"Sell all your possessions" (Part II): The struggle
"I feel like lining up everything I own... and getting rid of it all. But it's tough."
~Me, re-phrasing City and Colour's lyric
...Especially when some things that you own -- or perhaps better said, own YOU -- are not a physical possession or a consumer good... but a habit, a tendency, it's something spiritual and unseen, and can be hard to identify, name, and conquer.
It's like we're stuck in a daze or caught under a spell of mediocrity at times. It's like a life sentence to only be like 45% as happy as we are capable of. Dang
For me right now, I've been struggling with specifically Christ's invitation, command, and challenge to give everything away. I feel on a spiritual level what this means for me and it's hard.
It's also funny to be feeling this so strongly right after I made my last blog post on the beauty of this invitation that Jesus gave us. It's like the intensity of the invitation went up closely after, and I'm being challenged by my own decision to emphasize these words of Jesus. It's getting personal now, like a motivational speaker who's life seems to be unraveling and he starts to panic. Haha
I still don't doubt the epic'ness of this calling, the necessity of it. I recently read a friend's Facebook post about a butterfly crawling back into the cocoon, as a metaphor. Why do we do this? Why am I doing it?, or at least constantly being tempted to.
Peter felt the call, literally and metaphorically, to walk on water. He said, "Lord, if it is you, let me come out to you on the water!" In some ways, Christ is asking us to walk on water. Or to soar and fly on Eagle's wings... both of these are scriptural images, and beautiful ones. But none of them are things we are used to doing...
And what we are not used to, we can dread and fear... Even if it is beautiful, even if it is the TRUTH, the answer to all our aches, pains, and problems. We can deny truth out of fear and disorder, and prefer what we know even if it is wrong and we know it. Dang
He invites us to drink of living water, that will heal us and allow us to never thirst again. But when I know the immediate and sometimes gratifying taste of more familiar but lesser thirsts... I go to them.
Eating habits, spending habits, sleep habits... for me these are some I can struggle with.
In the 3rd chapter of John's gospel, Jesus famously told a Pharisee named Nicodemus that to see the things of heaven one must be "born again". There's no doubt to me as to my own spiritual experience. God worked a wonder and a miracle of new birth in my life, of spiritual awakening. But still the "old life" calls.
It doesn't help to live in the "West"... affluence, consumer options, "comfort", "cozy"... seems to promote the idea that we're "ok". There's always an option for instant gratification. Food, entertainment...
Do you feel the emptiness though?, and a call to greater living?
This is a bit confessional for me, it also feels good so I can admit to you how tough this can be. But Jesus also did say "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light" and "Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."
So, again, with the beautiful paradox of truth, we are left in a sort of limbo, in the romance of faith, but one that can be very trying and frustrating too. It's all there for us to wrestle with.
I think the great truth we are left with though is to recognize the folly of our times, the emptiness in our possessions and our pursuits that are not ignited by God, and to turn and face the beautiful invitation and to wrestle with this call to greater living:
"Come, drink the living water. Come to me. Sell your possessions, and come follow me!"
I hope we can struggle with it together.
(Thanks for reading and letting me get that off my chest. I was planning to do an actual Confession at church tonight, but this might be it for now.)
Joe
joesardosignofthetimes.blogspot.com
amdg
"We should open up /
Before it's all too much"
...
~Me, re-phrasing City and Colour's lyric
...Especially when some things that you own -- or perhaps better said, own YOU -- are not a physical possession or a consumer good... but a habit, a tendency, it's something spiritual and unseen, and can be hard to identify, name, and conquer.
It's like we're stuck in a daze or caught under a spell of mediocrity at times. It's like a life sentence to only be like 45% as happy as we are capable of. Dang
For me right now, I've been struggling with specifically Christ's invitation, command, and challenge to give everything away. I feel on a spiritual level what this means for me and it's hard.
It's also funny to be feeling this so strongly right after I made my last blog post on the beauty of this invitation that Jesus gave us. It's like the intensity of the invitation went up closely after, and I'm being challenged by my own decision to emphasize these words of Jesus. It's getting personal now, like a motivational speaker who's life seems to be unraveling and he starts to panic. Haha
I still don't doubt the epic'ness of this calling, the necessity of it. I recently read a friend's Facebook post about a butterfly crawling back into the cocoon, as a metaphor. Why do we do this? Why am I doing it?, or at least constantly being tempted to.
Peter felt the call, literally and metaphorically, to walk on water. He said, "Lord, if it is you, let me come out to you on the water!" In some ways, Christ is asking us to walk on water. Or to soar and fly on Eagle's wings... both of these are scriptural images, and beautiful ones. But none of them are things we are used to doing...
And what we are not used to, we can dread and fear... Even if it is beautiful, even if it is the TRUTH, the answer to all our aches, pains, and problems. We can deny truth out of fear and disorder, and prefer what we know even if it is wrong and we know it. Dang
He invites us to drink of living water, that will heal us and allow us to never thirst again. But when I know the immediate and sometimes gratifying taste of more familiar but lesser thirsts... I go to them.
Eating habits, spending habits, sleep habits... for me these are some I can struggle with.
In the 3rd chapter of John's gospel, Jesus famously told a Pharisee named Nicodemus that to see the things of heaven one must be "born again". There's no doubt to me as to my own spiritual experience. God worked a wonder and a miracle of new birth in my life, of spiritual awakening. But still the "old life" calls.
It doesn't help to live in the "West"... affluence, consumer options, "comfort", "cozy"... seems to promote the idea that we're "ok". There's always an option for instant gratification. Food, entertainment...
Do you feel the emptiness though?, and a call to greater living?
This is a bit confessional for me, it also feels good so I can admit to you how tough this can be. But Jesus also did say "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light" and "Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."
So, again, with the beautiful paradox of truth, we are left in a sort of limbo, in the romance of faith, but one that can be very trying and frustrating too. It's all there for us to wrestle with.
I think the great truth we are left with though is to recognize the folly of our times, the emptiness in our possessions and our pursuits that are not ignited by God, and to turn and face the beautiful invitation and to wrestle with this call to greater living:
"Come, drink the living water. Come to me. Sell your possessions, and come follow me!"
I hope we can struggle with it together.
(Thanks for reading and letting me get that off my chest. I was planning to do an actual Confession at church tonight, but this might be it for now.)
Joe
joesardosignofthetimes.blogspot.com
amdg
"We should open up /
Before it's all too much"
...
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