Optimistic Realism

Took a drive up to see the Palomar telescope recently, a 200 inch spyglass for gazing at the stars. (Actually, as I learned, the viewing lens itself isn't 200 inches, but rather the polished glass mirror that catches the star light and reflects it for taking camera shots. Very cool.) At any rate, it was a date with my wife, and we both endured the winding and somewhat nauseating road up to the top of beautiful Palomar mountain. (They used to call this jaunt "the highway to the stars" - at least until those scavengers of nostalgia stole the signs and put them on e-bay.)

I tell you this because besides the fact that the making of the reflector glass was a marvel itself (for the 1930's especially), and it was cast in the Corning, NY glass works (near my boyhood home in upper PA., and a frequent destination for fun grade-school trips), I was struck by inventor George Ellery Hale's passion for imagining and building bigger and better telescopes - but especially his motto for what to do with our lives:

Make no small plans, dreams no small dreams.

I've since learned that part of this quote might have been borrowed by Hale, because Daniel Hudson Burnham, author of the Chicago City Plans also said:

Make no small plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood.

Part of counseling is the privilege of opening up a counselee's imagination to that "deeper magic, from before the dawn of time," as Lewis put it in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The Gospel story is that deeper magic, and because its also true, it gives great hope for right now, as well as tremendous optimism about the future.

The realism part enters in as a happy result of that confidence. And it works like this: Because of the work of Christ (see Aslan on the stone table) you are incredibly secure: "It is finished" is his cry. Accomplished. Done. Every day you are able to say, "If I am his, nothing can separate me from his love - not even my days of doubt, my rebellious heart, or my lack of love. His grace is stronger than all these put together."

This means you are now so secure, as to be able to look realistically and honestly at the painful parts of your story. You don't have to sugar-coat evil, or pretend that nothing in the past matters because you now have God. On the contrary. Your whole story counts.


Frozen in Fear 
I know what you're thinking. Do you fear if you do this (take real stock of your past) you will disappear? Melt in a pool of tears and fall apart? Understand that mixed in with those real fears are always lies that Evil would have you believe. The truth is, "No, you cannot be separated from the love of Christ (see Rom. 8:35) - not by life, or death, or danger, or your past, or the real demons that raise their vicious accusations and attacks (read The Screwtape Letters by Lewis to see how subtle those attacks can be).

Such security means you are now so covered with Christ, that you're actually able to be changed - underneath that covering - in your heart. The heart of stone has become a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26), able now to be molded and reshaped.

What's your motto for life? Does it involve opening the observatory doors of your heart to let the "greater-than-starlight" grace of God shine and exposing it to His loving gaze, so that you can change? Understand, that kind of love and grace is actually more than "unconditional." It's a love springing from the heart of an incredibly good God that is so concerned for our freedom from Evil's grasp that it says, "Yes, I will receive you the way you are - warts and all - but no, I will not leave you as you are! I care about your healing and freedom too much to do that. And I care about my own glory - which is actually your best shot at joy."

Do you believe this? God has made His "no small plans" in the great rescue mission of His Son - the "bright Morning star" (Rev. 22:16). And because He has, a universe of new wonders awaits....real magic to stir men's blood.

Because of Him, you are "...children of God, without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe." Philippians 2:15