The Pope.
Years of
consuming and regurgitating youtube conspiracy theories mixed with God’s
message of the end of the world ended suddenly when I was confronted with a God
that I had never imagined. The
universe cannot contain God but in my clever pride I thought I could cram Him
into tidy comment boxes of 60 characters or less. When God showed up I was leveled with a terror I cannot
describe. A person can believe
whatever they want to believe about themselves as they type away in chat rooms
but don’t think for a second you’re faking God out.
In my arrogance I
thought I had the whole Christian “thing” down. Yet, I knew absolutely nothing. Nothing! God
showed me a side of His Nature I knew nothing about and that Nature is
Holy. Against that understanding I
saw my complete and total nothingness, my abject, spiritual ignorance and
poverty, my hypocrisy and my total desperation before Him. I was consumed with terror. When my anxiety had gone on long enough
with my fascination of global deterioration and as I was drowning in a pit of doom addiction, God mercifully began to correct me. On that day in December, the
television, web and every form of entertainment and distraction that kept me
from God abrubtly ended. The
moment that correction began I was lifted out of a pit of absolute despair and
spiritual blindness and into a place of honest and necessary fear before a God
that I was casual and smug about.
There is a
reverent fear for God that is absolutely necessary for spiritual growth in any
person that wants to follow Christ.
Humility is another neccessity and so is love. I knew nothing.
I still don’t know but I am coming to God with my desperate need to
know. A knowing that requires a
doing.
For years I
traded God’s urgency to live and share Christ’s love in the real world with
typing about dread and doom in a cyber one. I could not get out of those places on my own. God was the One that pulled the plug(s)
on all of it and then began to deal with me as a son who had wandered off into
serious danger. Over a year has
gone by now and I only occasionally turn the televison on. I got re-sensitized and can barely stand
it now.
Last week I
turned the television on just as they were breaking in with the report about the
pope’s retirement. I’m not Catholic but the story caught my attention because
it made me remember years of my life following end of the world stories on
youtube and disasters in the news while flipping pages in my Bible.
This is not in
the Bible but there is a story going on around the net about an Irish Archbishop,
St. Malachy. The story goes that
he had a prophetic vision in the year 1139. In this vision he named all the of the remaining 112 popes
in order until the last one. Like
all prophecies outside of the Bible, St. Malachy’s accuracy is reliable depending
on whom you listen to. According
to his prophecy though, the last Pope, Peter the Roman who will be pope number 112,
will take the Catholic Church through the destruction of Italy and the Vatican
and a great assault against the church in the last days. Pope Benedict the XVI was number 111.
When I heard the breaking
news about Pope Benedict retiring I was making a pumpkin soup with my son and I
turned the television on. Like my
mom remembering exactly where she was when President Kennedy was assassinated,
I will remember that news report. I
will remember it because of all the certainty in prophecy and conspiracy videos
that I viewed online years ago regarding 2012 and the calamitous events that
would destroy the world and begin a new, horrific one. All the events that were predicted
online that never happened.
I shut the
television off as reporters began to talk future scenarios of the Catholic
Church. My thoughts went to the net and wondered what all of those people
trying to figure out the timing of the end of the world will do with the story
of the pope’s early retirement? Does
his early retirement mean the end is sooner than later? Will Peter the Roman actually come from
Africa? A black pope from where,
contrary to that restaurant conversation I had a few weeks ago, Christianity is
steadily growing. As it is also
growing exponentially in China, Brazil, Latin America, Asia and India. In our relative West, New Age
spirituality and secularism may be outgrowing church attendance in numbers but Christianity
will never end, until God’s predicted end. An end which only
He knows the day or hour.
God only knows if
St. Malachy’s prophecy is true but if it is true it doesn’t change a single
thing about what I am supposed to do with my life right now. In fact, if it is true it only elevates
what I am supposed to be doing with my life. I am called to love God with all
my heart, soul, mind and strength and love my neighbor as myself. That is more than enough to occupy my mind,
heart and time for every available second of my life.
In those years
when I filled my head with endless searches on the net studying events that
point to the return of Christ, and the not-so-secret plans of evil empires here
on earth, I got trapped. I got trapped in a pit of lies and was distracted and
discouraged by dread. I was worrying about things I can’t change instead of
dealing with things I must change.
I foolishly missed so much precious, immediate life in the process. There is an end coming according to
Jesus and He revealed that it will be terrifying. So terrifying that the last thing anyone should be doing is
wasting valuable life looking for it with gratification online. I was seriously wrong because I did
just that. The sad irony is that
for all of my online arguments defending God, I missed God in the process.
When Christ
returns the earth will be in such a horrific state that mankind will be on the
brink of destroying itself. The
first sign Jesus speaks about in regards to that end is spiritual deception. People will be seeking God but
rejecting the only path to Him which is Jesus Christ. The urgency connected to all the terror coming is for
Christians is to get busy seeking God, getting right with Him and to love Him
and love those who need Him. There is nothing in the Bible about food storage,
survival camps, hiding in an underground bunker until things get better or
arguing on social media sites with the CAP keys down.
This week I found
this prayer and I’ll close with it.
But as for me, my prayer is to You,
O Lord, in the acceptable time,
O God, in the multitude of Your mercy,
Hear me in the truth of Your salvation
Deliver me out of the mire,
And let me not sink;
Let me be delivered from those who hate me,
And out of the deep waters
Let not the floodwater overflow me,
Nor the deep swallow me up;
And let not the pit shut its mouth on me.
Psalm 69:13-15
God is still
reaching His hand out in love to pardon and restore lives back to Him.
To deliver those
who believe in Him from every pit they have lost themselves in.
Thanks be to God
for His great and merciful love.
May it be on every soul that calls out to Him in their desperate need
for rescue.
A rescue that
only God Himself can give.
tr
No comments:
Post a Comment