"Who you need to be" and "who you actually are" are two very different things.
"Who God says you are" is a third and yet more powerful fourth reality.
But let's stick with the first two for a moment:
"What your life demands of you" is who you usually become. Whether it is in response to a bill, an advertisement, or your boss, clock-worshiping people are schooled in obedience first, and thought, only "when I have time." Worshiping time as they do, unfortunately, only increases the scarcity of it.
"Who you actually are" could be understood in several ways, but I speak here of a very positive one. I'm talking about the "you" that you know you've wanted to be. This is the person who aspires, who gets up in the morning to reach for the stars, who remembers what it was like to dream as a child.
"Who God says you are" is yet two more things:
The first is near enough to "who your enemies think you are," to be a problem with the judge and jury, with your enemy's opinion of you (on average) being slightly better than God's.
God says, you have turned aside; you have become unprofitable. Romans 3:12
Or, put another way, for there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short. Romans 3:23
But the second thing God says is nigh on the opposite. Straight up: he has chosen you for better things than you deserve.
God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Galatians 4:4-5
Knowing that the world is trying to mold you into its own image is the first step to being free of it. After that, it becomes the game of learning to see how much the world's mold differs from the one you want to be, the good person you are convicted you actually are.
Thus far the pagans can say, "Amen!"
Then it is also a matter of mixing that up with the karma sauce of chaos and death for all of us. Each and every one, including Tiny Tim.
Here, the pagans shiver at the thought. But the honest pagan knows it is true, and thus he makes his ritual oblations without fail.
But it is the next which distinguishes the immortals from the damned: the superiority of Christ's declaration is a unique, inSpiring knowledge that only a Christian, by virtue of being a Christian, possesses.
This does not make you immediately wise for all occasions. But it does make you immediately wiser than all the pagans in this alone: you know that while the scepter of wickedness might, for a time, lay upon the land allotted to the justified, it shall not stand to rest there, lest the justified reach out his hand unto iniquity. Psalm 125:3
Take it to the bank. Double down on it. Say "Amen," and get back in the game.
Till angel cry and trumpet sound, Rev. Fisk
|