Brainwaves

Whether “Narnia” has walked my mind into pondering the depths of Christianity, or just met me in that mysterious realm wherein it usually wanders, is debatable. Rain turned into snow last night and icy roads have granted the kids a day off from school. Good thing, for at three-thirty this morning my eyes opened and my brain kicked into second gear. When the phone rang at five, I was already awake. Now, with the wife yet in bed, I sit, kicked back in the recliner as the flames dance around the gas logs in the fireplace, and attempt to put my thoughts to paper…….

The Internet Monk recently did a series on Appalachian culture and its view of the Gospel. The area where he now lives and works is not unfamiliar to me. Beth was raised in the hills of southern Kentucky and we’ve visited a church down in Cumberland. When the preacher writes of a people who perceive education to be a stigma to one’s “roots”, I know well of such fact. It’s almost like entering another country. Faith is reduced to a fire-and-brimstone message of repentance, either a walk of “holiness” or an eternity in hell. No in-between. A lot of death-bed conversions……..

Personally, I find the whole scenario not so far-fetched, it being but one more facet of all that’s out there. We all may not be “mountain folk”, but what we believe and hold to be true Scripturally often has more to do with our environment than “thus sayeth the Lord”. The tenets of our commitment are entangled in our upbringing, the community around us, and, often as not, the individual well we fell into. Our journey began at birth and God has been with us all the way. It just often takes a religious epiphany of some sort to recognize that fact; and, by then, there are a lot of wrinkles to iron out………

I fully understand, therefore, why some look at me strangely when I speak of knowing a reality in Him. My experience is not their experience. Nor does it need to be. Salvation isn’t about different levels of achievement. We don’t get merit badges based on a point system. The ground remains level at Calvary. It’s the “connection” between Heaven and earth that is important; and whether the man, himself, keeps it in working condition. Do we hunger for Him? Do we seek His voice? Granted, we can go off on a lot of tangents, but if the heart is right, His grace goes a long way……….

There’s this “vision” lately, just a mental picture that keeps popping into my brain. It’s like everything is black and somewhere in the darkness something or someone has moved a covering of some sort at the bottom of the well. Pouring through that created opening is a light so bright it blinds; and I keep thinking to myself: “Burn me, Lord. Let the fire of Who You are engulf me and make me one with You”. I knew such an encounter years ago, a Holy Ghost flow of tongues that released my spirit beyond my body in a way I’ve not known since. Yet I believe. I do not worship the event, but the Giver of it. And I believe………