Who knows my heart?

“Jesus is God and man in one person: man that he may feel our woes, God that he may help us out of them.”- Charles H. Spurgeon, “Immanuel - The Light of Life” (sermon on Isaiah 9:1,2)

I came upon this quote at Charlie Albright's blog "Renewing Thoughts" (link is in my blogroll).

Only Christ can truly understand us. Indeed, we have great difficulty understanding ourselves at all. If you have lived for very long on this planet, surely you have found in your own life, inconsistencies. By that I mean, we all do things that upon reflection, we wish we had not done. A careless word that offends a friend, a selfish action, an attitude that needs adjustment. Sometimes small things (in our own eyes) grow into things larger than we ever dreamed possible. That is the problem with humanity. We do what is "right" in our own eyes. But opinions are like elbows, said the unknown philosopher. Everyone has a couple. Where can we find the truth of the matter? How can we know the truth? You've heard it said, "Know the Truth and the Truth will set you free." As Pilate at the trial of Jesus mused, "What is truth?" Jesus said, "I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life. No one comes to The Father, but by me." He didn't say He was one of the many ways to God, he declared he was THE WAY. He didn't say He was a seeker of truth, He declared He was THE TRUTH embodied. He didn't say all lives are of equal import, He said He was THE LIFE. The only life that mattered. Why? Because, He maintained that no one comes to God except through Him. What a fantastic claim! How very un-PC of Him to make a statement like that.

It's His way or the highway! The highway that leads straight to Hell. The highway that you and I and everyone on the planet travels. Oh its a nice highway. Seems like there are a million lanes from which to choose. You can take the fast lane or you can take one of the slower lanes. But this highway carries a price. It is the ultimate Toll Road. Up ahead in the distance you can almost make out the toll booth, but there shouldn't be much worry about that. There are rumors that the Toll is much too steep to pay. That the price may even be objectionably extravagant. But why worry about that? This highway is wonderful. There is no speed limit. The individual lanes are only dimly marked, more suggestions really, so those who like to color outside the lines, so to speak won't feel too restricted. Oh to be sure, sometimes there are mishaps. A fender bender . They say sometimes the fender bender is severe enough that the passenger is thrown clear of his vehicle. Thrown, it is said, all the way to the toll booth, where the toll is extracted immediately. But let's not dwell on that. After all I am a careful driver. And we all try not to infringe on another's territory as we pursue our own pathway. If it feels good, do it! After all, just try not to harm anyone else in the process. But then again, the lanes aren't all that well delineated. In fact, the farther we travel, it seems the lines are getting even more faint, making it harder and harder to decide where my lane ends and my neighbor's lane begins. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea if the road crew would brighten up those lane stripes. It might be easier to navigate in this crowd. On this highway.

Highway to hell. Jesus didn't come to repaint the stripes on the highway to hell. He came to let us know that although the highway we were traveling was wide and filled with innumerable travelers, that it was going in the wrong direction. Widening the lanes wouldn't help. Re-painting the lane stripes would avail nothing. Adding more street lamps would illuminate absolutely nada. No, he said we were on the wrong road. The road we should be traveling was narrow, and winding and few would find it. In fact, we were incapable of finding it. We were driving with our eyes closed. An enemy had super glued our eyelids closed and we had been driving our entire lives in that condition, blissfully unaware of the danger. By his mercy, he is offering to open our eyes and show us the truth, the way, the life. But because we are blind, we are as good as dead. We are unable to open our own eyes. We have neither the skill, nor the desire to make that happen. That is, after all, why we are feeling our way through the darkness.

I hope I have not gone too far astray with my little story. I guess the point is, that without Christ we are like the blind leading the blind. And we are flying down the highway behind the wheel of a vehicle blissfully unaware of the price to be paid when we reach the end of life. And make no mistake, the end will inevitably come. Has Christ applied a healing salve to your blinded eyes? Have they been opened so you can see the danger you are in? Do you now realize the folly of blindly driving forward in the pursuit of self gratification? If it feels good? If it feels good?