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| Found at: http://www.mykindastyle.com/blog/?p=145 |
No, I don’t think the Holy Spirit is all fickle and fluttery
like a moth near a streetlight. I believe He is purposeful and powerful and
direct. Yet, I once saw a huge-pawed puppy going through all kinds of gyrations
as she tried to stay close to her master. The owner was trying to make his way
back to his truck and the pup, unaware of the objective, kept assuming the
wrong next move. It was all the master could do to stay on his feet as the
gangly puppy crisscrossed this way and that having to correct nearly every
step.
I’m like that puppy, yet the promise is that we can become
so acquainted with God that to do His will we will only need to act on our
impulses. That’s what Samuel told the new king, Saul. He said, “The Spirit of
the Lord will come upon you in power and you will prophesy with [the prophets]
and you will be changed into a different person. Once these signs are
fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do for God is with you” (1 Samuel
10:6-7). (Saul’s later life showed that when we are no longer with God, then
whatever our hand finds to do will likely be the wrong thing.)
Amazing, though, that God can be with us in a way that makes
our hands do right! That’s what I want; not some promise of infallibility, but
the assurance that everything I do will benefit God in some way.
But my impulses are not currently trustworthy. I hold them
up to His character and they look worse than shabby. I used to think I would
grow into His likeness, that somehow I could be educated into a righteous life.
Now, I can’t really see that far. What I do believe is that anytime my heart is
decidedly with His, immediately better impulses are provided.
Aha! That’s what I’m looking for, not some well-crafted,
independent righteousness, but a moment-by-moment guidance that keeps me on the
right path. I doubt it would even be good for me to take off my training
wheels. They are the voice of God, and I don’t want to ride ahead of that. He
promised “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a
voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21). And that
is already happening.
So here was my thought: I can trust the slightest impulse to do good. Too often I have felt that I should do something I knew to be
good (e.g. “let this cookie be my last” or “give that guy a hand” or “go write
out that thought”) and have found it too easy to ignore the urge claiming it’s
not important or I can do it later. Now is
late enough. So when God prompts me to be patient, I try to surrender what I
was planning to do. When He tells me to make a better food choice, I try to
surrender what I was planning to do. When He tells me to go write it out, I try
to surrender what I was planning to do.
Notice a common theme? He may have a hundred things to ask
of me, but I have really only one response; surrender what I was planning to
do. That’s what John Lennon obliquely addressed when he said, “Life is what
happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” I had a moment like that on
Sunday, October 14, and it began this change from writing for a weekly human
audience (see “An Explanatory Note” below) to writing as I am led. I had a
whole day of study planned and I wanted to get an early start. Instead, I
surrendered that plan and spent six hours writing things He needed me to get
onto paper. I wrote my third of the series on the Sanctuary, and for a full
week after that, He brought me affirming excerpts from the devotional writings
of Ellen White. I’m reading Harri Kuhalmpi’s dissertation, Holistic Spirituality in the Thinking of Ellen White, and the
sections on her view of repentance and sanctification were riddled with
thoughts similar to what I had just discovered in the Sanctuary. Later, his
writing progressed to other areas of her thinking and the parallels were not so
frequent. God had awakened me and focused me through the discipline of my own
writing just in time to take advantage of a windfall.
And, of course, there’s always a punch line: after
surrendering six hours that day, and multiple hours in following days, I still
spent more hours on study than I had in the weeks prior. Perhaps He expects a
tithe of our time and talent as well as a tithe of our treasure. Perhaps He
only asks us to give what He already knows we can live without, and when we do,
heaven provides for our legitimate needs.
An explanatory note: I awoke at 1:00 this Sabbath morning
and laid awake for 37 minutes before finally smiling and arising to write. In
June I had started this blog to give me a devotional writing outlet. I was used
to finding a spiritual thought to share each Monday morning with my teachers
and staff. I enjoyed that and regretted having to give it up during this year
of sabbatical for study purposes. Hence, I thought that writing devotionally
once a week would be a good practice.
I can be very programmatic, so a weekly routine helps. I
also find social feedback to be motivating, so I invited a handful of friends
to check in and give me feedback once a week. I think I outlasted them. They
are busy and smart people and have their own demanding lives, so it’s not a
problem for me. In fact, I think God has been opening my eyes to a need to
change my modus operandi, somewhat. I tend to live by calendars, but I’m not
sure God lives by mine. I tend to perform for a human audience, but He is the
audience I most crave. It is time for me to write as the Spirit moves me.
I won’t turn my back on “The Walk” but I want to make it somewhat
fancier… I want to dance for Him.
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