A while back I had one of those profound spiritual experiences were somewhere in your soul you manage to answer the question, “okay it’s the end of the world, how are you going to spend what time you have left?” I was quite surprised to have answered that question so quickly, so clearly. I’m going to spend my remaining time falling madly in love with Jesus Christ, reading poetry, and contemplating the nature of romance.
And God said, do it now, don’t wait.
It’s a bit startling actually, I am a practical person, so if you tell me it’s the end of the world I am liable to start digging a bunker, stocking up on spam and ammo, and making sure we have potable water. Never in a million years would I have thought my answer would be to fall in love and read poetry. I have since come to the conclusion that is actually incredibly sensible. Who wants to spend the rest of their life living underground shooting at people who come to steal your canned spam?
I’m now five years into it and quite delighted to have had this adventure. There have been some fascinating rabbit holes along the way. I fell into a patch of Calvinists, (don’t worry I was wearing hip waders and goggles,) and there were these tulips, this five point star, and some Dutchmen, and it’s all very confusing….
Just for the record, there are no actual tulips in the bible, some sparrows, some lilies, even a talking donkey, but no tulips. Ah, but the Dutch are world famous for their tulips. “Tulips” is actually an acronym from the reformation and other great theological debates, the first “T”in tulips having to do with total depravity. The total depravity of mankind.
I totally believe in the total depravity of mankind. That’s what the bunker and the ammo is for. Anyone who doubts the total depravity of mankind has not recently watched a presidential debate. The total depravity of mankind has come home to roost and is now blasting from our TV sets. If we were all on a plane and crashed into a mountain range, we’d be eating each other in a matter of days.
You may wonder what cannibalism, spam, and tulips have to do with love, and why I would be so delightfully celebrating the total depravity of mankind. It’s because, “I thought you were perfect and so I loved you. Then I learned you were imperfect and I loved you even more.” When we think we are good, when we cannot even see our own flaws, we cannot really know what love even is. We think we are loved for superficial things, because we are useful or attractive or we have a lot of money.
Until we can recognize our own unloveliness, our own depravity, we can never fully recognize our need for a Redeemer, and we can never understand the sacrifice, the price that was paid on our behalf.
To truly know love, one must become unlovely, like the Beast in Beauty and the Beast. He could never know true love until he became so ugly, that only true love could save him.
That’s how it works in faith, too.
Depravity is an interesting word, it means immoral, wicked, but it is actually rooted in the word, deception, as in totally deceived. We are depraved, as in we have no idea who we are, whose we really are. Deceived. The father of all lies deals in depravity, deception, and one of the greatest deceptions of all being this idea that we people are just innately good. We are loved because we are so cute, so smart. We don’t need a Redeemer, we recycle, stay away from gluten, we try to be good people, and anyone who doesn’t is just misunderstood or a victim of circumstances, or needs some more job training or something.
We tend to see ourselves as we wish to be, not as we really are.
The Daytime Renegade said:
So much good stuff in this post. So much that is quotable. Thank you for writing it. Much food for thought and prayer.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Salvageable said:
We cannot conceive of the awesomeness of the cross of Christ until we realize the depravity in our lives. Then the generous richness of God’s love for us becomes visible. Recognizing our depravity and knowing that only Christ on the cross can save us is the core of genuine repentance. J.
LikeLiked by 7 people
dawnlizjones said:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit…”
LikeLiked by 2 people
Julie (aka Cookie) said:
So much wisdom, laced with delightful humor, while driving the home the Truth of the matter!!
Thank you…
LikeLiked by 5 people
dawnlizjones said:
“Who wants to spend the rest of their life living underground shooting at people who come to steal your canned spam?” If you have a 5-star rating system I’d give you 6. Amazing perspective on true love. If I may ask, what were your strategies to “fall madly in love with Jesus? I would really love to know. (And, puh-LEZE save me a space in your bunker and I’ll even bring my own Spam.)
LikeLiked by 4 people
gmgoetz said:
I am in agreement with everyone in their comments, so much food for thought, with wisdom as a guide.
A good cookie, with lots of chocolate chips. And for dessert, fried liver with lots of fried onions, spinach for a veggie. 🙂
Loved all your writing, and God’s direction for the topping, “do it now, don’t wait”.
Nothing compares with ” Falling in love with Jesus”. Doing that more and more, from now all through eternity.
If we postpone doing that, we are missing out on so much of real life.
You are an inspiration, always look forward to see what you have to write.
God’s Blessings.
George
LikeLiked by 3 people
janjoy52 said:
How about this for truth: We are all made in God’s image. God’s will is good and perfect and acceptable. All of God ‘s gifts reflect everything that is good and perfect and acceptable about God. Hence, anything I see that is witty and kind and altruistic and praiseworthy in my fellow man or woman I can celebrate, regardless of their spiritual or philosophical moorings. I can and should celebrate all reflections of the image of my Creator. This is how I can reconcile how an atheist can do good and kind things. This is why it is not only good but right to acknowledge their behavior as exemplary but essential to give credit where credit is due: all good behavior reflects the source of all goodness, our Creator God. This Image talk is a great opener to a conversation with the lost for even the pagan knows how to give good gift to their kids and how’s that? Because, though we have lost our way we still are proof of our Creator and His goodness. And doesn’t the word goodness really mean God- ness or like God?
LikeLiked by 3 people
Tricia said:
Holy wow, what a fantastic post! So many truths in it, each one worth of a full write up themselves. Nothing has ever hit me deeper and opened my eyes more than when God showed me the truth of who I am and the ugliness I carried and never knew existed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
newenglandsun said:
That there’s depravity is obvious but for us to be totally depraved means none of us are born human 🙂
Evil is the nothing and if we are depraved of all good, we lose his image which is the good. But some choose only evil and when this happens we stop calling them human and refer to them as pigs and wolves.
LikeLike
lovelifeandgod said:
“Until we can recognize our own unloveliness, our own depravity, we can never fully recognize our need for a Redeemer, and we can never understand the sacrifice, the price that was paid on our behalf.”
I think God has been drilling this into me over the past two months. I never thought I would feel so relieved , so comforted to find out how unlovely I actually am! 😉
LikeLiked by 2 people
soulsista4christ said:
This was such a good meaty post. Love the inspiration you conveyed at the beginning about your journey! I literally began to smile while reading it. This post makes you think for sure!
LikeLiked by 1 person
SandySays1 said:
“We tend to see ourselves as we wish to be, not as we really are.” A classic truth.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Debbie L said:
IB, this has to be one of your best posts! And all these great comments….ditto! I’m sitting in a closet while sick grand baby sleeps and hubby finishes his nights sleep….so I can’t write any eloquent response….except ditto to your commenters!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dan Ledwith said:
In the irony that is life, I happen to have some very strong Calvinist friends who are starting a business of selling bunkers, bottled water, canned food, and ammo. Maybe I should print this out and give it to them? Hmmm…..
LikeLiked by 2 people
MJThompson said:
“We tend to see ourselves as we wish to be, not as we really are.” – indeed! There is no greater exercise than falling in love with Jesus – I absolutely agree! Westerners have a difficult time coming to grasp their condition of depravity, while Eastern cultures too often NEVER accept it – having perceived life very differently. In the East spirituality is the universal consciousness. They tend to realize life is primarily spiritual with physical/temporal experiences that hinder one’s full ascent to ‘Nirvana’. Westerners are so ‘world-ground’, having been raised in a predominantly materialistic atmosphere of physical pleasure and capital gain, that accumulation of things is the ultimate altruism. But as scripture questions, “what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet lose his own soul”? Eastern civilizations rarely recognize their own depravity, thinking that spirituality in ANY sense is sufficient remedy for the deviance. The ‘Universal ID’, the all-inclusive ‘Life-Force’, although non-personal, is perceived as the ‘spark of divinity’ in ALL men. The innate problem with such a world-view is that such an implication replaces a belief in One True God with an idea that we are all equal to God, sharing in the divine essence – ‘The Universe’. If one believes their foundation is spiritual with merely occasional lapses into carnality, then getting ‘in-touch’ with their inner-self makes THEM their own savior, actually removing their need for a savior. Although ‘new-age’ philosophies profess “all you need is love” – they fail to address the obvious differences between love of self and love of true God. Introspective meditation can be useful ONLY when the former ‘self’ that is found there accepts his/her total depravity and acknowledges and invites the Spirit of Christ to reside within, giving God the preeminence and ‘self’ rightly covered. The scriptural concept of GRACE is NOT predicated by an extreme Calvinistic view, but be very careful never to ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater’. When GRACE is properly appropriated in a true believer’s life by virtue of the miracle of becoming ‘born again’, God IN YOU produces love for Him, and THAT ALONE results in evident ‘fruit’ that you have been enabled to love one another. ”For it is GOD that works IN you both to will and to do, according to HIS good pleasure” – Phil. 2:13.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Total Depravity – Truth in Palmyra
Andy Oldham said:
A very good post. My lil’ brother continues to try to pull me into the tulip patch. Just can’t wrap my mind around that Jesus all these years has been telling me all wrong 😃. Remember the times people have prepared for the return of Jesus. In the 1970’s they stood in white robes on a mountain in Arkansas (sorry Wally 😄). While we should prepare for disaster, we don’t need to prepare for the end of the world if we are a Christian. God has that one under control and I’m thankful I don’t have to depend on me!
LikeLiked by 2 people