Skip to main content

Do Your Level Best

 

But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. James 1:6

 

It's easy to second guess yourself. The thoughts of doubt come in almost immediately upon making a decision. "Was that the right move? Did I make too hasty a decision? I regret this already!" Especially in today's era, we have so many options. Marriage is an option, jobs are an option, your church is an option. Just about everything is optional. Of course, this was always the case. You could always choose which way to go, but the path has, arguably, gotten broader and broader over time. There are far more divergences now available then probably at any other time. 

Make level paths for your feet. Heb 12:13

I've been thinking about how much easier it is to follow along with the things you should be doing when the path leads you right to those things. I live in a house with my wife and daughter. Everyday, I come home to them and am reminded of the kind of man, husband and father I need to be. That's a very broad and basic structure. But how about setting up routines: a morning "quiet time" routine, a nighttime wind down routine, during the daytime. 

Also, I consider my work. How can I help build joy work into the path? 

Heavenly Father, I've messed up a lot. It seems given the opportunity, outside of the safeguard of a discipline, I falter. And thus You have established disciplines. Yet I pray that a new sensitivity would be born to Your Spirit. That outside of a "level" path I would steer toward the direction you are leading. 

In Jesus Name, 

Amen 

 

Comments

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...

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)....

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...