Thursday, October 19, 2006
For God or With God?
"I find He never guides us into an intolerable scramble of panting feverishness." -Thomas Kelly
A couple of years ago I ran across a phrase that I found so simple, yet profound that I borrowed and adopted it for my very own. The originator (at least, where I discovered it) was the spiritual giant, Richard Foster, who summarizes our existence as apprentice imitators of Jesus with the moniker, The With-God Life.
Sadly, it’s a phrase I have drifted from. Not that I have drifted away from faith, or away from devotion, or any other measure of orthodoxy. Yet in a deviously subtle manner, I found myself living the For-God Life, rather than the With-God Life. The difference, as they say, is the difference between lightning and lightning bug.
The For-God Life is exhausting, and ultimately frustrating. It is a ravenous monster of appearances and rituals whose hunger is never satisfied. So the activities never cease. Yet, the engagement in things "for God," fatigues rather than replenishes the soul. There is little peace, and even less joy, in spiritual and physical exhaustion.
A wise and faith-filled member of my family offered me a wake-up view of the For-God Life, and by doing so, reminded me that what we are adopted into is a life-giving, life-sustaining relational position in the family of our Father. And it is only With-Him, not For-Him, that we have streams of living water that flow out of us. So if you woke up this morning with a deep tiredness that went far beyond your body to your soul, hear my friendly reminder: God does not want you to live for Him, so much as God wants you to live with Him.
With God,
harry
A couple of years ago I ran across a phrase that I found so simple, yet profound that I borrowed and adopted it for my very own. The originator (at least, where I discovered it) was the spiritual giant, Richard Foster, who summarizes our existence as apprentice imitators of Jesus with the moniker, The With-God Life.
Sadly, it’s a phrase I have drifted from. Not that I have drifted away from faith, or away from devotion, or any other measure of orthodoxy. Yet in a deviously subtle manner, I found myself living the For-God Life, rather than the With-God Life. The difference, as they say, is the difference between lightning and lightning bug.
The For-God Life is exhausting, and ultimately frustrating. It is a ravenous monster of appearances and rituals whose hunger is never satisfied. So the activities never cease. Yet, the engagement in things "for God," fatigues rather than replenishes the soul. There is little peace, and even less joy, in spiritual and physical exhaustion.
A wise and faith-filled member of my family offered me a wake-up view of the For-God Life, and by doing so, reminded me that what we are adopted into is a life-giving, life-sustaining relational position in the family of our Father. And it is only With-Him, not For-Him, that we have streams of living water that flow out of us. So if you woke up this morning with a deep tiredness that went far beyond your body to your soul, hear my friendly reminder: God does not want you to live for Him, so much as God wants you to live with Him.
With God,
harry
