17 Sept 2014 - not the same old song and dance

When I was a child, I used to talk as a child,
think as a child, reason as a child;
when I became a man, I put aside childish things.

There is a right way and a wrong way to be like a child. We know that it is to children that the kingdom belongs (cf. Luk. 18:16). We know that we must become like children to enter it (cf. Mat. 18:3).

We are called to be ready to dance when the flute is playing and ready to weep when we hear a dirge sung. But we tend to focus on the partial. We have an experience of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and then use that to exclude all of the other ways in which love manifests in us. We enjoy works of service and things that make the world more humane but use that to exclude more immediately spiritual things. We are all guilty of focusing on one piece to the exclusion of another.

It's a liability of being human. There is more to see than can ever be seen, more to do than can ever be done, as the song goes. We prioritize based on habit and comfort rather than on the moment to moment revelation of the living God to us. It's hard, sometimes, to remember that just because we are doing something now it doesn't mean that we should keep doing it forever. But in our prayer we should always bring our priorities to God for him to evaluate.

God is love. When he sets the pieces in order they fit. He makes all things work together for our good (cf. Rom. 8:28). Love never fails. Nothing is impossible for God. We see in part, indistinctly, as in a mirror. Let us trust the one who sees all, the one for whom "Darkness is not dark" and for whom "night shines as the day."

He alone can heal us of our pompous rudeness, our self-seeking, our tempers, and our brooding. All of this stems from priorities which are out of order. When our priorities are dictated by the God who loves us we finally experience the fulfillment of being able to bear, believe, hope, and endure all things. In this we become children again. We become too simple to elevate a part over the whole. We trust God completely. We bear and endure the trials of life trusting in him. We no longer want to hope in things which we ought not hope. We no longer want to believe partial lies. We are children in the best sense. 

Give thanks to the LORD on the harp;
with the ten stringed lyre chant his praises.
Sing to him a new song;
pluck the strings skillfully, with shouts of gladness.