Leaving Vanity Fair
John Bunyan's Christian classic, The Pilgrim's Progress, has been called the first true novel.
Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress in 1678 while in prison for preaching without a license.
Vanity Fair, where Buyan's hero, Christian, gets waylaid, is a place of many enticements.
Christian and Faithful being accosted by the citizens of Vanity for their faith.
Christian was able to escape with his life, but his companion, Faithful, was burned for his faith.
Where are you in your journey? In Vanity Fair?
If life is a journey, as John Bunyan indicates in his Christian classic, The Pilgrim's Progress, and if there is a place along the way called "Vanity Fair," then many of us are probably in that place right now. Many of us may even feel that we are stranded there, much as the guests of Casablanca felt, helplessly waiting for an exit visa that never arrives. We are overwhelmed with an addiction, an illicit relationship, a bad marriage, a career dead-end, an empty retirement account - whatever. Where is the way out of our Vanity Fair?
Anyone Feeling Confused?
Sometimes Confusion is a Good Thing
I went to my Bible study group yesterday where we read a chapter together silently, and then the leader calls on people to share their thoughts on one or two verses or ideas. We usually have 12 to 15 people there. Yesterday, we read John 7, and then I sat there in quiet amazement as this group of seasoned Christians rambled and stumbled about things that, seemingly, had nothing to do with the text. Many were retrospective, recalling events from their past that also seemed to have little to do with what we just read. As I sat there listening, I asked God to show me what was going on. The best I could determine was that Holy Week is a very confusing time.
I don't know if it's this way for unbelievers, but for Christians, I think Holy Week is a time for reexamining who Christ is and what He means to us personally - and I don't think that is a comfortable or reassuring thing to do. If anything, it is humbling, because we realize how short we come up when we compare who we are and what we do with who He is and what He did. We bring nothing to the cross and He brings everything. We are weak, needy people who desperately needed Him to die for us.
As all the characters of the crucifixion stood there that day watching Christ die, I can understand why they were confused.