Saturday, October 8, 2016

when we should rebel

Lewis talks about rebellion today in A Year with C.S. Lewis.

And Lewis talks about how we need to kill the rebellious spirit inside of us. He's right, of course. Because he's talking about rebelling against God. But as the image above shows, sometimes obedience to God means rebellion against someone else. Or SOMETHING else.

As we know from the verse that says "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers", our struggle is not really against other people. In fact, our marching orders are pretty clear regarding other people: love them. If they're our friends, we should love them. If they're our enemies, we should love them. God keeps it simple for people like me.

But we DO wrestle against the powers of the world. The "spirit of the age", as it's called. It's trying to destroy families. It's trying to kill little children. It's trying to make everything seem like it doesn't matter anyway. This spirit is what our rebellion is against.

When we really obey God, and put to death our rebellion against Him, we find ourselves aligning with Him against the spirit of the age. And we also know from scripture that when we do that, we should expect trouble. "Don't be surprised when the world hates you," Jesus said. "In the world you will have trouble. But take heart. I have overcome the world."

Take heart. You will have trouble. But you're in Good Company.

God, thanks for letting us be part of the true rebellion.