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Tuesday, April 19, 2005
When I was smaller, I didn't like the fact that I was readheaded and fair-skinned. It didn't come up much, but when it did, it really was noticable. For example, when we went swimming at the pool, my mom would make me put on a t-shirt. Sometimes, in the middle of summer I would wear long sleeves to play baseball. On trips to the coast I would have to go inside from 11AM to 2PM when the sun was highest. Each one of those things elicited comments from friends, teammates or family members...usually in good humor...but I didn't like being different and those times highlighted it.
As I got older and into high school, being different was actually valued. I went to high school in Alabama so the punk movement which began around 1977 filtered down to us by 1980 (this was before MTV caused teen trends to happen instantaneously around the U.S.) gave us all a reason to look different. Jeans with holes in the knees and concert shirts. The Dr. Martens that had to be ordered from England back then were actually banned from my school for a while. Spiked hair and earrings and chains. We went to great lengths to be different and those times were actually following trends instead of really being different. It was forced...and we didn't realize the irony of dressing like people in magazines in order to be different.
It wasn't until I got to college that I realized that it was okay to simply be who you ARE. I was surrounded by friends who were all simply being themselves. I had friends who LOVED Jimmy Buffet's beach music. I had friends who were math nerds and championed that fact. I had friends that were athletes and it showed just by walking around. I had friends in the military. I had friends that played practical jokes. I had friends that still dated their high school girlfriend. In my fraternity, these differences were actually celebrated. That was one of the reasons I joined that fraternity, in fact. I didn't want to become some khaki-wearing clone.
But there was a danger in that reality, too.
I didn't know who "myself" was.
Which meant that, if I was "myself," I might even surprise myself with who I'd become.
And that reality is one of the things I've found that keeps people from truly following Christ. And that reality is one of the elements of walking by the Spirit.
See, a lot of people are really comfortable with the idea that Jesus will give them eternal life...and let's be honest, shall we? If you have a choice between the Biblical heaven and hell, it's really no choice is it? And, well, you mean Christ did all the work and all I have to do is accept it? I'm in, right?
But, if you make the decision to become a disciple...to drop your nets and follow...well, then there's a bit more adventure there, isn't it? You don't know where your next meal is coming from. You don't know where the next place you're headed actually is on the map. You don't know who you'll wind up talking to. Comfort zones are blown to bits. You don't know what you'll wind up "looking like." And, as long as we're being honest, we're not sure we want to really figure out who were are. It's scary.
But that's the message of Galatians 5:16--25:
"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit; and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, ofwhich I forwarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit..."
So, if we make the choice to walk by the Spirit, we know our lives will NOT have certain things in it. The list is pretty dark, eh? What's strange is that it isn't even a complete list. I mean, it gives us this list of terrible behaviors that indicate walking in the flesh and then says "such things." This isn't even all of the darkness.
But, if we walk by the Spirit, we see another list. Again, not complete, but just as indicative as to where we're walking.
And, if you walk by the Spirit and exhibit those things, you have freedom to be exactly who you are in Christ. Notice it doesn't say anything about short hair and khaki pants and voting Republican and living in the suburbs and praying over dinner at restaurants and handing out tracks.
Nope.
It just shows fruit of the Spirit...and we learn to trust God for those results in our lives.
So, you don't have to dislike being different.
You don't have to go through life trying to be different just to be different.
You get to be who you are and appreciate the reality that God is creating a whole bunch of masterpieces (Ephesians 2:10 can, and I think should, be translated that way) in real live human beings who we get to rub shoulders with.
And I can't think of a more freeing place to be. It isn't scary at all, really. It may be an unknown, but the Spirit is working in us. Like the band Stavesacre once wrote: "Nothing lost, just cut away...nothing left to hinder me..."
You don't lose anything when you trust the Spirit with the results and you are free to be what you were meant to be.
And that's freedom.
So, what scares you about trusting the Spirit with the results in your life, inwardly and outwardly?
Brent 4:40 AM
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