Skip to main content

Find and Do "The Good Part" Repetitiously


You get to a know a person because they repeat themselves. And you cannot know a person if they do not repeat themselves, if they are not reliable. And this repeat does not necessarily need words, the repetitious actions that have become our habitude speak for themselves, but it is often helpful when the repeater is self-aware and can explain where they are coming from.

God repeats Himself. Whereas we want to say something once and make sure it lands, that it sticks, God doesn't mind saying something until it sticks. Combining His mission-oriented nature with His incredible focus, it's no wonder He gets what He is after!

What is He after? Our good, of course. He is relentlessly focused on bringing out the best in us, not the us born of the world, but the us born of Him. The seed He has planted He works until fruiting; He did begin in the garden, didn't He? And look at what a focused pursuit from then until now. He will not give up until we are wholly His. How good, indeed!

Heavenly Father, help me to be mission-oriented, but to linger. Help me to lovingly repeat myself when necessary, but to always check that what I am repeating is worth saying... or doing. Help me to linger, to examine others and myself. Are things ok? If not, what can I do? Help me to walk in that balance of waiting on You, AND moving forward in faith.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Going further:

Focus on the right things, relationships over work (Mary and Martha). When I woke up this morning I was thinking of all I had to do, but gave pause, considering that if I didn't I might miss out on some opportunities with the basketball team and with the coaches. I pride myself on being crazy, and working myself near to death. Others look on and probably say, "that man is crazy" and that almost gives me energy to continue in my crazy. But aren't they at least a little right? Because, what am I working so hard for? So much of it is a singular pursuit. Wouldn't it be better to be joined in with others, engaged together to go after what we are going after? Wouldn't that make the strenuousnous less crazy, more necessary?! And so, God, in a side prayer, I pray that I use the strength You give me for necessary pursuits, and leave some margin for looking in on what You are doing. In Jesus Name. Amen.

There is no blessing in running our own lives based on our human understanding of what is important.

https://activechristianity.org/mary-and-martha-getting-our-priorities-right

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

No Time for a Hasty Decision

This morning, I awoke reflecting on yesterday. What I've been complaining to my wife recently about is that I'm always feeling attacked by my bosses. Like all things, there is some truth to it and some error in perception. I felt I should read a bit about defensiveness, just to get an idea of how it's happening with me and what I can do to stop it. I came up with the following diagram: from these really simple and straight forward articles: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/love-cycles-fear-cycles/201805/why-do-people-get-so-defensive https://www.amazon.com/Love-Cycles-Fear-Connection-Relationship/dp/1590794400 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-be-yourself/201805/how-stop-getting-defensive I see my problem, it's that I assume that people are coming from a bad place, and I just can't shake that. But even if people are coming from a bad place (whatever that means to me), I still have to find ways to turn it around. I have to work with a...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Do of Potential Energy

James 4:17  New Century Version (NCV) Anyone who knows the right thing to do, but does not do it, is sinning. Romans 7:15-18 For what I want to do I do not do, but  what I hate I do . And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.   The tension between my wife and I is coming to a breaking point. And that breaking point is either going to turn out for better or worse . The formula for distance is as follows: Matt (mistake) = Jess (distrust). And so it has gone for these 10 years. Notice that the formula does not include mitigation; in other words; Matt (good things) = Jess (approbation/trust) seems to be of negligible effect compared to the mistake coefficient. Thinking in terms of Gibbs free energy, the state of our relationship seems to be much more governed by mistakes (enthalpy) than be any good (entropy)....
Post a Comment
Read more

Mind Fullness

I don't know if I'm altogether down with the notion, but it certainly makes sense. SitD for today is all about the prerequisite of being in a place of rest to hear God. The contention from me comes when I see all manner of Psalmist saying, "I cried out... and the Lord heard me", or "in the midst of my storm". But I guess that the answer could have come in time of calm after the storm, and the Psalmists reflected back and realized that God was there all along. Being amateur as I am in faith, and to some degree untested, I hear CS Lewis in the back of my mind with words from Mere Christianity. To summarize and paraphrase: we may have all manner of experience with God, as the man in the desert, but without theology, without systematic study, application, learning and wisdom in the things of God. George Matheson writes, and I read, that calm is needed to hear God. That God will not speak amidst the turmoil of a frantic and busy life. I think, fretfully, w...
Post a Comment
Read more