The full acting out of the self's surrender to God therefore demands pain: this action, to be perfect, must be done from the pure will to obey in the absence, or in the teeth, of inclination. How impossible it is to enact the surrender of the self by doing what we like...”
JOURNAL
So Jesus goes in and turns the Temple upside down, heals the lame and the blind and children begin to sing his praises. I can only imagine the scene...it turns from a place of profiting off of peoples guilt and struggle to a place of healing and rejoicing. This is God's vision of the church...this is what we should aspire to create.
Aspire to create...after writing those words it really makes me question what am I aspiring to create? What vision have I accepted and surrendered to pursue? I think this question is critical in the life and faith of believers. Jesus had a specific mission, so did David, Abraham, Solomon, Moses, Noah, the disciples. As humans we need something to pursue, a path to travel, a direction to seek. Without a burning yes, our lives become surrendered to comfort, resignation and protection.
Yet that burning yes must be unique to our faith, our walk and our heart. I believe God gives every human on this earth a life pursuit, a burning yes, but too often the experiences of our lives deter us from this path. Failures, disappointments and heartaches can serve to throw water on our hopes and passions. It can leave us longing for a way to change the past, bitter about the present and hopeless for our future.
I think Jesus' actions in the temple that day were for the purpose of reaffirming this in our hearts. It was a wakeup call to counter all those things that threaten to steal our core hopes and dreams.
Yet that burning yes must be unique to our faith, our walk and our heart. I believe God gives every human on this earth a life pursuit, a burning yes, but too often the experiences of our lives deter us from this path. Failures, disappointments and heartaches can serve to throw water on our hopes and passions. It can leave us longing for a way to change the past, bitter about the present and hopeless for our future.