Bedtime avoidance holds a top spot on my kids’ list of
favorite pastimes. James and I are continually impressed by their creativity
and tactics in eeking out an extra fifteen minutes. Around 11 p.m., our Hollywood-worthy
actress and filmmaker bounced onto the love seat in our bedroom with her latest
feature vignette. This thirty-second hidden camera expose documented the unexpected
secret life of our most reserved child. Candid Camera pales in comparison. Tears
streaming, I laughed to the point of an excellent ab workout, resurrecting fond
memories of runaway giggles with my own mother. Tickled by something silly, snickers
would escalate to pure hysteria. Beat red, nostrils dancing, the corners of her
mouth would threaten her forehead, and her laugh lines multiplied. Well on my
way to a place of no return, from somewhere deep, uncontrollable laughter would
seize my belly. Carried away by one another’s contorted countenances, exhaustion
setting in, we’d dab our eyes, breathe deep, and if we were lucky, gain control
once more. A lighthearted moment. I smile remembering. Last Thursday would have
been her seventieth birthday. She’s been gone eight years. I miss her.
Terribly. Yet she lives on in the giggles. Ours, and those shared with my
daughters.
A recent memory surfaces in my belly. Schoolwork loomed, distraction
knocked, and hysterics answered. Schoolbooks mingled with lunch dishes, and the
new laptop hummed silent before us on the kitchen island. A young finger finds the camera icon. It’s Photo
Booth. Three familiar faces stare back. Something deep within me stirs. Click…we’re
aliens! Another click…we’re Earnest P. “Know what I mean, Vern?” Click. Click.
Click. It’s a house of mirrors. Our faces stretch and twist triggering fresh waves
of gut-wrenching guffaws. Cares fall away. Only the moment matters. A carefree
memory forever etches itself in my gut.
Reading Hebrews chapter eleven, alien images resurface. “By
faith (Abraham) lived as an alien in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with
Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise” (Heb. 11:9 in the NASB).
Grinning, my mind’s eye peers down memory lane. Bug eyes full of wonder stare
back from ballooned foreheads. One click returned our features to normal, but
we can never be normal again. As children of God, this is not our home. As sons
and daughters of a heavenly Father, we are sojourners. By faith, we, like
Abraham, live in a foreign land, a strange land belonging to another. John
15:19 says, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet
because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore
the world hates you.” We don’t belong. By faith, we are “heirs of the kingdom
which He promised to those who love Him” (Jas. 2:5), “looking for the city
which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11:10 in the
NASB). Eyes fixed on an eternal home, how do we survive the meantime? How do we
live in the world without becoming part of it? Comfortable. Belonging.
First Peter 2:11 tells us, “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners
and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” What does
that look like, Lord? Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:12, “For our boast is
this: the testimony of our conscience, that we conducted ourselves in the world
in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of
God, and more abundantly toward you.” I consider the underlying meaning of the
words Paul selected. Simplicity. Haplotēs in the Greek. We are to conduct
ourselves with “sincerity, mental honesty; not self seeking, (with) openness of
heart manifesting itself by generosity.”[1]
And with godly sincerity, so our conduct
reflects “the things of God; whatever can in any respect be likened unto God,
or resemble Him in any way; (as) God’s representative.”[2]
Conduct examined under the Son’s light and found pure. Alien to this world for
sure. I linger a bit longer on the Greek meaning of “the testimony of our
conscience.” Not our actions. Not our works. Not what is seen with the eye. Rather
our motives. The secret attitudes of our hearts. Our thoughts. And our conduct
is simply the witness that attests to our conscience, where we glorify God. Or
despise Him.
First John 2:15-17 sums up our extraterrestrial existence:
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone
loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the
world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is
not of the father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the
lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
Living in the world without loving the things of the world.
Lord, how? “Not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God” (see above). There
it is again. Grace. Charis. “The
merciful kindness by which God, exerting His holy influence upon souls, turns
them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, and increases them in Christian faith,
knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of Christian virtues.”[3]
He does it in us. And we sojourn. In our promised land today – the abundant
life promised by Jesus. Fixing our eyes on our future promised land – eternity
with Him.
My husband LOVES a good space flick. From Planet of the
Apes, to Alien vs. Predator and Cowboys vs. Aliens, he’s seen them all. Even
the ones that never quite made the big screen. The eyes get dreamy. The final
frontier beckons. And Hollywood transports him to outer space hours at a time. Try
as I might, my avoidance tactics occasionally fail, and I find myself perplexed
over the absurdity of it all. It simply makes no sense to me.
Just as we shouldn’t make sense to this world.
Lord, perplex those around us today by making us more wholly
Yours,
Shauna Wallace
Holy His
[1] Blue Letter Bible.
"Dictionary and Word Search for haplotēs (Strong's 572)". Blue
Letter Bible. 1996-2012. 22 Jan 2012. <www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?
Strongs=G572&t=NKJV>
[2] Blue Letter Bible.
"Dictionary and Word Search for theos (Strong's 2316)". Blue
Letter Bible. 1996-2012. 22 Jan 2012. <www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?
Strongs=G2316&t=NKJV
>
[3] Blue Letter Bible. "Dictionary and Word Search for charis
(Strong's 5485)". Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2012. 18 Jan 2012. http://
www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G5485&t=NKJV.
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