Not on a Blind Bat’s Bet…
Growing up without a TV in the countryside of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Valley meant spending many a warm summer evening outside running, playing, exploring, and swimming in the warm muddy waters of the Rio Grande.
It also meant dodging the bats and teasing my sisters about getting bats caught in their hairdos. But a bat caught in a hairdo is more fable than fact. Truth is a bat will eat half its weight in bugs in a single night of darting about doing its best to avoid hairdos!
Factually, they fly, eat bugs, and hang upside down – oh yes, and they poop.
But hanging upside down is what bats do best; and they do so because they can’t stand right side up….
Let me say that again: they hang upside down because they can’t stand up. Bat leg tendons are not connected to muscle. With the single exception of a certain type, bats can’t stand, run, or jump to “take off,” as it were. To fly they have to fall, and to fall they spend their lives hanging upside down.
Ever know people like this? They “hang out” upside down because they can’t stand right side up? Hoping to fly, they keep falling into the poop below?
Like a bat, the only flying some folk manage is in the dark consuming excess; this inevitably results in making a mess in the daylight – what is it someone said, excess in excess out? No matter how successful things may appear on the outside, these folk fly in the dark, make a mess in the day, and leave poop behind.
Now, like getting into hairdos, the rumor is that a bat can’t see. You’ve heard, “Blind as a bat?” In fact, a bat has good eyesight, but nothing to see. Flying at night, eyes open, all is dark, so it finds bugs with built in radar. During the day, hanging upside down, eyes open, it stares downward at poop. Darkness and poop: if that’s all you see, why see at all? So it is not that a bat can’t see; it’s that that a bat has nothing that is worth seeing!
Oh my, oh my! Who are we talking about! Surely not you or me…
Yet, the Bible talks about how “the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” Hanging out, upside down, like bats all they see is darkness and poop and assume that’s all there is to see….
Holy hairnet, Batman! Watch out for that barrette – it’s not a bug! You’ll get all tangled up…
Radar, Robin, radar! Remember the radar?
In fact, we’re all guilty of flying blind in the dark with nothing to see but the poop. God’s grace alone makes a difference. Like he granted radar to bats through whatever mechanism he used (we’ll leave evolution to another post), he grants new sight to people who believe; he grants the joy of seeing beyond the poop and learning how to live right side up.
A common misconception about the Christian faith is that it offers a “home free card.” Once you have it, you go your way as God goes his. Meet you in heaven. As I said, this is a misconception. So while no metaphor is perfect, let’s try another.
Whatever God grants to bats, by his sovereign grace, he grants new birth to believers in Jesus. Further, this being “born again” stuff is like a pre-paid lifetime subscription to a broadband, hi-speed Wi-Fi Internet connection that is always on. God connects with your inner being and from there with a network the Bible calls the “fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” You see, far from a “home free card,” you have been instantly gathered into God and Jesus by the Holy Spirit, and through the Holy Spirit into the Body of Jesus, meaning every other believer who is connected to God by the Holy Spirit. The Bible calls this being “baptized by one Spirit into one body” and being “given the one Spirit to drink.” Now, you don’t make this connection, turn it on, or turn it off. You receive it by faith created by the Word proclaimed and planted in you. The Holy Spirit does this, releasing the supernatural power of God’s love into the core of your being, and from there back to God and to every other believer. But like being at a computer with a TV on in the background, you can turn away from the comp to pay attention to the television. You don’t break a connection in doing this, but fail to make the most of the comp connection. In other words, in spite of this miraculous infusion of power, our choices still determine to what degree you, me, and kingdom of God benefit from our connection. So “we urge you,” Paul the Apostle writes, ”not to receive God’s grace in vain.” And “Live by the Spirit…Keep in step with the Spirit…” And finally, “Pray in the Spirit.”
Holy hairnet away, Batman! Away with worry about the barrettes, the poop, and the bat cave, too. I’m hanging out upside down no longer! I am though falling in the dark hoping not to hit the poop! I can stand, walk, run, and still fly, too. What a beautiful world there is to see! Fly by night? Not on a blind bat’s bet! Ah, just a metaphor guys. I know you can see; but how about a tour in the daylight…?
