March 21, 2012
Pre-Planning
I’ve noticed that when I have a housekeeper coming in I’ll do some
tidying up before she gets here. Or when I have a dentist appointment, I’ll
spend extra time brushing and flossing before the appointment. I also try some
dieting before it’s time for my annual physical because I know I’ll have to get
on the dreaded scale. It’s no wonder that the Lord has kept the Second Coming a
secret. “So you also must be ready,
because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
(Matt 24:44 NIV)
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Gail;
-----For many years my efforts to overcome sinful habits were driven by an ambition to be as obedient as possible for when Jesus arrives. I knew I wasn’t going to be perfected by these efforts. And perfecting myself is something we both know I can’t do, so neither of us expects me to do it. Although He will do it for me when He gets here, there is just something about it that’s like your tidying up a bit before the housekeeper arrives, maybe an avoidance of extra embarrassment.
-----But every time I look into the barrel of my sinful habits I can never see the bottom. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen down to the bunghole in the barrel’s middle. I’ve always rather speculated that more of my habits were flawed in some manner, however slightly, than were not. Then, what does a few more or less really matter?
-----That question’s answer changed my motive. Jesus could deal with my barrel of sinful habits completely full or completely empty. Nor does He supply me with a dipstick for measuring the depth of its contents. However much or little I sinned in proportion to all that I do could not be relevant, because I don’t even have the ability to recognize the most of the sin I do as being sin. So how could amount matter? Desire to be moving in a direction relative to amount mattered. The desire to be found diminishing the sin in my life replaced the desire to be found less sinful than more.
-----Then only one thought remained to carry my entire mind into a different frame. And it came quickly. Though it is not a direction like East, West, South, North, diminishing sin is indeed a direction. It is a direction towards godliness in this life; it is a direction towards perfection in the next. And it is every bit as much a journey and adventure as is hauling off to the East or West and likewise has its hills to climb and rivers to cross and deserts to endure and oases to enjoy. So my efforts to overcome sin are now joined by feelings that I am presently going somewhere special. Not an East or West where. But a goodness where, a where mapped by a way of being rather than by landscape, planet, or solar system. A where that is one of heaven's natures.
-----Indeed I still can not see the bunghole in the middle of my barrel. Still I can not further my prospects of being in heaven half an inch even if I could empty the barrel completely. Still the fullness or emptiness of the barrel of my sinful habits is irrelevant. Since I so much desire to be in heaven and can’t yet, then at least being able to enjoy today as much as I can of what being in heaven will be has become the point. And enjoying what heaven will be has nothing to do with what others do for me. It has everything to do with how I treat them. So the final effect remains the same: I too am tidying up before the Housekeeper arrives. But I’ve shoved off the old motivation of avoiding embarrassment. I don’t have much hope of avoiding much of that. I’m just so excited to start that life where not a thing will be done wrong that I am going to try as much of it out now as my barrel of bad habits will allow.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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