TENDER AND TIMBER

Being vulnerable and being stable are hardly the same thing. I suppose, depending on the situation, they might even be considered opposites. Yet, in some ways that is what the life of a followers is like from my point of view.

But since that isn't necessarily a natural process in human nature I think it is one that is only achieved with the Lord's help. For we do have to be sensitive to many things that the Lord's spirit can open our eyes to see. It is so easy to remained consumed in thought and literally blind to our surroundings. Sometimes it is a defense mechanism too.

With God's help though, he can open our eyes not to everything, for that is not the purpose, but to a given situation where it is important for us to see what might have missed. It is like driving down the street and seeing someone broke down. In a lot of cases you have no urge to stop. Then for some reason in a given situation he feel a special urge to stop and help. When you do you find out the person had been praying for help or something else that lets you know it was God's desire in that situation.

I think that is one of the problems we face in these situations. Sometimes teaching implies that you almost have to be the be all/end all of aid for the whole world. None of us could ever meet every need or solve every problem in the world. But there are specific times when God calls upon our hands to be the help in a given situation. Those are the ones when we become his hands of calling for a specific case.

That is all part of listening on a spiritual level. It is to know and hear when the Lord is calling us to a given need or purpose.

And naturally Satan will always do what he can to try and persuade us we are wrong and to ignore those tugs on our thoughts by the Lord. Depending on the situation and the degree of excuse given or we accept I wonder how many times we have missed out on being obedient for a variety of reasons that were in fact only excuses.

Beyond the issue of being sensitive, stability is and can be a factor. Or perhaps it would be better to define it as being faithful.

It can be so hard to remain faithful week after week when there is no obvious reward. We just plot away without any thanks and no one even noticing. That can cause its own form of weariness.

And at the same time the routine without the occasional pat on the back can be a stumbling block to being sensitive to when God does want us to serve in him some special need. We can find it coming as an excuse that since we never get a break in our misery why do we need to help somebody else's pain?

That is the type of logic Satan will throw into our head. It applies in its own sad way to our sense of fairness. But the problem with fairness is that one has to remember it in terms of eternity and not this life. Which itself can be a form of deafness if we let it. Hopefully along the way we hear with both our ears and heart.