The Man in the Iron Mask
You have no idea who you really are.
And you don’t have the faintest clue who you could be.
All you really know for sure is that the distance in between the life you are living now and the life that you long for is so vast that you can hardly bear the weight of the thought of it. Which is why you choose not to think about it - why instead you dive into a sea of busyness, distraction, entertainment, noise, and fantasy. Another magazine, another football game, another hour surfing the web --anything to drown out the silence, anything to remain comfortably numb.
But you must think about it.
The advice of the secular psychologist simply will not do: to lower the bar of our hopes and expectations in order to bring them closer to our present reality will certainly ease the pain by shrinking the gap...but this is the coward’s escape, not the Way of the Warrior.
We were meant to feel this agony of not being what we know we were made to be. It is G.K. Chesterton who said that these are no trifling sufferings, but rather that “they are the agonies of a dethroned monarch.”
Created to be the sons and daughters of God with dominions of our own to rule in His name and authority...
….and instead we shuffle aimlessly through the aisles of Meijer or Wal-Mart at midnight wondering why our lives feel so pointless, wondering if they stock on one of these shelves whatever it is that we don’t remember losing but can never seem to find. No wonder life hurts so badly.
If you want coddling, a pain-killer and a pat on the back - affirmation that “you are only human after all” - you will have to look elsewhere than The Warrior”s Path. I’m sure you wont have to look very far. But be warned: as C.S. Lewis often said, in looking for that kind of approval “you are asking for less love, not more”. God’s love burns hot and will not rest until it sees you become the glorious creature He had in mind when He first thought of you. He’s not going to “settle”, even if you are willing to. His love won’t rest until you look like Jesus -- like a son or daughter of God was meant to look like. Like you’ve always dreamed of looking...when you’ve dared to really dream.
The Enemy is here, at this moment, isn’t he? (Some foul fallen spirit that labors for his dark kingdom, anyway.) Oh, yes. He’s here, whispering “Don’t do this. Don’t go there. Don’t open that wound. You’ll go mad. You can’t be that person. You’ve tried. Nothing ever changes. This is you. This is your personality. Why fight it? It’s just beating your head against a brick wall. Accept your puny little insignificance in this world and get on with what you have to do to survive. You don’t have time for this fairy-tale crap.”
You’ve been listening to that voice for most of your life. And the worst of it is that you always thought that voice was your voice.
Maybe you are still convinced that it is.