“Are you frightened?”-- “Yes.”
“Not nearly frightened enough. I know what hunts you.”
(The Fellowship of the Ring)
How strange, this Unseen Reality that weighs down upon our existence! At times we long to know that all of it is Real with a longing so deep and so strong that we could almost fear that our hearts will break if we ever discover that is not so. And yet, at other times life feels like such a chore, such a never-ending battle in which we constantly feel that we are being pressed back towards imminent defeat, that we secretly wish to just be left alone.
Left alone to mind our own business.
Two great, cosmic superpowers embroiled in an epic clash for the dominion of the Universe? Sure, I like the sound of that story. But why does something that huge need to involve little old me? Someone is seriously offering me a major role in the Story? Well, I don’t know. Things like this make good movies, you know? The sort of think I’d like to watch. In safety. Enjoy the thrill of the ride in the comfort of my reclining theatre chair, if you catch what I’m saying. Well, yeah, I guess it would be more exciting than the life I’m living right at the moment. Not nearly as comfortable, though… A major role, eh? Lots of people depending on me? The fates of many hanging in the balance? Maybe like Luke Skywalker in Star Wars? Sure beats the story I thought I was in: earn money, spend money, save money, die and leave your money to someone else. But…what sort of guarantees can you give me? I really don’t like Pain. Very low threshold. I’m a fainter. Can’t stand the sight of blood – especially my own. That’s the whole thing behind the ‘earn money, spend money, etc.’ bit: doing what I can to avoid pain. So, what sort of guarantees come with this Cosmic Adventure to End All Adventures of yours? The Bad Guy, for instance. What about him? He’s bound to be a little miffed if I join up with your side. So…he’s pretty harmless, right? Sort’ve a figurehead? More metaphor than monster? I mean, I know I mentioned the Star Wars connection a minute ago, but this isn’t like I would have someone as twisted, as insidious, as diabolical, as powerful as Darth Vader breathing down my neck…would I? Sure, I know the Bible refers to him as the Great Dragon…that’s hyperbole, right? Poetic license? We’re not talking Reign of Fire type terrifying here, are we? Hang on – I’m working my way up to a decision. I just would like all the facts before I go barging in. You say your side is going to win? Well, that changes the outlook quite a bit, doesn’t it? Okay, maybe I’ll…what’s that you say? Despite you’re telling me that your side is going to win, it’s really not going to look like, or feel like, your side is going to win? And I can be assured that it is going to always turn darkest before the dawn? And you can’t make any guarantees on the whole avoiding Pain thing? And…what? Not everyone who ‘joins up’ is going to survive? The Dragon actually gets to…(gulp)…devour those of us who don’t stand firm to the very end? You know what – maybe I’ll just pass on this for now. I can always catch the movie version when it comes to the theatres, right?
John Eldredge asks the question “Why does every story have a villain?” His answer: “Because yours does.” But no matter how versed you are in the teachings of Ransomed Heart, most of the time it is a flat-out struggle to believe anything of the sort. Who me? Hunted? Come on. And then some emissary of the Enemy, some fiend of Hell, decides to pop into our life and do a tap-dance on our skull – and we are shocked, confused, and blasted out of the water. All the things you would expect from someone who was wholly unprepared to defend themselves.
“I know what hunts you.”
Let’s be brutally honest with ourselves. Almost all of you have watched the film version of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, so you have a pretty good notion of what we are talking about if we ask you to imagine that you are Frodo and his companions as they flee across the Shire trying to make it to the Inn of the Prancing Pony before the Nine Ringwraiths, the Dark Lord’s most powerful servants, are able to catch them. Hunted on the Road. Hunted through the trackless forests. Hunted on the hills. Hunted to the banks of the
Now let me ask you: how relevant is that to what you believe to be happening to you in the Spiritual Realm? Come on; be honest. The truth is that it is nothing like what we believe to be happening to us at this very moment. Seriously: those Ringwraiths – you are talking some seriously scary stuff there! If we were being hunted by something like that – well that would change things….
See? We just won’t let the whole story sink all the way in, will we? Our scientific world view refuses to accept that the explanation of what is going on here could be better summed up in the form of a Fairy-tale than in any other form of logical description that we might feel more comfortable turning to.
“I know what hunts you.”
Either your life is the target of the most malicious, destructive villainy ever imagined, or the Bible is patently untrue. Sit down with some of your favorite movies again. Notice that something adventurous and warlike inside of you rises up at the depiction of Evil portrayed in the film, something that thinks, “This whole Christian thing would be a lot more intriguing if the ‘bad guy’ of our theology was as terrifying as the bad guy in this movie”.
There is no other way to put this; we hope this hits home with you in a way that you cannot forget: No story ever written, no movie ever made, has ever come close to creating a villain more cruel, more cunning, more diabolical, more relentless, more insidious, more powerful, or more dangerous, than God’s Enemy and ours, the Prince of Darkness “who leads the whole world astray”. Not Commodus. Not Edward Longshanks. Not Captain Hook of Never-land or The White Witch of Narnia. Not Vlad the Impaler or a whole book shelf of new Vampire villains. Not Sauron the Destroyer. Not Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs, or Glaurung, father of all
You, my friend, are being hunted. Really, if you could see the full picture, you’d realize, both to your delight and to your terror, that the truth is: you’re in a worse plight than Frodo ever was.
Sure, you’ve got some pretty glowing promises about how things are going to turn out in the end for those that remain true to their Captain, that hold to their testimony to the point of shedding their own blood, if necessary.
But before the Promise comes the Storm.
And the Storm is coming.
Holding on with fierce faith,
Derrick and David
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