Those Who Listen Thread the Labyrinth

On the 248th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we stand before the entrance of a great labyrinth. We have no option but to enter. The wise and the foolish, the weak and the strong, the rich and the poor, the sheep and the goats—all are herded into the same entrance.

“To all things there is a time, and a season for every matter under heaven,” King Solomon wrote (Eccl 3:1). For all who breathe air in this current hour, it is the Season of Confusion.

This is not to say all are confused, but rather, all are given over to a time when things are not—as the Declaration of Independence asserts—“self-evident.” For we have entered an unprecedented age, one when it is not enough for nations to merely wage war against nations, but for nations to wage war against nature.

It is traditional and nothing new for, say, a Russia to wage war against a Ukraine or a jihadi against a Jew. But it is quite another thing for a culture to wage war against the nature of reality: to declare false true and true false; to declare the life within a womb is not a life at all; to declare male female and female male; to declare marriage a matter of our own making and not a sacred mystery. These declarations are far more ominous than, say, China bullying the Philippines as a prelude to overturning the Age of the West.

This is not to exclude compassion for every context, for authentic love mandates self-giving compassion for all and gives no room for self-righteous ideologies. However, when we abolish fixed points for how to navigate our personal and cultural dilemmas, it is the same as blotting out the North Star. There remains no choice but to grope blindly along the wall of our rights to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” apart from the Creator who endowed  them. There is no choice but to descend into the labyrinth.

But our Lord is merciful when He sends you into the maze with everyone else, for you are a part of the answer. Like a master chess player thinking ten moves ahead, He plants you in the middle of the maze and the middle of the mess  knowing you are key to many getting out of it—not because you have the answer but because the Answer has you.

It is anything but convenient or pleasant, but it is redemptive. For just as salvation for humanity comes by way of Christ Jesus, so the rescuing of community comes by way of men and women who belong to Him. The political, social, and environmental chaos grows, but His goodness and mercy grow along with it and enter into the confusion. You, as one who belongs to Him, are an agent of that goodness and mercy. This is why some of the brightest developments will take place in the darkest hours.

Life is like a maze. The world is like a maze. The debates of this age are like a maze that seems to leave us with no option but to redouble our efforts and perhaps blame others for our failure to decode the path. 

And yet, as in the days of Noah, a dove comes to us with a word, an olive branch of hope. Here is the word:

It is those who listen to the Lord who will come out the other side of the maze, those who depend on the voice of their Shepherd. And their lives become a thread others follow into freedom too. 

How? Because you listen to Him. The further your community ambles into the maze, murmuring and blaming one another for their perplexed state, the more you become set apart as one who is attentive to the voice of the Shepherd. 

The Lord does not lead you astray and He does not forsake you. Therefore, people will begin to notice you do not behave as someone who is lost or confused. You have a different mindset than others. You are not anger-driven. You are not afraid. You walk in rest during the storm. You serve without condemning those who are not like yourself. You pray. You give thanks.

And yet, like Apostle Paul in the storm-tossed ship (Acts 27), you remain at home in Him even while carried along with the upheaval which the decisions of others has brought upon your world. And this set-apart composure comes because you are, as the Scriptures say, “leaning on your Beloved” rather than leaning on your own understanding. (Song of Songs 8:5, Proverbs 3:5-6)

Our capacity to reason is a powerful plowing mule but a terrible plowman. Only the spirit of a person—the part of us in awe of the Creator—is qualified for that role. Woe to us when the mule puts its hoofs to the plow-handles as if it were the master of the earth it furrows. Confusion is sure to follow.

Fruit speaks louder than words. The heroin addict, if he wants out of the maze, will not seek the guidance of a fellow emaciated wanderer; he will look for the one who is healthy. Likewise, as confusion increases, your composure will become increasingly noticeable.

Where does your composure come from? One place only: the voice of the Shepherd. The Scriptures, the Spirit, the practical patterns of those who have gone before you—all of these blend into a way of hosting His presence like the elements of a robin’s nest host her bright blue egg. You exhibit a noticeable, refreshing color different from the mongrel grays and self-righteous banners around you. You exhibit an attractive peace even as you go through the savage suffering descending on the community, the storm wrought by the choices others have levied upon the whole.

And if you continue to practice listening your way through the labyrinth, a curious thing will happen. A thread appears in your footsteps. Others will pick up the trail. Others will listen. You may even find others asking for your advice. At one level you will find it odd, for you will not see yourself as having arrived. You are simply depending on “the One Who Sees Me,” as Hagar, Ishmael’s rejected mother, called the Lord. (Genesis 16:13)

And yet it is that very dependence on the One Who Sees You, the One who is Self-giving Love, which  guarantees you will make it out the other side of the labyrinth. And not only yourselves; those you care for too, those who recognize in the end that your guidance does not spring from cool karma or a touch from the gods, but from the Word Made Flesh.

He lives in you. He is for you. He will not leave you in the labyrinth. Nor will he abandon any humble, honest heart who seeks Him after your example. Together you will leave the Season of Confusion behind and enter into—as the psalm says— “a spacious place.” (Ps 18:19), a place where you and your community discover with joy, “we run in the paths of your commands, for You, oh Lord, have set our hearts free” (Ps 119:32)

That is independence indeed.

© Kurt Mähler