Stubbornness

This is on Dick Staub's blog (Center for Faith and Culture link on the side bar).

August Tune

Did you ever venture out on a limb high above the groundno safety net below, only to suspect that the faint sound you hear is the sawing off of the branch behind you? Did you ever hear God say, “Follow Me” arriving where he leads only to ask,“What in the heck am I doing HERE? "Do you ever really ponder that your calling may be that of 1st century disciples, who trusted God all the way to a martyr’s grave?

Did you ever stop and wonder about the writer of Hebrews, who aglow with celebratory talk commending the walk of faith… Went on to say of the faithwalkers he so admires: "Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth."

Did you ever consider if mortals in those good old days thought those saints were mad, delusional, mentally unraveled? Are you the half-crazed saint or the respectable mortal? Do you really think devotion to Jesus and walking by faith looks substantially different today?

Can you understand Malcolm Muggeridge who said, “Only mystics, clowns and artists, in my experience, speak the truth, which, as Blake keeps insisting is perceptive to the imagination rather than the mind.” Do you think this true, though Blake seemed crazy as a loon? Are you drawn to his uncertain August tune? Do you perceive what he sees? Do you see what he perceives? Are your spirits lifted when you hear writer James Lee Burke say, “Never lose faith in your vision. God might choose fools and people who glow with neurosis for his partners in creation, but he doesn't make mistakes.”

Fast. Pray. Let God do the work. Trust. Obey. There is no other way.

-Dick Staub

Snap! The answer is no. Have I really ever considered that as Joyce Heron says we need to accept Jesus Christ not only as savior but as Lord too? I think its because I'm stubborn.

I little girl I saw in Emergency the other day exemplified this. She has multiple medical issues but also has learned how to play the medical system (and the parent system). When I asked her to stick out her tongue and say "ahh", she was more than willing too comply with the sticking out the tongue part. There was nothing medically wrong with her at the moment but she insisted she was sick. My attending physician had compassion on her mother though and agreed to admit her overnight but he was wise enough to be sure to tell the nurses that no TV or popsicles or the other "perks" of hospitalization were available to her. The next morning she was miraculously cured as you might expect. Bitter but cured. Stubbornness would only have gotten her more time in a boring hospital room.

Am I as smart as this little girl when it comes to laying down my stubbornness. Am I so sure I have what is good, fun, exciting, fulfilling, ect. figured out that even when its not quite as advertised I still cling to it. May I lay down my pride, relinquish my stubbornness and explore the possibility that God's way, not mine, is the path to joy.