Struck by Lightning

The Farmer's Almanac tells that on April 15, 1718 there was a terrible thunderstorm in St. Pal de Leon in Brittany. Eighteen of the twenty-four churches there began ringing their bells, because everyone knew that ringing bells kept away lightning. All the churches with ringing bells were struck by lightning. The six whose bells were not ringing were not struck. The superstition that ringing a bell could keep you from being struck by lightning came to an abrupt end.

There is value to objective experience, isn't there? It is hard to argue with cold, unemotional data that describes certain reality, even if that reality conflicts with what we want to believe. I should suggest that such is probably the only kind of data that will convince the mind of the superstitious. The kind of person who would believe that ringing bells repel lightning just isn't impressed with meteorological data or scientific explanations of thunderstorms. Only lightning damaged bells make an impression.

Can I make application to our religious friends who claim to know the leading of God by feelings, warm fuzzies and "just sensing God's direction?" Typically such talk leads me to marshal an army of Bible verses against such thinking. Yet the mind of one who wants to believe God is speaking and leading him or her directly is usually not much impressed by that. Indeed, most of these people see the Bible as a meager supplement to the valuable "information" God conveys directly to their minds or the "leading" of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps another tactic may prove more effective, one related to lightning and bells. I have learned to inquire about the leading of God gone wrong. Invariably people who follow their intuition, mistaking it for God's voice, have several stories where it appeared they should do one thing or go one direction but then suddenly everything worked against that and they couldn't do it. Usually this is blithely passed off as "God's mysterious ways" but pressing here can be quite effective. Does God change His mind? Will God confuse us? If it is God's will to do a thing how then can God's will be stopped? Truly, the bell has been struck. It only remains by careful questioning to show just how hard lightning has hit the bell. Subjective "experiences" of God invariably run squarely into objective reality. Such cannot be explained away or denied. What many verses may not do clear facts may be able to do. Don't be afraid to help people who are (self) deceived to see lightning striking the bell. Be clear, be kind but be firm: God will not lead us one way today only to block that way tomorrow. Therefore, something else besides God's leading must be in play. "And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14).