In Alice and Wonderland, Alice is enticed by things that offer excitement, intrigue, pleasure or gain. I am most certainly much like Alice and thus this was one of my favorite reads when I was young. It was full of tall tales that led to amazing encounters. I do so love adventures.
Growing up with three brothers was a daily adventure of the third kind. Dad was often missing in action and Mom was usually working. Left to our own vices we took liberties in our learning process. Alice downed drugs to become small and ate cake to become big again, we just experimented with whatever we had available. For example we froze a turtle to see if it would thaw out, which it did and lived for a few minutes too. My brother experimented with Tide and matches….blew up the bathroom. We used frogs for target practice. We jumped off the house to see if we could fly. We dug a tunnel in the snow barefoot. I opened the car door while mom was driving and I stuck my finger in a hedge trimmer to see what would happen, have the scar to prove it! We even ate like kings, making vats of chocolate frosting for dinner!
As my days went from young to older I was always seeking the adventure, excited about the race, intrigued by dangerous possibilities, finding pleasure in the here and now and hoping to gain something good.
The natural beat of the human heart accelerates when we perceive something to be dangerous or daring. The heart is seldom seeking the good. We chase the rabbit hole searching and so often fall in. Without guidance, without instruction. Stuck in the pit of sinful desire, seeking gratification in dangerous living, considering options that promise excitement, intrigue, pleasure or gain. It is the natural deceptive cadence in the rhythm of our heart; fallen into the hole like Alice.
In Romans 7:15-17 it talks about our sinful nature. “for I do not understand what I do, for what I want to do I do not do but what I do I hate. For if I do what I do not want to do it is no longer I who did it but the sin that lives within me.” Seems like an endless cycle of craziness. Sounds like that high pitched fast paced repetitive rhythm that plays tornadically during the climactic scenes of a suspenseful movie. The tone will not resolve it just keeps playing faster and faster and faster.
Jesus resolves the relentless repeating. He is somewhat like the Cheshire cat that is always cleverly appearing in those inopportune moments. Frightens you a bit with that chagrined smile! Please don’t read this wrong, Jesus is not deceiving. However, in our sinfulness we do not want to get caught in our sinfulness and thus when we hear Jesus calling, we are quick to try to hide. With innocent eyes we respond, “whatever do you mean?” “Where should I go?” Jesus brings resolution to the questions that taunt us.
Jesus is there when you are too small to reach the door or when you are too big to walk through it. Jesus is there when you are chasing the harried opportunities that are always leading you through dangerous places and spaces. Jesus is there when you are seeking to find and He is answering back, “It really depends on where you want to go!”
Like Alice I have been the little girl searching for love in all the wrong places, seeking identity in mayhem, folly and madness, struggling for place in an unfamiliar face. It is a deceptive cadence that plays in all of our hearts, wreaking havoc on our living, beckoning mad chase. Yet, in Romans we discover the truth; our sinful nature is dissolved as Jesus resolves. “The old is gone, the new has come.” II Corinthians 5:17
Alice awoke in a world post familiar. In search of self discovery she found truth, thus trumping the past and transforming her future. She resolves “I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.” If you find yourself running after what used to be, or living in the dark and traumatic seasons of your life, stop in the ashes of a fire burned long and watch as the green breaks through. Because Jesus resolved my life, he dissolved the struggle when he absolved my sin and shame. He involved me in His work after I revolved my life around the cross and my life evolved into something beautiful.
Erma Bombeck wrote, “the grass is always greener on the other side of the septic tank.” It is sooo true.
For Alice she resolved as Jesus does our past, “Well that was the silliest tea party I ever went to, I am never going back there again!” The maddening noise of sinful pursuits is no longer deceived and anxious. It is a clear sound smoothly resolved into that masterful rhythm of living a life filled with Jesus.
Jesus is the answer to all your questions. You do not have to suffer the endless repeating, chasing identity, numbing the pain. Jesus brings joy into the sadness, peace in the madness, heals your soul deep. I know I have chased them all.
Lord Jesus, I pray for everyone who reads this. I wrote this post 11 years ago, and the truth doesn’t change, it is absolute. You are the Savior of the world and yet, people still choose gratification and easy over what we know you made known through creation and your word. Help me be a vessel of truth, to share how you resolve the endless repeating, and bring peace into our hearts.
Stay Beautiful,
Susanne
Susanne Moore 