Thursday, July 24, 2008
Lengthy
I've met some great people along the way and have enjoyed some of the process of the search. Some of it I could do without. But we will get there.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Enough?
- Did I do enough?
- How come they didn't give enough?
- The board said "yes", but did they say yes enough?
- Were enough people at church?
- Will there be enough volunteers?
- How will we be effective enough?
- Did I call enough people?
- Do people feel loved enough?
- Did I work hard enough?
- _____________________________? (fill in your own)
And check it out--it's all centered on performance. But does God want my performance or does he simply want me? He wants me to want Him. He wants me to love Him. He wants me to know Him. Seems to me that Jesus was like this with Mary & Martha--one who was doing and one who was being.
Oswald Chambers makes a distinction between active work and spiritual activity in today's (July 10) entry of My Utmost for His Highest. He writes, "Simple active work and spiritual activity are not the same thing. Active work can actually be the counterfeit of spiritual activity." Trying to do enough is counterfeit spirituality. (I think this is along the lines of what Thomas Merton calls the "false self".)
In a performance driven society it is difficult not to be performance driven our spiritual lives. It is just as difficult to rightly handle performance in our corporate (church fellowship) lives. But it seems necessary. Sure, we have to guage what's going on spiritually, corporately, etc..., but the questions that center on the "enoughs" are just about enough to take one down and lay them out. Tread carefully.