Islands

 Some people are consumed by the desire to feel unique and special—especially the mediocre ones. I almost typed need, but it’s not a need. At best, it’s a compulsion, but just like the mediocrity they stew in, wanting to be different and unique is as ordinary as they are.

If there is anyone left to write the history of this generation, they will conclude that the reason certain movements became so popular is that they allowed mediocre individuals of no discernable skill, gravitas, or intellect to transform into brave, beautiful, extraordinary figures by doing nothing more taxing than putting on a dress. The sad reality is that mediocre people are usually lazy as well, so they want maximum results with minimal effort. It doesn’t get more minimal than trying to walk in heels or smear lipstick over your mustache.

The Christian version of this is individuals beginning a sentence with the Lord told me, then proceeding to say things that contradict the Word of God, and therefore be things that God would never say. Being that every generation must get more brazen than the last, you now have newly minted prophetesses insisting that they stood face to face with God and braided His beard, even though the Book says no one can see God and live. It’s good to know God has a beard, though.

As far as the current climate is concerned, it doesn’t matter if someone is more qualified; by the very nature of being a cross-dressing kleptomaniac, you get pushed to the head of the line and rise to the position of deputy assistant secretary in the office of nuclear energy. Only if he was going up against a cross-dressing kleptomaniac with an eye patch would the young man with the penchant for stealing luggage in airports have been pushed out.

The same can be said of the newest crop of prophets-who-aren’t. The only way they will get pushed out of the limelight is if another prophet-who-isn’t comes along with more fanciful tales than theirs, so fanciful in fact that it would make the hippies of the sixties tripping on acid and having visions of the cosmos within the cosmos seem like child’s play.

I could go on a rant about meritocracy and the disaster we create for ourselves when we hire individuals based on their inclinations and perversions rather than their real-world qualifications, but that ship has sailed, and all that’s left is to wait and see how big the iceberg we hit will be. Do you think it will be any different in Christendom just because they claim to be of Christ? Different kind of iceberg, same kind of result. What’s clear from all the available data is that the things people think make them special and unique are neither. At least Tolkien didn’t try to pass off his imaginings as prophecy.

There’s no new scam, just new suckers. I like the ring of that. It would make a nice shirt. Even someone as seasoned as Elijah was belting out his version of all by myself before it was a hit until God reminded him that he wasn’t. Cold comfort as it might be, you are not the only one with an enemy, you are not the only one being tempted, and you are not the only one commanded to resist the devil. You are not an island, neither am I, and the road we travel is well-worn with the footprints of the others that came before us. Your temptation might be unique to you, but it is not unique.

One undeniably comforting truth is that if they successfully rebuffed the enemy, you can too. After Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile back in the fifties, sixteen hundred other people managed to do it as well because they knew it could be done, making it that much easier for them to pursue the goal. God is not asking you to do the impossible. What He’s asking has been done repeatedly; you can do it too.

I think what has changed in recent years is the docility with which we see the sworn enemy of our soul. We continually make concessions thinking that concessions will pacify the enemy. Every time we are shocked that it didn’t work; the enemy wasn’t pacified, and he just came back emboldened and wanting more.

Persistent enemies are the worst. I heard it said once that an enemy will continue to storm your gates until they breach them or until you open them up. When they do get in, they’re not there to celebrate you. They come to destroy what you built or take it over.

Evidently, the devil has rebranded to the point that those tasked with standing on the parapets and defending against the enemy were fooled into believing that if they opened the gates wide and welcomed the hordes with fanfare and smiles, they wouldn’t turn around and attempt to destroy them once they got in. What’s worse is that those asking why the gates were opened to the enemy in the first place are belittled and derided as though surrendering to one’s mortal foe was the sensible thing to do.

Through it all, we must remember that collectivism didn’t work for the communists, and it isn’t going to work in the church. The Bible is clear that the soul that sins will die, and we are each responsible as individuals to individually work out our salvation with fear and trembling and walk humbly with the Lord. You can give counsel and take counsel, but when you stand before God, it won’t be in a group. It will be you standing before God, and He won’t be asking about your denominational affiliation.

The excuses are only working because we’re telling them to ourselves. When standing before God, insisting that your denomination was permissive of something the Bible wasn’t, or your pastor said God understands, or the ever-popular everyone else was doing it, won’t hold any weight. You had the Book; you should have read it. Having read it, you should have done what it said you should do.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.