Do you remember that old saying, “Ignorance is bliss?” Eighteenth-century poet, Thomas Gray wrote those words in his poem “On a Distant Prospect of Eton College,” right before he finished the last line with “’Tis folly to be wise.’” It is foolish to be wise? Really? Gray wrote the piece using first-person point of view, through the eyes of a former Eton alumni. This former student realized that life gets pretty real after college and he encouraged the current students to focus on the now, have fun, don’t take life too seriously, and remain oblivious to the trials they will face.
The poem warns that “black misfortune” awaits (line 57). Vultures of the mind will come (line 62), followed by anger, fear and shame (lines 63-64). To sum it up in my own words, “Hey kids! Life is going to get hard. Your heart will break more times than you can count. You’ll face rejection. The worries of life can get so overwhelming it will take your breath away. Words and actions will hurt you. Oh, and there’s going to be a constant battle for your mind. But for now, just pretend all of that stuff doesn’t exist and keep your eyes closed to reality, for reality will come soon enough. Besides, what you don’t know can’t hurt you.
It’s easy to want to live our lives like that – pretending reality isn’t as tough as it seems. But let’s face it – living like that just isn’t reality. It will catch up with us sooner or later, especially when it comes to living out our faith.
“You can’t go back from that.” I say that to my friend Louanne often after we share in each other’s experiences of seeing God bring His light to the darkness in our own lives or the lives of others. You can’t go back from seeing someone set free from addiction. You can’t go back from watching a woman get on her knees and repent and ask God to forgive her. You can’t go back from watching tears stream down her face as she lays on the floor and just allows God to love her for the first time. You can’t go back from watching a woman set free from multiple demons on what you thought would be just another typical Wednesday night. (More on that later.) You can’t go back from seeing Christ come into spiritual darkness and set you free.
You can’t unsee things. You can’t pretend you didn’t experience them. I believe when we experience new levels of freedom in Christ and we watch others experience them, God is calling us to a higher standard. He doesn’t expect us to do nothing with what we’ve learned. He expects us to share the truth with others, as uncomfortable as it may be. Because we are no longer living in the ignorance we were hours before experiencing his miracles, we cannot go back to living in ignorance. If we do, we’re simply choosing disobedience and disobedience is sin. There’s no other way around it.
[ctt template=”3″ link=”lZjis” via=”yes” ]If disobedience is sin, what about ignorance? How can we be held responsible for not knowing something?[/ctt]
If disobedience is sin, what about ignorance? How can we be held responsible for not knowing something? These are some questions we will dive into, along with understanding what ignorance really means when it comes to spiritual warfare.
Next week, we’ll learn about the want of knowledge. Stay tuned.