I have two highlights that struck me today.
1. The most important part of spiritual formation is not about how to act just like the primary problem in life is not what we’ve done. It’s all about who we are in our inner life that is the issue. Take a hot issue like guns for example. There is a temptation to talk about the gun and the need for controlling it, when no one wants to talk about the moral issue of a heart that has such blatant disregard for human life that they will shoot into any car, house, school and have no thought about killing a fellow human being. What’s going on in the heart and mind of someone who commit an act like that?
That’s an easy one, but are any of us off the hook because we gossip, lust or spend selfishly? It’s who we are on the inside that determines who we are on the outside. Very seldom in our day do we even consider the moral character problem inside of a life that creates the external visible action that we all know is wrong. Our Christian faith suggests there is a link, humanity can’t seem to even see a link.
2. The author uses love as an illustration of the above. If we simply believe that love is an act we can generally muster up some energy for it for a time, but over time or in moments when we get overwhelmed these traits of being patient, kind, not envying, not boasting, you know the 1Corinthians 13 definition of love, these ideals can fade. I really enjoyed the line about true love when it said- “the genuine inner readiness and longing to secure the good of others.” Sometimes a person expresses a thought that is a new way to say it. I pray for God to help me with a genuine inner readiness to meet their need and be open to the idea that maybe there is something God asks me to do to be part of that. Looking into the glorious joy of being, His Hands, His feet, His voice in the world.
Not a human “do”ing, but a human “be”ing.
Truth, Grace, and Time 