How difficult I find it to just “be”: to live in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and not be anxious for something to happen. There seem to be forces pulling constantly on my soul to “do more” or to “be more” or to “have more”. I seem at times to be suspended between the planning and the carrying out of the plan.
And whose plan is it anyway? Yours? Mine? Ours? Voices wielding shards of truth which stab at my heart in an attempt to root out apathy. Kind voices, concerned voices, angry voices, impassioned pleas drip off my soul like water after a shower.
Oh wretched man that I am…who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Those were the words of the Apostle Paul when he exposed to us and the “saints at Rome” the struggle with sin he had within himself.
And whose plan is it anyway? Yours? Mine? Ours? Voices wielding shards of truth which stab at my heart in an attempt to root out apathy. Kind voices, concerned voices, angry voices, impassioned pleas drip off my soul like water after a shower.
Oh wretched man that I am…who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Those were the words of the Apostle Paul when he exposed to us and the “saints at Rome” the struggle with sin he had within himself.
For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Who am I that I shouldn’t find those same struggles within myself? Am I greater than Paul? Have I escaped the realities of existence here in the 21st century by way of knowledge or affluence or technology? “Not I”, said the cow with the curly horns who lowed at the babe on Christmas morn. Not I.
Paul’s response to this self-realization?: I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
For Paul it was a recognition that there was no good thing within him but that this new life, this new way of being: life in Christ, delivered him from the bondage of corruption, i.e. sin and death. I am because he (Christ) is. I have because he did. I will be because he has been and will come again. This is the true dynamics of being for a son of God thru Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rejoice my brothers and sisters. Our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Paul’s response to this self-realization?: I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
For Paul it was a recognition that there was no good thing within him but that this new life, this new way of being: life in Christ, delivered him from the bondage of corruption, i.e. sin and death. I am because he (Christ) is. I have because he did. I will be because he has been and will come again. This is the true dynamics of being for a son of God thru Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rejoice my brothers and sisters. Our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
@ 2008 Joseph Ricciardi Jr
No comments:
Post a Comment