can make my spirit whole; ...
My mother has a full head of hair, though every week she cleans the bathroom and notes how massive the pile of hair is. She can tell what's hers based on the silver ones and the length (though her hairs aren't that much longer than Calvin's at times!). She told me this morning (11/24/12) that she considers her thick hair to be a blessing from God, though it seems that what she's lost grows heavier and greater no matter how often she cleans. Then she made the metaphor to her life: God has afflicted her, but she said that she ought to look instead at her proverbial "crown of glory" than at the ashes on the ground.
Calvin used to think my mom was utterly devoid of emotion, since she seems like such a type 1 person who didn't have much interaction with people outside of the family. My mother has a full head of hair, though every week she cleans the bathroom and notes how massive the pile of hair is. She can tell what's hers based on the silver ones and the length (though her hairs aren't that much longer than Calvin's at times!). She told me this morning (11/24/12) that she considers her thick hair to be a blessing from God, though it seems that what she's lost grows heavier and greater no matter how often she cleans. Then she made the metaphor to her life: God has afflicted her, but she said that she ought to look instead at her proverbial "crown of glory" than at the ashes on the ground.
She's kind of an emotional boss, regulating and expressing emotions like nobody's business.
I've developed some skill at regulating emotions in order to be a better actor and to be more stoic in the face of my inheritance, but I now realize that even Jesus wasn't like that. When it came time to obey His Father's will, He responded with obedience, quietly at times and loudly at other times, with tears and shouts of joy. His method wasn't just to "grin and bear it," but rather to bear it grinningly. For joy He set His face like steel towards Jerusalem, where His peace would be punctured.
I often get stuck in the expression and execution phase. I'm like my father sometimes in this respect, when he tells me that he loves me in spite of the evidence (his fruit/actions) that speak to the contrary. What good is it if you can talk the talk when you can't/don't walk the walk? Or, brothers, if a man's hungry, do you merely pray for him? If a woman needs a doctor, should I only pray for her healing? No. These are the reasons numerous organizations have been founded by Christian churches for the health and clothing and employment and feeding of the tired, the poor, the wretched refuse and the homeless, the tempest-tossed.
The origin of these true humanitarian endeavors comes from our own rebirth, born not of our power but of the power of the God who loved us and adopts us into His kingdom.
Not what I say or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.
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