October 8, 2019

Will-o'-the-wisp And Rush Week

           

"For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him."

            You would think that I am smarter than that, but there are days when I am so overwhelmed with the "the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful" (Mark 4:19). Even this commited, convinced, concerned, real Christian man falls into the paroxysm that effects so many men...earth travelers. We want God to fit into our world, rather than staying in God's world. We live in a world of "likeness," just floating...letting Satan fill our souls with doubts and fears.

            Anyone who has ever had an answer to prayer knows that his life is never the same again. Perhaps my first real answer to prayer, it was not a matter of extreme anything, such as a near death experience; I was a freshman student fighting the battle of conjured fears at the University (UNCCH), who had come from poverty in impoverished Eastern North Carolina. I was unprepared for any college experience, in having to compete with young men from wealthy homes with superior preparation in large prep schools. Yet, in order for me to remain a student, I had to work and pay my own expenses. I could take you to the spot, a stone fence at the rear of the Wilson library, just across from the Bell tower; I had not eaten for two days, I know what it is like to be hungry and penniless. I asked God to arrange for me to go home where I knew there was food on the table of my poor country house, or arrange for me to have things a little better. He said to me, almost audible, "In that medical school where you work, those large leather chairs in the library, money falls out of men's pockets." That night, on the job working in this library, I searched those chairs and found so many coins...quarters and fifty cent pieces. I was able to eat until payday, when I got my check for working at the University. This same thing has happened over and over throughout my life...even in this world of blackness I live in after losing my eyesight. Why don't we believe him when he tells us (those who believe in him) "[Let your] conversation [be] without covetousness; [and be] content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5).

        Just think, the one who created the world and everything in it, who threw the stars into space, he actually cares about my welfare....cares about my every thought on this earth; and then, almost beyond comprehension, desires a relationship with me forever. There are those in this world who would burn a city down in order to rule it, who believe in killing even the most innocent babies as population control or as a matter of convenience; even ravaging innocent, developing children whose lives are measured by greed...and think they are successful.

            It seems almost incomprehensible that God, in his mercy, would choose a country boy from "nowhere" to travel EVERYWHERE. He wanted me to sense this great Earth, and be willing to tell you all about it. He knew that in my life experience, I had known so many children who had never enjoyed a nice piece of cake, had seen so many adults who had never worn a proper fitting pair of shoes. I still remember old men in the poor community where I was raised wearing shoes that were sliced in many places to accommodate growing feet and bunions acquired by the ill-fitting shoes. He wanted me to tell you about children in Africa and Asia whose parents had chopped off their limbs in order to make them "professional beggars" (their methods of survival).

            At the time, this same University, running/walking fast to get from one class to another while keeping up with my job, I would ponder what went on at the fancy fraternity houses where young men of my age were always having a party/enjoying life. One great writer once said, the purpose of college is to "network," to meet people, people who will/can help you. He failed to say that 90% of all the forces that effect your life are deceptive...that most of your friends are just pretenders. Perhaps I felt I was left out by the "technocrats" of rush week when the élites' sons of politicians and wealth chose their fraternity brothers for initiation. I now realize that so much of the selective/prestigious life is just will-o'-the-wisp...alluring/misleading, gratuitous...deceptive.

            This world is a matter of electricity. From the gravity of the two poles at either end of the Earth's surface (and I have traveled to both the North and South poles). Everything is a matter of gravitational forces, from the chemical equation to the power current that "lights up" the city, or the electricity of your body. When the electricity of your body dies, you are clinically dead. Life is more of a will-o'-the-wisp, an alluring fantasy. Chosen for life, every hair on your head is numbered, there is not a maverick molecule in your universe.