Stop. Don't. Come Back

I posted this about three years ago, and thought I would re-publish it:

Stop. Don't. Come Back

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

Every time I read Ephesians 6:12 I am crushed in Spirit at how many times I fall for the dark side. 

Sometimes that dark side poses as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), but not always. 

Sometimes it claims victory by using us as its agents by tapping into our self-righteousness.

Think about it: every time we have “run-ins” with people, ongoing conflict, thorns in our side—be it in the form of individuals, groups, families, political parties, or situations—what has our motivation been? More precisely, what has our motivation which is driving the attitude been?

Look at motivation and we quickly discover why all of the components in the above scenarios become, and often remain, life-long nemeses. 

And oh does society ever make it easy to hit the repeat button in this modus operandi!

In fact, we’ll notice that the general public even desires it from us, because it is how most of them operate too. 

Just take the “high road” some time, and discern the almost resentment-like response of those around. 

Try to defend the person being gossiped about and we will often be met with immediate defensiveness from the person originating the gossip. Initiate the gossip ourself and notice how readily another person joins in on the dump-fest.

Try to keep any conversation positive and we are frequently met with “yeah, but” or “but what about…?” Or the other person may stop talking entirely and we’ll be met with a perpetual chill in all further interactions.

It seems that the pits of animosity, begrudgement, divisiveness, character-assassination, finding fault, and a superiority complex are as prevalent as the potholes in many cities. We’re going along, and suddenly, unbeknownst, wham!, our front end is now out of alignment due to a gaping hole we didn’t see coming. 

It’s the same with spiritual battle.

We will be going about our day, and all of a sudden we are hearing our very own mouth form and speak aloud criticizing words and feel our hearts possessing selfish and partisan attitudes (or we’ll be on the receiving end of such and retaliate in our own inner thought-life). 

Over time, and with cultural acceptance, we get to the place of autopilot, and only when confronted with God’s Word, or a Godly example of God’s Word in action, are we—if we know Christ—convicted (and if we’re on the receiving end, we’ll see the attack for what it really is).

Ephesians 6:12 explains why we let it happen in the first place: because we failed to recognize it as a spiritual battle (whether we are the perpetrator or the receiver: oftentimes, as the receiver, we quickly morph into perpetrator mode via our passionate defense of our self).

Ephesians 6:12 is the “out;” the antidote to spiritual attack which we, in Christ, can control by simply recognizing it for what it is, and committing to not going there. 

It is like the words of Gene Wilder, playing the character of Willy Wonka, when he tells the little boy who is about to embark on a very unwise course of action, “Stop. Don’t. Come back.”

That is what Ephesians 6:12 is telling us. 

The first thing to recognize in order to turn off the auto-pilot on our illicit shooting from the hip is that these interactions, and the motivations behind them, are enlisted to bring the dark powers of this world into play.

Using another movie example, why do so many people like the Star Wars movies? 

Because there is a dark side and a light side. 

Everyone loves the light side in these movies, and sit on the edge of their seats almost yelling at the movie screen for Luke Skywalker to not go to the dark side: 

“Don’t go over to it!” we want to scream.

“Don’t let the dark side win!! Resist it! Tap into the Force! Stay the course!”

It’s right there in front of us in these movies—a constant presence—and we all get it. It’s no big mystery. The battle is clear, and it underlies everything.

But in real life? 

We act like we have no clue. 

We let ourselves grow ignorant and dense toward the dark side—some even saying it doesn’t exist!! 

Some people, bless their souls, say deep down everyone is good. But they are confused: the truth is, if anyone is good at all, it is only because God Himself is the only Good (Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19), and we can have His goodness instilled in us via His Holy Spirit when we believe that Jesus is who Jesus says He is (Luke 13:34-35; John 1:9-13; John 3; John 8:12-47; John 14:16-17; 2 Peter 1; 1 John 5:1-4).

But the dark side still beckons (John 1:5; John 3:19; Acts 26:18; 2 Timothy 2:26; Peter 1:19). 

Certainly Christians are not exempt from temptation (1 Corinthians 10:12-14). 

That is why 1 Peter 5:8-9 says, 

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world."

Unlike the Star Wars movies, with their beautifully human-created metaphors for darkness and light, in Scripture darkness and light are not metaphors. They are clearly spelled out: Jesus is light (John 1:1-5; John 3:19-21; John 8:12; John 12:46; Colossians 1:13;) Satan is dark (John 8:44; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2; 1 Peter 5:8-9; 1 John 5:19)

With the guidance of the Holy Spirit who reveals all things to us (John 14:26), we come to see Jesus and Satan clearly and are given the warning and wisdom to know the difference, and to respond (not react) as the Christ-followers we are.

The point is, when we miss the reality of darkness--of it lurking like a lion waiting for someone to devour--we fall into its snare and are now the very perpetrators of darkness. 

The Bible warns that if we think we stand, be careful that we don’t fall (Luke 18:9-14; 1 Corinthians 10:12). 

Not to say we cower and become paranoid. No. We go out in confidence that, though evil is surely there, we are at peace in Christ that, since He has overcome it (John 1:5; John 16:33) we in the Spirit can, and will, also (2 Thessalonians 3:3). 

It means carrying Christ’s discernment, not ours, with us, so that we resist the attempts from the rulers, powers and forces of wickedness mentioned in Ephesians 6:12

So, going forward, when we see that infuriating person coming down the hall, that nosy neighbor out walking their dog, that car cutting in front of us, that waitress not performing to our self-righteous standards, that political enemy on television...whoever it is that justifiably or unjustifiably provokes us—instead of seeing a person, neighbor, car, waitress, politician or provocation, we see darkness and wickedness—not in them but in us—in our reaction, in our take-away, in our attitude and our hate. 

We have that “aha!” moment in which we quickly surmise that we are about to be punked by the devil himself. 

Is that what we want? To be a pawn in the pull-strings of darkness?

Do we like seeing Luke Skywalker go to the dark side? No!

So let’s not like it when we go there either. 

The key is to stay in the Light. Jesus is the light. 

If Christ alone is our portion, and we allow His life to rule in us, then we will resist the devil and the devil will flee (James 4:7). 

Copyright Barb Harwood

Legalism

 

Legalism is when humans make up their mind about God and His Word, instead of letting God open their minds to Him and His Word. 

copyright Barb Harwood

The Mind-Opening Impact of Scripture

 

Scripture has opened my thinking beyond the narrowness of myself. 

God's Word has expanded my thinking, not limited it.

copyright Barb Harwood

Just Be

 

Sometimes faith comes down to the one basic simple assurance that “God is with me in this moment.” I’m not looking to Him to comfort, enlighten, convict, reassure, make confident of, acquit, or anything else. 

Our present existence is melded. And that is enough.

It took a bit of living, and getting over, the “religious” life to arrive at the point of God’s simple presence being sufficient, without my turning, at first light of daily dawn, to actions required of Him: saving people, holding so and so accountable, turning a particular situation around to my liking, making things right in relationships, clearing my name of an injustice, ending poverty, persecution, ignorance, willful rejection, hurt, anger, and on and on and on—the drumbeat of “let’s roll up our sleeves, God, and see what, primarily, You will do!!

I’ve come to experience that having none of that go through my mind is frequently best. 

A steadiness of listening, hearing, seeing and comprehending elicits a more objective, and certainly less self-occupied, perspective. 

I’m not asking God to see, I’m knowing he sees, and I’m now seeing right along with Him.

In this way, I can just be. 

God can just be. 

We can just be, together.

Not in eternal sunshine and happiness. But in whatever mood, dilemma, or personal enigma—free of solving, fixing, praying, lamenting, or jumping to hyper conclusions, be they joyous or fearsome. 

All goes directly and non-dramatically to God in a silent, penetrating connection between Him and myself, keeping the lanes of my heart and mind clear to continue to just abide and live out all God has transformationally wrought within me thus far. 

That is the surety that makes this possible. That is how I don’t regress. That is how I don’t let people hold me to their expectations of how I used to be, or how they remember me being, or how I ought to be (and me, them). 

That is how I prevent the failures and ignorance of yesterday from reappearing and polluting the present, no matter the triggers or attempts to bring those errors to the surface.

We have gained so much with God! And we have lost so much, in a good way, to gain it!

Let us be His redeemed, His forgiven, His made-right in a multitude of ways. Let us be His made strong. 

And let the calm and grace of that strength we share with Him, permeate. 

And be enough. 

Copyright Barb Harwood

Giving Up the Ghost of "Community"

When people wax nostalgic about “community,” what they are, in actuality, imagining or thinking worthy to emulate is a coterie of like-minded people who “go along to get along” (with those "going along" in a "show up and shut up" or suffer silently sort of way). 

When, however, someone with a varying or outright opposite or contrary viewpoint enters in to that community, or a longtime member demands too much from the group due to questioning or evolving perspective, or doesn’t contribute according to standard, that person becomes an outsider and most likely will never “fit in” until they “tow the community line.”

Sometimes they are booted out. 

Sometimes they are finger-pointed at and passively or aggressively confronted.

Sometimes the person wastes no more time and simply moves on. 

I truly believe that the ideal of “community” which most people adhere to, hope for and curate, is nothing more than group think and group act. 

Which is why “church-hoppers” will never find their church “home,” and why, in the current state of partisan politics, Democrats will rarely, if ever, concede greatness to a Republican, and a Republican will rarely, if ever, concede greatness to a Democrat. 

The beloved quest for diversity-in-community will never achieve its goal until people—each and every individual, young and old alike—stop being threatened by differing viewpoints and the people who hold them. 

Confident, assured individuals who are at peace with themselves will be sincerely inquisitive and able to carry on a mature, respectable conversation without shouting down another (either silently and internally, or outwardly). 

The potential for influence, after all, is only as great as one's ability to open their own mind--especially one that may heretofore have been closed--to thoughtful consideration of another's context and perspective. 

It's called a willingness to change, or a humble willingness to consider all the facts and not change, but also not force another to transform, or refuse their right to believe what they believe and be who they are.

In the end, I posit that “community” as most people dream it—to be with others who “think like I do, believe like I do, and act like I do” is actually quite detrimental, and no place in which I am pining to live. 

Copyright Barb Harwood

Nothing is a Thing

 

Recently, I toured an open house wherein the floor plan did not follow a traditional utilitarian layout. I noticed that many of us walking through the home found this oddly disconcerting, and, pondering with furrowed brows, we questioned what might become of the space, how it could best be put to “good use.” 

In short, our gut reaction was to solve how to “fill” the open areas.

And it struck me, this obsessive tendency to functionality, to make productive, to "waste not want not," to never have it occur to any of us to just leave it empty.

I realized that we do this with much of life.

We do it with weekends.

We do it with years.

We do it with children.

We do it with ourselves.

We try to figure out how to purposely fill   all    of    the    space. 

We forget, or perhaps never knew, that empty space is actually a thing. An entity to itself.

Empty walls. 

Empty weekends.

Empty prayers.

Emptiness is what often leads to completeness, to filling, on its own, what we have tried to force into being.

But only if we see it that way and grow comfortable with its initial, sometimes vulnerable, awkwardness. 

What we find is, that the empty, the nothing at all, possesses its own sufficiency. And over time, we welcome it as a coveted balancing friend. 

It isn’t meditation. 

Nor New Agism. 

It isn’t, you guessed it: anything. 

It is nothing. 

Nothing at all. 

And that is what makes it a thing. 

A quiet, often misunderstood, but essential, thing. 

We make room for it then, as we would for every other thing.

But when we make room for the nothing, there is going to be less room for the other somethings: the volunteering, recreating, schooling, socializing, media-consuming, television-watching, over-thinking and active distracting. 

These other highly prioritized fillings—these perpetual doings-of-something and stuffing of spaces—must now move over, or lose out to entirely, the exonerated empty. 

Nothing, realized and finally embraced as a concrete something, is unleashed to liberally supplant the void that always-doing-and-filling something naively created. 

Copyright Barb Harwood

The Blurring of the Line

 

Why do we worship spiritual and religious authors and mystics, and, if we are honest with ourselves, do we extrapolate them onto God, or God onto them?

copyright Barb Harwood