What you see is not what you get

I'm still reading the book Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey. Reading book has been very uplifting for my soul. I needed the encouragement and reminder that faith is not always found in where we are looking, but we catch glimpses of it when we least expect it, sometimes amidst doubts, or disguised in suffering and even in the apparently faithless person. I know this book is far from perfect and Yancey speaks out of a certain agenda, out of his own struggle with the church and cynicism about Christians. In some way I resonate with that and find myself limping along as a fellow pilgrim, looking for hope in spite of my brokenness. My heart is filled with gratitude as I think of the luxury I have to read these books as part of my reading requirement, while my friends who are working and studying in other fields, have to squeeze time to fit in such readings. Besides being an inspiring read, it gives me a series of books I can follow up with and some pretty interesting quotes! (Link to some of them from my latest gleannings from this book.) Also this book has been giving me the same message as the sermon I heard today.

I am reminded today during the worship service that 'What you see is not what you get'. At the end of the sermon we had a time to pause to listen, where I felt the Lord impressed in my heart that I have been trying to look at the Christian faith and the church with my physical eyes. I seek to assess His Word from a physical point of view. Thus I’m often disappointed and disillusioned (these words are illustrative by themselves and this particular one is perfect-fit, and given a totally different understanding!) by what I see and I should not be surprise. I am assessing spiritual things through physical sight… and in fact am blind spiritually. It was a very powerful message as I sat there, so aware of my own blindness and reminded of the Lord's rebuke to the Laodicean church. He opened my eyes to my own blind condition! I can only humble myself before him and ask him for mercy to give me spiritual sight.

Then Ken, one of our worship leaders (featured in one of the pics below), stepped out and shared a very touching story. This morning he went down to the beach before coming to church, where he spotted a little beaver that seemed lost and struggling on the beach. Apparently these little ones get washed out from the river when it rains too much. Their system actually cannot take the salt water and it causes them to be disoriented and lose heat rapidly. Not knowing what to do (or even sure what it was) he called for wildlife rescue. As he waited for them to come out, he noticed that the crows tried to attack it and even dogs came up to it. He was fighting back the tears as he reflected on how the enemy is always looking for the most vulnerable ones in our midst and seek to bring them down. He stayed there, threw rocks at these vultures and waited until the rescue team came, even though he was running late for church (reminded me of the Good Samaritan). It was a powerful reminder that when we see those around us acting up and we don’t understand why they behave the way they do, messing up their life, hurting others, etc that they are simply lost, hurt and disoriented. The enemy is on the prowl, waiting to bring them down. Even if we cannot rescue them from their condition, we can stand with them in their pain and keep the enemy from tearing them into pieces. Hang in there with them until the mercy of God comes to rescue them. The rescue officer did arrive at last, tried to warm up the little thing and put it safely in a cage. May we stand faithful and watch over those that God has placed around us.