Living In The Fall Of Man: On A Lonely Christian Walk

"The loneliness of the Christian results from his walk with God in an ungodly world, a walk that must often take him away from the fellowship of good Christians as well as from that of the unregenerate world. His God-given instincts cry out for companionship with others of his kind, others who can understand his longings, his aspirations, his absorption in the love of Christ; and because within his circle of friends there are so few who share his inner experiences he is forced to walk alone."

-A.W. Tozer

Are you feeling caught between worlds? Are you feeling troubled by an emotion you can't quite name? Are you desperately lonely? Cut off? Perplexed? Amazed? I know I am, more so than not. It is the cross to bear in this world. What an algid cross it seems to be, so unremitting.

Your an exile friend. Your on a lonely road. Did you think it would be all muffins, unicorns, rainbows and lollypops? Might you have been expecting an accolade or two? Perhaps a polished trophy for your endeavors?

There are none, no. There is only the flickering presence of God on difficult roads through an unaccommodating forest of trouble. This world is certainly of great trouble. If one dares to read of the troubles politically, socially, economically it would be enough to drive one mad! I've often taken that grim study and it isn't of particular joy. But there is such a fascination with knowing the truth, don't you think?

The truth shall set you free! And as the poster read on the wall of the Catholic retreat somewhere in the cow hills of Wisconsin: "The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable." Such a grim prognostication, yet also so hopeful.

Much like our Christian walk, through an unforgiving world. As Jesus said,"If you were of the world the world would love you as it's own. But you are not of this world." You are no longer of this world friend. You are a citizen of heaven. But I imagine the world didn't like you much even before the great transformation that changed your life forever.

When you met Jesus, the King of Kings, the President of Presidents, the Lord God almighty, you encountered the truth! The truth become a man! God almighty himself, came to you! And he changed you forever. And yet...

Yet here we are, in the world. But not of the world. John R. W. Stott referred to it as being "between worlds." Destined for eternal life, a perfected state of existence, a future we can hardly imagine. It's a beautiful future, a real future.

It's not a pie in the sky, leave that to the Marxist utopian types. They pine for a utopia on Earth that at best would last them 107 years. Then they're gone. We will live forever you see. What a shocking thing, how ground shaking! No wonder it is so hated, such a despised message worldwide. No wonder the nations turn from it, no wonder secularism abounds. No wonder even in our own country they seek desperately, day and night, to strike God, Christianity from every sphere of life. They do so viciously, rabidly, and they never stop. What drives them so? They are driven by hatred for a message that transcends them. They're driven mad by moral accountability. It's within their own heart you see. It nudges them while they sleep, and the more they try to hide it, the more it comes out. In the night, in the dark, the truth of who we are as humans taunts them, and the need for forgiveness.

They cannot stand the fact that how they live matters. They are in permanent revolt against the shared meanings of the past. They've been at it a while now, to the point that it's now considered quite normal to be a raving immoral, uneducated, unborn baby killing, sexually liberated authoritarian dead set on self, self and self. It's even considered the American way.

But how long could it last, our Christian nation? There is a war on after all. It is a spiritual war. It affects us everyday. We read about it in the news. We see it on the television. And it drives us mad. Because we have the answer, Jesus Christ, but they can't and won't accept that. They willfully condemn themselves, make rebellion against God in how they live, but they refuse to face it.

It is mass madness on a global scale friends. The truth has become so darkened, so covered over, so removed, so stigmatized, so demonized that when I write these words one of the world reading them assumes that I am quite mad, that I am a backwards fundamentalist, entirely delusional, trying to force my backwards hokey myths on good and decent people. To those who have been brainwashed into the current cultural ethos, we Christians appear quite nutty. But the truth always appears like hate to those who hate the truth.