Apart from our five senses (sight, touch, taste, smell, hearing) we humans have no way of knowing anything other than that we exist. We would know nothing at all if it were not for our indispensable faculties of perception. Obviously we would not be aware of anything or anybody outside of our wretched selves. We would become mad creatures shut inside ourselves with only our deranged thoughts for company.
Below is the little speech I would make to God if I did not know better – but I DO know better. I have been raised in the Christian faith since I was a baby. Thank God I have had the blessing of growing up in a godly environment and learning from scripturally grounded parents. So I know better. But I am only human and at times my thinking becomes a little blurred. Here is what I would say – if I didn't know better:
"Ah, but Lord, you made me as I am, requiring physical confirmation of the universe that is all around me and extending out to the farthest cosmic object an infinity away. You made the universe; you made me and you are asking me to trust you when I can neither see nor hear nor feel you. You are asking me, Lord – me, the one you created subject to my five senses for confirmation of all I know and experience – you are asking, nay, you are demanding that I trust you whom I have never seen nor heard nor felt nor touched nor smelled nor tasted. How can I trust you when you have made me so ill-equipped as I am for trust outside of my senses?
"I do not have the faculty even for dreaming the occasional significant dream or seeing the infrequent momentous vision that you grant to some of your servants. Again, Lord, how can I possibly extend myself to trust you when you have made me so lacking while you are undeniably great and mighty – and so imperceptible by the five senses you gave me and by which I live?"
But whenever my thoughts tend to wander in that direction, I remember what Jesus told Thomas the doubting disciple. Thomas had said he would never believe Jesus was resurrected until he felt the print of the nails in Jesus' hand and thrust his hand into the gaping spear hole in Jesus' side. Several days later, after Jesus had shown Thomas by physical proofs that it was indeed Jesus and He was at that moment alive, Thomas was awed and speechless. The now penitent believer could only say, "My Lord and my God!"
Jesus gently chided Thomas:
"Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." (Joh 20:29)
God is asking, nay, demanding that we who are so captive to our senses should believe in Him and trust Him to the utmost. The following statement may sound a trifle weird, but think on it awhile: "Trust is what trust is all about." It means we are required to rely solely on a God we cannot sense physically but who made the universe and all things in it. That is unadulterated Trust.
And then I think of John Milton (1608-74; Eng. Poet) my favorite poet. Milton mused on his having lost his sight in the prime of life and as a result of that musing he wrote the following poignant verse, which I have used often. (I have taken the liberty of inserting bracketed explanations of the English language used in Milton's day):
On His Blindness
WHEN I consider how my light is spent [his blindness]
E're half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent [his poetic gift] which is death to hide,
Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul [is] more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labour [sighted service], light deny'd [his blindness],"
I fondly [foolishly] ask; But patience to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts, who best
Bear his milde yoak [yoke], they serve him best, his State
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post [travel] o're Land and Ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and waite."
John Milton
Milton continued to write for approximately two decades after he lost his sight and in that time produced Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agoniste. They were arguably three of his best works – achieved after losing his sight! There is a powerful lesson and moral here that, combined with the moving On His Blindness, should make any foot-dragging servants of Christ hang their heads in shame.
Quit depending on what you can see. Leave off relying on miracles of a physical nature; God knows how to handle your health and your finances. The children of God are so obsessed with this physical life that they cannot focus properly on the spiritual realm. What about love for one another and humility and kindness and gentleness? If we prayed as strenuously for these things of the spirit as we do for the physical, we would see a marked improvement in our individual lives and the well-being of the Church.
When it comes to really being a follower of the Lord, we need to throw away the rule book, that outdated paradigm for living in the physical world. We are foolish to think it can apply to a God we cannot perceive with any of the five physical senses.
"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." (Joh 4:24)
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