"Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know?...there is none that declareth...For I beheld, and there was no man, even among them; and there was no counselor that, when I asked of them, could answer a word. Behold, they are all vanity; there works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion." Isaiah 41:26-29
"Blessed is the man...[whose] delight is in the law of the Lord...He shall be like a tree planted by the river of waters, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season...The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff that the wind driveth away." Psalm 1:1-4
There are plenty of smooth-talking, ear-pleasing candymen out there just waiting to ensnare people in a tangled web of pretty yet empty words. They make their living (whether they know it or not) on sucking all the substance of real life conversations out of the room and replacing it with words that are all flash and no dash. The idols that they erect before your eyes look solid and weighty; then the hammer of Truth smashes upon them and reveals them to be hollow, full of "wind and confusion."
When someone is in the Truth, walking in the light as God is in the light, it is amazing how puerile and idiotic the things of this world become. You find yourself unable to be swept away by the ever changing winds of fancy words and speeches, as though your feet were chained to the ground. At least, it feels as strong as chains, but it is not chains; you are unmovable because your feet are firmly rooted in something, solidly anchored underneath. Like a grand old tree, your find yourself firmly entrenched, but never frozen. In a wondrous paradox, you are unmovable and yet always moving: your roots and tap are digging deeper and deeper into solid, warm earth, while your trunk and branches are growing higher and higher into the open, burning sky. Everyone in the world, however, is like chaff in a windstorm, blown about by this or that doctrine, this or that fad or fashion. Only Christians, the truly Christ-like, are like trees, planted firmly in the earth by rivers of water, reaching higher and higher towards the heavens as we bring forth fruit in our due season.
Too many people see this "grounding," this "planting" of one's self somewhere into something as a kind of slavery, that it really is chains that are holding you down; meanwhile, they are fortunate enough to pursue what they want as they will. In reality, however, the reverse is the truth: there is no worse slavery than a fractured perspective, of being blown this way and that, never satisfied, never grounded, never home, always lost, twisting in the wind. There is nothing more liberating then landing in the Truth and growing therein, nothing more freeing than a perspective that is whole and singular, able to encompass all through a single lens, the lens of Truth. There is a stable, solid feeling that envelopes you, as well as a burning, bright clarity that penetrates you. Try as you might, you can never hear or see things the same way again, you can never be swept away again. You have finally found a starting place (the solid, warm earth) and a goal (the open, burning sky). What more could you want? What more is there? There is nothing, nothing outside the Truth, save the wind and confusion that is being chaff in the wind, to be lost in nothingness forever.
"How do I know that what you are saying is true?" My friend, there is no way for you to know whether or not what I am telling you is true unless you know what the Truth is; and there is no way for you to know what the Truth is unless there is a Truth that you can know. "Well then, there is no Truth." Then, my friend, that very statement is untrue. "Okay then, I have to find my own Truth." If you have to find it, then it was not yours to begin with; and if it is the Truth, then it does not belong to you, you belong to it. "Well, I have to find the Truth inside of me in order to solve my problems." How can there be any Truth in you if you're the one who is confused by your problems? Unless what you find is separate from yourself (for it is no help to you if it is not), and that which conforms you to it (and not the other way around), it is not anything worth following. It is merely a reflection of yourself, and any adherence to it will merely be confusion stacked upon confusion, wind upon wind. Then when you come up against real, solid Truth, you will smash to pieces and be found hollow.
There is only one Truth, and His name is God. There is no Truth beside Him or besides Him. If you have found something solid and grounding, they are not that way in spite of Him, but because of Him; you have found Him whether you knew it or not. The Truth is not limited in Him, for all that is true is of Him and leads to Him. Outside of Him are not other Truths, other perspectives, but only wind and confusion, errors and falsehoods, which lead many astray into darkness. You can either be lost in them, or lost and found in Him. It is your choice, but know that in Him alone is the only solid ground, the only place to take root. On Him are trees that have stood the storms of time, and they shall stand forever, though the world burns away.
"Grow, grow where you are.
Anchor your roots underneath.
Doubt your doubts,
And believe your beliefs."
-Switchfoot
"My life is built
On nothing less,
Than God, the Truth
In all this mess..."
-Jon Vowell
"Blessed is the man...[whose] delight is in the law of the Lord...He shall be like a tree planted by the river of waters, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season...The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff that the wind driveth away." Psalm 1:1-4
There are plenty of smooth-talking, ear-pleasing candymen out there just waiting to ensnare people in a tangled web of pretty yet empty words. They make their living (whether they know it or not) on sucking all the substance of real life conversations out of the room and replacing it with words that are all flash and no dash. The idols that they erect before your eyes look solid and weighty; then the hammer of Truth smashes upon them and reveals them to be hollow, full of "wind and confusion."
When someone is in the Truth, walking in the light as God is in the light, it is amazing how puerile and idiotic the things of this world become. You find yourself unable to be swept away by the ever changing winds of fancy words and speeches, as though your feet were chained to the ground. At least, it feels as strong as chains, but it is not chains; you are unmovable because your feet are firmly rooted in something, solidly anchored underneath. Like a grand old tree, your find yourself firmly entrenched, but never frozen. In a wondrous paradox, you are unmovable and yet always moving: your roots and tap are digging deeper and deeper into solid, warm earth, while your trunk and branches are growing higher and higher into the open, burning sky. Everyone in the world, however, is like chaff in a windstorm, blown about by this or that doctrine, this or that fad or fashion. Only Christians, the truly Christ-like, are like trees, planted firmly in the earth by rivers of water, reaching higher and higher towards the heavens as we bring forth fruit in our due season.
Too many people see this "grounding," this "planting" of one's self somewhere into something as a kind of slavery, that it really is chains that are holding you down; meanwhile, they are fortunate enough to pursue what they want as they will. In reality, however, the reverse is the truth: there is no worse slavery than a fractured perspective, of being blown this way and that, never satisfied, never grounded, never home, always lost, twisting in the wind. There is nothing more liberating then landing in the Truth and growing therein, nothing more freeing than a perspective that is whole and singular, able to encompass all through a single lens, the lens of Truth. There is a stable, solid feeling that envelopes you, as well as a burning, bright clarity that penetrates you. Try as you might, you can never hear or see things the same way again, you can never be swept away again. You have finally found a starting place (the solid, warm earth) and a goal (the open, burning sky). What more could you want? What more is there? There is nothing, nothing outside the Truth, save the wind and confusion that is being chaff in the wind, to be lost in nothingness forever.
"How do I know that what you are saying is true?" My friend, there is no way for you to know whether or not what I am telling you is true unless you know what the Truth is; and there is no way for you to know what the Truth is unless there is a Truth that you can know. "Well then, there is no Truth." Then, my friend, that very statement is untrue. "Okay then, I have to find my own Truth." If you have to find it, then it was not yours to begin with; and if it is the Truth, then it does not belong to you, you belong to it. "Well, I have to find the Truth inside of me in order to solve my problems." How can there be any Truth in you if you're the one who is confused by your problems? Unless what you find is separate from yourself (for it is no help to you if it is not), and that which conforms you to it (and not the other way around), it is not anything worth following. It is merely a reflection of yourself, and any adherence to it will merely be confusion stacked upon confusion, wind upon wind. Then when you come up against real, solid Truth, you will smash to pieces and be found hollow.
There is only one Truth, and His name is God. There is no Truth beside Him or besides Him. If you have found something solid and grounding, they are not that way in spite of Him, but because of Him; you have found Him whether you knew it or not. The Truth is not limited in Him, for all that is true is of Him and leads to Him. Outside of Him are not other Truths, other perspectives, but only wind and confusion, errors and falsehoods, which lead many astray into darkness. You can either be lost in them, or lost and found in Him. It is your choice, but know that in Him alone is the only solid ground, the only place to take root. On Him are trees that have stood the storms of time, and they shall stand forever, though the world burns away.
"Grow, grow where you are.
Anchor your roots underneath.
Doubt your doubts,
And believe your beliefs."
-Switchfoot
"My life is built
On nothing less,
Than God, the Truth
In all this mess..."
-Jon Vowell
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