I'm having this problem. Often as I approach the end of the workday I get all excited thinking to myself how productive I will be once I finish working. I plan out some great blogpost full of wit and practical wisdom. However, I walk upstairs to my apartment, sit down on my bed take off my boots, lie back and my well laid plans muddle themselves up and are forgotten in the battle against the desire to just sit and not move or think for awhile. Of course there is a healthy place for simply sitting and resting, as there is for making plans and sticking to them no matter how tiresome the process.
Tonight though I'm going to blog and we'll just see what happens. We have three things that are necessary for wisdom. Theory, method and practice. Theory is the primary concept. Method is the means of realizing that concept. Practice is the ability to actually implement the method. A theory is that food is necessary for the body. Method is a plan to prepare food and input it into the body. Practice is my actually capability to cook and prepare what my theory has told me is important. People can be very skilled but never get anywhere because they don't know what method to use. People can have all the write concepts and never accomplish anything because they don't know how to make plans.
As a human being I am weak, incapable and often plain wimpy. However as a Christian I am empowered to understand and live the theory, method and practice of the ideal human life. First by the Father who represents the theory. He knows whats wrong and what needs to be done to fix it. Secondly, my methodology comes from the Son who lived a human life as an example that we might follow in His steps. Essentially the method of fixing the problems we face is to receive the cross and all that it means and bear it in accordance with Jesus' commands.
And here we often stop and get frustrated, or guilty, or confused or lazy or all of them combined. We know that humanity is broken and only on a path to self destruction. We can see through secular history the slow destruction of the image of God in the human being. We recognize our brokenness and our need for a Savior. We accept the overwhelming evidence that points to Jesus as a real life Being who lived and worked in real time and made claims and promises and predictions that could be tested and have been tested and have been found trustworthy. And so we set out to model ourselves after whatever sort of lifestyle we think of when we hear the name Jesus. But we can't do it, we get messed up and disappointed and sidetracked. Which is why we need the third person of the trinity. The Holy Spirit. To be possessed by the Holy Spirit is a confusing topic and one that I don't come close to fully understanding. I did recently read a thought from C.S. Lewis which I found very helpful. He says,
" For each of us the Baptist’s words are true: “He must increase and I decrease.” He will be infinitely merciful to our repeated failures; I know no promise that He will accept a deliberate compromise. For He has, in the last resort, nothing to give us but Himself; and He can give that only in so far as our self-affirming will retires and makes room for Him in our souls."
The Holy Spirit is what enables us to actually do what Jesus commands us to do. We are called to be perfect and God does not command us to do impossible things. By ourselves we can not be perfect. With Him we can become perfect and more, moving on from perfection to perfection in a never ending journey of glorious victory. I end this post here. I hope you will not forget theory, method and practice. You can be the best at one and be a useless human being. Let God teach you to be good at what you are bad at. Instead of focusing only on your strengths open yourself up to God's power and humble yourself as He works in us to make something beautiful and glorious out of plain old me and you.
Tonight though I'm going to blog and we'll just see what happens. We have three things that are necessary for wisdom. Theory, method and practice. Theory is the primary concept. Method is the means of realizing that concept. Practice is the ability to actually implement the method. A theory is that food is necessary for the body. Method is a plan to prepare food and input it into the body. Practice is my actually capability to cook and prepare what my theory has told me is important. People can be very skilled but never get anywhere because they don't know what method to use. People can have all the write concepts and never accomplish anything because they don't know how to make plans.
As a human being I am weak, incapable and often plain wimpy. However as a Christian I am empowered to understand and live the theory, method and practice of the ideal human life. First by the Father who represents the theory. He knows whats wrong and what needs to be done to fix it. Secondly, my methodology comes from the Son who lived a human life as an example that we might follow in His steps. Essentially the method of fixing the problems we face is to receive the cross and all that it means and bear it in accordance with Jesus' commands.
And here we often stop and get frustrated, or guilty, or confused or lazy or all of them combined. We know that humanity is broken and only on a path to self destruction. We can see through secular history the slow destruction of the image of God in the human being. We recognize our brokenness and our need for a Savior. We accept the overwhelming evidence that points to Jesus as a real life Being who lived and worked in real time and made claims and promises and predictions that could be tested and have been tested and have been found trustworthy. And so we set out to model ourselves after whatever sort of lifestyle we think of when we hear the name Jesus. But we can't do it, we get messed up and disappointed and sidetracked. Which is why we need the third person of the trinity. The Holy Spirit. To be possessed by the Holy Spirit is a confusing topic and one that I don't come close to fully understanding. I did recently read a thought from C.S. Lewis which I found very helpful. He says,
" For each of us the Baptist’s words are true: “He must increase and I decrease.” He will be infinitely merciful to our repeated failures; I know no promise that He will accept a deliberate compromise. For He has, in the last resort, nothing to give us but Himself; and He can give that only in so far as our self-affirming will retires and makes room for Him in our souls."
The Holy Spirit is what enables us to actually do what Jesus commands us to do. We are called to be perfect and God does not command us to do impossible things. By ourselves we can not be perfect. With Him we can become perfect and more, moving on from perfection to perfection in a never ending journey of glorious victory. I end this post here. I hope you will not forget theory, method and practice. You can be the best at one and be a useless human being. Let God teach you to be good at what you are bad at. Instead of focusing only on your strengths open yourself up to God's power and humble yourself as He works in us to make something beautiful and glorious out of plain old me and you.
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