#1861 Resilience, Flying Upright

#1861

Resilience, Flying Upright

"Straighten Up And Fly Right" by Robbie Williams

            Straighten up and fly right
            Straighten up and stay right
            Straighten up and fly right
            Cool down, papa, don't you blow your top.

One of the greatest features of human nature, the resilience of the human spirit.  I must give a drop of hope in a barrel filled with the unconcern of the world.  The world continues to turn on its gilded axis of indifference. 

Your writer, in the solitary confinement of blindness, never ceases to be amazed at the ignorance which surrounds us.  I love talk shows and I have found that most people enjoy talk shows.  There is nothing as melodious as the variety of human voices.  I have been on so many talk shows that every where I go, someone will say, "You are the blind doctor who I hear on the radio."

The thing that bothers me most about people who call in to talk shows, and I listen to them across the country, around the world, many have just enough sense to dial the phone.  Some want to quote scripture and they have no idea about the location of the scripture: book-chapter-verse.  Some want to be so smart in their political views. One host asked a caller recently who was blasting Congress, "Who is your Congress person?"  The man did not know the name of the person who represented him in Congress.  Christians are often God's worst enemies.  They make such a poor impression before the world and before non-believers.  I went through the phase in my life where I wanted to give my business, seek professional help from Christians.  So many Christians ride a religious merry-go-round, wearing their supposed-often pretended faith on their sleeves.  I found that those of faith were more often than not the weakest in their abilities.  It is good to have a Christian lawyer but it is better to have a superior lawyer, even if he is an unbeliever (one who has the experience, grit-guts to challenge).  It is good to have a Christian doctor, but it is better to have a superior doctor (one who has the experience, expertise to be on top of things).  Those with the gravitas of preparation, the long suffering of dedication, are sometimes those who have not experienced the pull or call of Jehovah God.

Most of us are slaves to mediocrity, either too lazy or afraid to climb to the heights we are capable.  It is so much easier to just waste away in the valley, instead of reaching for the mountain peak.  It is easier yet, not to reach the lofty plateau from which we can reach down and pull others up: in our physical, economic, or spiritual life.  The Christian church has stalled, many died because of "card signers", raised in church, yet not convicted in faith...never repentant, always playing games with God.

Human-beings, for better or worse, are social animals.  The handshake is often just a drawn sword.  Even the hands of many believers are like feeling a wounded bird...no life-vitality.  Our slavery further extends to survival in our lifestyle, we don't realize that we are just victims of government, enslaved to bureaucracy.  My uncle's grandfather told him about the slave market in Fayetteville, NC before the Civil War...how human-beings were bought-sold-traded simply because of the color of their skin.  At least, black slaves wanted freedom.  Modern Americans, though resilient, do not have the resolve-intelligence to even know they are slaves.  Most of us are engrossed in acts of defiance...defiant against the enslavement of government by politicians and bureaucrats.  We are not even defiant about injustice...it is much better to just roll with the punches, not rock the boat.  Jews of the old testament were content to just keep the 613 laws, those in the early church could not understand grace...did not choose liberty in Christ.  The essence of Christianity is the spirit of grace and resilience within us.  Available to every human-being, succulent to liberty-desiring the freedom in Christ.  Available to each of us a relationship with the one who threw the stars into space.  The knowledge of the power-grace-mercy available to a child of God should instill that spirit of resilience.  As God reminds me, each and every day of my life, "I am all you need."  With such a measure of confidence we can face anything, can always move-fly upright.