Chapter 4 – When
Only Black & White Will Do
Truly
I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child
will never enter it. (Mark 10:15)
Sheldon rarely eats dinner with us. Sheldon
is usually hungry long before Daddy gets home for dinner, so we generally eat
separate meals. One evening while I was eating dinner, Sheldon brings the
gallon of bubbles to me and asks, “Bubbles, wease?” I asked him if he could
give Momma a minute to finish eating her dinner first, and then I would gladly
get the bubbles out for him. Exactly one minute later, he returned with the
gallon of bubbles.
Occasionally, when he’s being especially
onerous, I’ll call Sheldon a little monkey. He immediately grabs the remote
control, and turns on a recording of his favorite show from the DVR. You see,
there are monkeys between the episodes of the shows on that particular channel.
And you should see the funny look he gives you when you say, “See you later,
Alligator!”…
Sheldon, like most children with ASDs is
extremely literal. Euphemisms, analogies, and common sayings are completely
lost on him. With Sheldon, you have to mean what you say, and say what you
mean, because he will literally take you at your word.
Speaking in such a direct manner is
something that is difficult to get used to.
Cory and I both were raised in very small towns where things like
“knee-high by the Fourth of July” are still commonly said in everyday
conversation. We took it for granted that other people understood the meanings
of the sayings we used, and once we realized that Sheldon didn’t, it was quite
an adjustment to try and remove those sayings from our vocabulary.
No Gray Areas Allowed
I
must admit that I was stunned when I pulled this picture off of Sheldon’s
camera. I didn’t even add the vignette to the edge of the picture. Apparently
his shutter no longer opens all the way, leaving a fabulously framed picture!
Even
to a young child, there are some things that are beautiful beyond
understanding. The sight of an American flag waving in the breeze is one of
those things. The truth, freedom, and justice heralded by this one simple
symbol are awe-inspiring. There’s no denying that this flag means what it says.
I began to take a hard look at Sheldon’s
literal view of life. As people, we are always seeking an exception to every
rule. We always try to explain and justify our points of view. We always try to
interpret God’s word so that it makes sense to
us, rather than asking God to reveal to us what He meant for us to learn. We are always looking for a gray area.
“You
shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.”
(Exodus 20:16)
Here’s
a perfect example of how we use gray areas to our advantage. This verse clearly
tells us that we must speak the truth. However, we begin to justify our “white”
lies…
God
wouldn’t want me to say something that might hurt another person…
Telling
my wife that she looks terrible in that dress will start World War III. God
will understand if I tell her she looks great, but it’s not my favorite dress…
I
don’t want to hurt my husband’s feelings. I’ll just tell him that the bald spot
isn’t very noticeable at all when he does his hair like that…
It’s very easy to begin living our lives
in the gray areas that we create. We’re very comfortable there. We don’t have
to face the truth, and we can live exactly how we want to without feeling
guilty for disobeying God, because we can justify our gray areas rationally.
Since they make sense to us, they must be acceptable to God, right? Wrong.
Imagine how dramatically our relationships with God would
change if we, like Sheldon, would just take him directly at His word.
“And
Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If
ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain,
Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be
impossible unto you.”
(Matthew 17:20)
Can you imagine the mountains in your life
moving right before your very eyes? Do you believe that the challenges you are
currently facing can indeed be removed to a “yonder place”? Do you truly
believe that nothing is impossible to you?
“If
My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek
My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and
will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (1 Chronicles 7:14)
Could
you imagine our nation overflowing with love, healing, and godliness? Does it
even seem possible to you? How
can I be sure that God will move our mountains and heal our country? He spells
it out for us in black and white! If we are willing to live according to His
black and white ways, we’ll receive all the blessings and promises that He also
spells out for us in black and white! If we will simply place God in the
drivers’ seats of our lives, one by one, person by person, God will change this
land.
God Accepts Nothing less that Black and
White
And
He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an
abomination in the sight of God.”
(Luke 16:15)
I can now truly see why Sheldon’s
perspective on life is such a blessing. It’s so much easier to understand God’s
word when you stop reading things into it and take it exactly as it stands. God
actually makes what He expects from us very clear, eliminating the need for any
gray areas.
In the verse above, God actually condemns
those who justify living their lives in gray areas. God is no respecter of persons,
and from these verses He makes it very clear that He also has no respect for
those of us who try and justify how we live. In fact, He calls those things
which we as people esteem an abomination in His sight!
God isn’t a fan of us using His word to
justify our ungodly lives. “Translating” His word into what we want it to mean
simply isn’t acceptable. He’s actually quite disgusted by it. God gave us His
divine word as a playbook for our lives. He chose the authors. He chose the
content. He meant what He said, and He said what He meant. It’s up to us to
choose if we are going to live by it or not.
Finding the Truth in Black and White Will Take Some
Work
For
I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace
and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me
and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all
your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back
from your captivity… (Jeremiah 29:11-14a)
God doesn’t just assume here that we will
immediately know everything about how to live for Him or everything about the
plans He has for us. In fact, God makes it very clear in these verses that we
must seek Him with all our heart.
This means that we must make it a priority to spend time in His word each day,
learning more about the character of the God we love and serve. We must seek
His will in prayer each day, to keep our feet on the path He has chosen for us
to walk upon. We must praise Him for His holiness and for the blessings He
continually bestows upon us.
Here’s where it becomes tricky. If we are
truly seeking Him with all of our
heart, we must also live according to His word each and every day. We must live
in the black and white of his word. Any gray areas of our lives that we feel
comfortable living in must be dispelled and destroyed. God requires us to put
forth a conscious effort each and every day to seek Him and to live according
to His ways.
The beauty is that when we do truly seek
him with all of our heart, the payoff is amazing! We will find Him! Not only
that, but we will find the future of hope that He has planned for us. Are you
still living a life of gray, or are you willing to shatter the gray and be
devoted to black and white?
No comments:
Post a Comment