by A. W. Tozer
It is born in every man to want to dramatize his life and to cast himself as the star of the performance.
Once let a man become persuaded that he is a hero in quest of the holy grail of truth and he becomes a victim of a pretty and pleasant delusion that inflates his ego and blinds him to the very truth he claims to seek. And if he is later forced to admit that he has not found it he absolves himself from all guilt, for has he not searched? Has he not hunted through the years for the precious treasure? Where is the stone he has left unturned? Where has he not drilled or digged among the philosophies and religions of the world? Why then has he not found?
To him there can be only one answer: The Spirit and Wisdom of the universe has let him down. The great Oversoul has withheld the secret from him. So he tells himself and in wounded dignity walks stiffly into the sunset convinced that he has been deeply wronged in his effort to discover life's summum bonum. His is a tragedy worthy of Aeschylus and he himself grand in failure and noble in defeat.
Disillusioning people is a thankless task and quite plainly does not come under the category of making friends and thinking positively. Nevertheless it must be done if we are to rescue lost men from the consequences of their delusions. So let me say boldly that it is not the difficulty of discovering truth but the unwillingness to obey it that makes it so rare among men.
Our Lord said, "I am the Truth," and again He said, "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Truth therefore is not hard to find for the very reason that it is seeking up. Truth is not a thing for which we must search, but a Person to whom we must hearken.
This is taught or taken for granted in the record of God's dealings with men throughout the Sacred Scriptures. After the sin in Eden it was not Adam who cried "O God, where art Thou?" but God who cried "Where art thou?" as He sought for Adam among the trees of the Garden. Abraham heard God speak and responded, but it was God who was the aggressor. God appeared unto Jacob before Jacob came to appear before God. And in the burning bush God revealed Himself to Moses.
Again and again did God take the initiative. He sought for Gideon and found him on the threshing floor of Ophrah. He showed Himself to Isaiah when there is no evidence that Isaiah was seeking Him. Before Jeremiah was born God laid His hand upon him, and He opened heaven to let the discouraged priest Ezekiel see a vision and hear a voice. Amos said he was not a prophet neither a prophet's son, but the Lord "took" him as he followed the flock. Again God was the aggressor.
In the New Testament things are not otherwise. True, multitudes came to Christ for physical help, but only rarely did one seek Him out to learn the truth; and even that rare one usually turned away when the truth was told him. The whole picture in the Gospels is one of a seeking Savior, not one of seeking men. The truth was hunting for those who would receive it, and relatively few did. "Many are called, but few are chosen.
The truth in the Person of the Logos, the Word, is seeking to illuminate the minds of men. "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." For this reason, when we conceive ourselves to be honest seekers who cannot find the light we are in a state of dangerous self-deception. it is a grave situation. Unless help comes quickly the darkness may close down upon us permanently. "If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness."
Behind all our failure to find light is an unconfessed and possibly an unconscious love of darkness. "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God" John 3:19-21).
We should always remember that we are accountable not only for the light we have but also for the light we might have if we were willing to obey it. Truth is sovereign and will not allow itself to be trifled with. And it is easy to find for it is trying to find us. Obedience is the big problem: and unwillingness to obey is the cause of continued darkness.
( Article taken from The Set of the Sail, Chapter 28 )
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