I empathize; I understand completely.
Imagine living in a world where you see the most massive storm blowing in — so huge, it seems to take forever, creeping ever closer. You see it, feel the stiffening cold wind, smell the ozone from a million bolts of lightening. And everyone around you ignores it. Not just don’t bother looking up, they don’t comment on it, but talk and act as if no storm exists. They wipe away imaginary sweat, discuss the bright sunny heat, turn up the A/C and pray for rain. If you dare to mention it, they look at you as if you were nuts.
If you stay in such a society, you will be treated as a nut, even to the point of persecution. If you go away, keep to yourself and avoid the fools while you prepare for this storm, you at least avoid the hassles. In some parts of academia, it’s called the Elijah Experience. You may recall the crazy prophet to the Northern Kingdom of Israel during the Omride Dynasty. Queen Jezebel tried to have him killed because he dared to speak the truth of things.
I’m not called to prophesy like Elijah. That lets me off the hook in may ways. Still, I am not allowed to remain silent. The one current soapbox God allows me is this blogging stuff. I’ve tried quite a few different other ways of letting folks know there’s a storm overhead, ready to start making a mess of things any day now, but most of the time I’m treated like a madman. It no longer gets under my skin. Nowadays, it’s almost amusing, in that I grin and laugh to keep from collapsing in tears.
I realize there is nothing I can do to make people hear or see. That’s not in my hands. At the same time, I can’t simply give in to the hermit impulse, not entirely. Sure, I live out in the boonies, and in flyover country at that. And there was a time when I preached to fairly large crowds, but that was back when my message was familiar to them. I saw the storm on the far horizon then, but hadn’t started talking about it much. The closer it seemed to me, the more I talked about it, and the more they pushed me off the platform to silence me. Making signs and clever t-shirt messages didn’t help much, nor vast libraries of writing. No, those who see the storm as I do are quite few.
There is no way I can guess whether God has plans to change the current efforts He has placed in my hands, but for now, it seems altogether unlikely. I’ll continue dealing with one or two, here and there, and a small portion of family and friends who already believe. I’ll keep writing on this and my other blog, and keeping the better stuff on my static archive site. I’ll keep messing around with computers because they are my most important tool for now. When God decides there is something else I need to do, I’ll get on it.
Meanwhile, there’s an awfully big storm overhead. It’s God’s wrath about to fall on America, and many parts of the rest of the world. But I’m not called to those other parts right now, so it’s all I can do to see how bad it is right here. Gonna be a big’un. Got yourself a storm shelter?
