Oswald Chambers once wrote, "When once you are rooted in Reality, nothing can shake you. If your faith is in experiences, anything that happens is likely to upset that faith; but nothing can ever upset God or the almighty Reality of Redemption; base your faith on that, and you are as eternally secure as God." (My Utmost for His Highest, December 3rd Entry, Dodd, Mead and Company, 1964). Mother Teresa, that woman of God who became the hands and feet of Christ to the poorest of the poor in India put it this way - "God will never, never, never let us down if we have faith and put our trust in him. He will always look after us. So we must cleave to Jesus."
Chambers interesting use of the term -"rooted in Reality" has new-found meaning when utilized in current cultural settings. "Reality shows" are among the most popular across the globe. People are mesmerized and captivated when it comes to knowing what is going on in another person's life. They constantly banter back and forth at work about who is getting voted off what show and how they had everything figured out from the beginning! (If the latter is the case why watch what you have apparently prophetically foretold?) Perhaps more interesting is the fact that the collective television audience can recall certain moments of their favorite shows and characters on those shows. My family (not necessarily me by the way) tends to love Survivor and Amazing Race. On a personal note, I watch Deadliest Catch! Each of us can dig into our cavern of memories and haul out piece by piece those moments and situations which gripped us and caused us to be moved one way or another. The stimulus promoted on the screen in front of us caused us to react - which, of course, is the object of the television producer!
Step back for a second and apply this all to the small church minister's life...we have the "reality" of hurried schedules, run-down vehicles, extended finances, decisions on the color of the nursery, election of new church officers, the problem of old Frank who has not been able to hold down a job for while, the pregnant teenage girl who wants to be a part of the youth group, the convicted child molester who has been attending worship for a month now, and the upkeep of the parsonage grounds that are looking more like a home for orphaned ground hogs and moles rather than the stately mansion of a "Reverend." Here is the point - we root ourselves in this "temporary" reality and become possessed and directed by things we cannot control! We try and control them - day-timers, i-phones, credit cards, GPS devices. Anything that can make our lives a bit easier: Well, Wal-Mart, here I come! Yet, this is not the reality a small church minister, or a rural minister, needs to be consumed with.
Relying on the experiences we have on this earth can have a crippling effect on us as people of faith. Being overwhelmed by the experiences of this life can be debilitating at best and destructive at worse. As the leader of a flock in a rural area your life will constantly be the program everyone else is watching. Your life - however you choose to live it - will be a continual unscripted message delivered to the entire community who wait to see how you will react to the same struggles in life they are dealing with. AND, how you react will ultimately depend on where you are rooted. Ergo, rooted in "Reality."
Certainly, Chambers was arguing that "Reality" is God. "Nothing can shake you," he stated. The old hymn, "On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand," seems appropriate at this junction. Am I rooted in the experiences of this life - which are temporary - or am I rooted in the Reality of God who is Eternal? My experiences may be good, some even great. Yet, what if I am the father of a still born child. Is that a great experience? What if my teenager engages in selfish and destructive behaviors? Is that creating a memory I will want to conjure up when I am old and alone? How does the experience of watching a spouse slowly slip into total depression bring about joy to my mind and peace to my heart? Where will you turn when the leaders of your church begin to undercut you and the vision God has laid upon your heart? How many times will you see the same people in your community do the same things which lead to the same results? Relying on the reality of today is as foolish as relying on the weatherman (I trust the Farmer's Almanac).
Being rooted in the Reality of God keeps me from being dashed to pieces on the rocks of this life's crushing waves. Being rooted in the Reality of God draws me closer to him when crisis arise rather than pushing me away into complete oblivion. Being rooted in the Reality of God confronts the flesh in me when I am trying to do things on my own rather than in the power of the Holy Ghost. David writes in Psalm 9:9&10, "The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you." God has not abandoned us, nor will he as long as we are faithfully rooting our lives in him, or as Chambers understands it - we are totally abandoned to God. It's tough out there brothers and sisters. Think how much more awful things would be if we did not have our lives rooted in the Reality of our great and magnificent God. Stay "rooted in Reality" and watch how your everyday reality begins to take a backseat to the greatest show on earth - God moving in the lives of his people.
