Living Outloud

To those who might have missed my entries over the last several months, I apologize. The fact is that I just didn't have the strength--or at least the needed strength to overcome the inertia. I do now.

I have been reading a lot lately--mostly material that will never be printed in books or material that was printed long ago and kept in just a few volumes. It has helped me see. I think that there is something else helping me as well. I do not yet see well, not by a long-shot. But I believe that I am seeing better. And I want this to continue.

In the midst of this recent journey, I have discovered something about learning and, perhaps, about knowledge itself. I have found that it easy to focus on the wrong side. Discovering the glass, taking note of its contents, and the fact that it is so little filled, we can easily be drawn into lament. And such lament is not without justification. When our eyes begin to open, there is plenty to be angry or sad about.

Call it evil or darkness or negativity... We see this and its capacity to sour and destroy and it's hard to resist overly regarding it. A friend of mine once put it this way, we need to acknowledge the evil in the world without glorifying it.

You see, in our anger and sadness, we can actually come to worship evil, if only accidentally. This happens when we become overly fascinated by the capacity of wickedness to woo the world and impose its will upon it. The result is terror and a great feeling of helplessness. Consequently, our focus turns less toward asking God for help or deliverance. Rather, we spend all our time and energy simply mesmerized by the enormity of the darkness.

One thing that I have come to consider is that the pain and suffering in the world might be coming from a source other than that which seems the most obvious. Christians are generally taught to take great, personal responsibility for sin. And this is probably a good thing. But most of the people that I know do not really want to bring pain and suffering upon the world. Consider the level of war and strife and slavery that we have in the world today. Do you know anyone who is sincerely excited about all this? (BTW, if you do, you may want to look for some new friends!)

What if it really is not us--at least not at the foundation anyway. Of course, we certainly can get co-opted into some pretty horrible things. But most of the people I know--even the very worst people that I know--don't sit up nights thinking about ways to bring terror and hardship upon the earth. (BTW, if they do, then I need some new friends!)

The thing is that it doesn't have to be this way. Evil does not have to hold our attention. But we DO have to find a way to turn away from it--to set our eyes and hearts to something else. When we do that, we find that darkness is not the only game in town. As we turn our hearts toward the good, the light, the positive, we indeed find that things like hope and peace and love are very real and very powerful. Nothing dispels darkness like light. Nothing overcomes evil like good. Nothing shows negativity for what it is better than something truly positive.

A few days ago, I looked up a song that I have always liked and discovered that there is a video that goes along with it. Take four minutes and watch this in its entirety. I think it explains what I am trying to say here in a far clearer and more beautiful way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6pODq8_FxE&ob=av2e