There are people walking about, wandering aimlessly through the heavy excitement and anticipation. All appear unaware of the large paint smear that hangs in the air above their heads. Not a beautiful, abstract smear that one can admire, but a grotesque, undefinable smear that taints the blue sky above. It takes me a moment to realize this is more than just an artists' error; it's an error of my own making. Where there once was a definite, if not slightly blurry, picture of God in everyone's mind, there is now a heavily disfigured, confused blur. With every voice that screams "God Hates", "God Loves", "God is Mormon", "God is Islamic", "God is Vegan", "There is no God", "God Forgives", the smear grows and grows in size. And I sit back and wonder, "Am I making this picture any clearer or simply adding to the noise?"
This was my experience when I was in Stratford this past Friday. You often hear people speak of "spiritual heaviness", but it's an entirely different matter to experience it firsthand. With so many leaflets, tracts, and pamphlets being thrust into peoples hands as they walk on by, how can anyone know what's true? Even more worrisome than that, how can anyone know who God is?
We know that God can do all things and that, through Christ, all things are possible, but I have to sit back and wonder sometimes, "Are we actually working WITH God, or are we working for ourselves"? When we go out to evangelize, whatever that looks like, are we listening to the Holy Spirit and being guided by Him, or are we following a formula created by man which has left the Church in its' current state? These are the questions I find myself asking myself when I go out now. As a human, there's only so much I can do in my own strength. The human soul is the heaviest thing to move and so it's only through Holy Spirit that lives can be restored and redeemed.
The strength of man is fleeting,
and earthly glory rusts with time.
But the strength of the Lord endures all things
and His glory lasts throughout the ages.