11.07.09
he made us adequate..
“as servants of a New covenant..”
But of course, it doesn’t mean we will feel adequate.. and it doesn’t mean that we will be adequate when we get all the information or methodology right.
It means that adequacy comes as a divine gift — not in the sense of charismata, but as an inheritance — a new identity. This is more than an awareness of who Christ is and what he has done for us.. it is hearing in the deep places of our inner self, “You are my beloved.”
Dashhouse gets it right as usual. In order for Christ to be adequate, skills have to be secondary. And oddly.. have we noticed?.. the church is thriving where skills.. and even gifted leadership.. is de-emphasized. Too many leaders do not know themselves as beloved, but instead locate their identity in their acts — in position and function. This can only feed insecurity.
Furthermore, “My glory I will not give to another.” When we locate ourselves in our acts we take credit for our successes .. as well as our failures. We become our own measure… small and broken idols. As Jean Vanier notes, “The more we become people of action and responsibility in our community, the more we must become people of contemplation. If we do not nurture our deep emotional life in prayer hidden in God, if we do not spend time in silence and if we do not know how to take time from the presence of our brothers and sisters, we risk becoming embittered. It is only to the extent that we nurture our own hearts that we can keep interior freedom. People who are hyperactive, fleeing from their deep selves and their wound, become tyrannical and their exercise of responsibility only creates conflict.”
* * *
For most of my life as a believer I have given at best 90% to the Lord.I wonder what it would be like to live at 100%?
I suspect that the difference is not 90+10=100 — but something much more. Maybe a parallel would be in quantum physics.. something more like the Butterfly Effect… where a small difference can root the movement of unmeasurable force.
What would it be like to live wholly in the life of the LORD? What could we achieve for him and his kingdom? What would he achieve through us?
It’s true that when I ask this question I ask it with a sense of guilt.. at not having attained that to which I have been called. But that only masks the real issue — have I heard in my inmost being that word that calls to true self: “You are my beloved.” Then having heard that word, will I press on toward the mark? Will I move forward with the discipline of an athlete in training, eyes fixed on the goal?
None of this is possible for us because we will it to be so; there is an element of mystery in the surrender. We can only strain forward in the power of the Spirit.
Starting from this place of awareness that “he has made me adequate” or “seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3a), I am still left to choose.. to turn my attention to the Kingdom in all things. If we live by the Spirit, “let us also walk by the Spirit.” In that place, I believe, we will discover resources of living water..
Listen to this prayer made on our behalf..
For this reason I kneel before the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.
I pray that out of his glorious riches
he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
may have power, together with all the Lord’s people,
to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—
that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,
according to his power that is at work within us,
to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, for ever and ever!
Amen.
