‘DON’T WEEP, WE CHOSE HOLLOW HUMANITY’:

Honestly, I DO NOT want to write this blog. However, when God pushes me to do so, I cannot refuse. God has a way of gnawing at our souls until we relent and give up our rebellion. The reason for being reluctant is not that I don’t like writing what God imprints onto me to write; rather it is because the depth of despair God is showing me is so immense. I feel utterly helpless to correct injustice as my sincere offering to God to apologise on behalf of us and our hollow humanity.

Coffee on hand, facing the extravagance of my recently completed gallery wall in my living room, as per usual, I sit down to read The Holy Bible. God’s Spirit of Truth, wastes no time getting me so weepy, yet righteously frustrated, at how we are not doing enough to honour God.

I love my gallery wall. Each piece, be it other artists work, or mine, combined speak so loudly about who I am. Not only regarding the loud graphic of the wall, but each is a story that reveals my heart, mind, and beingness.

As God does, it is interesting that this wall was completed on Tuesday this week, and today, Saturday of the same week, 18 November, God is pouring out a teaching about hollow humanity versus humanness that walks out God’s Plan for us. To the unknowing eye my wall looks striking, it is, but to the discerning eye my wall is the story of adversity, struggle, choices, celebration, survival, expressionism, and personal growth.

In other words, to the shallow, my wall looks beautiful. To the person of depth my wall is Shakespearean- filled with nuance.

Beyond lovely songs, church programs, excellently preached words, and holy-huddle fellowship be it class-cliques, sport fans, sin-buddies, academic-supremacist-ideologues, Micah 2 comes in hot forcing us to re-evaluate, deeply, “faith without works is dead.”

Whatever our feather we’re flocking to a beat on the wrong street!!!

So what has gotten me riled up?

I am in the Holy Book of Micah, and The Holy Spirit has landed the plane. Micah 2 vs 11, is pointing out the falsehood of the prosperity gospel that strokes egos to extract finance from shallow people seeking faith to serve them with God as their personal butler.

Don’t we see it all the time? Your season is coming. Your breakthrough is waiting. Your seed is going to prosper. Your best life is around the corner.

Now, God is intent on giving us our best version of life, ON HIS TERMS, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into personal satisfaction. It may literally be, giving up all excess, minimizing, down-sizing, to have more disposable income to do things for others oppressed by classist economies.

Micah 2 deals with how self-gain is the modus operandi to the point where injustice is committed through lack of fear of God. Our gentrification, or market-devaluing enterprises to snatch up homes or land from the poor, fills our pockets, but shows God our lack of care for our fellow humans.

So what drives us to be such hollow people that self-gain outweighs the joy of doing God’s Will, “it is better to give than to receive” (Acts 20 vs 35), that we plot all sorts of schemes to rape and pillage others so that our Bentley bends it like Beckham for all to see, whilst writing a recipe book of success, ‘The Secret’.

When in fact the only secret is our tax evasion and over-taxation, greedy price-hike, low wages, contracts that suffocate the needy, devaluing price negotiations, and treating humans as resource rather than IMAGE BEARERS OF THE LIVING GOD who are loved by Him.

AND THEN, in our deceitfulness that we call blessed, chase after the prosperity gospel to soothe the gnawing in our souls trying to get us to catch a wake up that we have made humanity hollow. (Micah 2 vs 6 / 2 Timothy 4 vs 3-4)

SO ARE WE HOLLOW?

To quote: ‘Have you ever sat across from someone who could only talk about the weather, or celebrities, or worse—themselves? Chances are you were dealing with a shallow personality. These are people who, like their namesake, are about as deep as a puddle. But what makes a person shallow, and what does it mean to have a shallow personality, exactly? A shallow person or personality, then, is someone who’s only concerned with things that are on the outside, or which aren’t very profound—money, looks, social status, etc.’- Luke Smith, MFA, Reviewed by Allison Broennimann, PhD

Signs of a Shallow Person:

• They’re a little too into drama or gossip.
• They tend to be materialistic or obsessed with trends.
• They’re overly concerned with looks.
• They’re judgmental or self-centered.
• They lack emotional depth.
• Your conversations with them aren’t very interesting.
• They don’t seem to listen to what others have to say.
• Their relationships are mostly selfish or aren’t meaningful.
• They’re narrow-minded or don’t think very deeply.
• They’re preoccupied with being liked by others.

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https://www.wikihow.com/Shallow-Personality-Meaning

God has given us His Holy Word to teach us what to strive for as we unlearn our social conditioning as we ‘walk out our salvation with fear and trembling.’

SO HOW DO WE LEARN TO HAVE CHRIST’S MIND?

To quote: ‘Having the mind of Christ means we understand God’s plan in the world—to bring glory to Himself, restore creation to its original splendor, and provide salvation for sinners. It means we identify with Christ’s purpose “to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). It means we share Jesus’ perspective of humility and obedience (Philippians 2:5-8), compassion (Matthew 9:36), and prayerful dependence on God (Luke 5:16).’ -https://www.gotquestions.org/mind-of-Christ.html