The aforementioned collisions and train wrecks come with this explanation, in case you couldn’t make much sense of it. And I wouldn’t expect anyone to have made much sense of it, since it all came together in my head a few minutes ago.
It appears the kingdom of Joel is on a collision course with the Kingdom of God right now. And if our two locomotives have not struck quite yet, then they are surely WAY past the blow-whistles/horns-at-each-other stage and within a football field’s distance of hitting…errrr…colliding.
This was the beautiful collision dancing in my head when I first heard the David Crowder song I posted lyrics of. Collisions are devastating…but they are also darkly beautiful. And the beauty Crowder spoke of in his song rang true with my perception of my current collision. My interpretation probably shares little with Crowder’s, but that’s the beauty of art; it transcends the artist.
When a kingdom is about to be wrecked, or, in more consistent terms, is under siege by another kingdom, the threatened kingdom sharpens its swords and spears, assembles new arrows, straps on its armor, farewells loved ones, strikes a battle stance, screams at the top of its lungs, and prepares to defend the fort.
That’s basically what the kingdom of Joel is doing right now. Over the past 26 years, my kingdom has grown FAR too powerful. (Not that any kingdom could ever be too powerful for God’s; Saul’s kingdom was pretty mighty before it was destroyed along the road to Damascus and gave rise to Paul’s.) It has been fortified with lots and lots of defenses like intelligence, logic, creativity, craft, leadership, skill, ambition, passion…yada, yada, yada. Lots and lots of stuff that allowed it to become effective, influential and powerful–a force to be reckoned with.
And now that the kingdom of Joel is under siege, it’s fighting for its life. Never mind the promise that its fall would enable the rise of a much more glorious and powerful kingdom. Life as Joel knows it…is all Joel knows. Who would blame them for putting up a fight to the bloody death?
So…what to do, what to do? Raise the surrender flag now, before it gets really nasty? Not sure if the king is humble enough to do that yet. Some warning shots have been launched from catapults, some thatched roofs have been set ablaze by fiery arrows, food supplies have been cut off and are running low. But those are only the early parts of a siege.
How much blood must be shed before this thing is said and done?
3 replies on ““Collision part 2” or “Making sense of it all””
there is nothing like a third person narrative of the Kingdom come.
Beautiful metaphor – frighteningly accurate – devastatingly poignant – blessedly true
Yeah. It made sense to me. Helped me understand and envision what was happening rather than just be confused by the whole mess.
Typically, I always think of the Kingdom of God invading “the bad guys”–you know, the Kingdom of Darkness. Satan. The enemy.
But I guess until my flesh and I are completely out of the picture, there is still some invading to be done on the home fort called my life.