I remember a comment that my brother made to me several years ago, "Usurped authority can never rest." We had become involved with a rebel who had thought himself to hold supreme authority over the church. He did not rest, and neither could we, for he stirred up the waters, perpetuating a ride on a very rough sea. At the end we were decimated, distressed, destroyed, discombobulated. I was forced out of the church; it was one of the most painful experiences in my life.
This painful story illustrates how rebellion seems to manifest itself. It shows itself in turmoil, in a cauldron of trouble. It never rests. Peter describes rebels as "springs without water and mists driven about by the storm." Jude describes them as "clouds without water, and as wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam, and as wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever." Both Peter and Jude state that they are driven on by instinct like unreasonable animals which are only fit to be captured and killed. There is, then, an inner propulsion which rules the rebel, which drives him on, which pushes him past the boundaries, past those things which usually serve the constrain the self-will of the greater majority.
I have found that these people often have difficulty sitting still. They get antsy; they are perpetual balls of energy; they are restless. They are often discontent, often out of sorts with their surroundings; usually they are testy, sometimes they are outright defiant. They complain often and whine and moan about everything. They are cynics; they are sarcastic and caustic and snide. The children of Israel in the wilderness were rebels. The first evidence was complaining, interestingly enough, against the authority figure -- against Moses, though in actuality, their true complaints were against God.
Rebels have difficulty settling down and being responsible. They often have difficulty holding down a job; they may do poorly in school. Certainly not everyone who struggles with life, with school and job is rebellious; however, rebellion is a diagnosis that is often overlooked, as rebellion is not recognized within our Western culture.
One other thing that I have found is that rebels often attract to themselves other rebels as well. Even when not directly affected, the rebel has to rise up to defend the rebellion of somebody else. Whenever authority lifts up its head -- either by rule of law, or by the application of force -- the rebel is sure to get angry. The anger will push against the authority, and it will often turn into a rage. This happens especially when the authority does not back down or compromise or negotiate or seek for some other kind of consensus.
Rebellion wants to live outside of any and every restraint. It masks itself as liberty when in fact it seeks license, or the ability to set its own bounds. It declines responsibility and rejects accountability and / or moderation. It foments division as well; unity and order constrain it too much, forcing it into a box from which it demands to break out. Though, at times, the rebel can perhaps be constrained for some time; but then, all of a sudden, it will breakout, in an angry or out-of-control incident, often leaving people mystified and amazed as the result, as it will look apparently out of character until after a more full investigation of the character of the rebel is conducted.
Our present society is being formed and fashioned by rebels. People looking for change, for "liberty," for license, for changes in laws, moral codes, social standings, and whatever other order exists within a society. Rebellion lies at the heart of the present quest to reconstruct society according to our own liking. And it is never satisfied; no structure is ever respected. Even laws once favored and passed will eventually be attacked again as restrictive. It is like a drunk on a binge; the rebel is consumed by his lusts, and when there is nothing left to consume, he will simply turn on himself, and begin to consume his own innards.
I believe that the root of rebellion must be identified and excised if the rebel is to be at peace. I am finding this in my own life: the more rebellion and conflict and striving and struggle that I get rid of the more peace I find in my soul. I have perpetually been moving, searching for contentment; I have driven on under the impression that I just might find contentment one day. Yet, no matter how much I search, I can't find it; and no matter how hard I strive, I find that I never attain.
There remains a rest for the people of God, or so says the writer of Hebrews. Could that rest be what would naturally come if we finally gave up our rebellion? I have begun to believe that it is, at least in a partial form, recognizing, however, that the complete fulfillment of the rest lies not in this life but in the next. We enter into that rest by faith, according to Hebrews; hence, faith must be the antithesis to our rebellion.
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