Thursday, June 3, 2010

P4E.154 The Best Safety Device is a Careful Man - Part 15

Construction Site Sign

A safe man is careful with: His thought life! (cont'd)

Again, you must be wondering what sort of success I'm having in overthrowing my worldly values and replacing them with Godly ones. Let me quote Paul as my answer:

"For that which I am doing I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing that I hate."

What I've come to realize is that on my own I can do nothing. I've come to a crossroads. I can use the realization that I cannot do anything on my own as an excuse not to try or as motivation to figure out a way to get it done.

As a man raised in American culture, my worldly value is self-sufficiency and so it is very contrary to my nature to ask for help or look for it. But in the realization that I cannot do anything on my own is also the realization that I need help and that I need a savior. I must become dependent on help and a savior.

What does it take to admit that I must become dependent? Unfortunately for me, it takes humility. That's why I fight it so hard. That is why I, as a man, have such a hard time stopping to ask for directions when I'm lost. This realization has shed new light on Christ's words in Matthew:

"Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

It's like an unbroken circle:

I depend on God for the humility
necessary for my salvation so that,
in preparation for eternity,
I can overthrow my worldly value of self-sufficiency so that
I depend on God for the humility
necessary for my salvation and so on....

When I'm careful to keep my thoughts focused on this unbroken circle, I become safe to my wife and those around me.

Blessings, Kim

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