So there are a lot of blogs I need to write, not the least of which is "Why It's Okay That Everyone Is Different" or "Making My Peace With That Horrid Diversity Word," but today I want to give a shout out to Luke 16.
This year the Lord seems intent on teaching me to do hard things, and persevere in them. Within that context He's already brought a lot of things before my inner eye. I wince a lot these days. And stomp a bit. But a majority of the time I'm trying to agree with Him and obey. It's for my own good, right?
Well, in true God-fashion, there is never just one reason. Besides the obvious benefit to the rest of the Body (whom I hopefully treat better because of all this diamond-cutting), it turns out there is a reason Beyond the Veil as well.
"He who is faithful in a very little [thing] is faithful also in much, and he who is dishonest and unjust in a very little [thing] is dishonest and unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the [case of] unrighteous mammon (deceitful riches, money, possessions), who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not proved faithful in that which belongs to another [whether God or man], who will give you that which is your own [that is, the true riches]?" Luke 16:10-12
Mulling it over in that place between asleep and awake, I gathered that all this stuff, this perseverance and doing-hard-things, is practice for Kingdom life. Apparently Jesus uses all sorts of normal, every-day things to relate to normal Kingdom things: if I can't handle money, how do I expect to handle the riches of the kingdom? Pretty cut and dried.
Practice.
Hmm.
Well that more-or-less changes my perspective. Purpose beyond myself, any purpose at all, actually, to these slicings and dicings and shapings of my character, helps incredibly! If I can look forward, beyond the actual moment of refining, to a concrete goal, it makes everything intrinsically more doable. Which the Lord knows, bless Him.
Now, to remember.
P.S. New stuff on my art blog. See the sidebar if you don't have the address.
1 comment:
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Isn't it amazing to think about us practicing now for our Narnia later? I mean, really! I know I come back to it over and over and over again, but it SO helps! I'm not always too fond of life. It too often feels as if I'm not quite in the right place. Mis-placed. The beauty is that I AM! We are Lucy. We aren't home. We are visitors in our Englands and we get glimpses of our real home and the thrown we will sit upon. And someday soon we will be there! And we get to use all we've learned here. YEAH!!!!!
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