"Something else"

We will never save civilization as long as civilization is our main object.  We must learn to want something else even more.

                                                                                         --C.S.Lewis: Mere Christianity

A few days ago, I wrote about Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary of the United Nations until his death in 1961.  I said that he, as a shy mystic, was an unlikely candidate for politics.  His aim was not to change the world or to reform mankind, but only to live out his life in the integrity of his soul and to answer the summons of his God, no matter where it led.

God can use such a man as this at the highest levels of earth's endeavors.

The ancient poet Rumi said it this way:  The lovers of God have no religion but God alone.  And Oswald Chambers:  There is a difference between devotion to a Person and devotion to principles or to a cause.  Our Lord never proclaimed a cause: He proclaimed personal devotion to Himself.

As long as our hearts are set on pilgrimage, we have no idea where we may be led.  It is when we stop to build permanent dwellings, towers of Babel wherein "we may make a name for ourselves," that we forget what we are about and begin to concentrate on kingdom-building.  The story of Abraham's call follows immediately upon the story of Babel and is meant to be a contrast in every respect to the former story. 

The men of Babel had discovered a new "technology" for making and hardening bricks.  With this new technology, they discovered they could build higher structures:  Come, they said, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and so make a name for ourselves.

Abraham, by contrast, was called out of a great city with even a library (we now know) of ancient wisdom to "a land I will show you."  If he would respond and go to a place he did not know, God promised to make of you a great nation....and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing...and all the communities of the earth shall find a blessing in you (Gen 12:2).

Our aim cannot be to reform the world, but only to "do whatever he tells you."  For God alone is the builder and the destroyer of kingdoms:  unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.  Jesus said, "Without Me, you can do nothing."  And Paul would later say, "I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me."

In trying to convert the Greeks, "the lovers of disputation,"  Paul became discouraged and "resolved to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified."  Paul discovered that the weakness/helplessness of God was greater than the strength of mankind. 

Psalm 37:11 says The meek shall inherit the earth.  Now the definition of "meek" is not "weak;"  it is more like the idea of a thoroughbred race horse with tremendous energy that can be controlled by the jockey; it is directed and submissive energy, not dissipated, but directed toward the goal of a higher intelligence.

Psalm 37 is too long to quote here, but the entire psalm is a beautiful meditation on meekness and trust, on "being still" and "waiting on God."  It could form the prayer of a lifetime reflection if we let its words form our inner being.  If our aim is to change ourselves, and to become meek, God can use us to change the world.