On What Do You Lean?
Every person, every family, goes through difficult times.
When my baby sister was just fifteen years of age, she was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer. It was only discovered because it showed up on X-rays taken for braces. When my mom was just sixty, she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer from which her dad had died. When I was forty-six, I was rushed into the hospital for an emergency brain surgery. Somehow, I had an extremely rare and often fatal double brain infection. When my twin brother was forty-eight, he was diagnosed with leukemia.
My guess is, you are now thinking of a trouble or two your family has had to endure. To be sure, trouble comes to every person. The big question is, how do you get through troubled times? What will hold you up, keep your life from collapsing?
Truthfully, there are only two options: the crutch of human philosophy or the crutch of God’s truth. I use the word “crutch” because a few years back, Jesse Ventura, former wrestler and governor of Minnesota, said, “Organized religion is … a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers.” Well, not exactly, Christians do have a crutch, but it is not organized religion, it’s the Word of God. On the other side, everyone has a crutch, even those who are not followers of Jesus Christ. Believers lean on His Word, and non-believers lean on humanism – the ideas of others.
Look first at the crutch of humanism – is it a trustworthy crutch? To be truly reliable, wouldn’t it need to stand the test of time? Sadly, you don’t have to live very long before you realize that the philosophies of mankind are always changing. What was right and good just a few years ago is now wrong and bad. And what was wrong and abhorrent has somehow become accepted as the norm. For the humanist, there is no absolute right and wrong, there are no eternal truths. In fact, my truth may be contrary to your truth and what is true today may not be true tomorrow. It is the way of relativism. Be warned then, the humanistic ideas, the crutch, you lean on today may be kicked out from underneath you tomorrow.
What about the other crutch, God’s Word, is it a trustworthy crutch? Let’s be honest, sometimes it seems a little hard, and at times a little outdated compared to modern society. But, where society has relative truth, the Bible always has a fixed truth. And where society is unsure, Scripture gives a clear yes and no, a right and wrong, a blessing and a curse. And where society’s ideas come from man, Scripture’s ideas come from God (2nd Peter 1:21). And while it may not always be the coolest or most comfortable crutch, it is a sure thing. While all is changing around you, you can be sure God’s Word will not let you down.
I think many Christians if not most would agree that the Bible is a sure crutch. I have, however, a concern, are Christians trying to lean on both the Word of God and the humanistic ideas of our age? To be sure, this is a real temptation. It’s why the wiseman wrote, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not lean on your own understanding,” (Proverbs 3:5). Notice his emphasis on “all your heart,” he knows the temptation of dividing your heart to partly trust in the Lord and party trust in the relativistic philosophies of society. Be warned, this does not work, you must choose a side, for a little blending of humanism with Scripture is nothing more than man’s philosophy dressed up to look good. In the end, it places the ideas of a man or woman over the ideas of God and leaves you supported by a crumbling crutch.
You must choose, will you lean on society’s values or God’s? When choosing your crutch, remember:
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV)