Ephesians chapter 4 opens with these words..."I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have recieved." The Phillips translation puts it this way, "I beg you to live lives worthy of the high calling..."
Let me share with you some thoughts....
Do you have moments of honesty? Where you look in the mirror and honestly ask yourself questions about your life and the way you live?
Recently, I visited my grandfather who lives in southern manitoba. He is a WW2 veteran and we spend lots of time talking of life before, during and after the war. It always forces me to ask questions that are hard on my heart...and probably really good for my heart.
Can I share some of those questions with you? And for the record, some people find this process a little dramatic...but, honestly, life is dramatic. So loosen up.
questions...
Am I a good man (woman for those of you of the opposite gender)? Don't shrug this off. Ask it.
Do I live with all my heart? Or do I hide it?
Am I honest? With myself and with others about who I am?
Do I really live for Jesus and in doing so sacrifice for others?
Am I willing to love with all of my heart? When I ask this I end up thinking about what love costs...that inevitably it asks if I am willing to risk great hurt in order to love greatly.
Am I proud of who I have become?
Knowing that our grandfather's generation gave their lives for freedom from tyranny, do I live thankfully? Do I honour their sacrifice?
Do I honour His sacrifice?
I think the cost of truly living, is really choosing not to live in illusion. To exercise true faith, I must first be able to honestly look at where I am.
This life of following Jesus is one where peace and joy reign...but at the price of actually being honest...He cannot heal, what I will not feel. He cannot deliver me from what I won't own. He cannot bring light to darkness I pretend is not there. He cannot bring life to what I won't admit is dead or dying.
Living worthy starts at honesty. I don't have to be anything but what I am...and He meets me there.
just some thoughts...late at night.
jonathan
1 comment:
thanks for being willing to ask the questions that matter... even when it isn't the easiest thing to do.
thanks for not letting relationship with Jesus be a mindless following of rules that leads to nothing but guilt and condemnation.
Jesus was not content with status quo, God forbid, literally, that we are...
God, help me to be someone who feels and is healed, who owns and is set free, who faces the darkness and prunes the dying parts of my life.
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