Who would have ever thought that a preacher with an Evangelical/Christian background would write a blog about our journey into the Christ reality inspired by an old Led Zeppelin song? Well, as they say, “There is one in every crowd” and I would guess that I am that one.
I think about the old Christian phrase we garnered from the King James Bible that God is not the author of confusion. Though this statement in itself is true, the problem lies in our usage which is often out of context. 1Corinthians 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. In the Greek the word for confusion denotes the idea of instability and disorder often based on strife, competition and one upmanship. The same word is used again in James 3:16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
Today when we think of confusion we often think of that which we do not understand. Now this not understanding may cause an uncomfortable feeling, perhaps because we feel out of control of the situation. Remember that the need to understand is often the need to be in control of the situation. What I am trying to say is that when we face something new that is placed outside the parameters of our present understanding, we often experience an insecurity, lack of clarity and uncomfortableness. As we do not like experiencing such a situation, we tend to fight against it and what better way to fight the uncomfortable is with a verse from the scriptures to justify our stance. The problem again lies with the scripture being misused because of being taken out of context.
In my view, I see the church world in a reformation, we have been brought to the doorway of a greater understanding of who Christ is and who we are as humanity and the relationship between. This doorway has with it a lack of clarity as we cannot see on the other side of the door unless we are willing to walk through. Here is where the true problem lies. We often experience the tug of the Holy Spirit to venture through the door but because we are not sure what lies on the other side we tend to experience the uncomfortable, the lack of understanding, perhaps even the insecurity, thus the confusion. But remember that it is the tug of the Holy Spirit that brought us to this place thus one could then say that this confusion that we are experiencing is birthed by the Spirit of God and giving us the opportunity to further our journey into the Christ.
2Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Romans 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
In the above two verses we see that we are on a progressive journey. The journey from faith to faith (being that faith is a journey beyond what we can see and understand Hebrews 11:1) is in itself a journey through that doorway of revealing in which we feel uncomfortable and often confused.
In the movie industry there is the term “Fade Transition”, this happens as we fade from one scene and into another. During this process there is an overlap on the picture where both the old scene and the new scene are being viewed simultaneously. It is at this point where the picture is a bit fuzzy and I am loosing the picture of the present and gaining the picture of the new. The problem here is that the new picture though unfolding is not clear and I am required to go through the process until the new is clear and the old is gone. Now in the movies this takes place in a few seconds but in life this can take hours, days, weeks, years, decades and even generations for the full picture to appear. How do we travel through this process? Well, the bible calls this Faith or we can say to take the hand of Jesus and allow Him to walk us through the journey. We also call it giving control over to God, which requires of us to give up control. So again, this type of confusion is a positive thing, it is telling us that we are about to face our fears versus running and hiding from them and we are being prepared to walk through the doorway unto the new.
When I look at what is happening around us with all the uncertainty, I find myself excited in the process. We are literally having our prayers answered right before our eyes but because we can be so focussed on what is happening on the surface, we tend to miss what is actually going on. Prayers are answered in the midst of confusion, they just may take time for the picture to become clear.
Spiritual maturity is not necessarily the understanding of what is happening in the midst of confusion but rather the willingness to walk through the confusion, to go beyond one’s understanding trusting and walking with God until the new picture appears and we get to experience the beauty of the new in its fullness.
So the next time you feel confused about what is going on or what is being said or taught. Ask yourself if this is God tugging your heart and leading you to the answer that you have been seeking? Remember that this may require of you to walk beyond your understanding and trust in the unseen? Well, if you are ready you will walk through, if not, then it is not yet time for you, and that is OK. We can only move forward when we are ready to move forward by beginning to see confusion as an opportunity to grow spiritually.
Thank you Jimmy Page for taking the time to put together “Dazed and Confused”, that one day it would inspire someone to go beyond their present situation and journey as one with Christ into the new!
Leave a Reply