Today’s reading starts off with a clear definition of our will. “Our will is what comes from nothing else but us. Will is the ability to originate (or refrain from originating) an act or a thought… what arises from our will is from us alone.” We have the capacity to turn something on or turn something off.
The book goes on to clarify from yesterday’s reading that our character develops from our will that we exercise and goes on to mention that God doesn’t override our will because of the precious nature of it. This gets into the nature of the discussion about sin and the will of humanity. It is an act of love on God’s part to allow us to honestly chose as an act of our will. God doesn’t step in and bribe us to do the right thing or strongarm/force/coerce through power to manipulate us to do the right thing. At the heart of love is choice, I chose my wife, and she chose me, and we made vows to each other. I did not buy her and there was no shotgun at the wedding, we wanted to commit ourselves to each other, this is the way of real love.
Even though God has made his way clear to us, there is an allowance in our choices so that there are moments of conflict between my will and God’s will. Rich Mullins would say my 20’s were conflicted years, this battle to assert my will or submit my will, and after a good decade of that battle you could look back and see all of the things God was trying to save you from if you had just submitted to His will.
The title of today’s chapter “The Splintered Will” helps us understand the tension we live in as we navigate the difference between Rich’s submission to His verses assertion of my own. This tension is called duplicity, from the idea of a double life. when we fall into this mode the human heart moves into some level of deception. Deception directed at others to try and cover up what we are doing, but even worse we fall into self-deception.
This is where the verse about Jesus saying, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light” comes into play. As Judge Judy always says, “It’s not hard to remember if you just tell the truth.” Sorting out what lies we told to who (including ourselves) becomes a lot of work.
My time spent volunteering with MN Adult/Teen Challenge (Yearlong Drug Rehabilitation Center), the men in the program had spent years lying to themselves and everyone else. It was difficult for them to speak the truth over even the smallest of things. The challenge of truth telling was a new skill to be learned. At some point the switch is flipped and the absolute honesty made for interesting insightful conversation!! But that’s the goal here…
One Heart, One Mind , One Soul, redeemed and reconciled by the grace of God!!
Truth, Grace, and Time 