I have friends who live more disciplined admirable lives than me…at least from what I can see. They are great employees. They honor their parents. They are charitable. They live civily responsible lives. I look at what they have accomplished and obstacles they faced and at their kindness, and it is a puzzle to me because they do not trust Jesus. I guess I do not see about them what I see about me….my thoughts, my arrogant attitude, my rebellion, my fear, my worry, my self-protection, ulgy things in my past and present.
I am one undergoing perpetual, internal surgery to have these uglies removed and replaced with a new growing life. It is mysterious.
I have a spiritual enemy. His strategies are shrewd and much of the time invisible to me.
This is a strange mix of things to live with and process while God does His work. It is a struggle to maintain a sense that I am on track with what God intends for me.
The core of His work is to change me. The core of my problems is my refusal to acknowledge Him…to strive for self-sufficiency. I want badly to control all in my life…to get to a point where I am self-sufficient.
To think like this sounds irresponsible…like a cop-out.
Why did God pick Jacob? I do not know. Jacob was deceitful. However, I can say that God has a pattern of making it clear that it is Him doing something when He does it. He seems to stack the deck against Himself (from a human viewpoint) so that when He works it is unmistakeable.
It seems He is fixing in me what is every human’s core issue: even though it is plain that God is there, they refuse to acknowledge Him, His call on their life and their personal need for Him.
Thank God for letting me see I am sick spiritually and hopeless to please Him without His work on my behalf, both in the past and ongoing today.
So I ask God, “what about my friends?” It seems He says,”just tell them what I said“.
No Little People No Little Places 