I Don’t Mean to Alarm You, But…

If you aren’t already sitting down you may want to when you hear this.  Are you ready for it? 

I don’t mean to alarm you but you are moving really fast right now.  Probably something close to 1,000 miles per hour.  Seriously.  When combining all the factors this is probably a pretty good estimation of how fast you are spinning at the present time.  (And since I’m not good at science type stuff-it’s probably faster).

Why aren’t you freaking out? 

Better question…why don’t you dismiss me as a total loon?  Unless you are reading this blog post in an airplane, spaceship, formula-one race car, or riding on the back of a Pepsi drinking cheetah you probably don’t feel anything even close to 1,000 miles per hour.  So why don’t you simply laugh when those guys in white-coats tell us that we are spinning thousands of miles? 

Let’s face it we don’t feel like we are going thousands of miles but through a pretty solid amount of data we are pretty confident of this estimation…even though we do not feel it.  Even though we may not understand all the math, or don’t know the equations, or haven’t looked from the moon back at the Earth, we trust these white-coated wonders even though our sense perception tells us to believe the opposite. 

Feelings and Reality

I don’t mean to alarm you but you are absolutely secure in the arms of the Father.  The God of the universe knows every hair that is on your head.  (Which of course is an amazing feat for some people and not that impressive for the Homer Simpson’s among us). 

He knows what tomorrow is going to look like.  He knows about that day that is coming (not sure when), that is going to feel like everything is spinning out of control and your world is absolutely crushed.  He will be holding you then too.  His grace will be sufficient. 

Furthermore, if you are in Jesus there is now no condemnation for you.  All of your sin is covered.  Paid in full.  You, believer, will never drink an ounce of the wrath of God.  Why?  Jesus already drank it to the dregs.  You are reconciled to God.  You have peace with God. 

Therefore, God is cool with you.  In fact you are a treasure.  He is restoring the image of God in you.  He is ripping out idols and redeeming you.  You are constantly being changed into His image.  He is working all things together for your greatest good; namely, conformity to Christ. 

But you say.  I don’t feel loved.  I don’t feel like God is changing me.  I don’t feel like things are “under control”.  I don’t feel like everything is cool with God and me.  I don’t feel like I’m free and at peace with Jesus. 

You don’t feel like you are spinning a thousand miles an hour right now either do you? 

But if you are trusting in Jesus then these things are true whether you feel them or not.  They are true even if you aren’t consciously aware of them every second of the day.  (Don’t get me wrong part of the Christian life is living in grace and learning to be conscious of and to actively enjoy all that Christ has already purchased). 

But sometimes we need to tell our feelings to shut up.  We must believe the gospel and at the same time mourn the fact that our feelings are so jaded.  But at the same time we have to remember that the gospel is still true even for those with jaded feelings.