Backsliding Epiphanies

Idea 1: 

 "In all organic life, there is a tendency to revert to the original type" (Chambers, Backsliding: The Tendency to Revert). 

Oswald Chambers gives the example of flowers and plants.  When someone is taking care of them or training them, they do what the gardener wants.  Once untended or left to their own devices, the plants will revert to their original tendencies.  

It's no big surprise that people act similarly. 

It's a lesson in vigilance.  There are no days off when it comes to tending the soul.  Regular tending - prayer, Scripture, worship - is necessary to keep pruning and training our souls to stay in alignment with the Gardener's designs for us. 

Idea 2:

"The possibility of offence can only come when two persons have somewhat the same nature" (Chambers, Backsliding: The Tendency to Revert, Possibility of Offence).  

This was an important epiphany for me.  

There is two people with whom the offense is egregious.  This particular quote regards the elder of the two.  

With regard to the offense, I can see how we are alike.  We are both ferocious mama bears, wanting to protect our kids, often straining boundaries to do so.  That said, I can understand what she said and did.  It doesn't change the past or provide healing, but understanding is the beginning of healing. 

Idea 3: 

"As soon as I am offended, I become perverse, my eyes are blinded and I see only along the line of my prejudices. . . The people who are most perverse against the truth are those who know it" (Chambers, Backsliding: The Tendency to Revert, The Perversity of the Offenced and The Perfidy of the Offended).

The first part of the statement is a reflection of modern times. This is not a new or extraordinary point.  The second part of the statement might be.

People are equipped with an innate sense of right and wrong.  As creatures made in God's image, this is a default setting.  

Life is a struggle between the world's ideas and God's truths.  We have an inner magnetic pull toward Truth.  People who lean away and fight that truth voice the biggest and loudest complaints.  Apparently, they think that the more they scream, the more noise they make, the truer their message becomes.  It doesn't work that way. They just get angrier, which leads them to exert more effort to lean further away.  The result is fruitlessness and an unhappy demeanor and life.  

Idea 4:

"If God were to remove from us as saints the possibility of disobedience, there would be no value in our obedience; it would be mechanical business. . .The possibility of disobedience in a child of God makes his obedience of amazing value" (Chambers, Backsliding: The Tendency to Revert, The Perfidy of the Offenced).

People often pray for the removal of sin and temptation from their lives.  A key point to remember is that temptation is not sin.  Submitting to temptation is.  Even in the Lord's Prayer, it says, "lead us not into temptation," not "remove temptation." 

God's desire is that we choose Him - in every moment, in every circumstance. Every time we choose Him, we are IN His Will - the very thing we ask for ALL the time.  To remove the temptation would take away the choice. The default would be automatic obedience, which sounds good in theory, but is dissatisfactory because it takes our uniqueness as individuals out of the equation. 

The best analogy I can muster is arranged marriage.  In an arranged marriage, both parties are guaranteed a spouse.  All the things that are associated with courtship - getting to know each other, anticipating the person's arrival, wanting to look good/smell good, showing one's best qualities - would be moot and unnecessary.  Likewise, to me, at least, it would be a dissatisfactory circumstance.  Sure, I would have a husband, but I would never have the satisfaction of knowing that out of all the others, he chose me. 

Like a bridegroom, God wants us to WANT and CHOOSE Him. This is the necessary of temptation.