Unavoidable Penetration // Micah

Coffee in hand, I sat in my living room meditating the day in. This particular morning, my routine was filled with a fanciful thought, “What if darkness persisted this time?” As I peered out my window, nature was aligned with the reality that apart from light darkness is comprehensive. It does indeed entirely saturate all things under its cloak. And dark it was, so dark that I momentarily questioned whether our garden, which is just a few feet away from the window, was actually still there.

My left brain knew for a fact that the sunrise was coming, but my right brain played with the thought. I took that musing into the morning's study and ran across...

John 1:4b-5 "...His life gave light to everyone. The light keeps shining in the dark, and darkness has never put it out."

As I meditated on God’s life giving truth, time passed until something happened. A ray, then another, started to penetrate the darkness. As dawn appeared, the light of the Son began to break through and a greater reality was unveiled. You see in the presence of light darkness always gives way. Darkness is rendered helpless against the elements found in light and eventually, it entirely yields to its superior and unavoidable penetrative power.

Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”

John 12:36a “'Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of the light…’"

Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

- Micah McElveen

Dangerously Bias // Micah

In today's media, many journalists seem to have exchanged the science of discovering and reporting facts for the art of authoring novels. Bias-driven dialogue dominates more than our news channels, however, as our civil discourse, where honest discussion has often been exchanged for soap box oration, is equally soured. It has indeed become increasingly difficult to get an unbiased perspective, to clear the fog off the truth. The discipline of objectivity seems one lost on the times. 

In this regard, what is true of today, was the case in Jesus' day. The fact is that many of the "religious authorities" refused to see outside their bias. Jesus did not fit their paradigm. He would not morph into the cast they had set for their version of the Messiah. He didn’t look, speak or act in alignment with their interpretation of the Law. When it became clear that the real Messiah would not play the part their script implied, a decision became necessary. Would they set aside their bias in light of reality or root in regardless of the truth? In one of the saddest scriptures in the Bible, we find perspective on the choice many of them made…

John 12:42-43 "Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God."

Amongst other things, this scripture reminds us of the perils of bias. When we are consumed by our perspective a strong compulsion for "it to be our way" clouds reality, entices us to revise truth and leads us to a deeply entrenched and combative posture. In our zeal to elevate our vantage point we cast ourselves in the most positive light and portray our opposite in the darkest of hues.

If we are not careful our commitment to our version of things can not only birth a closed-mindedness to the truth but can lead us to a place where we persist for completely the wrong reasons. When bias becomes so strong that we choose our way despite the truth we have allowed it to birth an altogether new devil. 

As we seek to discern truth and share it with others, may we resist the temptation to rush to conclusions influenced by the dangers of bias.

Proverbs 18:2 "Fools have no interest in understanding; they only want to air their own opinions."

Proverbs 18:13 "Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish." 

Proverbs 18:17 "The first to speak in court sounds right— until the cross-examination begins."

John 7:24 "Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

- Micah McElveen