Opposite World

When I was little I used to bug my sister by saying nonsense words or writing crazy notes that sounded something like this: Woh si eht erutcip gnimoc? To which she frowned and demanded me to stop laughing--for I couldn't stop laughing at my secret--and tell her what I was talking about. My sister and I were great friends and of course I could not keep any secret from her for long. So very soon I capitulated and told her I was talking and writing backwards!
   Ever after that we had a funny game between us of saying things backwards for fun so no one knew what we were talking about, or even just to see how funny various words sounded turned around backwards. It was great fun. And even to this day we still remember our little 'world of opposites' where we eventually didn't only speak backwards but also said just the opposite of what we meant. In this way the meanest comments were actually compliments, yes' were actually no's, and all sorts of such confusing enigmas.
    My brother, Seth, is well known for his "what if..." ramblings. He loves to ask a crazy question--usually at the dinner table--such as "What if gravity were the opposite and you had to hold on to things with your hands to walk and get around...." Which reminded me again of my childhood 'backwards world'.
    The truth is, Christian people are living in a backwards world all the time. Maybe not so much of a backwards world as an unusual one where logic doesn't make sense. This is obviously because we are working on a different plane of thinking--a higher one--than most people of logic are operating on. Wes Martin expressed this when he spoke about spiritual disciplines recently. He said that it doesn't make sense for people to go without meals when they are in need (fasting), talk to someone whom they can't see (prayer), and act as if they belong in a place where you can't go-without dying first, that is (heaven). If you think about it, there are dozens of elements to Christianity that don't make sense when you first come up against them. Christ said to live you must die. For the eyes of Saul to be opened, he had to blinded first. It would seem that we believers are living in a world of opposites!
      Of course, this isn't a negative thing at all. Rather, I agree with Saint Augustine that this befits us since this world is not our home. We are, in a rather practical sense, aliens on this planet. So it makes sense that things are rather backwards and foreign to our way of living--our calling. One day Jesus will return and bring his kingdom to this planet. Then everything will be switched once again and instead of us being the oddballs, everyone else will be living a different sort of life that doesn't quite fit in the spectrum of Jesus' heavenly reign. This 'opposite world' that we live in now will be flopped right over into an ordinary world--like a foggy lens clearing up and focusing on an object that was previously only a blur. The world will be opposite, no more!