The first time I tried this out, I was living on a farm. I asked God about what I should do with my day. And it was clear. Go down into the basement and bring up those jars of preserved food that have been sitting there for years.
I didn't want to do that. Its a yucky job! But I also knew that I would never use what was in those jars...and I might need those jars for future canning. But still, I resisted the idea and went about doing something else. After all, what I went to go do was not a sin...so I should be able to do it and be okay.
In a way, there is truth in that. However, the point of life is to experience it...not try to control everything about it....since...you know....we can't!. I went about my day and was okay...except for this little nagging invitation to go get the jars! I decided to just go do it.
My most vivid memory about it was just how difficult the struggle became about whether I had to go do the jars, or not. Would I be in sin if I didn't? Don't I get to decide how to do my day, as long as I'm not violating the laws of God? Such a dilemma over something so trivial!
However!!!... the result was life-changing in that even though the job wasn't much fun, there was joy in the companionship of doing it with my God. After all, He was the One who invited me to do it with Him. He never asks us to go do something all by ourselves without Him. Never.
Its also good to remember that He never forsakes us. Never. Even when I set aside His invitation and went to go do something else, He didn't leave me. He just couldn't join up with my pursuit of it, and therefore even though His presence was with me, the camaraderie was not because I had deliberately refused His invitation of guidance.
I share that story to say this. It isn't so much what we can and can't do as it is with Whom we are going to do it. The right of personal autonomy is strongly touted as a reason to go your "own" way and be your "own" person. And that is a very, very, very important thing to happen. We do need to be our own person and make our own decisions and own our decisions. It is so very important that we own being a person of autonomy.
But this truth is twisted and used to disguise the very deviously skillful manipulator to keep us away from the Life-giving Joy of fellowship with God Himself. It keeps us in chains to the dictates of that said Evil. It works because God is upfront and clearly says that if we want life with Him we will have to lay down our own self-dependence and join up with Him. In direct opposition, the Evil one hides and manipulates and woos us with skills that we are not able to resist. HE, the Evil one owns you, but he hides that fact by assuring you that you have a right to live your own life ON YOUR OWN.
Remember..."Eve, honey, if you'll just break trust with the One who has given you this beautiful garden and this cushy life and eat this fruit, your life will be so much better!!!" Only, when she gives in, she becomes his prostitute and he becomes her pimp. The rest of the story proves it is so.
So yes, I can choose not to empty yucky jars of rotten food, complete with mold!! I can go my "own" way. Only its not my own..its the way of one who loves to rob us the sweetness of loving companionship.
Or I can join up with my Good Father and get to do stuff with Him. And the more and more I do that, the more and more great stuff I get to do, the more joy, the more receiving of love, the more life is worth the living!
Hallelujah!! What a Savior!!!
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