From time to time, I say that one characteristic of being a prophet is the ability, in Christ, to view life among disciples from a 40,000 foot perspective.
That's the best way I can describe one of the realities of my walk that distinguishes my walk from many others who love and serve Jesus.
I don't have to try to do it. I do it as easily as I breathe.
One frustration for me is that there are times when I want to come down to earth, I can't. The Lord put me up here, and, it seems, He is going to keep me here.
However,...
...there's one aspect of life that I don't view from that lofty perspective, that is my own life.
I'm so connected to me that I can't see me as if from a great distance. And, that's a problem.
Living in the midst of quarantine though, I think I have achieved a degree of big picture perspective on my life before quarantine, simply because I have been separated from it by the passage of time.
Some time ago, I had the thought that, in my life as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God, working in the supermarket, I had begun to lose my edge. I've mused over that insight and I'm convinced it's true.
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I love Galatians 6 because it is practical. In part of verse 9, Paul admonishes his readers not to grow weary of doing good.
I remember a time that I preached on those words, and I have kept them close to my heart.
Nevertheless, I think that, in my life before quarantine, I was wearing down. I was becoming weary.
Allowing yourself to grow weary in doing good is a dangerous thing.
In a way, I'm thankful for the quarantine because I'm not certain that I would have repented of my, well, dysfunction, my sin of overdoing, in time before it was too late.
Ultimately, it's the good works that your salvation by grace through faith produces that connects you to Jesus. (Mt. 7:21-23, 25:34f, Eph. 2:8-10)
I suspect that people who have been convinced that "going to church" is the central act of righteousness as a disciple are profoundly wrong, perhaps even lost. And that's a bad thing.
But, there's the other danger, one that I was facing.
I was close to the point, I'm afraid, that I was about to become so tired in doing good, that I very well might have stopped.
Clearly, there's a bigger sin that led me to the place that I was at and,...
...sadly, I'm not sure I've put all of those pieces together, even now.
I received this reply off the blog. I think that it's insightful and constructive.
ReplyDeleteGood post. One thing I slightly picked up in before, when you were working at talking about what you were doing as an ambassador, is that sometimes it sounded like beating my body to make it my slave.
Your risk could be that you are SO intent on being faithful and obedient, and you are, that you miss out on some of the simplicity of simply showing up in submission to the indwelling of Christ / the Holy Spirit.
I do believe wholeheartedly in setting ones intentions. But I believe equally in the easy yoke and that his commands are not burdensome.
The best teaching out there on this stuff is Dallas Willard, whose student I’ve become in kingdom understanding.
He is amongst the best of teachers of living in the fullness of the kingdom now.
For what that’s worth. Don’t be harder on yourself than Jesus is. :-)