A PEEK INTO THE MINDS OF AN IDEALIST AND A REALIST - IN CONTRAST TO THE MIND OF GOD – PART TWO

Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. Jos 1:3 

Idealists are rarely happy people. They are born sorrowful and they die sorrowful. The idealist lives on pain. It’s his aphrodisiac. He sees the whole world as a sea of agony. He is a shrink buff and the psychiatrist is his best comfort. But if the idealist is the ‘idol of the theatre’, the realist is the ‘idol of the market’.

There are two groups of church going people at any one time and who all claim to be born again. One group is devout. It contributes heavily to church. The other group is grumpy and ever finding fault (And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. Mar 7:2). They don’t give easily. And in the rare circumstance they do, they follow it up with the rider that they are giving but they don’t really see the reason why they should. These cast a dark shadow upon everyone’s attempt to be happy. They seem to take a grim satisfaction in the fact that they are poor as if that confers on them righteousness. They hate the rich. They denounce them as robbers and devil worshippers. I attended a funeral recently where the preacher belonged to this school of thought. People walked away and I followed them. That is the view of any realist.

God wants us to be rich yes and in all things (For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. Luk 12:30). And Christians should not be ashamed about it. There is a sickening poverty, so debilitating and so dehumanizing that this cannot be said to be glorious to God. No gospel should glorify such things. It is to be unrealistic. John Piper’s Christian Hedonism has covered this topic extensively and is a good read for anyone wishing to expand their knowledge on this topic. It is impossible to worship God on an empty stomach. That is realism. And Jesus recognized it. He gave the people bread to eat. And therein lies a double edged sword as everything in Scripture is. Jesus didn’t teach people how to make their own bread. He wasn’t an entrepreneur. And up to today there are people who follow him – but not for his teaching (This is an hard saying; who can hear it?) but for his bread. This is why there are unending fights in the church. Everybody wants to sit as near the treasury box as possible. And in that sense Christianity becomes more like any worldly business enterprise. Unfortunately the realists have filled the temple – while the idealists wander alone in dry places. The church is crying again for real saints – the shepherds who live and smell like the sheep.

The church has unfortunately killed many as well – and who have found refuge in poverty – not because they love it – but because it quietens their demons. Their heart flutters with the idea of being rich and great. But on the other hand they were taught from childhood to denounce riches and hate rich people. Instead they were taught to glorify poverty! And because they are caught up between the two opposing schools of thoughts – they are forever trapped in that middle ground of indecisiveness. And this is what happens when one suppresses their God given ambitions because of fear. Sadly they end up in life bitter and depressed. Christ calls us to a life of self-denial. Christ also calls us to an abundant life. Christ therefore becomes both an idealist and a realist in that sense. If we adopt such an open ended worldview we shall all become tolerant, peace makers and God glorifying people on earth. Failure to do this we shall always be rubbing people the wrong way. We shall become unpleasant. But can one become all that and without compromising their core beliefs? Yes. Where there is love everything is possible. God is teaching the idealist that he alone is the final ideal – and final happiness. Paradoxically he is teaching both the idealist and the realist to hate themselves first and love God. Because it is only in him that they will begin to understand ‘these things’ – the things which so exasperated Nicodemus on that lonely night.

Theology is not esoteric. Theology does not happen in a vacuum. It happens in a real world of real people of divergent gifts, desires, colour and bearing. God make our ideals to flower. God make our realities come true! Let us begin to see our own Christian fiction writers, Christian poets, Christian entrepreneurs, Christian C.S Lewis’s and Christian politicians, all thriving and getting rich in the world without being ashamed about it – and may all these redound to the praise and glory of you O God! Amen.