[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, March 2019]
I am always amazed at the complexity of the human body, let alone the rest of creation. A simple example is the way that the eye works. What we see is projected onto the retina but the image we see is upside down. However, the brain turns that picture around so that we see it the right way up. This was proved by an experiment where a person wore a viewer over his eyes, during his waking hours for a few days, which turned his vision upside down. He then saw his surroundings in a completely different way. For instance, he thought that he was walking on the ceiling and when he went to walk through a doorway, he tried to step over the part of the wall which was between the top of the door and the ceiling above it. That was very amusing for those watching him but not to him. After a period of time the brain took over and compensated for what he was seeing so that he was then able to see the right way up. Some time later, the viewer was removed and, surprise, surprise, he now saw everything upside down with his ordinary sight. He had to wait a long while for his brain to correct what he saw and his sight to go back to normal.
We seem to be going through a time when people’s views in general seem to be turning upside down. Whether it is to do with politics and Brexit, questions of faith, morality, knife crime, sexuality, marriage and many others. I’ll leave you to fill in the details. Could this be the beginning of what Paul says in 2 Timothy 3? “There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self – control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”. Does any of that sound familiar? It seems to be the way that many people view their lives today.
When Jesus came, He turned the view of His listeners upside down. In His teaching He often said, “You have heard that it was said…….. but I tell you…….”. And He would give them a completely different view to what they thought they already knew. He could say what He did because He is the Son of God and taught the truth of God and not what we human beings think is truth.
Last Sunday, Martin said that we don’t have to earn a new relationship with God we only have to accept it with thanksgiving as a gift from Him. Jesus not only taught that but gave His life on the cross to make it possible. When we believe that truth He turns our life upside down in a new and exciting way. The first Christians showed this in their lives and Paul and Silas were accused of “turning the whole world upside down” as a result.
If we believe this good news in our own lives, we should pray that Jesus will cleanse, renew and empower us by the Holy Spirit as a church to share the good news, so that many in our community will have their own lives turned upside down to know Jesus as Saviour. Then their lives will really be the right way up.
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Contributed by Michael Goble; © the Author
