March 29, 2011

The other week I just had to sigh over all the depths of depravity and dysfunction that surround us everywhere—depraved nation, dysfunctional churches, dysfunctional “Christian” families, and on and on. Yet there have also been wonderful experiences here and there, and things of interest to capture my attention in these times.


I just attended a conference where the speaker attempted to discuss the seemingly unbearable tension between man’s depravity and God’s beauty in creation at the same time. “Even the mountains of Bavaria saw the most beautiful sunsets while Hitler was committing his most heinous atrocities there,” he said.  The question was, how do we handle this tension in life, especially in these depraved societal times?

Somewhere in musing on all this, the Lord brought to mind the story from Judges 14 about Samson, the lion and the honey:

5 Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came as far as the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion came roaring toward him. 6 The Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily, so that he tore him as one tears a young goat though he had nothing in his hand; but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done. 8 When he returned later—he turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion; and behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the body of the lion. 9 So he scraped the honey into his hands and went on, eating as he went. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion...

It is so that there is much death everywhere. The dead lion pictures that to us. In fact, the lion is a beast and speaks of the beast system to us. It is dying and dead. It is ugly and it has a great stench as all dead things do. Yet somehow, out of the midst of it, God amazingly can create “honey.” And I feel His simple word to me is, and in turn I pass on to you,

“Find the honey in life. It is there. It is in fact all around you. Take it and eat, wherever you find it amidst this world of death. I give it to you for your enjoyment and your nourishment along the way.”

I take some comfort in that. It is OK to find some enjoyment in what is left that is good and noble and pure and praiseworthy and even holy out of the body of this dying world. Be encouraged. Don’t lose all your joy over the state of the world and what you hear on the news, or over whatever deprivation or opposition it is you may be facing. Death and destruction are all around us. But there is honey in it. Find the joy in life God has planted there for you—sometimes in just the most ordinary and simple delights.


Selah.

Chris Anderson

3/11