Where did the week go and what did you accomplish throughout it? Did you clear your desk of all those "alligators" that have been nesting in your in-box for far too long? Someone told me recently that it's almost useless to plan an agenda for the upcoming day because there is always something that supersedes her itinerary. "Well, did you accomplish anything at all today?" I asked. "Yes, of course", she responded, "but it wasn't what I wanted to do." I believe we have all have made a similar statement in our lives at some time or another, (some of us probably did just today). How often do we start our mornings by praying "Lord, not my will but Your will be done", only to learn that it isn't so easy letting go of our will?
Being brought up military, (My father was in the Army before I was born), I was raised with military orderliness, strict discipline, attention to detail, and of course, timeliness). I enlisted in the Army and discovered that it was not difficult at all. "Heck, I've lived this way all my life", I thought to myself. Even after I became heavily involved in the Christian church it was very difficult to relax my "starched" discipline. When I look back in retrospect I believe it was the narrowness of religion that attracted me in the beginning. It was dress-right-dress just like the Army. In other words, I had an extreme case of tunnel vision but I was used to it so what the heck.
World English Dictionary- tunnel vision; noun,
a condition in which peripheral vision is greatly restricted.
narrowness of viewpoint resulting from concentration on a single idea, opinion, etc to the exclusion of others.
I was a good religious person, but I was a terrible Christian. Nearly everything I was being taught by man's doctrine was contradictory to what Jesus taught. Christ was notorious for hanging around "sinners" and was regularly condemned for it by the religious community. He taught that God's heaven was for those who were lost, who loved their neighbor as they loved themselves, who did not put money above friendship, who loved all men and women with all their heart. Under man's (organized) religion I learned that all smokers and drinkers and people who went to dance in clubs and people who cursed and people who had sex outside of marriage or with others while married and who were prejudiced and homosexual and even of a certain race were going directly to Hell where they will burn eternally in the Lake of Fire. Hallelujah! (I say that sarcastically).
I sometimes look back on the way in which I thought, the manner in which I preached with such condemnation and arrogance; all the while mistaking it for "authority". But God will not have us to be ignorant if we are sincerely seeking the truth; and I wanted to have the mind of God more than anything else. And because of my sincere desire to live right and love right I was given a harsh, but much needed lesson, as only God could give. Will you agree that we are more apt to pay attention to a thing when it affects us directly? As if overnight, I learned that church folks were capable of lying, cheating, stealing, adultery, cursing, smoking, drunkenness, sexual immorality and...well, let's just say that I learned that there was little difference between church folks and non-church folks. Thus, in a few short years I learned that I had been going about this "religion" thing all wrong. I learned that my life was far from perfect, and so was I. As first uttered by the ancient evangelical preacher, John Bradford, my motto soon became "There, by the grace of God, go I".
I will not expound on the many lessons I learned which humbled me and caused me to become the person I am today; a lover of people and one who seeks to reach God by my own merit and not at the expense of anther's shortcomings. I am not where I desire to be and I don't know if I ever will be. You see, I still have a dislike for people who purposely do and say things to hurt others. I don't care to be around people who make it their goal to belittle others and down play the importance of everyone else but themselves. I don't hate these type of people, but I don't invite them to dinner either. Pray for me, why don't 'cha.
I do believe, and always will, that there is a God in heaven and the only way to Him is thru accepting Jesus Christ. Still, some may differ with me on this, but to each his own. All I know is that I am nothing on my own and it is God who gives me the mind to be the best that I can possibly be in myself and in everything outside of me.
We have one more day, Friday, to get this week right. Sit back for a moment and figure out just why you were muttering and complaining. Try to rid yourself of a bad spirit such as hatred, anger, jealousy, greed and pride before the day is done. Try to undo the lie you told on your neighbor because you wanted to save your own neck from correction. You won't be able to do it alone because these things are embedded in you; some of us from a very young age. But I will make a deal with you: If you pray for me I will pray for you.
Dennis
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