Righteousness

I was 17 years old in 1973. I grew up in north-central Indiana and had a passion for the outdoors. I would look at the fluffy clouds settling near the earth on the flat Indiana ground surrounding our home and imagine they were mountains. I could see myself climbing to their lofty peaks and surveying the country around me. Or walking to school in the fall, I would lean into the stiff winds that blew in that part of our state and draft in the poignant odor of tannic acid from the decaying leaves of red and brown-the smell of fall.

There were few things as comforting as piling into a mound of leaves raked up from our lawn. My brothers, sister, and I would cover ourselves up with leaves and giggle a lot. It's an amazing feeling to be close to the earth like that.

One of the sports I pursued as a youth was scuba diving. I really knew nothing about it but wanted to spend some serious time on the bottom of a lake classifying new species of fish and completing a census on invertebrate populations. I imagined myself a real outdoor specialist, particularly in the sciences. The reality at that time was that I was fortunate not to have been seriously injured by some of the stunts I pulled!

I started with a mask, fins, and snorkel, using them to collect golf balls from the bottom of the St. Joseph River in Mishawaka. There was a tee on one side of the river and the fairway on the other side. We would stand in the river waiting for someone to tee off, then grab their golf ball as it splashed into the water. We sold them back to the unfortunate golfers for 25 cents each, which added up to a fortune in 1973.

I graduated to a full scuba rig, including a wetsuit that I purchased from a pawn shop. The whole outfit set me back a few dollars, so I hung up a shingle and began a salvage diving operation. Now understand that I had never been trained in the sport-that wouldn't happen for two more years. Yet out I went, dive after dive, looking for everything from boat motors to boats that had sunk.

I was approached by a gentleman who had lent his sailboat to a neighbor's son. It was 24 feet long, and somehow the young man managed to sink the boat in 80 feet of water in a southern Michigan lake. I had never made a dive to 80 feet, but I read up on the subject and took on the job. The payday was enough to settle up on all my scuba equipment.

Six days later I dove into the cool water and headed to the bottom with a makeshift light I fabricated from an old motorcycle headlight. As I approached the bottom of the lake, something happened that I didn't expect. A deep layer of fine silt had settled there, covering it about 15 feet deep. At first it was like a cloud, then it became denser, as I swam into it with reckless abandon. About 10 feet into it, I realized that I was confused and had lost all bearing. After a few moments of panic, I came to the reality that I didn't know which way was up. I couldn't surface, and I couldn't find the bottom.

Stopping for a moment, I took a deep breath from my air tank and exhaled. To my surprise, the bubbles fell down between my legs and traveled out of site. It took me a minute to realize that I was on the lake bottom upside down and that the bubbles in fact were rising. I gathered my wits and followed the bubble stream, soon finding myself in clear, open water.

And so it is with our lives. We are swimming around in the lake of life, when we suddenly encounter a silt layer that makes it hard to grasp reality. We can't figure out which way is up or down, what is right or wrong. We flail around in the silt trying to make sense of what is going on around us, only to realize we are lost-hopelessly lost.

There is only one answer: follow the bubbles. Those life-saving bubbles are found in the Bible, the Word of God. They are the source of all truth and knowledge. When inconsistencies are planted in your heart, follow the bubbles. When the world seems like it is crashing down around you, follow the bubbles. When a truth is presented together with a lie, follow the bubbles.

You see, man's wisdom is not wisdom at all. It is filled with compromise, conflict, and death. But God's wisdom... oh, God's wisdom is like a radiant light shining on a high hill into a world of darkness. The righteous flock to it. God's wisdom, through his Word, brings life. It protects, it renews, and it saves. Praise be to the God of Mercy.
Mr. Dare

Ephesians 5:1-14
1 Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person such a person is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.[a] 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners with them.

8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.