Some men long to do great things. Nay all men, worth their salt, long to do great things. They long for heroism, for the epic and adventurous. Some may deny they feel this way and others will defend their apathy, that they are just different and that’s okay. But I don’t believe God made men to be average, to coast along in the ordinary. There is no ordinary person made in the image of God. No, that is quite extraordinary. In the Bible, God calls it Glory. There was infinite Glory for God before the world began. He created the heavens and the earth to declare the Glory. And He created us to share in His glory, that we may be little glowing containers of it. It is all around. In the mountains and the sunsets. In the eyes of a beautiful woman whom you love. In symphonies and snowfalls. It inspires. It builds. It melts. How is it possible that the human heart, the self, that space right above your gut we call the soul, can be so filled with awe and butterflies that we can stare at water falling off of a cliff for hours on end and leave longing for more?
Some would have us believe this feeling is subjective and, therefore, relative. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We are all, after all, atoms swirling in the void, the long result of chemical processes. But that feeling, that totally subjective internal personal feeling, is the realest thing I’ve ever known. Scientific method be damned. The Rocky Mountains are Beautiful with a capital B. Absolute Truth. If any person disagrees they are wrong. Flowers in the spring, birds in the air, forests in the autumn. A generation of children are growing up lost and confused about life, addicted to drugs if they aren’t prescribed them already. I wonder how much would clear up if they spent a couple hours sitting under a tree. If they spend a night outside of the city, looking at the stars. I believe there is a direct correlation between one’s fear of God and one’s ability to see the stars at night. Some speak of science and creation with such awe and reverence, but do not revere the creator. How can you let your soul be so stirred and not listen to it’s yearning for more? Neil Degrasse Tyson is a pantheist, he just doesn’t know it. You see, we do not merely want to look at nature, we want to pass into it, to be a part of it. We want the Glory. God’s creation is full of it, it’s oozing it. From every crack and crevice of this universe down to the the atomic galaxies, The Creator is being worshiped. O, How much more Glory He wants to give us. O, How much more Glory he has given us. God was not satisfied with merely demonstrating his Glory, but wanted to give it freely and openly. The Bible is full of God’s revelation, His intervention, demonstrations of His presence and Glory. Through the divine mystery of Calvary he has made a way for his Glory to actually live and dwell inside of you and me. But now we get to the point.
Men yearn for Glory in many ways and most get it wrong. Power, fame, celebrity, great feats, victory, sports, success. I think of the men who yearn to climb mountains and run marathons. Victories over will and nature, certainly. Not without merit or deserved praise. Great feats of physical heroism deserve to be lauded. But isn’t there more? The great feats I yearn for are victories over the hearts and minds of men. Physical discipline is of some value but spiritual discipline is of eternal value. Instead of putting time into reps and laps, put time into thoughts and ideas. I mean Rhetoric in the Aristotelian sense, certainly. The art of persuasion is a lost one and should be utilized well by all conveyors of ideas. But I yearn for the great feats of mind’s changed, for the glory of converted souls. There is no greater mountain in the world today than the mountains of lies which crush and suffocate our world and nation. There is great comfort that I myself am not responsible for any man’s soul. The Holy Spirit moves both organically and supernaturally through planting seeds in my actions and words and as He, like the wind, sees fit to blow and water.
But I feel the call, the pull, to speak to many. To plant more seeds. That only when I’ve done all that I physically can and lay down a weary old man will I know I have given my all. That is glorious. To have run a race well is glorious. Perhaps sports are of such great value if for no other reason than it’s great metaphors and life lessons. What kind of man would I be if not for 16 years of football? What of my mental toughness? My determination? Certainly, there is glory in the life well spent, and after, infinite more.
Yes, the minds of men are a great and fearful thing. I take courage that most men are reasonable, hold opposing views for legitimate reasons, and where there are differences, reasonable discussion can occur, and the truth may arise. But I fear that reasonable men commit the most heinous acts as well. The leaders of the Third Reich were not insane. They had families, ate dinner, passed laws, and meticulously killed ten million people. Reason is not enough. For we battle not against flesh and blood… including brains. It would be so much easier to demonize the other. But we cannot. When we demonize the other, we fail to see the demon in ourselves. What great lie do we believe? What unsearched assumptions do we hold? The mind is like a refrigerator. One must keep it constantly stocked and checked. An idea may look good at first, but if forgotten about, may rot and fester until it affects everything else. You may eat moldy food for years before you realize the source. Hopefully, like a rotten beam or a bad tire, you can get it fixed before everything comes collapsing in. I am speaking both personally and corporately. Neither a person nor a nation can thrive with a lie penetrating it’s foundational ethos. That was the great sin of these United States: built on the lie of slavery. An internal contradiction written right into the founding documents. “All men are created equal…” except when they’re not. Naive sophomores mock this contradiction today. Like the Founding Fathers owned slaves, therefore everything they said is irrelevant. Yet every generation and every great leader has their blind spots, the thorn in their sides. Martin Luther was Anti-Semitic, Paul was a murderer, Martin Luther King Jr. was an adulterer, Aristotle and Plato had sex with teenage boys. Even among Christians, no generation of believers has ever properly applied doctrine to action. None. That’s what makes the battleground of ideas so important. In our generation, we kill 3000 babies everyday and call it “family planning” and “birth control.” We have temptations and call it “orientation” and “love.” And we not only accept it, but celebrate it. Yet God uses crooked sticks to make straight lines. And I know in this generation, just like all the ones before, He is calling up people to stand in the gap for Truth, morality, Beauty, and for the Gospel. And I know I am one of those people. And I know it will be just as hard, if not harder than ever. That’s an overstatement. The freedoms I enjoy today are built on 1000 years of people spending their lives, dying to stand in the gap. I shouldn’t be trivial and belittle their sacrifices by calling my own mental and emotional distress on par to their persecution. But I should prepare for it to be just as hard. I should mentally prepare for it to harder.
Yes, I am destined for Glory. The Glory of one rejected, destitute, dirty, spit upon, mocked, ridiculed, beaten, forgotten, and betrayed, one for whom "the world was not worthy." “Take up your cross…” He says. If that is what lays before me, so be it. But I will not hear the call of God and turn the other way. I will not be a silent voice in a wicked and adulterous generation. Not by my power, but by His Presence. It is only by the Power of the Holy Spirit, in us, through the Cross, that freedom is realized and His Kingdom is built. Only through supernatural intervention are minds transformed and lives changed. May I simply be a servant of the King, whatever may call. For His is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, forever and ever.
Glory. Glory. Glory.
Glory in a blooming flower
Glory in an autumn breeze
Glory in my life
Poured out as an offering
Like perfume on your feet
Like oil on Your head
Glory in my bended knee
in tears in my bed
Glory in the stars at night
Glory in a lover’s eyes
I shudder at the smallest sight
Of Your Glory in my life
Guild me Build me Shape Me Make me
Create something new
To follow thee and carry your cross
and hold your Glory too
I don’t understand, this mystery
Tho I give my life to thee
The King of King of all glory
Would wash this sinners feet
I rest in this, the Truth of God
Jesus bled and died for me
now I’m all good and clean inside
Just right for Him to store His glory
A summer sunset, a mountain pass
butterflies, you and me
nothing but the blood
can ever compare
Glory. Glory. Glory.
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