From
Galatians 2:1-24
“Freedom!”
H,
It is not possible to fully quantify how truly lost we all are. If we had a way of measuring the depth of our fall or the height of our delusion we may find it hard to continue living any kind of sane life. We are told not to judge because of an absence of standing on our part and not as a sign of the presence of goodness in us. It is a practical bit of advice: do not judge because you cannot take your own punishment if you are measured with the same fairness. We are broken and lost creatures that need to give other broken and lost creatures a break.
There is hope, though. Something eternal is happening to all of us. We can either sit in a dark room thinking that we will always be this way or we can listen to the voice that tells us there is a better world outside. We can choose to open that door and let the light in. It will take a lot of hallucinogens and a lot of selfishness to see the world as a kind and friendly place to all. It will take a lot of faith to see it as it can be: a place of magic and wonder and light, of love and candles and the end of all known spite. This is the true journey of the believer; to find in God all the beauty that the world once was and can be again. To speak of that place again and again and invite people to share in the joy of knowing the end, the beginning and the crucial middle all tie together in Christ as man and man reconnected to God.
This is why we must not despair in all our lostness. We are being found. It does not feel like but it is eternally true. It is little shifts and changes following dramatic decisions but we are stunted by seeing things only as they appear and not as they are. There is a whole process of growth going on underground. One day we will all be trees. This will be a forest again. There will be Eden, again and then much more.