“Are You Looking Through the Wrong End of the Telescope?”
By Pastor Ron Buxton
One day, an avowed atheist was fishing in Scotland. All of a sudden, a large dragon-like amphibian emerged out of the water! It’s teeth were snarling, and it swam directly at him! This caused the atheist to cry out in desperation. “Dear God”, he pleaded, “Please save me!”
Miraculously, everything stopped moving—as a surreal quiet overcame that Scottish countryside. The heavens opened, and a deep voice bellowed out from above: “I thought that you didn’t believe in Me?”
Trembling, the atheist responded, “Give me a break! Just two minutes ago–I didn’t believe in the Loch Ness Monster, either!”
I agree with Dr. Frank Turek. I’m also convinced that most people don’t “see” God—just like most burglars don’t see the police! They don’t want to see Him! They realize, don’t they, that to actually look for God would probably radically change how they live their life? And they just don’t want a divine foot within the metaphorical door of their house! Sadly, even those identified as church goers aren’t much better. And it is to those folks that I will be writing today.
In many ways, the modern church is at fault for “practicing atheists” within our congregations. We’ve focused too much upon what market research has told us to do in order to get people into our buildings. And this foolish “nickels and noses” emphasis was NOT what Christ expected His followers to pursue. What ends up happening is a self-centered—rather than a God-centered—enterprise developing under the guise of Christianity. God have mercy on us!
To the contrary, true followers of Christ—throughout all the ages—have always had an awesome sense of wonder about God’s Person and creative power. For example, when the Psalmist looked up to those starry heavens, his language reflected that awe and wonder. Psalm 8:3-4 declares “When I consider Your heavens….what is man that You are mindful of him?” But is that the spiritual climate in most modern churches today? Unfortunately, too much emphasis on self-focus has replaced that. It’s like we’ve elevated mankind, and in the process, lowered God to the status of some kind of mobile phone app.
Turning to an analogy of looking up into the night time sky—as the Psalmist did–I ask this question: Are you looking through the wrong end of the telescope? Instead of seeing the vast universe before your eyes, do you see only the smallness of your own condition? And isn’t that condition extremely “out of focus”?
Psalm 19:1 states “The heavens declare the glory of God!” But have you noticed? Or are you looking into the wrong end of the telescope? If that’s the case—and you’re honest about it–there’s still hope for you! Turn your worldview (that is, your metaphorical telescope) around while you can! Begin to see the awesomeness of God! And then recognize that it is in seeing Him that the rest of reality comes into focus!
