I think I have already established that I get a sense of accomplishment out of 'doing' things. This lent, I'm trying to give up my need to do so much stuff. Not that I'll just sit back and be completely lazy and useless for 40 days, rather, I want to seek to be content with who I am instead of what I do.
Sometimes passages in the Bible can feel very conflicting to me when it comes to this issue. There are many passages that instruct us to do good things, like today's from Isaiah 1:16-17. The instructions are clear - do good. Doing good in the Bible almost always referrs to caring for others. It's always about the second half of the ten commandments - the 'love your neighbour' part.
The thing I often forget, however, is that the 'love your neighbor' part of the ten commandments is completely futile (and sometimes impossible) if you don't follow the first half, the 'love the Lord your God' part.
If you love someone, you want to please them. I love Vergil so I do things to show him I love him. I want to please him. I want him to see by my actions that I love him. It's the same with God. If we really love him, we'll want to please him. We'll want to show him by our actions that we love him. And it's funny, but the way we show him that we love him is to love each other.
We cannot make God love us any more or any less than he already does. But our responsibility is to show him our love for him. That's why we need to do good.
So, here's me - someone who feels better or worse about myself based on the things I do. So how do I reduce that tendancy? I think what I need to do is focus on God's love for me. If I commit to thinking about that, then I won't be so focused on trying to 'earn' his love by what I do. Then the good things I do will flow out of who I am - a person loved by God.
I feel a little rambly and tired this morning. I'm sorry if this blog didn't make any sense today. :o)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment