Heart Tracks - The View From Here

    You may remember the statement reportedly made by former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin back in 2008, that she could see Russia from her kitchen window.  I've no idea if she actually said that, or her words were simply twisted, as today's media is so prone to do, but the result for her was to receive wave after wave of ridicule and mockery.  This response is an apt illustration of what many, even in the church, may receive when we seek to "see" beyond our horizontal line of vision, and look up and see, past all the circumstances and difficulties, feelings and emotions, and lies and deceptions.  When we, as I heard a brother pray recently, begin to see the Kingdom of God from here, when we begin to see past the kingdom of this world, which is passing, and see into the Kingdom of the Father, which is steadfastly eternal, so that we both see, and know the truth.  The church, let alone the world, is desperate for those who have such vision, but I think we need to be prepared for the mockery and ridicule that will come, even from some in the church, who don't really believe we can have such a view from here.

    As I was praying with my brother the other day and heard him pray that prayer, a picture came to me.  It was that of a sailing ship of old, one that had what was known as the "crows nest," where a lookout was dispatched so as to have a clearer view of the horizon.  So often when at sea, the ship would be encased in thick fog, and those below, on the deck, could see little or nothing before them.  It was the one in the crows nest who would be the first to see the shoreline on the distant horizon, as well as every danger and obstruction that they might be blindly heading into.  There has never been a time in the church when such "lookouts" were not needed, but it seems that today, our need may be greater than ever.  As the fog about us grows thicker, the dangers greater, the need for men and women who can "see the Kingdom from here," increases tenfold.
We need such people in the pulpit, but in the congregation as well.  Those on "the deck," mired in the fog of this world, need someone, like the watchman Habakkuk, who will "Stand on my guardpost, and station myself on my rampart, and keep watch to see what He will speak to me."  What He will show, reveal, and lead to.  I think there are few such watchmen in the church today, fewer still standing on the ramparts, looking for and seeing Him, listening for, and hearing Him. 
    During the great depression of the 1930's, President Roosevelt would broadcast via the radio what he called "fireside chats."  They were designed to quell people's fears and encourage them.  History is divided on how effective they were, no matter how well meaning, but something I see from that is that the church today needs from its pulpits, its voices, something much greater than "chats" meant to encourage and calm fears.  It needs to hear the voice of the Father, through the fire of the Holy Spirit.  It needs people who are like those in John 1:14 who have "seen His glory, the glory as of a Father's only Son, full of grace and truth."  Such glory, grace and truth, will do more than just encourage or calm fears, it will wrought great transformation and behold the reality of the Kingdom.  It will pierce the thick fog of this world, and bring sight to those who've been blinded by it.  But first it will need those willing to climb to the crows nest, even amidst the ridicule of those around them, and dare to see beyond the fog into the Kingdom that is there on the horizon, but also alive within them.  Jesus lived with the clearness and reality of the Kingdom always before Him and within Him.  I want to be such a person.  How about you?

 

Blessings,

Pastor O