Jesus did not commit Himself to them…, for He knew what was in man. John 2:24-25
I have read Utmost OFF & On for thirty years and it took me more than a decade to realize most of his writings may require multiple readings and days of pondering to comprehend, and even then, some are simply beyond me. As I age, I now can more easily accept that, and simply move on. Be aware that all the words in caps below were added by me to hopefully enhance the original text…. merlin
Disillusionment means having no more misconceptions, false impressions, and false judgments in life; it means being free from these deceptions. However, though no longer deceived, our experience of disillusionment may actually leave us cynical and overly critical in our judgment of others. WHOA, THAT IS A PROFOUND TRUTH!
But the disillusionment that comes from God brings us to the point where we see people as they really are, yet without any cynicism or any stinging and bitter criticism. Many of the things in life that inflict the greatest injury, grief, or pain, stem from the fact that we suffer from illusions.
We are not true to one another as facts, seeing each other as we really are IN THE LIGHT OF CHRIST; we are only true to our misconceived / MISCONSTRUED ideas of one another. According to our SIMPLISTIC NAIVE thinking, WE TEND TO CATEGORIZE everything as either delightful and good, OR, it is evil, malicious, and cowardly.
KEY PARAGRAPH #1. (Read no further until this paragraph is understood)
Refusing to be disillusioned , NOT SEEING HUMANITY AS GOD DOES, is the cause of much of the suffering of human life. And this is how that suffering happens— if we love someone, but do not love God, we demand total perfection and righteousness from that person, and when we do not get it, we become cruel and vindictive; BECAUSE we are demanding of a human being something which he or she cannot possibly give.
KEY PARAGRAPH #2.
There is only one Being who can completely satisfy to the absolute depth of the hurting human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord is so obviously uncompromising IN REGARD to every human relationship because He knows that every relationship that is not based on faithfulness to Himself will end in disaster.
Our Lord trusted no one, and never placed His faith in people, yet He was never suspicious or bitter, ALWAYS BEING INVITATIONAL TO EVERYONE HE ENCOUNTERED. Our Lord’s confidence in God, and in what God’s grace could do for anyone, was so perfect that He never despaired, never giving up hope for any person. If our trust is placed in THE PERFORMANCE OF human beings, AND EITHER WE OR THEM ARE NOT TRANSFORMED OR EMPOWERED BY GOD’S INTIMACY & IDENTITY, we will end up despairing of everyone, PERHAPS EVEN GOD. INDEED, A CONTINUAL SAD REALITY OF THIS WEEK’S MEDIA’S HEADLINES.
BOTTOM LINE:
I’VE CONCLUDED WHEN READING UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST, WE ARE NOT TO BE DISCOURAGED BY WHAT WE DON’T YET FULLY COMPREHEND, FOR THERE IS USUALLY MORE THAN ENOUGH OF UNIQUE MERIT THAT WE DO UNDERSTAND, TO MAKE IT WORTHY OF OUR TIME, AND LIKE A GOOD NEIGHBOR, GOD WILL LEAVE HIS LIGHTS OF DISCOVERY ON, FOR ALL OF US TO ENJOY, WHENEVER WE DO, FINALLY GET HOME!
And that’s the way I see it this morning, always speaking to myself, first & foremost!
P.S. After a week down not able to send you emails, I’m told the Sat AM email via Protonmail will give you notice. I tend to think this down time was rather unfortunate, as I was really anxious to share several of the posts this week with you. But God had other plans evidently; again!
On computers, you can scroll to all 582 prior posts by clicking on the left pointing arrow at the bottom of the current post. On phones you can usually scroll only thru the last dozen posts. And if any of you desire to unsubscribe, please send me an email and I’ll oblige you promptly….