it's my blog. One man's trash is another man's treasure. So, no more censoring myself.
As I had posted before, I am reading Robinson Crusoe. It's taking longer than usual because of the general busyness of life. However, in a way I am glad that I am forced to take my time with it. It is chock full of wonderful insights, especially into the mind of a seventeenth century Christian. If you have never read it, I highly recommend it, if for nothing but the simple view of faith that is portrayed.
As the story goes, Crusoe is stranded on an island, at this point in the story for somewhere around his sixth year. He has gone from a faithless wanderer with no regard for God and bent on his own desires to a devout believer and daily disciple of Bible reading and prayer. His newfound faith has caused him to be content in his present condition and even praise God continually for the wisdom and Spiritual growth brought on by what he repeatedly refers to as, "the hand of Providence."
Now, he desires to sail around his little island kingdom in a canoe fashioned from a tree but soon falls into dangerous seas that threaten his life. His mood instantly deteriorates. And he soon realizes how fickle the faith of man can be.
And now I saw how easy it is for the providence of God to make the most miserable condition that mankind could be in, worse. Now I looked back upon my desolate, solitary island as the most pleasant place in the world, and all the happiness my heart could wish for was to be there again. I stretched out my hands to it, with eager wishes. "O happy desert!" said I, "I shall never see thee more. O miserable creature! Whither am I going?" Then I reproached myself with my unthankful temper, and how I repined at my solitary condition; and now what would I give to be on shore there again! Thus we never see the true state of our condition till it is illustrated to us by its contraries, nor know how to value what we enjoy but by the want of it.
"Don't know whatcha got 'til it's gaw-awn." (Anybody remember the rock band Cinderella? From the '80's?) Joking aside, the point is, how often do we dive head-first into the "greener grass" on the other side, only to look behind us and know at once we have made the wrong decision? And then, having found out the truth of our present state, let our prideful, selfish hearts keep us from rising up from the hog-pit and returning home?
Well, Crusoe makes it back to land safely. Thank goodness, otherwise the story would end abruptly. His first act is to drop to his knees and thank God for deliverance. Soon after, while walking along the beach, he sees a man's footprint that isn't his and convinces himself that it must have been made by the Devil himself, there to lead him away to his death. Just previously he had longed for human companionship. Crusoe says, "Thus my fear banished all my religious hope; all that former confidence in God, which was founded upon such wonderful experience as I had had of His goodness, now vanished."
Like I said, fickle.
But again, in another moment of self-awareness, he enlightens us, and himself, on the unfaithfulness of the human heart.
How strange a checkerwork of Providence is the life of man! And by what secret differing springs are the affections hurried about, as differing circumstances present! Today we love what tomorrow we hate; today we seek what tomorrow we shun; today we desire what tomorrow we fear, nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of. This was exemplified in me at this time in the most lively manner imaginable.
I will let you draw your own conclusions about how this applies to your own life. But doesn't it reflect the self-righteous attitude that plagues our prayer lives? There's that big-ticket item, that one thing that we just know without a doubt will make everything okay, solve all our problems, if God will just grant it to us. Because we know, we have all the answers. We have determined what is good and right and satisfying, based on our idea of what God should be for us.
The question is, what happens when we get it and it was nothing more than a distraction to entrap us?
What then?
