Day 152 - Month At A Glance
Scripture focus: One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. Luke 6:12 NIV
In this month's devotionals, I hope we were challenged to consider what it means to be "good." I pray we thought long and hard about what it means to experience "success." I asked us to reconsider our definition of a big dream in light of God's prevailing purposes. I suppose I suggested that sometimes what we so desperately desire and feel is "right" must be set aside in order to step as God speaks. I really, really hope that these devotionals communicated the essence of messy spirituality (Mike Yaconelli's term) and our need to be gracious and gentle with ourselves and others.
I wonder if the subtlety of the message shined through the rhetoric. Did you sense the possibility of a passionate life, where you fight for victory AND maintain your equilibrium no matter the perceived outcome? Will you allow for the possibility that success may not always equal a win? Failure, fatigue and criticism: all ways God might choose to spell success. Why? Because sometimes loving like God means we must be willing to risk our reputation, energy and need to be liked for the higher call of love.
And what about all this talk about loving like God? Did you stop and pause to prepare? Who came to your mind when you paired love and suffering? Lousy loving brings one kind of suffering, but I'm asking us to consider the kind of suffering that happens when we love like God. Lots of biblical characters demonstrated faith AND messy lives. At any moment, my friend the homeless drug addict can choose to love like God. All across the country people who profess to love God and others are in fact, judging others and making a terrible mess of representing the life of Jesus. Talk about confusing!
In summary - I want us to understand that we don't explore the limits of our own abilities, trusting God to do in and through and with us, what we never could accomplish on our own without suffering failure, fatigue and criticism. In order to develop this kind of inner strength, we've got to become more concerned about what God believes about us than we believe about ourselves - or others assume is true. I suppose the thing I want for all of us is a firmly grounded loyalty and trust in God. This dynamic duo will allow us gentleness and compassion of spirit for our own messiness, and the messiness of others.
This completes the one hundred and fifty second day of this devotional series; I pray you are nearer to God as a result of the steps you've taken this week.
Recommended reading: 2 Samuel 16 in the morning; John 19 in the evening
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