I'm going to beat a dead horse here....and bore you out of your minds....because I've posted on it so much over the years. Worse than that....there's really no answer to the problem that I'm going to bore you with.
Let me start here so that you don't roll your eyes and leave so soon. The evangelical today....he or she goes to church....is registered Republican....and over salads after pickleball....rants a little on drag queens.
There is no newspaper anymore....no Christian bookstores....that's part of the problem....so we turn on Breitbart in the morning....or watch whoever the current talking heads might be on Fox in the evening....fill our minds as if we were getting a refill drink at Subway....or plugging in the electric car....and then just go on puttering down the highway. We slam doors and yell at the kids while trying to get to church on time....put on a smiley face for an hour and a half....and then slam doors and yell at the kids on the way home. There is no way out of this mess. The sermons are little more than a bible-based Dear Abby anyway.
It's described sometimes as a....belt....extending around the globe....a little higher here....a little lower there....than the equator....where all the winds just cease for extended periods of time. We've seen this in movies of the past....where the sailing ship is stuck in the windless ocean....The Doldrums!
So you tell me....how do we get out of the doldrums? The standard answer is that we pray. Pray for what? We don't know that we are in the doldrums....so we can't pray to get out of the doldrums! We don't know that we are in trouble....(other than the drag queens)....so how do we pray to get out of trouble? The pulpits are of no help for they are in the doldrums also!
So there is no answer....but there is a way out....and it has nothing to do with the doldrums....it has everything to do with the everyday life....of the everyday Christian....every day since Jesus went to be glorified with the Father....and sent us the Helper!
When a person who does not have the Holy Spirit....because they are not a Christian....when they open a bible....it is....always has been....and always will be....(unless and until the Holy Spirit regenerates that heart)....a generally lifeless book of at best good advice....but when that person is a Christian....doldrums or not....opening that book is life itself.
If I were to close this laptop....and open my bible....and read....it would do as it does every single day of my life....explode upon my mind with everything from mortification to jubilation! I don't know where the Holy Spirit might lead....it might be the glorious life of Jesus while on this earth....His miracles or His suffering...or the works of the apostles....or the truths of which our minds could never contain them in full...or the warnings throughout....the staff and the rod.....or the grandeur of the creation....or the promises and the prophecies....or the beauty of the worship in the Psalms!
It might humble me in my sins.....the Holy Spirit knows what I need. It might prepare me for battle. It might lift me in rapturous exaltation of the Lamb of God....it might school me....it might exercise my mind....it might guide me.....it might motivate me....but one thing it will always do....it will blow gales of wind against the sails of my ship....so much so that I will have to cling even tighter to the rudder....(God's Word)....following the sun or the stars or whatever the Holy Spirit uses to guide all of us safely through this now tempest....to that final harbor!
Addendum: After posting this I chose something to listen to as I began my tasks for the day. Today it was John Piper's message for the day....and I encourage you to simply leave my paltry attempts....which are only shouts of praise for God's mercies extended to the least deserving of them....and type in....desiringgod.org....and tap on what is right there....Full Of Grace And Truth!
