Whatever the case, the silence has been deafening.

All speculation aside, it’s a scary thing to realize that a faith founded primarily upon head-knowledge just won’t cut it anymore. It tends to rock one’s boat. It’s rocking mine, that’s for sure.

Take the other day. While looking through some applets posted on the “gadget” page of a very popular search site, I came across one generates a daily devotional thought. I was inspired! That is, until I read several of the comments left by visitors of this very popular search site.

Wow! Talk about venomous! Talk about hostile!

“Stupid! Ignorant! Backwords fools! God-people, go to H*ll!” and on and on the various comments went.

It was as if someone walked up to me, saw my Paper Jesus and decided to smash it head in.

My Paper Jesus cannot stand up to challenges like that. It just can’t. I have tried to bolster My Paper Jesus with tools like “Evidence that Demands a stronger Paper Jesus” or “The Case for a Resilient Paper Jesus” and all that. Mind you, those are great books! But I don’t think I was using them as the authors intended. It’s not their fault, but I don’t need to schlock more glue on My Paper Jesus or reinforce it with cardboard, etc.

My Paper Jesus can’t withstand the onslaughts of our culture, but my REAL Jesus can. And that’s the whole point. Doctrinal beliefs should introduce us to Jesus, but we must go the next step. We need to receive a real, viable relationship with Jesus. Intellectual assent can only bring us to the door.

In the past one could get by rather well using “head-faith.” For one thing, everyone around you pretty much believed the same thing, even if they didn’t actively participate in said beliefs. But gone are the days when society itself bolsters one’s concepts about Jesus. And that’s actually a good thing! But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Today things are different. And bringing up the fact that today there are many ways in which one’s belief system is threatened seems to evoke varied reactions amongst Christians, the main one being silence.

BUT there is another time when the silence gets really deafening!

Many a Christian that I have come in contact with can be rather vocal when it comes to societal issues. They can rather loudly stress our need to return to the “good old days” when we were “a Christian nation”. In other words, there is a strong urge in some to get back to the days when society did not threaten their Paper Jesus; where society even helped hold their head-faith together.

But ask some Christians “how are you doing with loving those around you and rescuing them with the love of Jesus?” Silence…… (insert crick chirp sound effect).

Silence, like the trees in Narnia when Prince Caspian shows up. The book Prince Caspian (unlike the movie) is actually a very sophisticated story. To the point: when the main characters from the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe show up again in Narnia, they find that much of the wonder and awe they knew is gone. What’s worse, the Golden Era of Narnia that they (Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy) brought in is nowhere to be found. Everything is run down, drab, oppressed. Lucy notices that even the trees, the trees that she used to dance with, were silent.

But–and here is where the movie fails terribly–Aslan did not bring the Pevensie children back to Narnia to restore it to the “golden age.” Rather, his assignment to them was to assist the new king, Caspian, as Caspian rescues the Narnians from their oppressor, the Telmorines.

Allow me to say it again,they were not– I repeat NOT–brought to Narnia by Aslan to restore Narnia to its Golden Era. They were brought there to assist in a “search and rescue mission.”

You and I, if you call yourself a Christian, are *not* on this planet to try to bring about a John Calvin style Kingdom of God on Earth. We are here to participate in God’s great Search & Rescue Mission.

So I plead with you dear Christian reader: can we please become less vocal about our supposed need to be a nation of Christian values—and get much more involved and effective in rescuing a lost society, one person at a time?

“So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”     Acts 1:6-8

Jesus’ followers, even after He was resurrected, still were pre-occupied with returning Israel to it’s former glory. But what did Jesus do? He told them not to concern themselves with that, but rather to go on a world wide Search & Rescue Mission. The guideline that we have today for Christians is still Acts 1:8!

Do you think that C.S. Lewis had this scripture in mind when he wrote Prince Caspian? It’s possible. Narnia scholars have noticed that each book of the Chronicles of Narnia (when read in the order Lewis had them published) follows a Seven Step path of spiritual growth that was well known to Lewis.

Isn’t it interesting that Step 2, as it were, is to look at the world around you and seek to rescue it?

If you’re an older Christian like me, maybe it’s time to look around for the Caspians in the world (younger Christians who are stepping up into leadership) and support them as God leads them in their missions.

Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy had a very big challenge on their hands when they returned to Narnia. For one thing, the very first person they met was an atheist. Trumkin the Dwarf, didn’t believe in Aslan, the White Witch, or any of those old stories. He didn’t even believe in the Pevensies, and when he saw them, he was greatly dissapointed in what he was looking at.

Trumkin was anything but a bad person. He just openly stated what most Narnians felt. How could there be an Aslan when Narnia is in such a terrible condition?

Pevensies’ challenge, however, was much deeper than a largely agnostic, downtrodden Narnia. Their challenge was to avoid trying to restore what they so loved about “their” Narnia and instead humbly serve Caspian as Caspian restored all things. Restore Narnia, yes. Return it to its glory days? no. There is a very big difference between the two goals.

What silences some Christians, like the Narnian trees before Caspian rescued them? The thought of reaching out to a hurting world can do it. What say we all make strides to “wake up” our spirits, love whoever God puts in our path and focus on our Search & Rescue mission!

When this adventure was launched I felt rather exhilarated (see the “Altoids” article for details). But I knew that things would settle down and sure enough, they have. Now we play the waiting game, constructive waiting I hope (making a good job hunt effort), but waiting none the less.

When I’m tempted to feel like I’ll never get out of this current state of waiting for the next Big Step, I look back on the lay off and feel comforted; I really do. For I know that God graciously answered my prayers to get out in the world and start doing what I was made to do. He overcame my comfort and complacency and made it very clear that I no longer needed to stay in the old job: It was time to move on.

Cool!

Maybe this was how Digory felt when he first put on the yellow ring.

[Digory? yellow ring??? what is this guy talking about??]

Oh, bother. No doubt some of you have never read “The Magician’s Nephew,” one of the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. Too old for that sort of thing are we? Some may be too young but none are ever too old–unless they will themselves to be.

A brief summary: “The Magician’s Nephew” was the 6th publication of the Chronicles of Narnia — and I strongly recommend that it be read after the other 5, not just because I am a purist about the Chronicles, but because in the long run you will get more out of the books if you read them in the order that they were published. But I digress…..

Digory was a boy who, in order to rescue a girl named Polly, had to put on a yellow ring and be transported out of our “world” (universe, actually) and into a strange in between kind of place. It was a wood (or woods and we Americans call them), very peaceful, very serene, and with the most curious array of small ponds. There were ponds between the trees as far as one could possibly see.

It turns out that each “pond” was actually a portal into other worlds. From the Wood Between the Worlds Digory and Polly eventually found themselves in Narnia. Unfortunately, they brought an unexpected “guest” with them. But that is a story for another time.

I feel like I am in a Wood Between the Worlds.

It was so serene and so peaceful that Polly and Digory were tempted to never leave it. The deep quiet and serenity of the place seemed to urge them to “shut down,” take a long nap and sleep there forever. That is because the Wood Between the Worlds was not a place for staying but for getting to somewhere else. No one should ever dwell there for very long.

I feel like I am in a Wood Between the Worlds.

Getting there was a little scary for Digory and Polly at first, but then they began to realize the possibilities. That was exciting! Soon, however, they came face to face with the consequences of their choices. That was not so exciting. They realized that they could easily get lost in the Wood Between the Worlds and never find their way home. They could also make a bad choice and find themselves trapped in a dangerous world, deeply regretting that they chose one path over another (although, from the Wood, all the paths–that is, the ponds– looked the same).

I feel like I am in a Wood Between the Worlds.

Sooner or later Digory and Polly had to choose one of the ponds, leap into it and therefore into another world. But which one? Shouldn’t they just go straight home? But what about all of those other worlds? Which way should they choose?

Digory chose adventure. He chose to pick a pond, leap in and explore one of the worlds. Polly reluctantly went along with the idea. They wisely took some precautions, like marking the pond that led to their world, then they took a step of faith: They found a pond and leaped into it, not knowing what world lie on the other side.

I feel like I am in a Wood Between the Worlds.

I must fight the urge to shut down and stay here forever. Some days I must quite literally fight the urge to sleep the day away. I am also fighting “analysis paralysis;” there are so many “ponds” (job leads). Which ones should I leap into and explore? Which ones are dead ends, or just not for me?

I also need to be cautious about exploring too much, and not”finding my way back” as it were to a “safe” place. For instance, my severance pay won’t last forever. I can explore career options for a little while, but I’ll need a permanent job soon.

I know that I will need to take a leap of faith–and my “Polly” (that is, my wife) will have to leap with me. I won’t really know that “world” I’ll end up in next until I leap. They all look exactly the same from this “Wood Between the Worlds.”

But sooner or later, leap I must. I would rather find a “ministry pond” to leap into but what if something comes along that is “safe” and secure and a good job, that lands me right back in Uncle Andrew’s study, so to speak? Speaking plainly, what if I get a job offer pretty much like the job I had? I would feel almost obligated to take it. Then what? Keep looking for a ministry “pond” while holding down a day job, I suppose. It is quite possible that this next phase of my life will go that way. I really hope that it doesn’t, but it might.

As long as my next leap is in faith not fear, I’ll be OK with whatever God wants.

Lord, don’t let me return to fishing, simply because I don’t know what else to do (John 21:3, 15-19).

Who am I referring to and why? I’ll give you a hint: Capsian’s Friend refers to a character in the Chronicles of Narnia books.

Here’s another hint: He was the cousin of Lucy and Edmund. Need another hint? He was an unwelcome guest during The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, an adventure that was led by Caspian, king of Narnia.

How about this hint? He was turned into a dragon during that adventure.

It was then that he saw himself for the dragony, selfish, greedy, peevish, bullying, ugly creature that he really was down inside. Once he came to grips with this truth, Aslan turned him back in to a boy, or rather, Aslan pealed back the dragon skin (a very painful process!) and pulled out the boy inside. He then tossed the boy into a near by pool to bathe him and wash off what was left of his dragon residue. When he came out of the pool, Aslan clothed him in new clothes, Narnian clothes, and they were splendid. Perfect for the adventures that lie ahead.

In The Silver Chair, this same boy returns to Narnia. There he reflects back on his Dawn Treader voyage and how Caspian graciously endured him and even defended him before he was a dragon, how Caspian would not abandon him while he was a dragon and actually relied on him after he was a boy again. “I suppose he’s about the best friend a chap could have,” the boy said, and he should know the value of a friend. For before his adventures on the Dawn Treader Eustice Clarance Scrubb, former dragon, had never had any friends.

Truth is, I’m rather dragon-like down inside (Romans 3:23). Fortunately for me, I went through a similar painful/blessed process of seeing myself for who I really am (Romans 6:23a). If you are born again, as Jesus once said, then you know how painful the process can be of letting “Aslan” tear back all of the scales, baptize you (remember the pool Eustice was tossed into?), and clothe you in His clothes of righteousness (remember Eustice’s new Narnian clothes?).

Perhaps there has been a Caspian or two in your life who endured you when you were far from God, and who stuck with you during your painful journey of becoming “undragoned.” Perhaps you, like Eustice, have seen that being dragon like inside is a very lonely life. Having a true friend thanks to the common bond you have in Jesus, is a very special gift.

Caspian’s Friend is someone who was once a dragon, and who can still act like a dragon from time to time. But thanks to Jesus, he will never be enslaved by those “scales” again.

there’s a little bit of dragon in all of us