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august 7. summer 2011 has turned into a marathon.
walking into the building this morning, you could just tell. people were weary. the consecutive 100 plus degree days are draining life (and energy) out of us. the collective tired in our group was pretty evident. everything was forced. even the exercise of community life was a struggle.
as excited (?) as i am about beating the 1980 heat records, i am even more excited to get back to some weather that gives people a decent reason to get out of bed and be energized about being alive. and this has got me thinking about my spiritual life…and maybe yours, too.
it’s amazing how much environment affects us. i was really tired this morning. part of it was the meds i have in my body. part of it is due to the symptoms of the infection i have in my system. some of it was the after-shock of some really long days. a few hours of saturday morning yard work didn’t help anything, either.
so when i got up, i have to admit that i already didn’t have my normal sunday morning game-face on. and when my gag-reflexes went into overdrive when i was greeted with a mouthful of crisp 87 degree furnace blast at 8:30am, well…let’s just say my lord’s day “happy face” turned pretty sour.
studying through the fruit of the spirit this summer has been humbling. every characteristic of fruit points back to the measuring stick of spiritual maturity i need to be measuring myself by. and each characteristic circles back to the attitude i have about the situations i find myself in.
and today’s study was no different. nor was the reality i found myself facing.
the spiritual benchmark of meekness is all about relinquishing my right to have things the way i want them to be. like i said this morning, the image of meekness suggests a bucking bronco refusing to be tamed, crashing into the fence of the corral…trying to throw of it’s rider until its finally exhausted and completely spent. and then they submit.
my problem…your problem…is that i don’t want to be tamed. i want things my way. i want to call my own shots and make my own decisions. i want to be able to say what i want and go where i want and be with who i want to be with…even if god says “no”.
deep down, my rebellious human nature wants to live without rules and boundaries and expectations and restrictions. nobody gets to tell me how to act or react. except my world will always refuse to cooperate.
as much as i want to be in control of my environment, i never will be. and that’s why my attitude needs to be tamed. without meekness, i am destined to live at the whims of my emotions and strangled by whatever situation i find myself.
i don’t know about you, but this was a good sunday for me after all.
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