We need to be careful with dreams. Dreams that are not rooted in realism on one
side and in faith on the other become stumbling blocks to achievement. If we fantasize about getting in shape,
anticipating the pleasures that would be ours, our fake pleasures may become
substitutes for real pleasures that come only after months of painful
effort. Hope that does not include effort is not hope at
all, but life-denying fantasy.
Here is perhaps the most dangerous aspect of our modern
civilization. We live in a society
where fantasy is fast becoming our main commodity. Movies, video games, music, fashion
industries are all about selling fantasy.
We dream of being thin while becoming fatter, of being richer while
becoming poorer, of being popular while becoming more isolated from
others. Marx once called religion the
“opiate of the masses.” Today, it is fantasy.
Fantasy produces a feeling of success while we fail, of
strength while we become weak, and of knowledge when we know nothing. Our dream based society has become the
destroyer of real hope.
The other danger hope creates in us is confusing conditional, temporary hopes with unconditional, permanent
ones. In this case, the methods for
achieving hopes may be confused with the hopes themselves. Then, we the achievement of our conditional
hopes leads us away from the realization of permanent, lasting ones.
Security is a promise from God. It comes because He is over all things. God does not tell us, though how He will
fulfill His promise. He may do it by
providing us with enough finances to save for the future, or He may use other
means.
Jesus told this parable.
"The ground of a certain rich man produced a
good crop. He thought to himself, 'What
shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'
"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger
ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty
of good things laid up for many years.
Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very
night your life will be demanded from you.
Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
"This is how it will be with anyone who stores
up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
Luke 12:16-21
Idols are often hard to recognize, since we often
rationalize them by saying we are only trusting in God. We would be better off with no security in
this world than to confuse our temporal sources of security with real
protection from God.
Financial savings can confuse us into thinking that we are
more secure than we are. Even if our finances are more secure, the hope we have
is not leading us to trust in God, but could really lead us away from God.
All human hopes are conditional on circumstances which lie always
in the hands of God. We can build walls
to protect us against enemies, but the can not stop the plague. For every
earthly precaution there is something that can and will in time overcome
it.
The turtle is a remarkable animal, which has survived on
earth for millions of years. They move slowly because they can. There are few natural enemies it needs to
fear. But millions of years of successful
defense could not prepare the unfortunate turtle crossing a road on a summer evening
for an eighteen-wheeler traveling sixty miles an hour.
When our hope is in our own cleverness or strength, there is
no certainty of success. But when our hope is in Christ, and our hope is aligned
with His will, hope gives us strength and confidence facing forward.
With this blog, we have finally finished the eight facets of
the matrix. But this is not the end of the blog. I have a few more “rants” I will be putting
up soon. I will also be looking for other
bloggers and material to fill this blog.
Soon, I will be launching a faith matrix website, and will
be offering materials for sharing there.
If you have enjoyed this series, let me know, and share the
posts that are meaningful.
Thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment