I am happy to report that there has been no adverse effects from the “fly” incident.

No incessant buzzing in one’s  ears, no inexplicable desire to jump off a given object, flapping one’s wings, I mean arms, nothing, nada…  Pheweeeee!

By way of introduction to the second part of Jonny King up close and personal, as it relates to the subject in question, I did want to reflect on part of what I affirmed in # one of the king (little “k”).

As part of my studies, I was able to do a couple of papers that were in the area of cross-cultural communication.  In the foggy recesses of my mind, I remember (with the help of a little friend, come book) that there are many “noises” to overcome for effective communication to take place, and any one of these, on both the side of the  “source,” which is me in this case, and the “respondent,” which is you, will affect the communication process.  “Noises” can be thought of as roadblocks to effective communication.

I know what you’ re thinking.. surely it can’t be that complicated.  I mean, “I understand what I am saying (some of the time, as least).”

Unfortunately, this is the case, which is one reason why humility in communication is never overrated.

One of the challenges of communicating in the written form is that elaboration by explanation is not always available, questions notwithstanding.

In light of this,  I did want to make something clear!

Do not confuse my statement about me intellectualizing my faith as a criticism of the pursuit of the intellectual life as a Christian calling (to quote a book), as this is a needed reality in the life of a Christian/ Church, and the slowly growing groundswell in Evangelicalism is a sign of the grace of God, and God willing, a harbinger of a greater cultural impact.

Do not misunderstand, the problem in my situation was that I had removed the other wing of the plane, which was the more experiential, existential, relational component.

Simply put, a plane will crash if it loses one of its wings!

Think about it!

Okay, the credits are rolling, get your popcorn out, and get comfy!

Opening scene: Love and Marriage (in that order)… I do… Husband and Wife… The rest is on a need to know basis.

Yes, with that special day behind us, and the rest of our God-ordained time in front of us, we started saving for the next stop in our “This is Your Life” reality show, as we set our sights on Adelaide, South Australia, AUSTRALIA, mate, as I am Jonny King was going to study in such “heathen” and inhospitable climes.

Our time in Adelaide was  and still remains a highlight.  I found the study experience to be invigorating, exciting, and rewarding.  The family as a unit loved Adelaide, thrived, and grew.

While I felt in my element in this environment, as it further encouraged  and strengthened the intellectual realities, it also underscored the way I was living out my faith, and as life was pretty meat and potatoes (stock standard), little challenged this reality.

Although, as I reflect, there were some minor tremors in my consciousness of this situation, there was no earth-shaking going on.

However, the fault-line in my life was found and would be exploited!

I can be quite a driven man, or I use to like to be.  Study for me was more of a lifestyle than a vocation, I mean, why take a break in the holidays, for example.

Whether this played any part in what was transpiring or not, He can tell (a play on “who can tell” for those a little perplexed), but I would be consistently unwell, particularly as each term would wear on.

I knew at the time that this was no flu or bug.  I would need a number of days in bed to rest, and after this, I would be not too bad, but never as good as it gets.  I knew I didn’t have the physical prowess of a Professor friend who could sleep less, study more, but I put this down to the wonderful diversity in the human experience.

Nevertheless, this was something that the family back in NZ would comment on, with the Sis, affirming that I looked Grey, and here was I thinkin that Grey was in!

I don’t know your life experience reader, but while I could intellectually affirm my mortality, I didn’t really grasp this.  I needed to be shaken and stirred.  I think this one example can illustrate the biblical concept of Wisdom.

The definition of this concept, based on the Hebrew word hokmah, means something like “skillful living.”

You see, it is not just intellectual assent, although that is a required first step in the process, however,  if the process remained here, it would be insufficient and incomplete.  Biblical wisdom is intellectual understanding that has been integrated into one’s existence, and fleshed out in the living of one’s life (In our culture, we very often limit it to a mastery of knowledge or information in a given discipline).

Therefore, the validation that one really “knows” can be thought of as not so much what you say, but how this has impacted what you do.

We need to hear that message in our cultural context, which explains why the Bible  affirms that Grey hair is a sign of honour (Proverbs 16:31), because this presupposes a life well lived, filled with fleshed-out wisdom, which should also highlight how our culture, missing the point, tends to put our more mature individuals onto the scrap heap at the time when we need them most!

I think its time to back out of that rabbit trail!

Anyway, after having our second child… we try and keep the Adelaide birth quiet, we all have these crosses to bear, I successfully graduated (yay), which signaled our time in Adelaide was now an obituary.

Even before we went to Adelaide, I had the big picture sorted out, after Adelaide, Seminary in the States, here-we-come.  This was still on our planning horizon as we came back to NZ, however, thinking I could kill two stones with one bird (a spiritual gift, no), I applied and was accepted into the University of Otago’s ThM program.

However, this was not that well-thought-out, and on second thoughts, I decided that it was time to save, or something to that effect.

Some time had passed, and we decided that I better go and see the Doc, as things were still, well, the same.  This was providential, as it would not be long until my world would not be the same.

I can still remember the night when the first signs signaling serious change came blaring into my reality… north of three and a half years ago.

There is no other way of putting it than to say that the world I was putting together by the grace of God was pulled apart by the grace of God.  In a short space of time, my physical reality was redefined, and I was not the same, nor was I really sure what this would mean both now and into the future.

To provide some illumination, I was diagnosed with M.E./ Fibromyalgia, which had probably been with me for some years, but had, at His right time, blow apart my world.

As I write this, emotions can run quite deep as I reflect on the man on the outside battling the boy on the inside, who just wanted this to go away.  I knew the Word of God, I knew theology, I knew some Hebrew, but I knew more Greek, however, what I needed at this moment in my life were not facts, but a figure (this line may be worth quoting)!

I needed God, not in some detached sense, but in a more existential way, which the previous years in my Christian experience had relegated to being void of personal reference.

There was a time in my Christian experience when I sensed my daily walk with my Creator, not in an abstract sense, a time where, for example, I could spend hours in community, in prayer.

There’s always a critic, so do not think of this as some overtly misplaced mystical moment.  This was merely the  interaction between Jonny King and His Creator-Completer, where there was a tangible sense in the depth of my soul of His sustaining presence!

To be frank, I long for this sense of Home!!!

Back to the plot line… again.

Leading up to the time when my illness came home to party, I had been drawn to the book of Job and had preached a couple of times, giving an overview on this righteous sufferer and his subsequent reality.  The theme I had wanted to focus on was the sovereignty of God as it outworked itself in the life of  a believer exemplar.

Now, I was, and are presently, no believer exemplar.

Now it was my life that was presently preaching this sermon, and it was not going as good as it sounded from the lectern, and it certainly was not as easy.

As I went through the flow in the book of Job, I commented on how Job wanted to meet God and explain his case, and as the text affirms, Job becomes more and more insistent in stating this desire and affirming his innocence.

However, now that I have been in my own dump, I am a little more empathetic to righteous Job.  You see, while Job may have missed the mark in how he framed this and in his expectation, what Job was really affirming throughout was that he was in a Hades of mess, and nothing else and no one else could meet his need.  Job needed his maker, not in some intellectual sense or vicariously through his friends or wife (that wasn’t going to happen), but in such a way where personal intimacy is understood, felt, and experienced.  After all, is that not what humanity has been yearning for since Eden!

Reader, whether you realise it or not, YOU NEED THIS.  Not just when life falls apart!

When you are in the dump and there is pain, confusion, and sorrow,  there is only ONE who can suffice at a time like this.

Now I knew this personally too!

The road would not be short and there is much that can be said about trying to live this part of my life under the sun/ Son, where there is so much additional collateral damage.

Although, it is hard for me to grasp how much time has subsequently passed, I can say on reflection that I am thankful that God wrecked my world, it was certainly a sign of His grace.

He showed me that in the world of sin, the flesh, and the devil, where everything is falling apart.. in this context, where He is committed to the process of Philippians 1:6,  we need a close, personal, intimate relationship with our Creator mediated through the Holy Spirit.

By His grace, I am seeking to better understand and live that out, with much frailty, in the year of 2009.

What this means and how this looks, as it relates to our theme, will be for another post, on another day, but suffice it to say, this time encouraged me to look at into this subject, seriously, maybe for the first time!

That is enough from me.

Next we will look at the experience of Dan Wallace in Who’s Afraid of the Holy Spirit?!

Until Next Time

I am Jonny King

Psalm 40: 16, 17