A Good Place

Johnny isn’t from Four Holes, and he doesn’t live there. But, he could be, and he could. Johnny is the gatekeeper up on the mountain, and this means letting you in or keeping you out, but mostly it means to stop and listen to the wisdom of his years. He possesses a particular knack for reading nature, things like tasting direction and smelling time, reading the width of the wooly worms band, and how a tree will grow when buffeted by the wind. Johnny knows nature’s signs and probably favors barbeque, and this makes him good people.

Johnny is also a good Christian man, passing signposts on his sojourn, moments of revelation.

Johnny will tell you from the outset of his journey, the road ahead, at first, seemed all would be smooth sailing. The skies appeared clear and the waters smooth. But weathered by years, he will answer the farther one travels in faith, the more troubling the journey becomes. This does not mean troubling in the sense of disturbing or the Christian finds along the way something is amiss with the Christian faith, but that the more we advance, the more we discover what is right and good, what God desires of us appears to be far away. But our Lord promised if we ask, we shall receive. Every effort in asking invites revelation, or in Johnny’s world—signs. Johnny will tell you to pay attention to God’s landscape.

Johnny says God wishes not to leave us alone, and through the myriad and mysterious means of grace, He calls us to aspiration, to hope. What every Christian should know is the most faithful act he can perform is to keep walking. And this is the first revelation—keep walking even though this sometimes means being still or waiting. Faith means allowing God in God’s time, or in Johnny’s words—contentment.

Johnny never arrived anywhere but at the destination God planned. Revelation took him to places where God was waiting. Though he often reduced his understanding to something that suited him, he discovered simple became the gateway to a deeper truth. Scripture did not accommodate for what he wanted it to be.

Johnny is a talker but he learned when God is silent, God speaks. Humans should pay attention to this. To him, the signposts seemed irrational until they didn’t because God allows a fresh look. Johnny learned not to hold on to his sentimentalities because this meant looking back, not forward.

Johnny got to a place where he desired God more than anything the world offered. This was a good place, the place where he offered to God what belongs to Him—himself. Platitudes didn’t matter. In this place, the ground of his journey firmed even as his old nature asserted itself. Johnny realized who he is, what he is and is not. Standing in God’s presence will do that.

Standing before God, no claims are made. Here, we can forgive before any wrong can be done to us, be merciful as God is mercy.

Johnny would say that.