Regardless of what our calling is, we all have one and the greatest of these is our baptismal calling which having confirmed us as members of the Church calls us to reject rebellion against God and takes us into the world.
In the world we are called to tell, teach and make disciples.
In the home it calls us to be students of the Word and to be diligent (i.e. do it) in prayer. Everywhere we are called to be witnesses to the atoning power of Christ's blood and to live our new life.
Life is a variable and has many peaks and troughs, highs and lows. We all have times of darkness and despair and sunlight and joy; Easy water and wild water which hides rocks and hazards to the soul.
Being Christian is easy when we are living in the pluses but when the minus signs begin to accumulate we tend to cling to that which we know and sadly this is often the opposite of the 'Fruit of the Spirit' in Galatians five. Instead of the 'love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness' we find instead varying degrees of 'division, sadness, despair, impatience, cruelty (in word and deed) and wickedness'.
It seems that when the 'going gets tough' some stop coming,
Some start swearing, kicking and fighting,
Some open a bottle and look to a different spirit,
Some take their eyes off God and look to the world and its distractions,
Some crawl into their caves and refuse to come out.
People often tell me how 'lucky' I am that I am immune from the above options. Would that it was true for when we the going gets tough, we ALL have the potential to select one (or all) of the wrong options. Then I have to tell them that I try not to slip into one (or more) of the wrong choices and that I do this by:
Reading my Bible - Conversing with God (Prayer) - Selecting the right company (Yes, I try to avoid those who will make me worse when I'm wobbling) and keeping my mouth shut (always a tough task, but the potential to say the wrong thing in the wrong way or use the wrong words is something we all have).
And when they ask what I do when things are going well?
Reading my Bible - Conversing with God - Selecting the right company and keeping my mouth shut (still a tough task).
What about you?
4 comments:
Thank you - a thought provoking blog. Selecting the right option is not always that easy. Bible, prayer - yes - but selecting the right company is often very hard to do. (I am also learning to keep quiet which is equally hard!)What do you do when you find the people you are mixing with, view things from such a different perspective? Not necessarily 'bad' but in a way that I can't agree with. I tend to want to walk away.
The 'people with a different perspective' bit is the hard bit because of the 'different' is something that lives within a set of parameters and morals that aren't helpful at the best of times and can be totally destructive when the going is getting tough.
If things are getting such that I know they will lead me to act, think or say in ways that deny my faith and erode the ground on which I stand (for it is not always rock) than, like you I avoid them. Sometimes I almost seek them out because getting into the arena and engaging in some contact sport dialogue re-grounds me. The key is to know where you are and to know your responses and sadly I have come to know the latter because of the errors made before.
It is a sad thing to say but there are some Christians who I try to avoid when the going is tough because they use my weaknesses to raise their own self-standing and by lack of theology and Christian understanding and comparing my situation with theirs, drag me down without the apparently 'sinful' bits of the ungodly.
I hope this a. makes sense and b. helps
Thanks for comments,
V
Enjoyed your blog (envy over location though)
Hope you don't mind if I add yours to the blogroll?
Vic
Often when we consider the gifts given to us in Baptism, we tend to forget the other side of the coin.
Obedience, isn't a word used often these days, everyone is obsessed with individual identity, their rights and freedoms, not many actually reflect on what these rights and freedoms mean. Responsibility for ourselves and for others.
If we are obedient to the Gospel and follow what we are instructed to do by it, than we live the life that Jesus spoke off. By doing this, we gently provide some guidance and direction to others - perhaps setting an example of what I've heard spoken of as a 'God Centred - Grace filled life' (and it wasn't about me).
It seems to me that we need that quality of stubborn perseverance which perhaps Jesus had in choosing to be and to do what his father willed. If only.... It's had to suborn your will to another, particularly a deity you can't witness in the flesh.
For me, I've learned the lessons of life to an extent, which coupled with a deep belief in God, has allowed me to hope in him and to aspire to live up to the Gospel.
Human weakness persists in all of us, it's how we overcome it that counts. Your measures seem to me to be as good as any I could write about.
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