The lowest of lows

“You threw me into the sea. Your powerful waves splashed over me. I went down, down into the deep sea.
The water was all around me. Then I thought, ‘Now I must go where you cannot see me,’ but I continued looking to your holy Temple for help." (Jonah 2:3-4)

We all are subject to those 'weak moments' when darkness is about to consume us, having made unwise choices. In the darkest places, it never ceases to amaze me that we 'call out'. We may not even know what we are calling out for, or who it is we are calling out to, but we 'call out'. Why? We need help! We feel shame over our actions. We aren't doing 'well' emotionally, spiritually, or physically and we need help. Does it come as any surprise that in the darkest of places Jonah is still looking to God for help? It shouldn't because we serve a God of redemption!

I was at the bottom of the sea, the place where the mountains begin. I thought I was locked in this prison forever, but the Lord my God took me out of my grave. God, you gave me life again! (vs. 6)

At our lowest place, God is there. At our highest peak, God is there. At our everyday, run-of-the-mill kind of moments, God is there. If you're doubting that right now, think again. God has never abandoned us, and he never will. Sin drives a wedge between us, but grace works to remove the wedge. When we feel we are 'locked into our sinful patterns' in life, we need to only cry out. God is at the ready to give us life again. We make the choice to follow sin's pull - we also make the choice to embrace his grace when our sin has led us to feel ashamed and overwhelmed.

We all come to our 'bottom places', but he is right there beside us, reaching for us. We might not always 'feel' God with us, nor will we always be able to 'see' he is working in us, but we can trust that he never leaves us to experience that darkness alone. Jesus went to the grave for us - the darkest place did not consume him, so why would we think God incapable of helping us find our way out of ours? Just askin!

A crumbling pillar

Finally Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not allow this conflict to come between us or our herdsmen. After all, we are close relatives! The whole countryside is open to you. Take your choice of any section of the land you want, and we will separate. If you want the land to the left, then I’ll take the land on the right. If you prefer the land on the right, then I’ll go to the left.” Lot took a long look at the fertile plains of the Jordan Valley in the direction of Zoar. The whole area was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord or the beautiful land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) Lot chose for himself the whole Jordan Valley to the east of them. He went there with his flocks and servants and parted company with his uncle Abram. So Abram settled in the land of Canaan, and Lot moved his tents to a place near Sodom and settled among the cities of the plain. But the people of this area were extremely wicked and constantly sinned against the Lord. (Genesis 13:8-13)

Abraham and Lot realized great increase in flocks, herds, silver, and gold - so much so that it was possible arguments were breaking out among the keepers of the flocks and herds as to watering holes and grazing lands. One wanted this grazing land, while the other wanted the same piece of land. One wanted that watering hole, and the other wanted it, too. The 'closeness' was getting to be too much for the 'wealth' of these two men to remain that close to each other in the land. So, they come to an agreement - one would choose all the land to the left, the other to the right. A brief 'survey' of the land by Lot had him quickly enthralled by the lush pastures, deep watering holes, and beauty of the landscape he beheld. The whole valley would be his - he would select that which looked the most inviting and 'best' for his livestock. Isn't it just like us to look upon something, becoming more enthralled by what we see as 'good' without ever looking beyond what we see on the surface? 

Lot headed toward Sodom - a land we would soon come to understand as 'full of sin' and about to undergo God's judgment because of the depravity of their sin. What had 'surface beauty' really had a 'hidden ugliness' that would soon become the undoing of Lot and his family. Sin has a way of 'masking' its true character until we are so engulfed in its presence that we find it is quite hard to escape it. Abraham did not take the best for himself but left the choice of the land to Lot. Did this mean he didn't look upon Sodom's landscape and see a thing of beauty himself? We don't know that, but we do know he was a man of his word. He told Lot he'd let him choose the division of the land, and he did just that. As the nephew of Abraham, he should have deferred the decision to Abraham. I wonder if anything would have happened differently if he did? We will never know, but we do see the consequences of only looking at the superficial and the resulting loss it brings.

Sin doesn't roll out a red carpet for us, but it certainly does a great deal to hide what is just beyond the 'good stuff' we see with our eyes. Visual appeal is one of Satan's most used 'tricks' to lure us into places and actions we would be best to avoid. Maybe this is why scripture warns us: "Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever." (I John 2:15-17) The one look can create a craving we find hard to resist - just like Lot began to crave the goodness of the lush pastures and well-watered places for his herds and flocks. The lust of the eyes is something we need to ask God's help to recognize quickly, so we aren't found moving closer and closer to entering into sin's 'locale'.

The rest of the story? Lot and his wife actually settled too close to Sodom and became accustomed to the activities that went on there. This is how sin works - it moves us closer and closer to its 'hub' until we find it hard not to 'conform' to the things we see and hear. We might not 'indulge' in the action of some given to the sinfulness all around us, but we certainly don't do much to counteract it! Were it not for Abraham's appeal to save Lot from the coming judgment, he might have been brought to total ruin. Looking at what sin does to our hearts, we see Lot's wife - looking back, longing for what she had in the most sinful place she could have dwelt. Sin has a way of getting us to constantly 'look back' and long for what we had, but we fail to see that what awaits us when our hearts are so 'given over' to sin is that we become crumbling pillars, unable to stand in the presence of a holy and powerful God. Sin might lure us in with promises of goodness, but the end of sin is judgment. All the goodness sin held out to lure us in will never keep us standing in the presence of a holy and just God. Just sayin!

Beyond Words

So there is now no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus. For the power of the life-giving Spirit—and this power is mine through Christ Jesus—has freed me from the vicious circle of sin and death. We aren’t saved from sin’s grasp by knowing the commandments of God because we can’t and don’t keep them, but God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours—except that ours are sinful—and destroyed sin’s control over us by giving himself as a sacrifice for our sins. So now we can obey God’s laws if we follow after the Holy Spirit and no longer obey the old evil nature within us. (Romans 8:1-4)

Obedience is never by our own effort, but we are told to 'follow after' certain things. There are things we need to leave alone, while there are others we need to fully engage in. What do we 'leave alone'? Most will say we leave behind things like smoking, chewing, running with those that do, but it is more than just giving up 'bad habits'. We also need to leave alone those tendencies we have to over-indulge the human desires we might have. We are to leave alone the constant fear of the unknown, our mistrust of others or God, and things like following our own lustful thoughts. What are we to engage in? Those things the Holy Spirit leads us into, such as loving one another, looking out for the needs of another, and listening with an open heart.

Obedience begins with belonging - we move into relationship with Jesus. We belong to a new family. It moves on when we realize we have been given a new power to live by - not our own self-will, but the resurrection power of Christ within each of us. We grow in obedience, not just by 'keeping commandments', but by coming into an understanding of the purpose of those commandments and then following the leading of the Holy Spirit to 'keep them'. Obedience is never self-effort - it involves following. What is one key characteristic of a follower? Submission. That is a hard word for some, because they see it as being under the thumb of someone else, always doing whatever they desire and never getting to do what one might desire themselves.

Submission in a spiritual sense if not 'obligatory', or burdensome, for that matter. It is liberating in every sense of the word because we are no longer under the control of a task-master that entices us to do what we know is wrong. We are actually willingly placing our faith (trust) in someone who doesn't leave us feeling 'pressured' to do something, but rather free to enter into the things that will actually liberate our lives. It may be hard to understand that at first, but following Jesus isn't a burden, it is a privilege. The 'control' shifts from us to him. The liberty that comes when the control is shifted is beyond words. Just sayin!