FREE TO STRIVE

Well, here I am.

It’s been a while. I am sorry if I have disappointed you guys by not writing as much recently. Things have been hectic, and although there is a little time at the end of the day to write, I have found myself instead preferring to rest quietly. Peace, that is what I want, and it is what I have been grabbing, at least peace in the sense of “peace and quiet”.

I am sure I will be writing more in the near future, but for now, it will be sporadic. I miss visiting all of you guys, and I miss talking with you here in the way of comments and replies. Nevertheless, I am not lonely, as I am living life in the real world also, which is an important thing to do.

Which leads me to a question. We who blog, do we live life the way we write? Or is the way we write an ideal we can hide behind, where no one knows what we are like in real life? You see, I have found that in writing this blog, it is very tempting to be “doctrinally” correct, while my actual life could bear no resemblance to what is written here.

Sure, of course, I can erase what I say, or correct the mistakes, and polish everything up here real nice, and that way, I can “look” good. I can be a chameleon, changing to suit my needs, or my readers. I can make certain of my doctrine, that it is correct, exhorting, and revealing. I can sound pretty smart.

But what is at the heart of our lives? Is what I write the way I live? And please don’t come at me with the line, “it’s not about what you do, Tom, it’s about what He did.” I understand that well, but in the end, seeing as we are now free, I am free to do many things. I can hear all manner of speeches about what Jesus did for me, and I understand it all. But if I live life doing nothing because He does everything, then I live life not in the Kingdom, but in a greater prison than the one He freed me from.

Why is it that many people believe that to strive toward accomplishment is legalism? I don’t get it. Aren’t we free? Or are we to be afraid to do anything, because in the doing, we are being legalistic? I guess my feeling is, that is a bunch of hooey.

Life in “The Kingdom” does not consist of doing nothing. The life we live now is not one of being only recipients of God’s love. We are VESSELS of God’s love, and by definition, a vessel is both poured into and filled, and poured out of and emptied. So then, God’s love should be flowing through us, not constantly filling us and remaining hidden for none to share. In fact, I would have to say that we accomplish many things without even knowing it.

I would have to say it is impossible for us not to. So then, if we are accomplishing these things, if the Lord’s love is both filling us, and spilling out from us, have we become legalists against our will? After all, if we are accomplishing anything, according to some, we are still legalists. We are told that He did everything, nothing remains to be done. Again, I say, that is a bunch of hooey. Didn’t Jesus tell us to look around at the field, which was ripe for harvest?

A man who believes the words of Jesus will come to know that God can, and will use him to accomplish these things. A man stuck in prison will deny that anything is left to be done, and he will never taste the joy of God using him, because he will never realize that God uses everything, and everyone, even those who strive to accomplish nothing.

But wait a minute, if everything is done, then God CAN’T use us, can He? That should be our first clue that not everything is done, because God is still using us human beings to accomplish His will. So we should look for miracles, we should expect them, and we shouldn’t classify them as psychological “mysticism”. After all, if I have to classify “greater things than these” as merely mysticism, then I would also have to classify Jesus’ own miracles as merely mysticism, as actually never having occurred.

What’s my point here? Well, I guess it’s actually several questions. Do we live as we write here in bloggyland? And are we allowed to accomplish anything? Can we strive? Or are we in prison because we are free?

Yes, I know, that last question seems a contradiction. But let me ask you this. Are there times where you do nothing at all because you feel as though to try would be legalism? If you do, then I would say you are in fear, and you are in prison. Because the man who lives in “The Kingdom” can do all things, yes, EVEN try, without being a legalist. Not everything is done. If it were, our flesh would look radically different than it does today, and the “world” wouldn’t be as it has been for so long, dying. It would fully alive, no death anywhere in sight. We don’t see that yet, so we know not everything is done. The last question is, do we feel free enough to strive, or are we still bound in prison by fear?