

In his song, 'When the Music Fades', Matt Redman reminds us that God looks beyond the surface too:

 

        You look much deeper within

        Through the way things appear

        You're looking into my heart.

 

God looks beyond the surface, and so should we. 

Look through the grey familiarity.  Look for the golden opportunity.

 

 

 

What's the Catch?

I've been shopping today for the first time in a while and I was amazed by how many sales and 'offers' there were around.

 

£20 off when you spend £100.  Come in to claim your free gift worth £15.  Buy two, get one free.

 

Offers which, on the surface, seem good. 

 

But there is always a catch.

 

I have to spend £100 to get £20 off.  I have to purchase several items and sign up to monthly emails to get a 'free' gift.  I have to buy two of something (which I might not even need or want), in order to get a third (again, which I might neither need nor want), for 'free'.

 

'Free' doesn't really mean 'free' anymore, does it?

 

There is always a catch.

 

Is that why we struggle to accept Jesus' words and promises?  Eternal life, forgiveness for all of the things we've done wrong, and a restoration of our relationship with our heavenly Father.  For free?

 

Is there a catch?

 

Yes. 

 

But not for us. 

 

Jesus has already paid the price to secure these things for us.  He laid down His perfect, flawless life as a sacrifice, or an exchange, for us.  He, quite literally, paid the cost on our behalf, so that we can enjoy the freedom that that brings.  We can have eternal life, we can receive forgiveness for the things that we've done wrong and our relationship with our heavenly Father can be restored.

 

Because Jesus paid the price.

"God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ."

[2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT]

 

In the examples from my shopping experience: Jesus has paid the £100, I just get to use the £20 off.  He has purchased several items and signed up for the emails; I get the free gift.  He has bought two items and given me the third for free.

 

It is free only because Jesus has paid the cost.  We get all of the benefits without having to pay any of the costs.

 

Is there a catch?  Yes.  But Jesus has already paid it for us.

Old and New

One of the things that has made camping at Momentum much more bearable is the fact that I know someone with a shower.

A proper shower.

A warm shower, behind a door that locks, for which there is never a queue or a feeling of having to rush so the next person can use it. At Momentum, there is little more one could ask for in a shower.

And so every day I have managed to fit in a shower at some point and have been so grateful to scrub the mud from my body and to feel clean again.

However, after every shower, I have had to walk back to my own tent and, to do that, I have had to put my dirty clothes back on. They're not that dirty, but they're the clothes I had on before I had a shower.

Whilst I'm clean, it doesn't make sense to put old, unclean clothes on.

But how often do we do that as Christians? We have been made clean and have been offered new 'clothes', but we put on the 'clothes' of the old life again.

"You're done with that old life. It's like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you've stripped off and put in the fire. Now you're dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it ... So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offence. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.

[Colossians 3:9-14 MSG]

We have been washed and made clean by Jesus' blood, yet we often return to our old clothes: our old patterns of life, our old thoughts, our old addictions. But that's wrong. God has cleaned us up and has given us a new wardrobe. Let's wear it. Our old clothes have no use anymore.

So whilst I need mine to get back to my tent, in a spiritual sense, our old clothes are redundant.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

[2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV]

Camping

I don't really mind camping.

I'm not a 'hard-core' proper camper: I have an air bed and have just been in search of a socket to plug in my hair straighteners (camping and curly hair is not a good combination). But I do quite enjoy a couple of nights in the outdoors.

I like the fresh air and the fact that you can see the stars and the fact that life slows down a for a little bit.

However, I think that I like these things most because I know that I am only camping for a few days.

If it became a lifestyle, if I knew I had to live in a tent for the test of my life, I think the novelty would soon wear off and I would get tired of it.

I'd find the space confining and restricting; I'd get annoyed that I can't stand up properly; I'd find it irritating that I couldn't always have a hot shower. My air bed would soon deflate and so would my enthusiasm.

The Bible says that it's the same with our earthly bodies: the physical bodies that we have here on earth are like tents: they are temporary and a poor reflection of the heavenly and eternal and glorious body that we will have after death:

"For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh."

[Corinthians 5:1,2,4 NLT]

Our earthly bodies are 'tents' which are fine for our time here and the work that God gives us to do. However, they are flimsy and sometimes uncomfortable, and that reminds us that they are not our permanent homes. We have an eternal and permanent house to look forward to.

I love this translation from the same passage in 2 Corinthians:

"He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we'll never settle for less...Cramped conditions here don't get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead."

[2 Corinthians 5:5-6 MSG]

So, in the same way that at the end of the week I'll be glad to get back to my more substantial flat, when I am frustrated with my earthly body, I can take comfort that it is not my permanent residence.