This is a phrase a friend that I love and esteem uses. At one time it used to be on his lips quite a bit (it does have a biblical background) when talking about issues that needed to be dealt with.
I have come to the conclusion that, for me at least, matters don't 'stay settled'.
It's all fine to decide that henceforth one will always assume a particular position, but for me, that always gets eroded. Sure there are things that one has to say "no way" about, but there are many things that aren't absolutes in that way, and I just seem to need to die daily to them. Relax for a little while, take your eye from the ball and sooner or later they rear their ugly heads again.
Very graciously God is letting me go back through the character refinement loop again, letting my weaknesses and flaws rise to the surface again. I need to get some things sorted: my 'wanting and acquisitive' nature is one thing, but there are plenty of others.
It's very easy to see Jesus call to daily take up your cross as being all about terrible suffering, self repression and pressing through under extreme conditions. Here in the west with our luxurious and jaded lifestyle I'm starting to think it means not conforming to that pattern. The positive side? A much greater level of peace and contentment instead of a continual striving for more, greater, better, faster, stronger, larger. It doesn't mean having to be content with abject poverty, but it does allow satisfaction without having to compare oneself with those around us.
Yup, sometimes I even manage to be content.
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