December 17, 2013
Go Team Go
The Christian school fifth grade put on a play
and one of the scenes had students divided up into teams. Rather than having
the red team and the blue team, the names were Team Loyalty and Team
Excellence. I began wondering if the Lord assigned believers to teams, which
team might He would put me on. Would He put me on Team Obedience, Team
Faithfulness, or would I be simply be designated the cheerleading mascot who
warms the bench. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of
witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily
entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
(Hebrews 12:1 NIV)
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Gail;
-----Let me speculate. He does assign us to teams. Maybe we should be surprised; they’re not always the same teams. More like when we were in grade school, we might be on one team one day and then find ourselves on a different team the next.
-----After many years of pondering, I finally developed an equation for the human soul. At least it is an equation which well serves my efforts to understand. It goes like this: information + memory + reason = intelligence. Each element has a rather unique relationship with the others. For example, newly observed information combining with memory by the process of sound logic makes more information which becomes more memory. (This leads to two extensions of the equation I think I’ve told you about before.) And where information and memories concern the processes of thought, new discoveries form of yet more rational processes to use in furthering intelligence (which also much accentuate the effects of the two extensions.) So we grow good or bad (depending upon which extension we employ.)
-----Then it holds true that the better is one’s memory, not only better in its accuracy and immediacy, but also in both our volition over that immediacy as well as its own spontaneity, then the more often new information will meet memory in service to reason, and thus the more intelligence will emerge. This aspect of the equation served me tremendously well in breaking free of the manic-depressive state my youthful disobedience had lodged me in by my mid-twenties. Both the walls of depression and the ladders of elation began crumbling the more I became able to accurately remember the details of my depressed states while I was being elated, and visa-versa.
-----In a like manner, I now more appreciate the renewal process of my mind, the seasons of change from one degree to the next into the likeness of our Lord, by making a more volitional use of my memory from time to time, remembering what was being important to me last month, last quarter, last year, last decade, and more simply, from just time to time. It’s like lowering a dipstick into the subconscious; it’s like examining the growth rings of a tree; it’s like finding I’ve been playing on different teams.
-----I don’t let it bother me that at some times loyalty has been a bigger issue for my self-control than obedience. Other times obedience is a bigger issue. Then at times I focus on how important is mere goodness. Yet occasionally, it’s faithfulness. Often, thankfully, it’s varying combinations of varying numbers of all these or more. I think the Holy Spirit assembles us onto different teams at different times depending on what part of the playground we will encounter next recess. He’s cool that way. Then, taking away something from each team experience exponentially grows godly character (considering the take away is done with the right extension.)
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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