WITHIN THE CHAMBERS

How many hiding places have you erected in your lifetime within the walls of your own mind? Personally and maybe it is because of my writer’s imagination, but I have a whole labyrinth of them. There are those I created for the fantasies I wish were real and can escape to when reality gets too burdensome. Some are more enchanted than others, but they do give me a place to hide.

And from what I have seen I am not alone in that process. Maybe my collection is different from somebody else’s and perhaps even more vast given my proclivity towards being hopelessly verbose in my creativity, but I imagine that kind of cerebral storehouse has plenty of spaces behind each eye one encounters.

Am I suggesting this is a good thing? Not really. But neither am I condemning the habit. It isn’t a sin to allow one the freedom of wishful thinking. Although if one spends all one’s time within the chambers of one’s fantasies it can become a hindrance to investing our energies pursuing the real goals of life.

In the spiritual realm, we often add a whole new wing to our maze of fantasies that we create. And that is only a natural process of wishful thinking. I believe God understands that element in our nature. So I doubt he is in anyway surprised when we end up translating our Christian lives into the same fantasies as we do with other parts of our lives.

The major problem to me is when we visit these chambers and then the capacity to keep what is fantasy separate from what is real intrudes upon our clarity of thought. It is one thing to fantasize as a Christian about being some super hero of faith or one anointed to be a minister of the gospel or other calling that anyone can admire. However dreaming about it and actually being called aren’t the same thing.

Personally I’ve never had any illusions about being called as a Pastor. God in his infinite wisdom knew full well that I wouldn’t be of any real value to his will in that regard. I might have certain spiritual elements in my real calling that apply to a minister, but I know without any doubt I was never called to that office. So I don’t have any inclinations towards pretending that is God’s will for my life.

And while I do try to respect the call of God on others lives there are times when I’ve listen to somebody speak about how they were called to “preach” the gospel and deep down in my gut I just had that sense it wasn’t God’s choice. I think most of the time it happens because you just can’t see any light in the person’s life. The individual’s explanation for being called is always so vague and just lacks any sense of having the Lord’s stamp of approval.

There are others though I’ve met who just radiate with the Lord’s anointing. You didn’t have to be around them for more than a couple of minutes without realizing their calling. And amazingly sometimes the person didn’t even feel called to some choice by God. That in itself is good since it means they are trapped within the walls of their fantasy chambers. I also know that God has no problem eventually opening that person’s eyes to their calling. It is just too bad I suppose he doesn’t always keep those of us who try and make our chambers into reality more of a chance to have our eyes open when all we see is what lies within the chambers.