the today

Every once in a while I will come across an idea or learn a lesson and it will hit me like a ton of bricks. I wake up, like I did today, and feel such joy and peace and hope. Soon I then realize that this idea is something quite basic, a lesson that most Christians know and understand. It is not that I think it is new and some great discovery but rather that this lesson is more valuable and real now that it has been at any other time in my life. Some would look from outside and see a fellow Christian completely excited and inspired about a very basic idea or lesson and think "I remember long ago when I learned that." But I feel that thinking that way is from allowing pride to blind you. The truth is I think situations like this are an incredible insight into the true and honest relationship between man and his life long struggle to understand God and grow closer to Him. I think it is a beautiful illustration of the child-like brokenness that we often try to run from.
Anyway the lesson is this; I was able to spend some time with my family this weekend for my older sister's birthday. I was talking to my little sister and my brother-in-law about how frustrating it can be when you see people around you who you love and who do not truly know Jesus Christ. Our first reaction is to want an immediate change, something that we can control and use with force. For instance, parents finding out that their child is homosexual and instead of loving them they excommunicate them, or finding out that your friend is slipping away from their faith and wanting to condemn them and yell at them and tell them they are wrong instead of loving them through their struggles and searching. Street witnessing, as we have come to know it today, is a perfect example of Christians acting from a completely self-centered thought process. These are all situation where we, as Christians, can get so lazy. This is not living out our faith daily. The bible tells us to die to ourselves by giving up our fears and comforts and personal agendas and pride. This is living out our faith daily. Here is what Thomas Merton has to say…

“The requirements of a work to be done can be understood as the will of God. If I am supposed to hoe a garden or make a table, then I will be obeying God if I am true to the task I am performing. To do the work carefully and well, with love and respect for the nature of my task and with due attention to its purpose, is to unite myself to God’s will in my work. In this way I become His instrument. He works through me.”