Today, I saw an excerpt of President Uhuru Kenyatta's Inaugural Address. He made many promises (as leaders do; not surprising) that he said would be realized within the first year of his term as President (which did surprise me). Also, I was made aware that the word 'sit' was an abbreviated form of 'situate' and 'situation.' So, two historic events.
Some of us get upset when we perceive the possibility that we may not get what we desire. You know that feeling when someone asks you if you would like option A or B, and you have no great preference initially? When the question comes, you start an internal dialogue as to which one would be the best, more beneficial or satisfactory. After a short time you give an answer, though tentatively. Should it seem as though you will not be getting your first choice, you hastily switch to the other option aloud. At the same time, your internal dialogue continues raging, hoping fiercely that your first decision comes though. You begin to weigh the pros and cons of the choices, and to rationalize your having audibly chosen the second option. Or perhaps you tell the person they can make the decision for you. Before you receive either A or B, therefore, you have resigned yourself to the you-made, not-yet reality that you will have to settle with disappointment. Then, at that moment, you get just what you desired at the first. Now, though, you are just as dissatisfied as if you had not. Your preemptive resignation served to nullify your chance at joy in that decision; the gladness we would have is overshadowed by the unfulfillment of our expected disappointment.
In strictly spiritual dialogue, the same thing tends to happen, I believe, when God gives us multiple opportunities. There is nothing particularly _wrong_ about any of them, but he gives us the opportunity to choose. We go through some of what I mentioned above: the indifference, with a little frustration. We continue through these sentiments and try to weigh the options. Then we set our hearts on one and, at the same time, as if suddenly convinced of a certain malice in God's character, we pit our decision against his will. "Why would God give me a choice, if he is just going to turn around and take my 'real freedom' away?" From there we begin getting ridiculous, formulating our diatribe against the Lord and against even his inherent goodness. After we have nearly driven ourselves into the ground from regret that we have yet to really experience, the Lord might indeed tell us a way in line with that suffering, at which point we confirm what we had already pontificated, namely, God is bad and he has wronged us. We become victims of an obnoxious Creator.
In the even that God gives us what our hearts had longed, that expected disappointment thing comes in. "Well, if he could have, then he would have messed up my life. I just know it." Something like that; forgetting, of course, that since he can, and yet decided not too, that we should be thankful at each moment.
We have an issue, human beings. We fail so many times to understand that we have been made in God's image. Our hearts longings can align with his heart, because we are his. It is only the perverted nature from which we have tried to fashion ourselves that we find cacophony when joining humanity and divinity. For we who believe, that seeming cacophony is made into dissonance (for the jazz lovers), creating a soothing masterpiece to the ears of the Almighty. Basically, when it comes to trusting God, I want you to realize that he is not "out to get us," but rather out to grow us. Decisions proceed from the interaction of reason and conscience, and those of the saints have their grounding in a Wonderful Counselor. When the time comes for you and I to jump into his arms, let us not think ill of the compulsion to live and move in him but, instead, let us live in light of the fact that he has our best interests at heart. If at heart then at will.
Thy will be done, O Lord.
Some of us get upset when we perceive the possibility that we may not get what we desire. You know that feeling when someone asks you if you would like option A or B, and you have no great preference initially? When the question comes, you start an internal dialogue as to which one would be the best, more beneficial or satisfactory. After a short time you give an answer, though tentatively. Should it seem as though you will not be getting your first choice, you hastily switch to the other option aloud. At the same time, your internal dialogue continues raging, hoping fiercely that your first decision comes though. You begin to weigh the pros and cons of the choices, and to rationalize your having audibly chosen the second option. Or perhaps you tell the person they can make the decision for you. Before you receive either A or B, therefore, you have resigned yourself to the you-made, not-yet reality that you will have to settle with disappointment. Then, at that moment, you get just what you desired at the first. Now, though, you are just as dissatisfied as if you had not. Your preemptive resignation served to nullify your chance at joy in that decision; the gladness we would have is overshadowed by the unfulfillment of our expected disappointment.
In strictly spiritual dialogue, the same thing tends to happen, I believe, when God gives us multiple opportunities. There is nothing particularly _wrong_ about any of them, but he gives us the opportunity to choose. We go through some of what I mentioned above: the indifference, with a little frustration. We continue through these sentiments and try to weigh the options. Then we set our hearts on one and, at the same time, as if suddenly convinced of a certain malice in God's character, we pit our decision against his will. "Why would God give me a choice, if he is just going to turn around and take my 'real freedom' away?" From there we begin getting ridiculous, formulating our diatribe against the Lord and against even his inherent goodness. After we have nearly driven ourselves into the ground from regret that we have yet to really experience, the Lord might indeed tell us a way in line with that suffering, at which point we confirm what we had already pontificated, namely, God is bad and he has wronged us. We become victims of an obnoxious Creator.
In the even that God gives us what our hearts had longed, that expected disappointment thing comes in. "Well, if he could have, then he would have messed up my life. I just know it." Something like that; forgetting, of course, that since he can, and yet decided not too, that we should be thankful at each moment.
We have an issue, human beings. We fail so many times to understand that we have been made in God's image. Our hearts longings can align with his heart, because we are his. It is only the perverted nature from which we have tried to fashion ourselves that we find cacophony when joining humanity and divinity. For we who believe, that seeming cacophony is made into dissonance (for the jazz lovers), creating a soothing masterpiece to the ears of the Almighty. Basically, when it comes to trusting God, I want you to realize that he is not "out to get us," but rather out to grow us. Decisions proceed from the interaction of reason and conscience, and those of the saints have their grounding in a Wonderful Counselor. When the time comes for you and I to jump into his arms, let us not think ill of the compulsion to live and move in him but, instead, let us live in light of the fact that he has our best interests at heart. If at heart then at will.
Thy will be done, O Lord.
posted from Bloggeroid
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thoughts
Get some. Give some.