Truth and a Song

"...great is the mystery..." I Timothy 3:16

The idea of "mystery" has gone foul for many and has been foully used by others, thanks mainly to the permeation and pontification of post-modern pundits. Many today take "mystery" (and similar terms, like "incomprehensible") to mean that which is irrational or unknowable or (what is more likely) both. Such a definition is an infection from our own corrupt culture, a culture fearful of and in denial of absolutes, categories, and certainties. It is an infection that we must strive long and hard to cure.

The old idea of "mystery" (an idea that is still the right and proper one) is the idea of "a hidden truth". Shouldn't such a thing be obvious, though? When we read a book or watch a film subscribed under the genre of "mystery," we never think that the solution to the initial conundrum is going to be irrational or unknowable. Both would destroy the very purpose that defines mystery: to discover, know, and comprehend an answer that is currently obscured. To steal the discovery, knowledge, and comprehension away from us is to make the story no longer a mystery but rather a comedy (which delights in the absurd).

A "mystery" is not irrational and/or unknowable; it has an answer that is rational and knowable and currently obscure. As Chesterton put it, one day we will see "the other side of the tapestry," and current mysteries will be solved, and perhaps new and exciting ones revealed; for mystery gives two things to the universe, two things that the human soul cannot live without. The first is joy, for we feel that we are in a great and exciting game of hide and seek, of search and discovery. Einstein said that it is as if we are small children stepping into a great library, vaguely sensing some sort of structure and order in the arrangement of all the books as well as a great wealth of substance within their pages. To make that substance irrational and/or unknowable is to kill the joy.

The second thing that is gives us is beauty. We sense great and momentous truths behind the veil of things, truths that the artist and the philosopher have sought (and occasionally found) words for, that the common man often lacks words for. Whatever these truths, these realities, are, we sense their numinous glow behind (and often through) the veil of things, though we often fail to articulate it adequately. However, those who assume that our failure of articulation necessarily means that such things are absurdities or non-entities are childish; their thoughts are cop-outs and naivete. The truth is far more exciting: we cannot speak the right words because we do not yet know the language, the language of real things. It to is a mystery, i.e., it too is rational and knowable and waiting to be discovered. We catch fragments of it now; one day we will be encompassed by the whole. Thus, the joy and beauty of the universe, caused by mystery, can be summed up in this: we find by our longings and searchings, whether in whole or in part, that all things are touched by truth and a song.

-Jon Vowell (c) 2009

Mercy and Truth

"O praise the Lord, all ye nations; praise Him, all ye people. For His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord." Ps. 117

Do you praise the Lord for His mercy? Do you praise Him for the light that He gives for the darkness within? Do you praise Him for the way that He overlooks your faults and doubts and gives you good things? Where would we be without the mercy of God? We would be nothing, for we are already and always nothing without Him. If it was not for His mercy at the Cross, we still would be lost. If it were not for His continually mercy day by day, we would be forever wandering and confused, stumbling over our own feet. He has not left us in the dark womb of death; He has brought us to new life, to new birth. Yet neither has He left us orphans in the howling wilderness, for He is not merely our physician but our father also. He feeds us and tends to us and teaches us how to walk. We will need such care our whole lives, and He is ready and able to give it, mercy continually, clouds and fire by day and night. Do we praise Him for His mercy, the mercy that is merciful even when we forget to praise Him for it, or when we lack the words? Praise Him for His merciful kindness, His loving kindness, which is better than life.
Do you praise the Lord for His truth? Do you praise Him for the light that He gives for the darkness without? Do you praise Him for giving to ignorant and unworthy men the secrets of the divine, even the "deep things of God" (I Cor. 2:9-10)? Do you praise Him for giving you guidance in the night season and all the day long? Where would we be without the truth of God? Again, we would be nothing. We would fumble about in the dark, headed we know not where, groping at we know not what, meant for we know not what. We would be forever trapped in that terrible prison of having only the journey and no destination. Yet God has given us His truth like a lamp in the night (Ps. 119:105). He has shown us not only the path of salvation, but also the path of holiness. He has not lead us to the Cross only to snuff out the light there. He stays with us, an ever-present fireside, to warm us and to light the way; for He is not merely our savior, but out guide and comforter also, our constant companion, leading us home. Do we praise Him for His truth, and for His listening ear that gives us the truth when we ask for it? Do we praise Him for the truth that comes in the midst of our doubts to help our unbelief, rather than abandon us to it? Praise Him for His truth, our light in the dark, the sun, moon, and stars of our souls. Praise Him for His truth that is true, and that shall never pass away nor change.

-Jon Vowell

Jesus: Light of the Dark World

"In Him was life, and that life was the light of men; and the light shineth in the darkness, and darkness cannot lay hold of it." John 1:4-5

"Everyone that does evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds shoould be exposed." John 3:20

"The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil." John 7:7

"To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." John 18:37

"For this purpose the Son of God was manifested: that He might destroy the works of the devil." I John 3:8b

The destruction of the enemy and his works begins and ends with the proclamation and revelation of the truth. Jesus was not hated because He lead military uprisings (which He didn't), nor because He merely taught us to love each other (which He also didn't); rather, He was hated because He spoke the truth to those in and of the darkness. The result was like fire and deadwood, or vampires and the sun, or sodium and water: it was not a pleasant mixture.
Jesus, however, was not here to mix pleasantly with all things: he was here to start a fire (Luke 12:49), to break a spell, both in word (His teachings) and in deed (the Cross). Jesus was the Light not just because He is and came from God, who dwells in Light inaccessible, but also because He was the truth and spoke the truth, and the darkness hated Him for it.
We too are called to be such a witness; not a witness to our own ideas or notions, but to the truth: the truth that God has revealed in His word and in Christ. As Christ was the light of the world (John 8:12) so too are we (Matt. 5:14-16). We are called to pierce the darkness with a hated yet unquenchable light, and thus we can expect the same ire but also the same victory. The world loves two things: (1) convenient lies that are easy to forget while they support our congenial apathy towards and complacency in Sin, and (2) uncertainty and doubt as an appropriate hiding place for our pet preferences and opinions. They love these things because they fear what truth and certainty will reveal about themselves and their preferences, viz., that they are weighed and found wanting before the holiness of God.
We are told to sow the word like seeds; what an image to think of the seeds as sparks of flaming light that illuminate the night and burn up the dead and rotting things! We are the light-casters: we bear witness to the truth, and in doing so cast shards of Heaven's light like fire round about. This is the fire that Christ has started and that we continue, until perhaps all the elements of the earth will melt by its fervent heat.

-Jon Vowell

The Proper and Necessary Desire

"Teach me Thy way, O Lord; I will walk in Thy truth. Unite my heart to fear Thy name." Ps. 86:11

Herein lies two things that are proper and necessary for us to desire: the truth of God and the fear of God, i.e., the realities that God reveals and the reverence towards God for who He is. It is for these two things the psalmist request, and it is these two things that are sorely lacking today.
"A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself" (Pro. 18:2). We care very little for the truth that only God can reveal. The only truth that we desire is the "truth" that we invent for ourselves so that we can shape our identity and world as we see fit. If a certain truth is inconvenient, it can be dropped. Reality is unnecessary, and even lies can become "truth" if they make us feel better about ourselves and confirm our congenial preferences. In short, we would much rather shape our subjectivity by our subjectivity rather than the objectivity of God.
"An oracle in my heart says, 'The Transgression of the wicked is that there is no fear of God before their eyes'" (Ps. 36:1, Rev. marg.). We reverence God very little, but reverence ourselves very much, especially our preferences for God. Like truth, we would much rather shape God by our own subjectivity rather than accept the objective reality of Himself that he has revealed to us. Thus, today's modern "worship" is little more than idolatry, a ceremony of self-worship.
Herein, therefore, is the proper and necessary desire: to desire, not the God we want, but rather the God who is.

-Jon Vowell

Sovereignty and Wine (or, God as MC)

"For exaltation cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south; God is the judge. He pulleth down one and setteth up another; for in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, whose wine is red and fully mixed, and He poureth it out, and the wicked of the earth shall drain and drink the dregs thereof." Ps. 75: 6-8

"See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with me. I kill and make alive. I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand." Deut. 32:39

"Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil?" Job 2:10

The image mentioned in this psalm is a master of a feast doling out the wine to His guests, with everyone receiving from His hand alone. The wicked receive justly delivered wrath and calamity ("the dregs") while the rest receive their own circumstances from God, whether they be good or evil, the point being that it all flows from God and no one else.
Now, the dance of sovereignty and freewill is a complicated spectacle, and those who too quickly and flippantly disregard one over the other cheat themselves out of the full beauty and wonder of that spectacle. If we require that the truth be simple, we had better find another universe. As it is, the truth is mysterious, not only in that it is hidden but also in that, when it is uncovered, it is a spectacle, and a spectacular one at that. Christianity has long affirmed this: life through death, strength through weakness, glory through desolation, God made flesh, etc. Reality is an endless procession of apparent opposites standing side by side and working in collusion; thus, a "dance" is a proper analogy. Until we begin to think of truth in these terms, we will always be confused and at each other's throats.
For the purposes of this entry, we shall assert sovereignty. Of course, we must assert the reality and importance of man's freewill (as it relates to his value and dignity as an image of God-bearer), as well as the reality and importance of the consequences of their freewill actions; but we must also assert (without fear or pause) the absolute control of God over every instance and incident of our lives. If God's absolute control were not true, then He would not be God.
We must not, however, deceive ourselves on this issue like the world does. Sovereignty does not mean mere control. It means control towards an end, an end that is good (Rom. 8:28). Too many people talk of God's sovereignty in terms of a mere control or manipulation devoid of purpose of plan. It is no wonder then that they get so angry; God's "mysterious ways" come across as arbitrary and pointless. Such a view is tragic precisely because it is unbiblical. The scriptures assert that God's ways are headed to a certain and purposeful end. To put it in other ways: God doles out the wine as He pleases because He is making the greatest feast ever known. He uses what colors He pleases because He is making the greatest painting ever known. He writes notes where He pleases because He is making the greatest symphony ever known. He chisels where He pleases because He is making the greatest sculpture ever known. He plays where He pleases because He is making the greatest game ever known. He moves where He pleases because He is making the greatest dance ever known. He directs where He pleases because He is making the greatest production ever known. He woos as He pleases because He is undertaking the greatest romance ever known. He cuts where He pleases because He is undertaking the greatest operation ever known. He fights how He pleases because He is fighting the greatest war ever known. He reveals as He pleases because He is teaching the greatest lesson ever known. He hides as He pleases because He is preparing the greatest surprise ever known. Anyway you put it, our God's sovereignty is no mere tyranny; it is activity, the production of certain events in order to acquire a certain result, a result whose value far out-weighs and out-shines the whole of the events that made it possible. That is not just the fact of sovereignty, but also the hope of sovereignty, the reason why we rejoice to know that God is in control.

-Jon Vowell

"We are on the wrong side of the tapestry. The things that happen here do not seem to mean anything; they mean something somewhere else." -G.K. Chesterton

"...while ye have the light..."

"Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me." Ps. 55:5

"Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you; for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light." John 12:35-36

We err if we see the Christian life as all sunshine and roses. If we are not in a horror of great darkness right now, we are at least in a frustration of plain darkness, a seemingly endless waiting period where nothing seems to happen (except, perhaps, what you do not want to happen). God gives us light, such as His word (Ps. 119:105) and His Son (John 1:4-5), as well as His general revelations (Rom. 1:19-20). When the moments come that He enlightens our minds and illuminates our pathways, we must be sure to open our minds and hearts so as to close them again on the solid natures of His truth, beauty, and goodness. If we walk in the daylight flippantly, taking nothing that we see or hear to heart, then we will be dismayed in the night season. We can only be "the children of light" if while we have the light we believe in it.
This is not to say that there are moments when God is not with us. God is always with us (Matt. 28:20b). What happens is that there are times where God hides Himself from our view (e.g., John 12:36b - "When Jesus had said these things, he departed and did hide himself from them"). Where once His presence and purpose seemed so clear, now it has faded like a dream. The point is that we remain true to God and what He has revealed to us even and especially when He is hidden from us. There are stabs of light that pierce the darkness, pieces of Heaven that come raining down like manna in this vestibule of Hell that we call earth. While we have it, we may walk; when it goes, we must sit and wait. "Walk while ye have the light," for "he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth." Sitting and waiting is the hardest thing; it is the hardest thing to sit and trust in the light and what it has shown you while your immediate circumstances seem to mock your faith, and the only light that you have is what you received the last time you walked in the light. It is our lot, however, to walk in the light so that we may burn in the night. Whatever opportunities we have, however, to meet with the light, let us take them gladly and vigorously, like a traveller in the desert stumbling across an oasis. Let us fill up for our journey so that we may have for ourselves and for others that we meet along the way.

-Jon Vowell

Living Truth

"Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom." Ps. 51:6

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." I John 1:8

For God, truth is ultimately about the soul and not the head. Mere knowledge of the truth and the ability to give it lip service is not enough; the truth must be a part of our very being, our very person. If we have utter head knowledge, but it has not ingrained itself into our hearts, so that that which was once abstract concepts now become concrete realities in our lives, we deceive ourselves. We think because we can spout the truth that the truth is with us, but the opposite is true; in our heads, on our lips, but absent from our hearts and lives.
There is nothing wrong with head knowledge per se. Truth must start in your head before it can get to your heart; it must be comprehensible before it can be real. That being said, God is no more interested in spiritual scholars than He is spiritual simpletons. What He wants are spiritual people, those whose very lives reflect their awareness of and participation in a deeper reality, viz., the reality of God. The truth must get to your head, but it must not stay there. It is not meant for itself. It is meant to guide you to the One who is Truth. Well-meaning fools say, "Follow your heart." Your heart can only lead properly when the truth is in it, truth given by God: "In the hidden parts Thou shalt make me to know wisdom."

-Jon Vowell

God: The Summation of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness

"Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and shall feed on His faithfulness. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Ps. 37:3-4

To trust God and to desire God--these are the two most difficult and yet vitally necessary lessons that a Christian must learn. It can be easily argued that our entire lives on this earth (and perhaps throughout eternity) will be and are being defined by our learning to trust and delight in God and God alone. The scriptures seem to scream such a message from cover to cover: only God can be trusted and only God is to be desired.

Those facts are not arbitrary egotism on God's part. As the omniscient observer at infinity, only He can take in and account for the whole of everything in His thinking, and thus only His word can be trusted. In addition, as a being whose nature is defined as "the beauty of holiness" (i.e., the beauty of the complete picture of His qualities and character), only He is the sum of all perfection and good things, and thus only He is to be desired (see I Chr. 16:29; II Chr. 20:21; Ps. 29:2, 96:9, 110:3).

Because God is the all-knowing observer and the summation of all good things, to trust or desire anything else is a danger for us because we are leaving the higher for the lower, the all-knowing and all-beautiful for the less knowing and less beautiful. Such a transaction does damage to our souls because we are leaving off that which our souls truly need and long for: true guidance and true beauty. That is why God asks us to trust and delight only in Him; not to satiate His ego, but for the good of our souls.

-Jon Vowell

"...believe that He is..."

"...and the hand of the Lord shall be known towards His servants, and His indignation towards His enemies." Isaiah 66:14b

This small section of one verse has summed up the very purpose of Isaiah, of the whole Bible even. The word of God is not mere platitudes, miscellaneous history, and meaningless myth. It is the revelation of God. It appears that the divine did not want His people specifically and mankind in general to forget who He is. The God who is there is not silent; He intends to be known. "The Lord shall be known." He is not encased in an impenetrable black box, and neither are we. There is supposed to be communication, understanding, truth; not truth that is exhaustive (for if it was, then what's Heaven for?), but truth that is true, i.e., real. He has spoken to us in a verbalized, propositional form so that we may know Him and be known.
"And I shall set a sign among them...that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory. (vs. 19). God desires (if I may use the word) to be known. In regards to our own abilities, He is inaccessible. By His grace, however, He has made Himself accessible. He has given Christ, He has given His Spirit, He has given His word. "The Lord shall be known." Let us give praise to the God who is there and is not silent.

"Praise to the Lord:
You have spoken,
And we have heard..."
-Jon Vowell

"Like a tree..."

"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

The Absence of Truth

"...they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth." Isaiah 38:18b

The Truth about God: "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent." (John 17:3) The presence of Hell is the absence of truth, including truths about God. We can never know Him in any way on this world or in the next if Hell is our primary disposition (and consequently our primary end). A life bound to Sin is a life bound to Hell. Such a life is not life at all; it is a living death, a dead man walking. It is a life with the absence of God; and where God is not, there Hell is. We can never know Him in this life of the next when we are in the pits of Hell: we are cut off from the intimate communion of His presence. We can never know the wondrous rapture of that dance when Hell is within us, and us within it.
The Truth about Ourselves: "O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me." (Psalm 139:1-6) There is only one person Who knows us in every aspect and element of our being, and that is God. To be in the pit is to be cut off from Him, and to be cut off from Him is to be cut off from all knowledge of self. God is the source of self: He designed it, He knows it backwards and forwards, and He knows the extent of the effects of Sin upon it. The only way to "know thyself" is to get back to the source of our self. As long as we are in the pit and the pit is in us, we are in a constant confusion about ourselves. We fly this way and that, trying to "find," "discover," or "reinvent" ourselves. There is only one Who knows us the way we wish to know and be known, and to be cut off from Him forever is darkness forever, and Hell indeed.

"Thy Presence
Is the freedom of Thy Truth.
Lead me into Your Light,
And keep me there..."
-Jon Vowell