Vulnerability vs. Invincibility
When we are faced with illness, job termination, relationship struggles, and the death of loved ones, among other difficulties that come our way in this world, we receive a hard dose of reality: We are not invincible.
When all is going well, we tend to become proud, even arrogant, falsely thinking that we have power to control our circumstances and mold our communities according to our desires. We make 5- and 10-year plans of how just we aim to do that.
It’s good to make plans, of course. Otherwise, we would be aimless tumbleweeds. But how do we make sure that the plans we make and set out to achieve are actually good, or altruistic, or that an all-Sovereign God will allow, or ultimately bless?
Better asked, how can we become people who actually care to ask such questions at all?
Something happens, or at least should happen, to us when we realize our lives are so utterly vulnerable and short, and that all is ultimately ordered by a higher power – the Creator God Himself.
America is amid a very tumultuous election season. Sides are clamoring to make their opinions known. Some are satisfied to lie because in their eyes, the ends (their own desired ends) justify the means. Violence, pandering, using every trick in the book to get their way (even when that book falls utterly short of fairness and justice), becomes right in their eyes because it allows them to achieve what they want to achieve.
Every now and then, there is a voice of reason, and of peace, and of what appears to be a desire to choose what is right and good, according to divinely-ordained morals and guidance. But they are few and far between. And they often get drowned out by false narratives and unjust attacks.
An assassination attempt, mental disease, and coups – all should wake us up to see that if left to our human devices, and vices, and our naturally decaying and assailable bodies, we are utterly insecure and broken people.
We can allow these things to cause fear and uncertainty. Or, we can see these things as important, and even redeemable, moments to turn our eyes to the only One – Jesus Christ – through which we can have an appropriate view of ourselves and the world, and peace and security that will one day be eternal and untouchable for those who put their faith and trust in Him.
Let’s pray for those caught in the turmoil of politics, of meaningless or distracting causes, of platforms that promote godlessness and make humans out to be gods. There is no peace nor purpose in such things. It rejects the beautiful grace of our heavenly Father.
What a wonderful place this would be if we simply understood our one job as humans: to love and glorify God in all the earth.
I encourage you to check out my book, On Borrowed Time, to read some stories of individuals who came face to face with the reality of their vulnerability, and what they learned from near-death experiences about what really matters in life and how to make the most of every moment in the short time we have here.