Suspending Disbelief

Suspending Disbelief

FDRFranklin D. Roosevelt is remembered for saying, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. ” By 1933, the Great Depression was severe, and skepticism ran high. One historian said FDR’s famous saying was in a sense ridiculous, because there were many things to fear—no food on the table, no job in the morning, a country flailing in uncertainty. On the other hand, he noted, the words served to suspend disbelief in a way that brought hope. FDR’s fatherly optimism touched the raw wounds of an entire country and soon brought about a turning point.[i]

A few words, a single thought, ultimately became life changing.

Imagine God in FDR’s place, touching your raw wounds and bringing hope with a few words. Is it hard to go there?

Wooden Blocks with the text: HowWe live in a cynical culture. Distrust is a hardened mindset. We doubt the sincerity of politicians, the character of priests, and the motives of corporations. Skepticism touches almost every aspect of life, including spiritual matters.

People not only have misgivings about the church, they wonder if God is just an invention of our imaginations.

Even the faithful are unsure about encountering God in any real kind of way. It might feel presumptuous. Some may have difficulties trusting a God who allows suffering. Others believe God is there, but they’ve never experienced His presence. That kind of thing is reserved for special people. It couldn’t possibly be for ordinary Christians.

What would it take to suspend your disbelief?

John the Apostle

The Apostle John

Throughout church history many people experienced points of contact with God. Some came from ordinary lives, while others had special callings.

John—the one who rested his head on Jesus’ chest—saw great visions of heaven and recorded them in the book of Revelations.

Thomas Aquinas by Carlo Crivelli

Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas, an intellectual giant of Christendom, wrote 25 volumes averaging 650 pages each on matters of faith and theology. Yet in 1273, near the end of his life, he was so moved during a mass that he never wrote again. He said, “Everything I have written seems like straw in comparison with what I have seen and what has been revealed to me.”[ii]

Brother Lawrence, a Carmelite monk in the 17th century wrote about abiding in the presence of God as he washed dishes. He said, “(My) habitual, silent, and secret conversation of the soul with God, often causes me joys and raptures inwardly, and sometimes also outwardly, so great that I am forced to use means to moderate them and prevent their appearance to others.”[iii]

Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc…Continue reading

Pause

Pause

Years ago, Nicholas Herman slogged along a snowy trail in the dead of winter. As a weary soldier, he could hardly wait to thaw his frozen feet and eat a bowl of hearty stew. However, while trudging home he came upon a mature fruit tree, stripped bare of its summer beauty.

It gave him pause.

red apple on green leavesGazing at the tree, he considered how the leaves would burst forth with vitality come spring. A flurry of flowers would bloom, bringing color and fragrance. And after lush rains and summer sun, fruit would form.

Like something from nothing, God would provide a bountiful harvest. Suddenly, it all seemed miraculous.

As he stayed in the wonder of those thoughts, God’s presence quietly descended on him, showering glory all around. Who knows how long he remained there. Time had somehow stopped.

d5545757-2c90-4727-80f0-9ec5d0b269c7And in those holy moments, God imprinted something on his soul, which never faded. Released from the mindset of things-as-they-seem, he was captured by a “high view of the providence and power of God.” Later, he told a friend that the experience produced a passion for God in his heart that did not diminish in the forty years that followed.

That young soldier was also known as Brother Lawrence, a kitchen worker for the Carmelite monks in the 1600s. Like a dormant tree in spring, he awoke from an earthly mindset to a heightened heavenly awareness.

He believed an extraordinary God was intimately involved in ordinary life. And that one remarkable truth sparked an ongoing conversation with God that would last the rest of his life.

All because he paused.

Woman with headache, overwhelmed with lifeThe Spirit of God hovers over our busy, distracted, caffeine-charged, multi-tasking days—waiting for us to pause.

But the complexities of modern life demand our constant attention. An ad in the Wall Street Journal for SAP, a multi-national software company, stated that, “Complexity is becoming the most intractable issue of our time, an epidemic of wide-ranging proportions, affecting our lives, our work and even our health. Eight out of ten children today think life is too complicated. A third of working professionals experience health issues as a consequence of stress associated with information overload. And 62% believe their personal relationships are suffering as a direct result of complexity.”

“Complexity comes at an enormous cost,” the ad writer concluded.[i] Of course, SAP is peddling technical resources that promise to simplify. But software, no matter how helpful, is not a balm for our weary souls.

The question is—why don’t we pause? Is there a poverty of soul that we’re afraid to be in the same room with? Do we silence it with the drone of TV?Continue reading

Showing Process

Showing Process

She was young...

She was young…

Joan of Arc “experienced her first vision around 1424 at the age of 12, in her ‘father’s garden.’ (She) saw visions of figures she identified as Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret, who told her to drive out the English and bring the Dauphin (the rightful king) to Reims for his coronation. She cried when they left, as they were so beautiful.”[i]

brother-lawrence1

He was old…

Brother Lawrence, a Carmelite monk in the 1600s, enjoyed the presence of God while doing ordinary tasks in the monastery kitchen. He said, “I have abandoned all particular forms of devotion, all prayer techniques. My only prayer practice is attention. I carry on a habitual, secret, silent conversation with God that fills me with joy overwhelming.”[ii]

Christian author John Piper tells about a certain morning—March 19, 2007—in a remote area of Northern Minnesota, when God spoke to him in phrases that entered his mind one at a time. He noted: “There is no doubt that it was God. I heard the words in my head just as clearly as when a memory of a conversation passes across your consciousness. The words wereContinue reading