What will people think?

The world, the minions of darkness, and your own double-mindedness are all set against you. Just try coming alive, try living from your heart for the Kingdom to come, and watch how the world responds. They will say you are an idealist, they will condemn you, say you’re off from the truth. They will call you obsessed and immature and even ungodly. You will be branded a heretic and a liar. They will hate you and will do everything in their power to get you to fall back into the comfort of the way things were. Your passion will disrupt them, because it sides with what they want, and what they’ve tried so hard to extinguish. If they can’t convince you to abandon your ‘heretical’ ideas, to betray your inner heart, if they can’t convince you to live life the way they want you to, to live from the safer havens they’ve chosen, they will try intimidation: “If you believe that, then you’re distorting the Truth.” “If you try to spread your lies, you will go to Hell.” “You’re backstabbing God when you say Heaven is like that!” Remember, everything we’ve said about Heaven is biblical. If this fails, they will try to kill you (didn’t they kill Jesus???). If they can’t kill you literally, they will try to kill you in the most sacred place: your soul, the real you.

Bearing this reality of a world we are going Home to can be tough. God revealed this to me through several different instances, circumstances and people. Only a few have really accepted it, and they are living wildly for God like never before. Satan’s attack is to get us to betray what we believe – that there is something better out there, something worth living – fighting! – for! I have been called ‘confused,’ ‘idealistic,’ and a friend even told me, ‘That’s the stupidest and dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,’ and he’s a highly-respected member in our local church. Don’t let them fool you – see the evidence for yourself. If we were so wrong, then how come those who know and believe this Truth are moving through the world, ablaze with God, for God, and drawing a wake of miracles?

It is tough. Sometimes we’ll just scream to God, “Why did you let me know this? Why did you put this knowledge of what is coming – this beauty, intimacy, adventure – in my heart? And since I’ve seen, how can I choose but to follow? All it’s brought me is the fury of friends, family, the community, the church! This is even worse – I can’t get away from it! This desire, this passion is so welded into me that I can’t walk away from it! I can’t ignore it! I’m trapped by this desire! It hurts me and makes me alive at the same time!” The prophet Jeremiah echoed the very same words to God:

“O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived ; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long. But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” – Jeremiah 20:7-9, NIV

Perhaps we feel ashamed of wanting. Aren’t we to be content? St. Augustine said, “The whole life of the good Christian is a holy longing.” We aren’t supposed to long! We aren’t supposed to desire! We are supposed to be content. No! We are hardwired for desire! We are called to long! Jesus longed for his Father, longed for the world to find life, longed for Paradise. So should we! A lot of us have made the mistake of being led to feel that if we are really godly, then we should want less, not more. We have a sense that we should beg forgiveness for our longings, kill our desires – all for the sake of contentment. Contentment is never wanting less; that’s the wacky way out. Anybody can look holy if they’ve killed their heart; the real test is to have your heart burning within you and have the patience to enjoy what there is to enjoy now, while waiting with eager anticipation for the feast to come.

Now that we are saved, we eagerly look forward to this freedom. For if you already have something, you don't need to hope for it… But if we look forward to something we don't have yet, we must wait patiently and confidently.” – Romans 8:24,25, NLT

We are saved and we eagerly look forward to the freedom of Paradise. We don’t have it now. If we did, we wouldn’t need to Hope – long, desire – for it. We only look forward to something we don’t have. We are supposed to want! We are supposed to long! St. Augustine knew what he was talking about! Those who hate pleasure are not godly; the redeemed are the ones who hunger and thirst the most for the Paradise on the brink. Yet we have to wait patient and confidently for what is coming. It will come. Don’t kill your soul, your desires, what you know to be truth just because the road is hard and people will hate you for it. Jesus didn’t stop. Now where is he? Ruling from Paradise! And we will be in Paradise, too!

There are those, unfortunately, who have murdered their true selves by eliminating desire from their hearts. They have taken contentment to a low never intended. Some people just make it so where they don’t want so much; isn’t it safer that way, more comfortable? Sure, you’re a walking shell, but you won’t experience the painful longing and rejection from others! Guess what? Walking that way is not righteousness, it’s godlessness. That’s stoicism, not Christianity. That’s paganism, not Jesus. Sanctification is an awakening, the rousing of our souls from the dead sleep of sin into the fullness of their capacity for life. Killing the desires of the heart is not sanctification, it’s wickedness.

This world is tough. We who long, we who desire, are closest to God. And for that reason, we suffer the most. God will never be welcome in this fallen world. Jesus was crucified, not given a banquet and a hallelujah feast. So we, who are closer to God, will suffer as we walk and live with God. We can be sullen, bitter, grave, harsh, angry because of the mental, physical, emotional and sometimes spiritual pain – or we can let it be a reminder. A reminder that a day is coming when we will all live in perfect love. We can let the ache draw us deeper into our souls, closer to God, and serve as a painful reminder of a wonderful Paradise God has in store for all who love him!

How did Jesus sustain his passionate heart in the face of brutal opposition? He never lost sight of where he was headed. He had a vision for the future that he knew was real, knew was true, and knew he would experience again. In the story of the Last Supper, we are told that Jesus knew “he had come from God and was returning to God,” and lived his life of selfless love to the end. He remembered both where he had come from and where he was going. So should we.