Ask Dr. E: Do you have any words of encouragement for the dark days ahead?

OPINION:

Dear Dr. E, I am so upset with the current state of our country. Our leaders are immoral, our borders are meaningless, the economy is in shambles, our military is woke, and our schools are awful. Our nation is so divided that I honestly fear that regardless of who wins the presidency this coming November, we may have seen our last peaceful transition of power in America. Do you have any words of encouragement for the dark days ahead? — OVERWHELMED FROM OKLAHOMA

Dear Overwhelmed: In the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis tells some beautiful stories that are rich with spiritual allegory. “The Lion, the Witch and Wardrobe” is a powerful tale of Christ’s ultimate sacrifice. “The Last Battle” brings us face to face with the sovereignty and providence of God. And “The Magician’s Nephew” draws us into the musical harmony of His creation. I came to love these books as I read them time and again to my two boys as they were growing up. But, there is one story in particular that I want to draw your attention to by way of answering your question. It is “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.” 

In this book, we join Edmund, Lucy, Eustace, and Prince Caspian as they set sail across the Great Easter Ocean in a ship called the Dawn Treader. On their journey, they visit several islands, one of which is inhabited by invisible creatures called Dufflepuds. These imperceptible troublemakers threaten to go to war with Caspian unless the prince and his crew agree to help lift the magic spell that has made these phantoms invisible. They claim that the only way to reverse this spell is for Lucy, the youngest of the three children, to enter a mysterious magician’s house, scale the stairs that lead to the second floor, find the Book of Incantations, and read the “spell to make hidden things visible.” The Dufflepuds demand that Lucy does this, and she, in fear and trepidation, complies. 

Well, after Lucy navigates the scary and dark hallways of the haunted house and reads the spell from the magician’s book, the Dufflepuds become visible, and she discovers that the unseen menace is really nothing more than a group of harmless and amusing dwarfs: Not at all the existential threat they were assumed to be. 

But there is more!

As Lucy turns to leave the magician’s room, she is startled! She sees something standing in the doorway before her. But it isn’t the threatening trickster that she feared. Instead, It is Aslan – the Lion – the son of the Emperor from across the Great Sea! 

Needless to say, Lucy is relieved, nearly beyond description. She cries with delight and runs forward, saying, “Oh, Aslan, it is kind of you to come.”

Now, it is the next sentence that serves as the moral of this story, and it is these few words that I want you to remember. Here they are: “I have been here all the time,” replies Aslan. “You have just made me visible.”
 
This good news is the timeless truth of the Biblical worldview! Our perceptions and our fears have no bearing whatsoever on God’s constant presence in our lives. When we fear the unknown, He is here. When the unseen challenges of life press in upon us, He is here. When the actions of others seem threatening and unfair, God is here. When things seem frightening, and beyond our control, when the “Dufflepuds” rant and intimidate, and when we are forced to scale dark and shadowy stairways, God is not some distant power that visits only upon occasion. He is an omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent God. He is in control. We need not fear; no evil can thwart Him.  

By reading the Book of Incantations and doing what it said, Lucy found that Aslan had always been with her. Likewise, when we read the Bible and obey it, we find that the Body of Christ comes alive before his very eyes, and we see that Jesus is there and has been there all along. “Lo, I am with you always! Even unto the ends of the earth!” 

God is never far away. We just need to “make him visible” through our prayers, faith, and obedience to His way, His truth, and His life as revealed in His Word, and incarnated in His Son.  

The angels keep their ancient places, 
Turn but a stone and start a wing. 
’Tis ye, ’tis your estranged faces,
That miss the many splendored thing.  

~ Francis Thompson 

If you are seeking guidance in today’s changing world, Higher Ground is there for you. Everett Piper, a Ph.D. and a former university president and radio host, takes your questions in his weekly ’Ask Dr. E’ column. If you have moral or ethical questions for which you’d like an answer, please email askeverett@washingtontimes.com and he may include it in a future column.