My Hard Things

I am spending some quality time with a dear friend and spiritual mentor of mine right now.

She's teaching me many things.

The first is that although my life may be surrounded by people who do not necessarily live for the glory of the Lord, I must anyway. Otherwise, I will stand before God and be completely responsible for my sin. I won't be able to blame it on anyone else.

If I dishonor an elder or spiritual senior in my life, I am breaking God's commands, no matter what they may have done to me, and I stand in violation of scripture. Even though I may not agree with those in authority over me, yet I answer to an even higher authority to respect them with my words, actions and bearing.

When a sibling does something extremely provocative to me, am I qualified to blow steam, rant and rage? According to God, no - even when they have done something very provocative to me.

For married couples all over the world, I think many of their problems start right here with the act of refusing to take responsibility for themselves. I am responsible for the sins I commit. It's not Adam's fault and it's not Eve's. Neither is it Satan's. It's mine. End of story.

The other thing she has been helping me to see is that although God controls all events, nevertheless I can choose to be strong in character or weak in it, and hence can choose to have a pleasant future or a rather unpleasant one, by the way I prepare for it now. Consider Joseph for a moment. He certainly was placed in difficult circumstances yet nonetheless was capable of rising above them and experiencing God's power poured through himself and onto an entire nation as a result of his choice.

I choose that same choice.

I will willingly take responsibility for the faults I have and the sins I commit. I choose to ask forgiveness quickly and embrace the hard idea of a teachable spirit, regardless of the outcome. These are two of the hardest things I will ever do, and no one ever said it was easy, or that it will be over soon, or that I will have an easy life if I do these things. Chances are it will be much harder, much more against-the-flow, and far more complex.

But still, it's right.

If that's not what it is to be a practical Christian, one who actually lives his faith, what is? Faith is not limited to a foggy idea we have, but the actual walking out of it.

It's where the rubber meets the road.