Sunday, May 29th, 2005
Everything on earth has its own time and its own season.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 (CEV)
I am sure that God who bean the good work within you will keep right on helping you grow in his grace until his task within you is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ returns.
Philippians 1:5 (Living Bible)
It’s taken a year to get to Day 28 on this Driving With Purpose blog. The first post was on June 3, 2004. Hopefully we’ll get to Day 40 before the day when Jesus Christ returns!
Rick Warren uses a couple of metaphors to explore the slow process of maturity:
1. Vine-ripened tomatoes (as opposed to gas-ripened)
Rick reminds us that quality is best achieved with slow growth.
2. Occupation of Pacific Islands during World War II (Lane Adams, Spirit, 1985) Rick uses Lane Adams’ analogy of God’s pre-conversion ’softening-up’ through ‘bombing’, the initial beachhead in our lives, followed by the longterm campaign to take over more and more territory until all of our life is completely God’s. It’s a violent image but it makes the point that God’s in for the long haul with us.
It takes so long to grow into maturity because:
1. We are slow learners
2. We have a lot to unlearn.
3. We are afraid to humbly face the truth about ourselves.
4. Growth is often painful and scary.
5. Habits take time to develop.
I appreciate Rick’s reminder that what takes years to learn can take years to unlearn. I remember the year before I started as a minister telling a friend I needed to develop stronger spiritual disciplines in the next two months. He wryly smiled and reminded me that spiritual disciplines took years to develop. So true.
We can co-operate with God in the process
1. Believe God is working in your life even when you don’t feel it.
2. Keep a notebook or journal of lessons learned.
3. Be patient with God and with yourself.
4. Don’t get discouraged.
I appreciate the image of seasons Rick uses to describe the times we seem to be shooting ahead and the times we seem to stagnate. I’ve found this especially applies to periods of fresh creativity that tend to be followed by times of dryness.
This chapter is a welcome alternative to the “Easy steps to maturity” approach to spiritual growth we can find ourselves pining for. Rick finishes with the sentence, “Even the snail reached the ark by perservering”. Nice.
Posted in Discipleship | No Comments »
Sunday, May 1st, 2005
Run from anything that gives you the evil thoughts… but stay close to anything that makes you want to do right.
2 Timothy 2.22 (Living Bible)
Remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it.
1 Corinthians 10:13 (New Living Translation)
Rick Warren in today’s chapter reminds us not to become defeatist when it comes to temptation. He starts with a claim that God will not allow us to face any temptation that we cannot overcome. And then goes on to tell us that all will be OK if we are proactive and follow his 4 point Biblical plan.
1. Refocus your attention on something else.
2. Reveal your struggle to a godly friend or support group.
3. Resist the Devil.
4. Realize your vulnerability.
Hmm. Rick’s running with Paul’s promise that God won’t test us beyond the point of endurance. I’m not too sure. I’ve seen many Christians crack under pressure, sometimes ending up in moral failure or with mental illness. I don’t think it’s God’s fault. We take on challenges and expectations that sometimes are unrealistic projections of what we think God wants. But we are fragile and vulnerable people.
Rick’s chapter is based on the second part of the 1 Corinthians verse: finding a way out of temptation.
Refocusing is a brilliant idea. And I appreciate Rick’s acknowledgement that this takes a lifetime of practice, particularly when it comes to addiction. The addictive mind is more devious that we allow.With the Holy Spirit’s help we can reprogram the way we think.
Yes - keeping an honest accountability with peers or supervisors is a healthy way to go. The AA recovery movement has a lot to teach us in this area. The moment of confession takes the power out of pride and self-deceit.
Helping others face up to their areas of weakness is a tricky business. As a parent I feel responsible for helping my kids develop self-awareness in the areas of their strengths and limits. They don’t always enjoy it when I confront them over discrepancies between action and word. But they seem to act on it in the long term. Between friends or colleagues honest confrontation is no easy task. Many friendship have been lost. But if friends can’t do it, who can?
Rick talks about resisting the Devil in terms of memorizing and using scripture. Looking at the number of times he quotes scripture in his book, that’s obviously the way he works. I’ve memorised lots of scripture but I can’t say it really helps when under pressure. I think it’s more the principles that I’ve developed while studying scripture. The principles of purity, of faithfulness, honesty, gentleness, patience and so on.
And once again, I’m not keen on the idea that we are neutral members of a conversation between God and the Devil. We are quite capable of having inner ethical dialogues without supernatural interference.
I agree wholeheartedly with Rick’s last principle. Avoid temptation by realizing your vulnerability. If that means not turning the computer on so be it. If it means staying out of bakeries and DVD stores, so be it!
Posted in Discipleship | No Comments »