Corruption Consumes, Righteousness Reveals

It requires time to 'debrief' and process a trip across the globe to foreign lands.  The fog of jet-lag still numbing my brain, having returned immediately to work, then catching up in preparation and process for the ensuing week of life returning home.  In addition, with meeting with arriving family coming to visit the beloved mom and dad of mine, heading to today's event of visiting with dad's surgeon to learn of progress or regress in my dad's state of challenge add to the 'stuff' of life and living for this travel/work/ill and weary man.  For many, if not most, just these things alone might cause one to feel on the edge of insanity, but rising in my heart, is peace. 

Streaming through my head?  The overwhelming sense of need in the lives of people we just visited, knowing we barely made a dent in the task that lie in wait.  The abundant opportunity with limited personal resources will either require miracle, or masses join our prayers for the people in the Balkans.  And then these thoughts find mix with another, that we Americans are steeped in the same with greater complexity, elevated to an even higher level, lulled asleep by apparent disparity between those in the Balkans and those here on home soil.  Talking with my cousin, yesterday over lunch, he nailed it.  He said that it isn't that corruption does not exist in either government (Bosnian or American) it is just that American government have taken it to a much higher level (meaning the masks and means are near impossible to expose).

The truth is, corruption will overtake us all, unless some moral fiber, beyond human and earthly human cause reset our compass to the essence of honorable, pure, holy living.  That which feeds personal pride and accomplishment is the counterfeit, for that which is truly benevolent and righteous.  Such is the battle we face daily, with result obvious or obscured by complex conniving, fogging exposition.  Human condition tells us we are created in the image of God, and how much of that image, along with our limited ability to actually be a holy, righteous and perfect god, is the battle of holy condition for living.  With no doctorate and simple college education, I have discerned life, not about becoming god, rather placing God where He is, as God, me created in His image, potentially having bestowed upon me, His power, His holiness, His righteousness, His love, His purpose, not as a god, rather relinquishing my pride and disposition to discover what He would like me do as His child.

Quite simple, actually, only doing so goes against every fiber of 'my image'.  So, daily, I must slay the beast of personal pride and perceived personal holiness and godliness, to:

• Put on His robe of righteousness (perfect righteousness is empty of human arrogance and pride), 

Requiring abandoning...

• My plans, for His (perfect plans provide eternal bliss), 

Exchange

• My deceitful heart, for His (In God's heart is no place for deceit, even Satan is aware of his final destiny), 
• My personal gains, for His (if you own and made it all, the only gain will be for those you created to choose you), 
• My expectations for His (created in Hinges image, our greatest joys will come from becoming His image here), 
• My will, for His (that others would see His glory rather than ours, His plan to rescue those who might choose Him)...taking us back again to the top to continue the process.

Embedded in my heart is the understanding that if each of us embarked on such daily assignment, our world would be transformed, redeemed and purified in such way that corruption's angst would be severely reduced, a new joy returning to the souls of men.
 
I have learned that my personal expectations of events only lead to disappointment and anxiety; fruitless, wimpy, worthless in the process of living.  I have also learned complaint as empty and evil, consuming our own hearts and others with toxic voracity, leading to execution of our souls, and that living a life of continual thankfulness to our Creator as antivenin to toxic injection.

It seems the simplest task of living, the discovery of our tendency toward waywardness, self-absorbed personal satisfaction in abundance and desire to live in fruitful, progression of increased notoriety (being liked by others) can all be integral in discovery of positional purpose.  We chose to either become god ourselves, or relinquish command to the real God of the universe revealing His distinct character, nature, holiness rather than the counterfeit version of God on our terms.  Not that there aren't plenty 'claiming' to be those who have sacrificed such personal desires to Him, without continual pursuit, living no differently that those who have not relinquished and therefore presenting empty life and living, but for the few, the real followers, a Christ-like humility arises from their lives, combined with Christ-like power, Christ-like obedience (to His Father) and Christ-like wisdom in every situation.

How could we possibly know what it looks like if we don't actually read about Him, understand the cost, move forward in relationship?  God informs us that even a ounce of evil sufficiently overshadows the megatons of any good we perform with our lives.  It is because of His requirement of absolute perfection in life and living performed and accomplished by only one human every in the megabillions who have attempted successful living on this planet. 

Every living being, even my dog, whose life is consumed on receiving praise and pleasure from her master, is corrupted by her desire, disobeying the rules of the one she lives to please (by sleeping on the couch or bed in the other room when she knows she isn't supposed to).  And yet, while my desire is for her obedience, my real desire is that she be willing to just be the nice dog in the family, loving all, including my sweet grandson with her gentleness and joy, appreciate the care of we her owners, being all that God created her be, a wonderful pet.  The difference between pets and us?  We are created more in the image of God, requiring more in execution and understanding of our Creator, with power to either foist our god-likeness, or relinquish it, and discover more glorious, powerful, amazing grace unfold, rescuing others from the counterfeit of faith, from faith in ourselves, to real faith in the only one who can change eternal destiny (starting here and now) to one of everlasting bliss.

Indeed, as I ponder our trip to the Balkans, and the overwhelming, apparent inequities between what they have and us, though the differences seem immense, they are merely distinct revelations of the same; the need for Christ and His righteousness overtaking the calamity and evils surrounding us all, in every place demigods exist.  And frankly, those without Godly relationship are everywhere.  He has given us clues to who will win, and with deep sincerity I am praying God sees this struggling life as one of His real team members, not because of the things I have done, but because of the life given for me, by Jesus Christ, and His sacrifice to fulfill that which I cannot. Corruption consumes with counterfeit payoff, Righteousness reveals genuine, Godly glory that only comes from one.