Can you live as if your worldview is true?

Thoughts inspired by Dr. Francis Schaeffer's question, "Can you live as if it's true?"

While on his many interesting life adventures, my husband, David Clancy, was privileged to study for several months under Dr. Francis Schaeffer both here in the U.S. and at the L’Abri in Switzerland. This time spent learning from Dr. Schaeffer proved to be a very powerful chapter in David’s life and it gave him clarity and confirmation that has helped David to weather many crazy storms in his life.

David often talks about a phrase he learned from Dr. Schaeffer, “Can you live as if it is true?” This question was in reference to one’s WORLDVIEW, “Can you live as if your worldview is true?” Now everyone has a worldview, but not everyone has actually pulled it out and inspected it. It is kind of like your lungs and heart, unless we are already sick, we hardly pay them a thought, although we could not live for more than a few moments without them.

Our worldview affects everything: what we notice, what we don’t notice, what we focus on, what we ignore, what we value and what we discard. Our worldview affects what we believe about ourselves, what we believe about others who are close to us, around us, and half a world away, and also what we believe about God, or even whether we believe in the existence of God at all.

In my previous post, When Bad Perspective Happens to Good People, I had shared my personal challenges on perspective / worldview and likened one’s worldview to the life preserver tucked away under each seat in an airplane. Although this small object might be needed to save your life, we almost never dig it out ahead of a disaster to actually check it over to ensure it will really work to save us.

As Francis Schaeffer would say, “Can you live as if it is true?”

“Our worldview affects everything: what we notice, what we don’t notice, what we focus on, what we ignore, what we value and what we discard. Our worldview affects what we believe about ourselves, what we believe about others… and also what we believe about God”

I have seen many precious people around me and around the world struggling in terrible battles of various sorts: devastating illness or disability, financial loss, personal tragedy, loss of loved ones, betrayals, abandonments, unjust attacks, emotional upheavals, political oppression and injustice, religious oppression, the chaos of natural disasters, the chaos of war, the chaos of wicked behavior, the list goes on and on. Many of us have already faced such battles and, unfortunately, until the restoration of all things is here, there is still a very real possibility that something could go wrong in any of our lives.

Ever since that first bite of the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we all have been tasting EVIL in our lives and in our now broken world, even though our loving heavenly Father had created us with the original intention and desire that we would only taste GOOD. But our Creator God wanted to have a REAL and truly loving relationship with His creation, which means He needed to create us with the ability to make free will decisions apart from His decree. If we have no choice in the matter, there is no real relationship, no real love. If we are truly just drawn to Him and we are unable to resist (i.e. the “I” of Calvinism’s “TULIP” which is “Irresistible Grace”), then our relationship with God is not a relationship at all, we are no more than Stepford wives, programmed robotically to do His bidding without any ability to resist His orders. But, honestly, CAN YOU LIVE AS IF THAT IS TRUE? Do you really think all of your choices are purely preprogrammed? Is that what Scripture teaches? Is that what the stories of Scripture reflect?

“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;” Deuteronomy 30:19 (NKJV)

Why would God give us verses like Deuteronomy 30:19 which encourage us to CHOOSE LIFE if God has already preprogrammed us and essentially already MADE the choice for us? And do we really live like we are preprogrammed? Is that they way we handle our own kids? And if we ARE preprogrammed to choose death, then why would God hold us responsible for that choice? Do any of us, even staunch Calvinists, REALLY live as if that is true? And if we believe that God created people with the intention that they would make wrong and evil choices, what then does that say about the nature and character of God? Do we REALLY believe this way? Can we REALLY live as if that is true?

No, I believe that free will really is FREE will. God values our freedom so much that He was willing to risk the mess that became possible in giving us the ability and the opportunity to choose in a way that is contrary to His GOOD Will.

Poor free will decisions have very real consequences, and one of the biggest consequences is that there have been radical distortions that have happened in the Fall: distortions to creation- thorns, thistles, difficulties and toil, illness, death, violent distortions in nature such as poisonous snakes and scorpions, animals distorted so that they violently prey on each other and sometimes on humans as well… the list goes on and on. But one of the most devastating distortions that has occurred is the confusion about the nature and character of God, the web of lies that had its start in the Garden of Eden.

Serpent (to Eve): “Did God really tell you that you are not allowed to eat the fruit?... He is lying to you… God is holding out on you… He doesn’t trust you to have all the information you need… He is keeping you back from your full potential… You can’t trust Him… He is not really GOOD…”

And Eve fell into the trap and the human race has been struggling, and often stuck, in the webs of deceit and confusion ever since.

“Poor free will decisions have very real consequences… But one of the most devastating distortions that has occurred is the confusion about the nature and character of God, the web of lies that had its start in the Garden of Eden"

We really do have an enemy that seeks to destroy us on any and every level. He is the thief that Jesus is speaking about in John 10:10, the thief that comes to “steal and kill and destroy,” the thief that is in direct contrast and opposition to Jesus’ life mission, which is to give us LIFE and Life Abundantly. This thief, this enemy is working overtime, trying every trick in the book to get us to fall for the same old lie that worked in the Garden. If the enemy can get us to not trust God, to not love Him and to not choose to live according to God’s purposes, then the enemy has essentially hijacked us and nullified the promise of Romans 8:28.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Alternative reading: “… in all things God works together with those who love him to bring about what is good…” ) Romans 8:28 (NIV)

If the enemy can get us to not trust God, to not love Him, to not live according to His purposes for our lives, then essentially when bad things happen they are just BAD. The promise about things working for our good is conditional. We have to partner with God in the process to bring about redemption for the things that are broken and going wrong in life.

So the next time you see a tragic horrible thing and you are tempted to wonder aloud, “God must really trust that person to put them through this terrible situation…” or “God must be teaching you a lesson…” or “I wonder what secret sin this person committed to bring this on himself/herself…” STOP and THINK AGAIN. Do you really think that God gives a person cancer to teach them patience? Do you really think that God caused the earthquake that crushed many Christian churches in Nepal, while the worship service was in session? Really? Can you live as if that perspective of God is true? Do you live as though this is true?

"This is the message we have heard from Him (Jesus) and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all." ~ 1 John 1:5 (NIV)

At Coffee with the Clancys, we hope to help all people to ask these kinds of hard, and sometimes scary, questions. We, too, have asked these questions and have found that God has REALLY GOOD ANSWERS that are truly GOOD. The best and most perfect answer to every question is found in the person of JESUS CHRIST. He is the one who put the human race back on track, through loving us and laying down His life for us and also through His resurrection and taking back of the keys of death and Hades. "This is the message we have heard from Him (Jesus) and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all." 1 John 1:5 (NIV)

Jesus Christ is the perfect antidote to every bite of evil in our lives. Jesus is with us, praying for us, encouraging and empowering us to partner with Him to expand the borders of the garden once again, to bring God’s wonderful Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus gives us perfect clarity on what God’s heart toward us looks like and what God’s intentions toward us are! Because of this, we have a VICTORIOUS HOPE, and we are more than conquerors in the midst of the battles of life, even when we still have the bitter aftertaste of evil in our lives. Jesus is the one who helps to give us clarity in our worldview, so that we REALLY CAN live as if what we believe is true.

It is our desire to help both believers and non-believers alike to experience God’s encouraging presence, His passionate love for us, His deep desire for our restoration, and His healing goodness and grace. We desire all people to understand that Jesus is the full revelation of our WONDERFUL and loving God, and to experience BREAKTHROUGH in the Name of Jesus Christ even in the face of brokenness and evil circumstances. We desire to create a safe place to share a cup of coffee and to discuss and discover a new perspective and a renewed Hope for Life. We are thankful that many people are being encouraged in the midst of life’s battles; because Jesus brings such a refreshingly clear revelation that our Father God is Good, and He DOES NOT PARTNER WITH EVIL!

#Worldview