React or respond?

What if it IS True? Blog

Discovering, wrestling with, and trying like crazy to live Gospel virtue.

04/09/14

John 8:31-42

Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him,
“If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham
and have never been enslaved to anyone.
How can you say, ‘You will become free’?”
Jesus answered them, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.
A slave does not remain in a household forever,
but a son always remains.
So if the Son frees you, then you will truly be free.
I know that you are descendants of Abraham.
But you are trying to kill me,
because my word has no room among you.
I tell you what I have seen in the Father’s presence;
then do what you have heard from the Father.”

They answered and said to him, “Our father is Abraham.”
Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children,
you would be doing the works of Abraham.
But now you are trying to kill me,
a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God;
Abraham did not do this.
You are doing the works of your father!”
So they said to him, “We were not born of fornication.
We have one Father, God.”
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me,
for I came from God and am here;
I did not come on my own, but he sent me.”

The Pharisees again don't seem to get it. It's easy to be judgmental of these guys with two thousand years of hindsight. But what don't we get? I think that's the question here. Sure, we can sit back with our “insight” and think anything we want to about anyone. But when it comes to what we see we may find ourselves like the man born blind from a couple of weeks ago. Maybe not totally blind, but big blind spots nonetheless.



I've decided to wrestle with this. When I get hit in the head with something God seems to be allowing me to experience I want to stop asking “why?”. Instead of my typical “why is THIS happening?” reaction I want to learn how to respond. I see a big difference between reaction and response. It comes down to being responsible, not just acting out of emotion. So when trying to respond I think I need to assume the “why?” simply as God trying to teach me something. Now the next questions to answer are “what?” and “how?”. What do I do with this situation I have found myself in? And, how do I most responsibly respond with the lesson this is teaching me? Wow, that sounds pretty mature. Way more so than I realize I am.



Isn't that true for us all? None of us have this figured out yet. We all a work in progress. And as any work of art God will either mold us like clay or sculpt us like marble. I typically find myself in the later category. I'm usually way too rigid to me molded. Granted, that would be the easier state for God to work with, for me that is. But ultimately God will get his results. We just may not enjoy the reshaping.

Good luck and God bless,

Leo Brown