September 28, 2011
What a Waste
A letter writer to Dear Abby was at the end of her rope watching her
mother refuse to change some destructive habits. The daughter wrote, “I don’t want to waste my life watching her
waste hers.” I can so relate to the letter writer’s conflict, both in the
physical realm, as well as the spiritual realm. Many of us do have thoughts of
simply turning our backs on and walking away from those who drain us
emotionally. It’s amazing though to think that Jesus often watches us waste our
lives and yet never walks away.
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Gail;
-----I have a friend whose concluding remark to most conversations about issues and affairs is, “Well, everything is relative.” Of course, nobody has the time, funds, or intelligence necessary to test everything for its relativity to anything else. But then, I guess the truth of the statement is relative to the sense in which it is meant.
-----I’ve met some exceptionally well behaved Christians. I’ve met some very poorly behaved ones. And I’ve met those of most degrees between the two. I’ve met those who handle the Scriptures well, and those who handle them poorly. I’ve met those who’ve focused much attention upon the Lord, and those who’ve focused little. We all sort out somewhere between Satan’s mark and Christ’s, Hitler’s and Sister Teresa’s (poor Hitler, I am sure there was somebody worse.) Regardless, it always seems the sense of the mark for wasted or employed has to do with the status of our own life.
-----But for sure, everyone is an own life. And in a manner of speaking, and for a certain purpose, the sense of the mark being that for each is proper. I might think I would be more satisfied and my accomplishments more significant if I behaved, handled the Scriptures, and focused upon the Lord more like Billy Graham, or that Nero might have been more accomplished had he done so more like me (let‘s give poor Hitler a break.) But really, we all would merely be out of place and confused if we did more like somebody else. Our bearings in life are the meanings we make of our experiences. So my doing like someone else having my own bearings makes chaos. I could only do like him if my bearings were his bearings. But then I would be him. Thus the relativity.
-----Since we all fall short of the glory of God, it becomes quite meaningless that one of us might be more or less than another. But two things have great meaning about what and where you are irregardless of other’s statures. First, God makes every vessel for a purpose. He has placed each soul precisely in its place for the achievement of the objectives this history needs from that soul alone in that place, that all history will fulfill His purpose. I don’t say God means for us to do evil when we do evil, but that even the evil we do serves His purpose for human history. This is His perfection, let God be true though all men be false. So we each add our pieces to the jigsaw puzzle of history as if they were crafted by us, but as their fit is definitely made by Him. Then all is well by His grace alone. What each of us is at the moment has premium meaning for that moment.
-----But not for the next moment. Second, what and where I am is the point of departure for what and where I will be. It isn’t like I will be perfected by my own efforts. But it is like I will try, since I am in love with being perfected by Christ at my end. So my joy is simply that I am alive in this mess of a life where and as what I am, and that I am moving towards Him with a lot of others all around. For I know His gracious craftsmanship makes even my failures to be successful waste. Then it must for others as well. So, I thank Him for making them fit as they do in each moment. And if I can, I inspire them towards their next moment. Our joy need be no less even if we or someone else is less or isn‘t.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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