Monday, October 06, 2008
Setting The Bar
Mark Daniels links to a brief devotional and some scripture. He does so without comment, and yet, I find I must. The devotional closes:
Which leads me to my second point. Contrarians often do so for very selfish motives even when what they appear to be doing is a "counter-intuitive act of unselfishness." Many people, way too many people, serve out of selfishness. Call it "loud humility" or "long-suffering for the sake of crying "victim'" - I am not sure the right term for it, but I think we all know it when we see it.
Which brings me inexorably to my third point. People truly transformed by the saving grace of Christ Jesus will not find these acts "counter-intuitive." Such acts are simply what they do. It is in this transformation that we can find the genuine difference between those that are selfless out of selfishness and those that are deeply into their discipleship.
It is so easy for spiritual discipline to turn into legalism.
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The wisdom and grace of Christ are not necessarily found in conventional wisdom. Good judgment often requires that we perform counter-intuitive acts of unselfishness that reflect Jesus’ life in us.There are three essential comments I want to make here. One is that 'conventional wisdom" is something very different from what a group simply concludes. God works through process. The point here is NOT to simply be contrarian, or odd, or do the opposite of what everybody else is doing. The call here is to not be worldly.
Which leads me to my second point. Contrarians often do so for very selfish motives even when what they appear to be doing is a "counter-intuitive act of unselfishness." Many people, way too many people, serve out of selfishness. Call it "loud humility" or "long-suffering for the sake of crying "victim'" - I am not sure the right term for it, but I think we all know it when we see it.
Which brings me inexorably to my third point. People truly transformed by the saving grace of Christ Jesus will not find these acts "counter-intuitive." Such acts are simply what they do. It is in this transformation that we can find the genuine difference between those that are selfless out of selfishness and those that are deeply into their discipleship.
It is so easy for spiritual discipline to turn into legalism.
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