When the chief priests and Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. Matthew 21:45
Did you ever notice how lost you are when you are resentful? It’s a very deep lostness. The younger son gets lost in a much more spectacular way – giving into his lust and his greed, using women, playing poker, and losing his money. His wrongdoing is very clear-cut. He knows it and everybody else does too. Because of it he can come back, and he can be forgiven.
The problem with resentment is that it is not so clear-cut: it’s not spectacular and it is not overt, and it can be covered by the appearance of a holy life. Resentment is so pernicious because it sits very deep in you, in your heart, in your bones, and in your flesh, and often you don’t even know it is there. You think you’re so good. But in fact you are lost in a very profound way.
Thank you, Lord, for revealing my "lostness" to me. I know you are already leading me home.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Examining our hearts before one another
From today's lenten devotion: "Resentment is probably one of the most pervasive evils of our time. It's something that is very real, very pernicious, and very, very destructive. You and I are not free from it... Resentment is precisely the pitfall of the faithful, obedient, hardworking people who do the right thing. That's why it's important to talk about it. In so many ways you are a good person and you try to do the right thing... but each of you might examine how your life and relationships are wounded because of resentment buried in your heart."
I don't want to take away from the specific application to resentment and it's insidious affects on us. It is, in fact, something that "you and I are not free from..." But, what struck me the most was the part about examining our hearts. We have to do this regularly. See, we can do many good things, but in the course of it, harbor beliefs about something that are neither accurate or healthy. But, I think we have to examine our hearts before one another for true perspective. How will we, without fail, be able to realize our false beliefs on our own. If we have believed that a particular belief or action was o.k., then how can we determine that it is not if it is not specifically addressed in the bible?
Resentment is one of those things that we harbor without realizing, or put up with by calling it something else, like mere disagreement. But, there are millions of secret beliefs that we might carry that are robbing life from us. We need 2 things if we are going to be whole, Christian people. 1: We need to be willing to examine our hearts against God's word, and in the presence of our trusted Christian brothers and sisters. In this way, we can't fool ourselves. 2. We need to be willing to accept that we can be, and often are, wrong about something. We need to be willing to put down our pride enough to receive an exhorting word from a trusted brother or sister in Christ. This is often painful. But, as Proverbs 27 says: Wounds from a friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.
I don't want to take away from the specific application to resentment and it's insidious affects on us. It is, in fact, something that "you and I are not free from..." But, what struck me the most was the part about examining our hearts. We have to do this regularly. See, we can do many good things, but in the course of it, harbor beliefs about something that are neither accurate or healthy. But, I think we have to examine our hearts before one another for true perspective. How will we, without fail, be able to realize our false beliefs on our own. If we have believed that a particular belief or action was o.k., then how can we determine that it is not if it is not specifically addressed in the bible?
Resentment is one of those things that we harbor without realizing, or put up with by calling it something else, like mere disagreement. But, there are millions of secret beliefs that we might carry that are robbing life from us. We need 2 things if we are going to be whole, Christian people. 1: We need to be willing to examine our hearts against God's word, and in the presence of our trusted Christian brothers and sisters. In this way, we can't fool ourselves. 2. We need to be willing to accept that we can be, and often are, wrong about something. We need to be willing to put down our pride enough to receive an exhorting word from a trusted brother or sister in Christ. This is often painful. But, as Proverbs 27 says: Wounds from a friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Reflections on Les Miserables
So, I missed yesterday's lent devotional post because we had group. Maybe we should just plan on taking a short time for the next few weeks to read the short Thursday devotion at small group?! Anyhow, I loved watching Les Miserables with you all again last night. It's such a powerful story on so many levels: forgiveness, righteousness, resisting temptation, the power of grace, selfless love. The man that Jean Valjean became is nothing short of a treatise on the Beatitudes that we have been reading.
We ran out of time last night because we started a little late, and the movie was long, so we didn't get to discuss our reactions at all. What did everyone think? Were there any parts that struck you this time around? How did you understand the theme of grace vs. vengeful justice? What did you think of the end of the movie?
Let's hear your thoughts! I'll try to get back to the daily lenten discussion posts tomorrow.
We ran out of time last night because we started a little late, and the movie was long, so we didn't get to discuss our reactions at all. What did everyone think? Were there any parts that struck you this time around? How did you understand the theme of grace vs. vengeful justice? What did you think of the end of the movie?
Let's hear your thoughts! I'll try to get back to the daily lenten discussion posts tomorrow.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Wednesday, First Week of Lent - Just Return... Again
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity... Psalm 51:2
Have a sense of compassion for your own journey, for your own leaving and returning, a sense of, "Yes, yes, I'm loved when i take a risk. I'm loved even when i make a mistake because, somehow, it's an expression of my desire to claim myself. I did it in a wrong way, but i didn't have any other way to do it at that moment." Otherwise you start hurting yourself and putting yourself down and then the return becomes guilt-ridden and then God becomes a dark God who says, "Heh, heh. I always knew you would need me again."
That's not what God is saying. God is not sitting there laughing that you couldn't do it on your own and you finally had to confess you needed a parent's love. That's not the God we are talking about. Our God is much more intimate and loving. Our God waits with compassion and tenderness.
Your goodness, Lord, draws me to you. Thank you for offering me forgiveness.
Have a sense of compassion for your own journey, for your own leaving and returning, a sense of, "Yes, yes, I'm loved when i take a risk. I'm loved even when i make a mistake because, somehow, it's an expression of my desire to claim myself. I did it in a wrong way, but i didn't have any other way to do it at that moment." Otherwise you start hurting yourself and putting yourself down and then the return becomes guilt-ridden and then God becomes a dark God who says, "Heh, heh. I always knew you would need me again."
That's not what God is saying. God is not sitting there laughing that you couldn't do it on your own and you finally had to confess you needed a parent's love. That's not the God we are talking about. Our God is much more intimate and loving. Our God waits with compassion and tenderness.
Your goodness, Lord, draws me to you. Thank you for offering me forgiveness.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Tuesday, First Week of Lent devotion - The Son is Allowed To Go
I sought the Lord and he answered me... Psalm 34:4
The love of the father embraces not just the return of the son but also the leaving of his child. That's really important: the whole movement of leaving and returning is a movement done under the loving eyes of the father. The father does not say, "Don't go." That's not the spirit of the story. The spirit of the story is, "Yes, son, go. And you will be hurt and it will be hard and it will be painful. And you might even lose your life, but I can't hold you from taking that risk. And when you come back, I am here for you, just as I am also here for you now."
In a very deep way, you in your life, are always leaving and returning. It's not just a one time event; it's an ongoing experience. So today, get in touch with your leavings and your returnings. I believe that in a very deep sense, one has to be convinced of God's love in order to take the risk of leaving once in a while. There are moments when you may want to take a step back and go off for a while, and then come back. Try to believe that God loves you as a person who's leaving and returning. Try to believe God awaits your return.
Thank you, Father, for letting me go and taking me back.
The love of the father embraces not just the return of the son but also the leaving of his child. That's really important: the whole movement of leaving and returning is a movement done under the loving eyes of the father. The father does not say, "Don't go." That's not the spirit of the story. The spirit of the story is, "Yes, son, go. And you will be hurt and it will be hard and it will be painful. And you might even lose your life, but I can't hold you from taking that risk. And when you come back, I am here for you, just as I am also here for you now."
In a very deep way, you in your life, are always leaving and returning. It's not just a one time event; it's an ongoing experience. So today, get in touch with your leavings and your returnings. I believe that in a very deep sense, one has to be convinced of God's love in order to take the risk of leaving once in a while. There are moments when you may want to take a step back and go off for a while, and then come back. Try to believe that God loves you as a person who's leaving and returning. Try to believe God awaits your return.
Thank you, Father, for letting me go and taking me back.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Monday, 1st week of Lent devotion - Love and Relationships
You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy... Leviticus 19:2
All our struggles in relationships are connected with what I would call the relationship between the "first love" and the "second love." The first love is from God, who loved us before we could love each other. The second love is from our parents, brothers and sisters, and friends, and it is an expression of the first love. Sometimes we expect from the second love what only the first love can give. That's why we experience anguish. My personal struggle has always been that I expected a first love from someone who could only give a second love.
And as soon as you demand a first love, an unconditional, total, self-giving love, from another human being, limited in ability to give and receive, you will be disappointed. Quite quickly you can even become violent because you expect from a person what that person cannot give. The other person has no choice but to back off, cut loose, and perhaps get angry and feel guilty.
Gracious God, may I remember that the only perfect love comes from you. May I humbly offer my own limited love to those around me.
All our struggles in relationships are connected with what I would call the relationship between the "first love" and the "second love." The first love is from God, who loved us before we could love each other. The second love is from our parents, brothers and sisters, and friends, and it is an expression of the first love. Sometimes we expect from the second love what only the first love can give. That's why we experience anguish. My personal struggle has always been that I expected a first love from someone who could only give a second love.
And as soon as you demand a first love, an unconditional, total, self-giving love, from another human being, limited in ability to give and receive, you will be disappointed. Quite quickly you can even become violent because you expect from a person what that person cannot give. The other person has no choice but to back off, cut loose, and perhaps get angry and feel guilty.
Gracious God, may I remember that the only perfect love comes from you. May I humbly offer my own limited love to those around me.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
A "gracious" perspective on the parable of the ungrateful servant
From Phillip Yancy:
"It was altogether in character, then, for the scrupulous apostle Peter to pursue some mathematical formula of grace. 'How many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?' he asked Jesus. 'Up to seven times?' Peter was erring on the side of magnanimity, for the rabbis in his day had suggested three as the maximum number of times one might be expected to forgive.
'Not seven times, but seventy-seven times," replied Jesus in a flash. Some manuscripts have 'seventy times seven,' but it hardly matters whether Jesus said 77 or 490: forgiveness, he implied is not the kind of thing you count on an abacus.
Peter's question prompted another of Jesus' trenchant stories, about a servant who has somehow piled up a debt of several million dollars. The fact that realistically no servant could accumulate a debt so huge underscores Jesus' point: confiscating the man's family, children, and all his property would no make a dent in repaying the debt. It is unforgivable. Nevertheless the king, touched with pity, abruptly cancels the debt and lets the servant off scot-free.
Suddenly, the plot twists. The servant who has just been forgiven seizes a colleague who owes him a few dollars and begins to choke him. "Pay back what you owe me!" he demands, and throws the man into jail. In a word, the greedy servant is an ingrate.
Why Jesus draws the parable with such exaggerated strokes comes clear when he reveals that the king represents God. This above all should determine our attitude towards others: a humble awareness that God has already forgiven us a debt so mountainous that beside it any person's wrongs against us shrink to the size of anthills. How can we not forgive each other in light of all God has forgiven us?" -What's So Amazing About Grace?
I saw this coming as I read it. This is painful to read. As much as I have a hard time receiving it, I love Jesus' forgiveness. Yet, I am less excited about giving it. What lack of understanding I must have to joyfully stand at church on Sunday receiving God's unmerited grace and forgiveness for an unrepayable debt, but to struggle so much with giving forgiveness for a very forgivable debt that doesn't even belong to me. ("Against you, and you alone, have I sinned God...")
"It was altogether in character, then, for the scrupulous apostle Peter to pursue some mathematical formula of grace. 'How many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?' he asked Jesus. 'Up to seven times?' Peter was erring on the side of magnanimity, for the rabbis in his day had suggested three as the maximum number of times one might be expected to forgive.
'Not seven times, but seventy-seven times," replied Jesus in a flash. Some manuscripts have 'seventy times seven,' but it hardly matters whether Jesus said 77 or 490: forgiveness, he implied is not the kind of thing you count on an abacus.
Peter's question prompted another of Jesus' trenchant stories, about a servant who has somehow piled up a debt of several million dollars. The fact that realistically no servant could accumulate a debt so huge underscores Jesus' point: confiscating the man's family, children, and all his property would no make a dent in repaying the debt. It is unforgivable. Nevertheless the king, touched with pity, abruptly cancels the debt and lets the servant off scot-free.
Suddenly, the plot twists. The servant who has just been forgiven seizes a colleague who owes him a few dollars and begins to choke him. "Pay back what you owe me!" he demands, and throws the man into jail. In a word, the greedy servant is an ingrate.
Why Jesus draws the parable with such exaggerated strokes comes clear when he reveals that the king represents God. This above all should determine our attitude towards others: a humble awareness that God has already forgiven us a debt so mountainous that beside it any person's wrongs against us shrink to the size of anthills. How can we not forgive each other in light of all God has forgiven us?" -What's So Amazing About Grace?
I saw this coming as I read it. This is painful to read. As much as I have a hard time receiving it, I love Jesus' forgiveness. Yet, I am less excited about giving it. What lack of understanding I must have to joyfully stand at church on Sunday receiving God's unmerited grace and forgiveness for an unrepayable debt, but to struggle so much with giving forgiveness for a very forgivable debt that doesn't even belong to me. ("Against you, and you alone, have I sinned God...")
First Sunday of Lent devotion - Jesus: The Father's Portrait
He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan... Mark 1:13
The three temptations in the desert were precisely to choose the "upward way." Be relevant: do something that the world can praise you for like making bread out of the stones. Be spectacular: jump from the tower so that everybody can see you and you can be on television because you're so influential, so important. Be powerful: kneel before me and I will give you dominion over all the lands. But Jesus said, "No," because he knew that God's way is the way of the poor. "Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the humble. Blessed are the poor of heart. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the peacemakers."
Here we have a self-portrait of Jesus that is also a reflection of the Father, because "who sees me sees the Father." If you read the Beatitudes, you see Jesus' face and you see through Jesus' face the love of his Father. Humble. Poor. Meek. Peacemaker. Hungry for justice and peace. It is so important for you to see that Jesus wants you to be more and more like that. That's the image of God that appears in flesh among us. That is our way. And that's the way to glory.
Jesus, my Savior and my brother, may I be transformed by your grace.
The three temptations in the desert were precisely to choose the "upward way." Be relevant: do something that the world can praise you for like making bread out of the stones. Be spectacular: jump from the tower so that everybody can see you and you can be on television because you're so influential, so important. Be powerful: kneel before me and I will give you dominion over all the lands. But Jesus said, "No," because he knew that God's way is the way of the poor. "Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the humble. Blessed are the poor of heart. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the peacemakers."
Here we have a self-portrait of Jesus that is also a reflection of the Father, because "who sees me sees the Father." If you read the Beatitudes, you see Jesus' face and you see through Jesus' face the love of his Father. Humble. Poor. Meek. Peacemaker. Hungry for justice and peace. It is so important for you to see that Jesus wants you to be more and more like that. That's the image of God that appears in flesh among us. That is our way. And that's the way to glory.
Jesus, my Savior and my brother, may I be transformed by your grace.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Saturday after Ash Wednesday devotion - Let the Father Forgive
I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance
Luke 5:32
It's a real discipline to allow yourself to be forgiven, to be healed, to be given something. To believe that God wants to wipe out all your guilt and give you a new heart and a new spirit is a challenge. Can you receive this truth? Obviously, the receiving is something that lives itself out in your family and in your community. Living together with others you discover that you have some talents, and others have other talents, and you need each other. In a way, what happens in the family, the receiving of gifts from each other, becomes a reflection of the great giving and receiving of God's faithful love.
It's hard to live in close relationships and to discover that the greatest gift is often to receive. It means you give up being in control and respond by saying, "Yeah, i need your help." When you make that conversion from being the strong one to being the one who receives, then real mutuality grows and love becomes real and visible.
I know i have a hard time accepting help, Lord, especially from those closest to me. May your grace open my heart to all the good gifts you want me to have.
Luke 5:32
It's a real discipline to allow yourself to be forgiven, to be healed, to be given something. To believe that God wants to wipe out all your guilt and give you a new heart and a new spirit is a challenge. Can you receive this truth? Obviously, the receiving is something that lives itself out in your family and in your community. Living together with others you discover that you have some talents, and others have other talents, and you need each other. In a way, what happens in the family, the receiving of gifts from each other, becomes a reflection of the great giving and receiving of God's faithful love.
It's hard to live in close relationships and to discover that the greatest gift is often to receive. It means you give up being in control and respond by saying, "Yeah, i need your help." When you make that conversion from being the strong one to being the one who receives, then real mutuality grows and love becomes real and visible.
I know i have a hard time accepting help, Lord, especially from those closest to me. May your grace open my heart to all the good gifts you want me to have.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Friday after Ash Wednesday devotion
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly... Isaiah 58:8
In the light of God's love and forgiveness, you are encouraged to discover the part of you that you keep hidden to yourself. The more you discover God's light, the more you discover in yourself the need for that light. It's like the revelation of, "I love you so much i want to touch you in all the places where you are lost so that you will discover not just your lostness but also in how many places i want to find you."
This exercise is prayer: to sit in the presence of God and to say, "I know you are a loving parent but i just don't believe it. I often think that you are out to get me, but today I'm going to stay here in your loving presence, and I'm going to present myself to you." Heart speaks to heart.
This is not to say, "Well, you'd better start thinking about how awfully dissipated you are and how awfully resentful you are." But, it is to say, "When you're in touch with your dissipation and your resentment, you don't have to run away because it is precisely in those places that God waits to touch you more deeply and to heal you."
Forgiving father, help me to trust that you will lead me to healing where i most need it.
In the light of God's love and forgiveness, you are encouraged to discover the part of you that you keep hidden to yourself. The more you discover God's light, the more you discover in yourself the need for that light. It's like the revelation of, "I love you so much i want to touch you in all the places where you are lost so that you will discover not just your lostness but also in how many places i want to find you."
This exercise is prayer: to sit in the presence of God and to say, "I know you are a loving parent but i just don't believe it. I often think that you are out to get me, but today I'm going to stay here in your loving presence, and I'm going to present myself to you." Heart speaks to heart.
This is not to say, "Well, you'd better start thinking about how awfully dissipated you are and how awfully resentful you are." But, it is to say, "When you're in touch with your dissipation and your resentment, you don't have to run away because it is precisely in those places that God waits to touch you more deeply and to heal you."
Forgiving father, help me to trust that you will lead me to healing where i most need it.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
And so it begins...
It's Ash Wednesday. I was reminded by people walking around downtown St. Paul with black stuff on their foreheads. Tomorrow at small group I will be passing out devotionals for lent and we will begin the lenten period. Have you thought and prayed about your fast yet? We will be sharing those things tomorrow, and praying together to kick off lent. I am excited that God will do great things in us in the next 1 1/2 months. I am already struggling with the thought of giving up certain things, but i know that is evidence that giving them up will make more room for Jesus.
Tomorrow also marks the day that we kick this discussion forum into full swing. Some days our discussions will be right out of our devotionals, and other times will be other thoughts. I am looking forward to making Jesus more of a part of our daily discussion with one another.
Blessings, and see you tomorrow!
Jimbo
Tomorrow also marks the day that we kick this discussion forum into full swing. Some days our discussions will be right out of our devotionals, and other times will be other thoughts. I am looking forward to making Jesus more of a part of our daily discussion with one another.
Blessings, and see you tomorrow!
Jimbo
Monday, February 4, 2008
Duality with God?
I read a book yesterday, just a short 570 pages. It's been a while since i read a book all the way through, and even longer since i read one in less than a week. This was an all time record for me. I read about 30 pages on Saturday night, and finished it on Sunday between playing with my daughter, and taking a trip up to the in-laws for Super Bowl Sunday.
That i read the book that fast is a testament to what it stirred in me. The book was a bit of a treatise on the relationship between science and religion (particularly the Holy Catholic Church), though fiction. The story was riveting, and what i felt left with was surprising. Despite reading a secular story, obviously fiction, the story left me remembering the mystery of God. It'd be hard to explain why without recapping the story step by step, but this is what i felt after completing the book.
I was thinking about my re-realized sense of God's mystery this morning. "This is exactly what i need," I thought. A little mystery always stirred my heart towards God. I am fatally flawed in the attention department, and the mundane often finds me wondering to something else to excite me. But, God's mystery! This is what i need to draw close again! Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.
I've been entranced by God's mystery before, and it always wears off. What keeps me in the times when mystery is hidden? Well, frankly not much. These are always the times i wrestle with my motivation. But, the times i press through, it is one thing that keeps me clinging tight: Discipline.
My wife would tell you this is not my strongest suit, and she would be right. There are many different types of Christian people in the world, and I think God wants it that way. I will take the liberty here of oversimplifying them into 2 groups: those who relish God's mystery, and those who swear by discipline to his principles. Fewer of us, it seems, find a relaxing spot somewhere in between the two. We usually have a bent one way or the other. There are those that bounce from church to church looking for the new excitement. There are those who go to the same church for 50 years, and resist any change in principle or protocol. God loves them both, I am sure.
Still, driving to work this morning, thinking about my own fascination with God's mystery, i couldn't help but also realize that without discipline, my awe of God's mystery wasn't worth much. As soon as the awe of the mystery wore off, I'd be back to trying hard not to wander off. The flip side had to be true also, then. Rabid discipline to God's precepts without a sense of his presence or mystery, without a sense of awed inspiration seemed completely emtpy also. Wasn't that what the Pharisees were accused of anyway? Being well polished on the outside, but void of God's love on the inside?
It seems that perhaps the most well rounded lovers-of-God amongst us, despite a bent one way or the other, have a healthy awe for the mystery of God driving them to discipline, or a discipline to God's word that is reinforced by a sense of His gravitas.
This is interesting in light of the fact that God created so many things with opposites that seem to hold everything in balance: light and dark, good and evil, heaven and hell, the now and the not yet...
Maybe i am just overstating the obvious.
That i read the book that fast is a testament to what it stirred in me. The book was a bit of a treatise on the relationship between science and religion (particularly the Holy Catholic Church), though fiction. The story was riveting, and what i felt left with was surprising. Despite reading a secular story, obviously fiction, the story left me remembering the mystery of God. It'd be hard to explain why without recapping the story step by step, but this is what i felt after completing the book.
I was thinking about my re-realized sense of God's mystery this morning. "This is exactly what i need," I thought. A little mystery always stirred my heart towards God. I am fatally flawed in the attention department, and the mundane often finds me wondering to something else to excite me. But, God's mystery! This is what i need to draw close again! Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.
I've been entranced by God's mystery before, and it always wears off. What keeps me in the times when mystery is hidden? Well, frankly not much. These are always the times i wrestle with my motivation. But, the times i press through, it is one thing that keeps me clinging tight: Discipline.
My wife would tell you this is not my strongest suit, and she would be right. There are many different types of Christian people in the world, and I think God wants it that way. I will take the liberty here of oversimplifying them into 2 groups: those who relish God's mystery, and those who swear by discipline to his principles. Fewer of us, it seems, find a relaxing spot somewhere in between the two. We usually have a bent one way or the other. There are those that bounce from church to church looking for the new excitement. There are those who go to the same church for 50 years, and resist any change in principle or protocol. God loves them both, I am sure.
Still, driving to work this morning, thinking about my own fascination with God's mystery, i couldn't help but also realize that without discipline, my awe of God's mystery wasn't worth much. As soon as the awe of the mystery wore off, I'd be back to trying hard not to wander off. The flip side had to be true also, then. Rabid discipline to God's precepts without a sense of his presence or mystery, without a sense of awed inspiration seemed completely emtpy also. Wasn't that what the Pharisees were accused of anyway? Being well polished on the outside, but void of God's love on the inside?
It seems that perhaps the most well rounded lovers-of-God amongst us, despite a bent one way or the other, have a healthy awe for the mystery of God driving them to discipline, or a discipline to God's word that is reinforced by a sense of His gravitas.
This is interesting in light of the fact that God created so many things with opposites that seem to hold everything in balance: light and dark, good and evil, heaven and hell, the now and the not yet...
Maybe i am just overstating the obvious.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Slow and Steady?
I was reading an old tale with Sophia this morning that i think you will all remember. It was the story of the tortoise and the hare. As you recall, the moral of the story is: Slow and steady wins the race.
Reading the story, how the hare would race on ahead with his speed that he was so proud of, then get bored and would stop to show off, made me think a lot about my own life. I wondered, can i draw a spiritual parallel here? This sounds very "proverbs-esc." Is there something to being steady, even if you are slower and not as flashy as everyone else? I think the world is all about flashy and fast. Heck, I am about fast a lot, and flashy sometimes. But, do we sacrifice consistency, and quality when we choose fast n' flashy over slow and steady?
What does my response to this question say about my walk with God? What does it reflect about what i think about other people?
Reading the story, how the hare would race on ahead with his speed that he was so proud of, then get bored and would stop to show off, made me think a lot about my own life. I wondered, can i draw a spiritual parallel here? This sounds very "proverbs-esc." Is there something to being steady, even if you are slower and not as flashy as everyone else? I think the world is all about flashy and fast. Heck, I am about fast a lot, and flashy sometimes. But, do we sacrifice consistency, and quality when we choose fast n' flashy over slow and steady?
What does my response to this question say about my walk with God? What does it reflect about what i think about other people?
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