“When I speak of a man growing in grace, I mean simply this – that his sense of sin is becoming deeper, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, his love more extensive, his spiritual mindedness more marked.”
those are the itty bitty questions that i am pondering this morning...
is my sense of MY OWN sin becoming deeper? of course as always my sense of other's sin is usually pretty spot on. something speck and plank like about that...
1) is my faith stronger? am i believing that God is able? am i able to rest in faith? or am i working like mad to accomplish what ONLY God can accomplish? though i will attest that moving your blog of 6 years and over 500 posts can give a woman pause. as i cut and paste EACH entry one by one, i am rereading my words. i have gone through 2 1/2 years in the past 2 days. (2006-2008) and just reliving some of those posts have been very faith strengthening. the same God who brought me through those days is still with me. still holding me. still directing me. still bigger than whatever is happing in my life. still in charge. still good. still loving. always and in all ways...
2) is my hope brighter? or my sense of impending doom darker? can i say, "it is well with my soul?" am i forecasting victory because i know who i have believed and am persuaded that He is able...? hope doesn't disappoint. we have His Word on that.
3) is His love more extensive in the way that i love others? He loved first so that we might overflow with that love toward others so do i rejoice when they rejoice? or am i jealous and wonder why i am not getting the "good" thing that they (in all their sin, see point 1) received ? do i mourn when they mourn? or do i celebrate, inwardly and secretly, when "bad" things happen to them? am i trapped in the cycle of comparison. andy stanley has a great sermon series on "the comparison trap". the little promo video is really cute. and you can listed to the sermons for freezies! and compare him to your pastor. ha. that is not the point.
4) is my spiritual mindedness more marked? the definition of marked (you all KNOW how i love to define a word) is: clearly defined and evident, noticeable. especially of use is looking at the words that are the antonyms of marked: hidden, concealed, obscure, vague, unclear, doubtful, dubious, insignificant, inconspicuous, imperceptible, indistinct, unnoticeable.
i tend to be an ALL or NONE girl. moderation is not the hallmark of my creed. and summer is typically a time when i am a NONE girl. NONE as in cooking (excuse: too hot to cook). NONE as in cleaning (too many kids messing things up all day at home). NONE as in exercising (too humid to go outside). and i don't want to continue this pattern into my faith walk again this summer.
so that quote hit me like a ton of bricks this morning. hey, is getting hit by a ton of bricks considered exercising? or an excuse for not cooking dinner? and certainly no one should clean after getting hit by a metaphorical ton of bricks...
so i am off to do something about this pile of bricks that just hit me. hope you avoided any falling on you... or if you needed one to fall on you, then i hope it fell softly.