Prelude to Prostration

What is the cost:

   of image projecting,

      ego styling,

         visage counterfeiting,

            position posturing,

               individualism perfecting,

                  peer pandering,

                     self satisfying?

      What price must be paid

          for domain building,

             portfolio padding,

                castle gilding,

                   opinion injecting,

                      weaponry wielding,

                         sympathy garnering,

                            discomfort shielding?

            What unseen expense

               for incessant investing

                   perpetual grasping

                      artful one-upping

                          cunning chousing, 

                              power playing

                                  defense strengthening

                                       ladder climbing.

                  What is the cost

                     of continuous improvement;

                        process refining

                           to gain the whole world.

                               What will one loose

                                  to posess his own soul?

                            What does one save

                                 laying foundations on sand,

                                     dismissing advice

                                       that's forcasting rain?

                 What have I done?    What have I become?   What have I lost?

                -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -

          -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -

                           "Ho!

                        Everyone who thirsts,

                     Come to the waters;

                  And you who have no money,

               Come, buy and eat.

            Yes, come, buy wine and milk

            Without money and without price.

           Why do you spend money

         for what is not bread,

       And your wages

      for what does not satisfy?

                  Listen carefully to Me,

               and eat what is good,

            And let your soul

         delight itself in abundance.

      Incline your ear,

   and come to Me.

 Hear,

and your soul shall live;

      And I will make an everlasting covenant with you--

    The sure mercies of David.

 Seek the Lord while He may be found,

Call upon Him while He is near.

    Let the wicked forsake his way,

  And the unrighteous man his thoughts;

 Let him return to the Lord,

And He will have mercy on him;

 And to our God,

For He will abundantly pardon.

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

 Nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord.

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

 So are My ways higher than your ways,

And My thoughts than your thoughts.

"For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there,

    But water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud  that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;

    It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

"For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace;

 The mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you,

 And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

  Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree,

    And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree;

 And it shall be to the Lord for a name,

For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."

Isiah 55

Holy Dependence

This noisy world cannot supply more Holy noise than infants cry.

For infants sincere sonancy laments a true dependency.

Weakness calls on one more strong, without you near I am undone.

Working in a public library It is common to experience the sounds of an unhappy child. Often one will encourage another to join in and before the uprising can be quelled, a cacophonous discordance reverberates throughout the otherwise quiet halls.

I find it is easy to be irritated by a child’s harsh wail because I assume he is blatantly taking advantage of the safety of the public setting to stage a noisy protest for Mom's attention. My tendency is to be judgmental of the tiny terrorist, but in introspection, I have learned to hear something deeper in this desperate demonstration of despondency, something primal.  There is more below the surface than just a need for immediate attention.  I discern undertones of mortal terror erupting from deep within a heart poised at confronting its arch enemy: dreaded dependence. Faced with the inability to personally satisfy immediate needs, helpless babe instinctively employs the only weapon of persuasion in his arsenal that is capable of invoking the necessary aid; the blood-curdling cry.

The "Infant’s Wail" is a pure and inescapable communication of dire need.  It’s a forlorn expression of hopeless dependence; a primal complaint spoken in a universal language; a glossolalia grievance by the helpless, pleading for merciful remediation by the capable.  But more than this, it is also a ready-witness of our own permanently infantile state of reliance on our own Heavenly Father. In every human being, underlying the skin-deep autonomous man is the real created person who literally survives on the mercy of another. It is God who gives and sustains all life, not just physical life but whole life; physical, mental, and spiritual.

Dependence is a natural position, permanently hard coded into our existential being, witnessed by the state in which we all acknowledge we are born. A beautiful new-born is the quintessential example of dependence. But, just as we are born dependent, our fallen nature is loathe to stay that way. Almost as soon as we are born, society begins a relentless dis-indoctrination that insists dependence is evil and something we must, by all our power, reject. As soon as possible, children are taught and encouraged in the practice of independence with lavish encouragement and empty promises of freedom and security. Society's measures a child's maturity by the ability to perform certain tasks without assistance, and with the child’s advancement so advances the perceived effectiveness of the parents. It is said to be axiomatic that good parents have children who rapidly advance in independence. But, the pursuit of independence beguiles us; the stealthy promise anagrammatically becomes the imposer, insisting on our "devotion to the notion" of independence which is said must come by-way-of rebellion from our dictatorial Creator.   With tightly closed eyes and wide open hands, beguiled prey succumbs to a well-worn scheme of the ultimate enemy. Giddy with blindness the victim drinks deeply of the poison kool-aid accepting the ironic lie that pursuing independence results in freedom, willingly ignorant of the fact that the pursuit of independence creates a glaring dependence, imprisonment, and forced allegiance to the father of the lie. Like the old tale of Eve and the Serpent, the sharpened hook is baited with the lure of freedom, and once indulged begins to reel the victim in through an addiction to self-empowerment that results in self-destruction.

We are not independent creatures, plain and simple. Like a moth to the flame, pursuit of independence leads us away from real security in The One on whom we depend for our very existence.  Independence is a futile hope; it is vain folly, produces in us fear, and facilitates our ultimate failure.

If the war of life is to be won, independence must be its casualty; the concomitant cost of victory. True freedom is only found in a dependent relationship with our creator. Only The Truth can set you free. Repenting, we must return along the same path we took to depart. With eyes wide open we must forsake our present course, and backtrack toward an acceptance of The Truth and a healthy dependence on the One in whom we live, and move, and have our being. We plead for the grace to live dependent on, and actually in, Jesus.  This freedom can only be gained by the grace of God and only though the vehicle of faith in Jesus, taking Him at His every word.

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say,‘You will be made free’?”

Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed

(John 8:31-36)

Think of this next time you hear a baby cry. Stop, think about the wonderful and dependent parent-child relationship, and then cry-out to your own father.

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Lament and mourn and weep!  Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

(James 4:7-10)