A Life Worthy

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience…  (Galatians 5:22)

I could make a bunch of patience jokes, but who has time for that?

Ba da Bing!

The essence of patience is that you put yourself on God’s time rather than your own.  You acknowledge that God knows everything you know, plus everything you don’t.  You recognize that he sees far beyond the moment in which you’re stuck behind some…person…who doesn’t seem to know what the pedal on the right is for.  You admit that maybe God has it all–even your commute–under control.

You trust him.

Beloved, when we come right down to it, that impatience is another part of the whole control thing.  You want it your way and in your time because you want to be Captain, to be Master,

to be God.

If you can just release that need for control and trust the Holy Spirit at work within you, you will procure a profound peace and a plethora of patience.

At least, that’s what they tell me.

Happy Monday, Beloved.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy…  (Galatians 5:22).

Not happiness

Not joviality

Not glee

Joy

The deep and abiding knowledge that you are loved, that you are whole.  It lies there beneath the surface of our life, unaffected by the storms of the moment.  Joy is much bigger than the moment.  

From time to time it rises to the surface, bubbling up to take us by surprise and sweeping us off our feet with an intensity that leaves us breathless.  Then it recedes, knowing that our physical frame can only take so much.

But someday…

Someday we will trade this frame for a new and improved model that can handle joy at full strength.

That’ll be nifty.

May Joy bubble up in your life today.

Happy Thursday, Beloved.

But the fruit of the Spirit is…  (Galatians 5:22).

There are places in the Bible where we believers are compared to strong trees or lush vines producing good fruit.

This is not one of those places.

Here, please note, the fruit is produced by the Spirit of God.

So where are we in this analogy?  Well, the Holy Spirit lives in us, and a tree lives in…

dirt.

Yes, Beloved, we are dirt.  I mean, you can go with rich, fertile soil or even jars of clay, but it’s all still dirt.  We don’t produce the fruit or bear the fruit; we simply allow the Spirit to be planted in us.  We endure the rains because they allow the Spirit to sink his roots deep.

I could continue the analogy by talking about how some days fertilizer gets dumped on us, but I don’t want to put that picture in your head.

Oops…too late.

Well, let’s hope today is not a fertilizer day.

Happy Tuesday, Beloved. 

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law (Galatians 5:18).

The Law doesn’t lead you.  It drags you.  It’s being chained by the hands to the rear bumper of a Buick.  As the car drives away you walk, then jog, then run, then race, trying desperately to keep from stumbling, because when you stumble you will fall, and then you will be dragged by chains of guilt through streets of shame.

How’s that for pushing a metaphor, huh!

By contrast, the Spirit leads you.  It’s your favorite person in all the world looking over his shoulder with a smile and a wink and saying, “Come with me.  This is gonna be amazing!”

Go with Spirit over Law, Beloved.  

Every time

Especially today

Happy Friday, Beloved.

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. (Galatians 5:16).

Remember the story about the Indian boy who dreamt that he had two wolves fighting inside him?  He went to his grandfather, who explained that the wolves represented good and evil.  The kid asked which wolf would win the fight, and the wise grandfather replied, “The one that you feed.”

You don’t remember that story?  Oh, well, it was a story.  Trust me.

Anyway, there’s truth there.  All day long today, you are going to make choices about how to spend your time.  No matter how busy you are with the stuff that has to be done, you will still have a few minutes here and there that are at your discretion.  How will you spend those moments?  

Will you take the chance to connect with God, or with social media?  

Will you soak in a moment of worship, or check out the latest political hate rant?  

You could fire off a quick prayer for those you love (or those you don’t love but are called to love)–or you could engage in that secret sin while the angels weep.

Not to get too heavy, but you know what I’m talking about.

Beloved, living by the Spirit is not performing some huge, momentous act that rocks the cosmos and brings thousands to their knees in solemn prayer.

Although, if you can do that, please do…and tag me in the pictures.

Living by the Spirit is a thousand small choices that define you and your relationship with Jesus.  It’s the endless small sacrifices of time that demonstrate your priorities before God and Man and Self.

Caveat for my daughter and others who are getting twitchy–I’m not saying that you can never relax, or that you have to monitor and judge every moment of every day.  That way lies madness.  I’m just saying that we make choices with our time, and we should choose the things that will bring us closer to God.

So, yes, Beloved, it’s OK to watch the kitten in a teacup video…just maybe not for the 1000th time.

I gotta go now. There’s this set of 800 Star Wars memes on Facebook that I have to get back to.

I’m a mess.

Happy Wednesday, Beloved.