Today a friend posted this link on her facebook. It has been a couple years since I’ve been through My Utmost for His Highest. I might just dive back in.
I’ve been wrestling with this temptation a lot lately. I’m not proud of that. I think this idea – that I need to be held blameless or acquitted of what I feel are “unfair” charges is a window into the state of my heart sometimes.
Oswald Chambers captures it well when he says:
Another thing that distracts us is our passion for vindication. St. Augustine prayed, “O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself.” Such a need for constant vindication destroys our soul’s faith in God. Don’t say, “I must explain myself,” or, “I must get people to understand.” Our Lord never explained anything— He left the misunderstandings or misconceptions of others to correct themselves.
Richard J. Foster in Celebration of Discipline captures the problem perfectly.
“One reason we can hardly bear to remain silent is that it makes us feel so helpless”.
What if people believe the wrong thing? What if they think poorly of me? What if…
But Foster is right. The tongue really is a thermometer. It really does give an accurate reading of our spiritual temperature. And i want mine to say things like
calm, controlled, and quietly trusting.
Because it’s often in silence that God can do a work of inner transformation.
Comments