Christian Living

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THE CLOSER YOU GET THE FURTHER YOU BECOME
(From The Paradox Series)

Picture a mountain in a distance. It’s abstract, irrelevant, and intangible. You have no true concept of its size in relation to you. You guess at its height, you approximate its measurements. But as you move closer, you begin to perceive its true loftiness. The closer you get, the features become clearer and clearer, until you are at its feet. You see its rugged terrain, the jagged cliffs, even the vegetation that grows on it. As each individual boulder becomes more distinguishable, you finally understand how truly imposing and tremendous it is.

Our relationship with God is not too different from the mountain. While standing at a distance you see very little and therefore understand about the same. We are quick to assume about His character and nature. We make predictions on His actions and judgments. We even come to a point when we feel we have got Him figured out. We begin to use clichés about who He is, without fully understanding who He is.

We see this often in those who supposedly know God. The assumptions are lopsided and their descriptions of God are not only inaccurate, they are unintentionally misleading. Sometimes they give people false hopes, other times they give them unnecessary guilt-trips. In understanding a portion of God, they also begin a partial depiction of who God is.

The closer you get to God the clearer His awesomeness becomes. But curiously something else happens. As you close the distance, the distinction between you and Him become more and more apparent. The more you understand His holiness, the more you realize how unholy you are. The closer you get to His grace the more you see how unworthy you are. And as you see His power at work up close, the more you come to grips with how truly helpless and dependent you are.

This moving closer brings forth a great paradox- that as my concept of God improves, the more I understand how far I am from Him (This fuels the hunger for the pursuit to get close to Him, which elaborates the sort of “vicious” cycle) – in respect to His nature and ability.

Isaac Newton said that the more knowledge he gained, the more he realized how much he didn’t know. The greater his understanding became, the clearer it was how much more he must understand. And so it is with our relationship with God.

The sharper His image becomes, the less impressed I am with my own strength, abilities, and understanding. As John the Baptist said, “He must increase, and I must decease”. Or the prophet Isaiah who, at facing the presence of The Almighty, said “I am undone for I am sinful man and I come from a sinful people. Yet I have seen the Lord!”

The greatest example of this is found in Luke 5. Jesus instructed Peter to throw the net on the other side of the boat, who reluctantly obeyed. After such a great catch, which tore the nets and almost sank two boats, Peter fell at Jesus’ feet and cried, “go away from me Lord; I am a sinful man!”

Peter’s instinct to put some distance between himself and the Lord was a direct result of being close enough to see Jesus for who He truly is. Similarly, when we begin to get close enough to God that the blurry features come into focus, our most appropriate reaction is to honor Him by placing a distance between ourselves and the Lord. I believe that is the true essence of reverence. You cannot say you truly know Him if you don't instinctively become reverent of Him upon seeing His face up close. So as you begin to understand who He is, an amazing occurrence happens: The closer you get, the further you become.

God Bless
March M. Villareal
www.manswicked.com
[email protected]

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