Faith Unto Enlargement Through Adversity # 25

Faith In Relation to Life (continued)

The Delusion of a False Life

But what has happened? There has entered into man a deep and terrible delusion - the illusion of a false life, in which there is a lie right at the very core. And that has surely worked itself out, and is still working itself out. There is increase of days, unto many years, it may be; there is development and enlargement, of its kind, in the matter of this world; but right at the core of it all there is bitterness and disappointment. At last, at most, emptiness, disillusionment. What has it all been for? What is it all about?

And the most dissatisfied people are always those who have the most. That is true, is it not? The people who have the most and have not the Lord are the most dissatisfied people in this world. The evidence of it are patent. As I was saying on a previous occasion, a year or two ago I was in a part of the world where the last whim and fancy is satiated to the full. Everything that the soul of man could crave or ask for seems to be available. In Southern California, you see acres and acres and miles and miles of the most beautiful fruit. I picked sackfuls of the most beautiful grapefruit and oranges that you ever saw. But my friend, on whose fruit-farm I was staying, said, "Do you know, it is so prodigal that, in order to keep any market at all for it, tons and tons of this beautiful fruit are put into ditch, and acid is poured over it, so that no one will get hold of it to try to make a business out of it." Poor people who might make a little out of this surplus are deprived of it in order to keep some sort of market.

And it is like that, not only in natural products, but in pleasure. The word "Hollywood" has come to connote the very ultimate in the gratification of human desire. You can see it all there is display. But oh! The feverish, the restless, the uncertainty, the anxiety! The biggest hospital in the world is there in Los Angeles, and four thousand cases are treated every day, in a country like that where every possible aid to health is available. What is it all about? It is the strain of coping with life. Out in a very beautiful suburb, I saw, as I went along, house after house up for sale, or to let; and I asked my friend, "What is the meaning of this?; "Oh, everybody within miles of this city is living as if they were on the edge of a volcano,over this atomic bomb business. They are all moving out, as far out as they can get, because they think that any day the atomic bomb may be dropped on Los Angeles." With everything conceivable to fill life, people are living in strain and tension and fear. I have not exaggerated the picture, because I could not.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 26)