A Spirit of Confusion by Rocky Fleming
“For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” 1 Corinthians 14:33 ESV
Are any of you discouraged by the confusion all around you? I just returned from a conference that required that I fly to and from our location. It was horrendous. It was so discouraging with communications, service, breakdowns and delays that I feel reluctant to fly again. Because of it I will do a personal boycott of the airline I traveled on to make sure they won’t get my time or money again. But the word I get is that it is like that with all the airlines. There is a spirit of confusion in all of them, it seems.
I’ve quit trying to order food through a drive-in window. They don’t seem to listen to the order, and most often, they get it wrong. It is often with some particular vendors that this happens and I’m avoiding them. But it is starting to happen with even the most reputable service-minded ones. There is a spirit of confusion permeating our society. It is obvious.
I filled my truck up with fuel yesterday. It was bad enough that it cost me $95.00 to fill it up. But when I got an immediate credit card alert, I discovered that the station had actually charged my card $125.00. How did that happen? Where does this confusion come from? The store manager is not there to fix the problem. She was delayed in getting to work. When I called the credit card company about the problem, they sent me to a computer to make my complaint. Shortly after my complaint, which they never addressed, they had the audacity to send me a message asking me “How are we doing?” I don’t have faith in my complaint being acted on unless I do a long wresting match with both parties, and all I wanted to do was buy some fuel.
I guess that’s another problem. We lose trust that we can ever get a just outcome. I seem to never get a sympathetic ear when I call in for basic services needed to unconfuse a situation or a wrong charge, or lack of service that was given to me. When I do get a human, it is generally in faraway places where communication between us is hindered, and if my question is not on a boiler plate answer they can give me, I’m forwarded to another department with further delays telling me that I am very important to them, but due to an excessive amount of customer calls I will be delayed longer … indefinitely longer. I then get the same old music I’ve listened to the previous thirty minutes. There seems to be no confusion with systems that dump a complaint like useless rubbish by taking a caller to the land of discouragement, and then we just give up and write it off. Confusion I tell you! A spirit of confusion has descended on our society. Do you see it? I’ve shared some things that I’ve recently seen, and like you, I need answers with how to adapt to this rapidly developing culture of confusion. So, what is the answer?
As Christians, we (I) need to remember to keep our cool and poise in the unfair times we face. Our witness becomes very important in the land of confusion to the people who interact with us in various ways. We need to accept another fact that we have entered into a time that this confusion is likely to increase, not decrease. To survive it we have to learn to adapt to it. To adapt to it we must simplify our life down to the important issues, even the most important issues to fight for, and easily release the unimportant. This becomes the best way to unconfuse things and take it down to bite size pieces. It is to ask, “What is important to God here? How does He want me to process these things that exasperate me? What is a battle worth fighting and what is one that I simply do not engage in?” Determining these things needs to be in advance of the inconvenience, for in the heat of the moment we will resort to an ugly nature that demands its rights, and feels justified to say what we want, do what we want, to get what is fair.
The next perspective is this question about what is fair? I’ve struggled with some personal shame today and yesterday because of my attitude toward the inconveniences I mentioned. I look at the victims of an unjustified war by a bully who wants to steal, kill and destroy them, and I think of how petty my complaints are. I feel the Lord adjusting my perspective, and I have no problem living it out before you that I’m an imperfect guy who needs to let God continue to teach me. I encourage you to let Him do the same for you. I’m reminded of a great quote by a respected evangelical theologian that speaks of our role in today’s society:
“Our business is to present the Christian faith clothed in modern terms, not to propagate modern thought clothed in Christian terms… Confusion here is fatal.” J.I. Packer
Let there be no confusion in us as we as Christians live in a confusing world. Our role is not to be exempt from the confusing challenges that everyone faces. Rather, it is to live in it, right along the side of other strugglers, and show them how relevant our faith is to the life we are presented. Then we fasten our heart on that which is most important, and we influence our world toward that which is most important as well. This keeps it relevant and simple, and it is how we will adapt to the confusion around us. This is where we will play our noble part as God’s family and do a little bit of unconfusing of ourselves and as well others.
Yes, it is a confusing world, and the father of lies has formed it. We can’t win in this world if we fight this fight as he tempts us to do so. But we can win each battle by doing it Jesus’ way. Let’s let Jesus show us the way to fight and win. That is what we are being formed for.