Courage of Conviction

Over the past several months there have been several opportunities to reconsider exactly what I believe and hold as relevant truth. To be candid, the nature of God has often been at the center of these reflective periods. That, and what my professed faith in the Christian God will mean in my life, and in the lives of my family.

A perfect example occurred this past week. I was on my way to work, and for no reason whatsoever, I decided to pick up C.S. Lewis' Perelandra, the second book of his space trilogy. I was already half-way through another book, so picking this up was completely random, and I wasn't really interesting in rereading it until I had finished the book I was in, but for some reason I wanted to take a look at Perelandra. Randomly I opened the book to the section where Ransom is coming to the realization that he has been sent to Perelandra to do physical battle with the "UnMan" who has possessed the corpse of his old rival, Weston. The stakes are high, as the UnMan will essentially ensure the Fall of Perelandra, just as we fell here on earth. Ransom is arguing with himself, that surely he is not the last great hope for the salvation of Perelandra. Surely, since the evil opponent is unnatural, something equally powerful, and certainly greater than he will be sent to save the day. But, as the other voice within him whispers, its not for nothing that he is called "Ransom". He realizes this...

"His journey to Perelandra was not a moral exercise, nor a sham fight. If the issue lay in Maleldil's hands, Ransom and the Lady were those hands. The fate of the world really depended on how they behaved in the next few hours. ... Either something or nothing must depend on individual choices. And if something, who could set bounds to it?"

I read this and meditated on it for the next few days, thinking what a great truth it was.

Then we went to church on Sunday.

Speaking this past week was a guest from International Justice Mission. He's a lawyer, formally a D.A. for Washington D.C. He has gone around the world assisting people in an effort to show them that there is a God who cares for them. I have heard this story before, and its truly a great thing that they do. However, I admit I was not completely moved by it, because I have lived outside the U.S. and know a little about what injustice looks like. Rarely do the wrong doers get their just rewards, and even more rarely do the oppressed receive deliverance from their plight. Throughout his message, my cynicism, or "realism" kept getting in the way. He told us about a child-slavery ring in Asia that they visited. They collected the info and prepared to go before the magistrate to present their case. But the meeting was on a Monday and they were there for the weekend, so they decided to attend a local church and pray for God's blessing the next day. As this man spoke, I almost audibly said to myself, "But what could possibly happen? The magistrate probably works with the slavers...there's no hope." Then the speaker said the one thing that I couldn't have hoped to hear, and the thing which had surprised the speaker himself when he experienced it...the preacher at the church they visited was the magistrate they were to visit the next day.

I cried. Well, I teared up. Even as he started to say the unbelievable truth, something in my heart knew what he was going to say. Of course that was the man they would meet at the church they randomly attended. God could not be God if He was unable to do such a miraculous thing. All that was need was the attempt, even in the face of hopeless despair, when it will clearly do no good...and He assures us it will be enough.

The man who spoke to us on Sunday had prefaced his message by asking the question frequently asked by non-believers..."How can such pain exist in this world if there is a God and He is good...and more importantly, WHY doesn't He do something about it?!?!" The answer is...He did do something about it--He put us, the body of Christ, on this earth instead of removing us to heaven. We are God's solution to the problem...if we will only go, and have the courage of our convictions to do what we "know" to be useless in the face of the problems that assail us. Jesus keep us, for we are weak and the road is daunting.