NorthStar Community Daily Devotional

June 15

Scripture focus: I can anticipate the response that is coming: "I know that all God's commands are spiritual, but I'm not. Isn't this also your experience?" Yes. I'm full of myself—after all, I've spent a long time in sin's prison. What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary.  But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.  It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.  I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?  The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. Romans 7:14-25 The Message

When neither feedback nor habituation restore balance to the system, adaptation occurs. This is another way to say attachment/addiction is forming. If the brain can’t calm the cells down, all the cells eventually give up and join in the fray. Suppose Pete and I had not been able to calm ourselves down, and the discussion moved out into the den. Michael is sitting watching a game with his friends.

I say, “I can’t believe you thought it was a good idea to let these kids go off in an RV without adult supervision.”

Pete responds, “I didn’t say that!”

Michael, seeing a good opportunity slip away like a triple scoop ice cream cone on a hot summer day chimes up, “You did to! You said we could go to Phish Concerts and baseball parks!”

Pete pauses. He did say that. But the pause provides an opening, and Ryan pipes up, “Hey, can I go? I want to go to the baseball parks too! Can my dad join us? What about my sister? My mom could cook on a camp stove!”

The whole discussion is getting way out of hand. If this continues for long, all of us are going to get so accustomed to chaos and yelling, shouting and hollering, that this will become our new normal. We’ll get so attached to the chaos and calamity that soon we won’t remember a day when we could calm down, pause to prepare, collaborate and come to a reasonable agreement on anything. We will have a family
system, addicted to chaos.

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