Our pride, His power, part I

 

Grab a cuppa and settle in, dear readers.  We have a lengthy post today, but I hope that when we finish, you will feel it's time well-spent.

The Lord foils the plans of the nations;

    he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.

But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever,
    the purposes of his heart through all generations.

 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
    the people he chose for his inheritance. (Psalm 33:10-12)

We are still in Psalm 33....today we are continuing our look at how powerful God is. Last time we studied, we focused on the power of His Word, both the written Word and His spoken word. When we closed last week, we mentioned that we humans are SO prone to pride . . . we think that everything goes according to our plans, and our desires. We plan and build super-cities; we tie the cities together with amazing infrastructure; we elect people to govern; we do all of these things and sometimes don't give a second thought to what God's plans are - or if He is working out His purposes in the world today. 

Doesn't matter if we don't think about it.  He IS working out His purposes in the world today.

We think we are masters of our own fate. We are not. We puny humans may shake our fists at the heavens, but God is in control. 

These verses made me think of a poem written by an atheist -- moral and immoral alike have drawn strength from its words. William Ernest Henley wrote "Invictus," and I've posted it here for you to read:

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years 

Finds, and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

Invictus means unconquered. Henley wrote Invictus when he was twenty-seven, having lost a leg to tuberculosis of the bone. As an avowed atheist, the only place he could look for strength was in himself. He didn't believe there was any purpose to his pain; he felt it was "chance," as he said in the poem. He just hoped to stoically "take it like a man."

Henley wrote his poem as if he were shaking his fist at the universe, and when we read the last stanza, we realize he was shaking his fist at God, too. (Cue Frank Sinatra singing "My Way" . . . . )  Even if God didn't exist, how could Henley claim to be master of his fate, when he was subject to a thousand different forces beyond his control? If all it took to be master of one's fate was stubborn resolve, then all of the parents of toddlers had better look out! 

Perhaps his Invictus made sense to Henley because he was in the midst of the exciting days of Victorian era enlightenment: the teachings of Darwin and Nietzsche seemed to be a breath of fresh air for non-believers, and Christianity seemed to be limping off the stage. Kinda makes you wonder, though, if he would have had the same take on things if he'd lived one hundred years later? When he could see the results of Nietzschen and Marxist theories played out in the slaughter of millions -- by people who lived by those philosophies . . . 

One reason that Henley's poem is inspiring to so many is that it's appealing to their pride. Another is that it is close enough to the "real thing," to true courage and resolve, that it stirs our admiration. We all feel instinctively that there's virtue in courage. We admire the resolve that is shown by courageous people. The real heroes of history (and of the Bible) have been those who sacrificed (sometimes gave their all) for a cause greater than themselves. It's easy to list some: Moses before Pharaoh, Daniel facing the lions, the apostles before the Sanhedrin, our Savior before Pilate.

All of these stood up to evil - why? For the sake of righteousness . . . . and they stood up in spite of the fact that they KNEW the risk. We admire this kind of courage because we know instinctively that it's the "real thing." This is greatness: dying to self for the sake of others.

On the flip side of the coin, most of us don't admire the Nebuchadnezzars, the Nietzsches, the Hitlers, the Stalins, or the 911 hijackers. What they accomplished did require a kind of resolve. But self-centered, self-exalting, nihilistic resolve is not true greatness. It's greatness perverted to evil. And that is what Henley's poem "Invictus" is, at its heart. A deluded claim to self-sovereignty. It has a ring of heroism, but it's delusion. It's counterfeit. When this deluded self-sovereignty based on Darwin, Nietzsche, Marx, and others is given power -- horribly destructive evil is unleashed on the world.

So. 

We can all agree that God is in control, no matter what prideful man thinks.

Are we ready for a breath of fresh air?

In the early 1900's, a believer named Dorothea Day adapted Henley's manifesto in a poem that she titled "Conquered" and I have posted it here:

Out of the light that dazzles me,

Bright as the sun from pole to pole,

I thank the God I know to be

For Christ - the Conqueror of my soul.

Since His the sway of circumstance,

I would not wince nor cry aloud.

Under the rule which men call chance

My head, with joy, is humbly bowed.

Beyond this place of sin and tears,

That life with Him and His the aid,

That, spite the menace of the years,

Keeps, and will keep me unafraid.

I have no fear though straight the gate:

He cleared from punishment the scroll.

Christ is the master of my fate!

Christ is the Captain of my soul!

The greatest need of our souls is to be conquered by Christ; to assume the self-sacrificing and servant traits of His character. The evil in this world will beat us bloody sometimes - both literally and figuratively, as seen in the plights of Christians around the globe.  Our task is to stand firm against evil in the strength of Christ Who loved us and gave Himself for us. Paul tells us that we will be more than conquerors in the end; with a courageous hope -- because come what may, the end will be glorious beyond our knowledge:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18, NIV)

If Christ is the master of our fates and the Captain of our souls, we have NOTHING to fear. We will be sustained to the end, and when that scroll is unrolled, it will read that we are guiltless. We know that all will work together for our good, and even though we die, we will live eternally!

The soul described by Henley's Invictus is not heroic - even though the poem has given resolve to many. That soul is foolish. But the soul conquered by the greatest Love that has ever existed, is not foolish -- by God's grace we can then withstand the worst that evil can throw our way. We can be more than conquerors and then live joyfully for eternity -- that is a life worth living!!

Amen!

(My thanks to Jon Bloom for the analysis of Invictus.)on FacebookHis only hope was to take his bludgeonings like a man, which to him meant a stoic resolve