Skip to main content

2019 Preview


Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Ephesians 2:12-13)
          In preparation for 2019, I am starting to read some of the types of books I want to read next year. For my spiritual reading, I happened to have a copy of The Renewed Mind by Larry Christenson and he mentioned these verses. The point he makes is that there are things that only God can do, and there are things that we can do in us. He uses the example of patience, but I think I’m going to try it with love. We can’t generate love toward someone we don’t like. That’s God’s job. 
          That doesn’t mean we can or should continue to hate that person until or unless God miraculously changes us. We can prepare the container (ourselves) for the contents (love.) We can pray for the well-being and blessing of the problem person. We can be fair to that person. This brings to mind instance in my last job when I made some treat to take to work and saw someone of whom I wasn’t fond. As much as I would rather have not shared my goodies with that person, I informed him (there were several of these folks, and they tended to be guys) of what was in the breakroom. I learned, and am still learning, that what I do for someone I like, I should also do for someone I don’t. 
          Mr. Christensen goes on to tell the story of a renter whose building is purchased by a new owner. The new owner tells the renter that his rent is paid up, forever. The next day, the old building manager comes along and demands the rent. The best possible answer to give to the old manager is "You'll have to discuss that with the new owner." It seems to me that I need to learn to tell the old manager that - about a lot of things. 
          I don’t think I’m very good at these things. If I were, I think I’d have more examples. However, this is one of my goals for next year, to love better. I want to get better at loving God, others, and myself, so I’m considering ways that I can prepare my container (myself.) Some of the ideas are a little scary. I don’t want to share them because I don’t want someone to come back with “I thought you were going to ________.” It looks like 2019 is going to be a challenging year.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more