Today’s Readings: Psalm 41; Nehemiah 6:1-19; Luke 4:22-30; Galatians 3:2-9; Psalm 55
Featured Reading: Galatians 3:2-9
Lots of folks live their lives keeping at least one deep, dark secret. For some the secret is that they are a victim of domestic violence. For others, the secret is that they live with an addiction. For still others, they live with a mental illness. There are any number of things their secret might be. People who live with a secret manage it in a variety of ways. Some resort to self-destructive behaviors as a means of punishing themselves. Others deal with their secret by leading a double life. “How do I know so much about the topic?” you might wonder. It’s because I lived with a secret of my own for twenty-five years. My secret was that I was gay. I coped with my secret by aspiring to be what Andrew Tobias called “The Best Little Boy in the World”. This meant I lived my life trying to be perfect. I figured that if I was perfect, I would win the love and approval of others – even if they happened to discover my deep, dark secret. I played the role of “The Best Little Boy in the World” to the hilt: I was football captain, ASB president, salutatorian, youth group president, and accomplished pianist. You name it, and I accomplished it. To use Paul’s language from today’s passage in Galatians, for the first twenty-five years of my life I was trying to live my life “by [my] own effort, independent of God”. So how did that approach work for me? Not so great. I was suicidal by the time I was twenty-five. Thankfully, I came to my senses and realized there was another way to live my life – a way that depended not on the faith I placed in myself, but on the faith I placed in God. That shift in where I located my faith made all the difference to me. Today, during your time of prayer and meditation, I would invite you to explore where you have placed the bulk of your faith. Does your faith lie primarily in yourself, or does it lie primarily in God? Til next time…
Featured Reading: Galatians 3:2-9
Lots of folks live their lives keeping at least one deep, dark secret. For some the secret is that they are a victim of domestic violence. For others, the secret is that they live with an addiction. For still others, they live with a mental illness. There are any number of things their secret might be. People who live with a secret manage it in a variety of ways. Some resort to self-destructive behaviors as a means of punishing themselves. Others deal with their secret by leading a double life. “How do I know so much about the topic?” you might wonder. It’s because I lived with a secret of my own for twenty-five years. My secret was that I was gay. I coped with my secret by aspiring to be what Andrew Tobias called “The Best Little Boy in the World”. This meant I lived my life trying to be perfect. I figured that if I was perfect, I would win the love and approval of others – even if they happened to discover my deep, dark secret. I played the role of “The Best Little Boy in the World” to the hilt: I was football captain, ASB president, salutatorian, youth group president, and accomplished pianist. You name it, and I accomplished it. To use Paul’s language from today’s passage in Galatians, for the first twenty-five years of my life I was trying to live my life “by [my] own effort, independent of God”. So how did that approach work for me? Not so great. I was suicidal by the time I was twenty-five. Thankfully, I came to my senses and realized there was another way to live my life – a way that depended not on the faith I placed in myself, but on the faith I placed in God. That shift in where I located my faith made all the difference to me. Today, during your time of prayer and meditation, I would invite you to explore where you have placed the bulk of your faith. Does your faith lie primarily in yourself, or does it lie primarily in God? Til next time…
1 comment:
a slightly exaggerated statement
I set my faith aside for the last 2.5 years
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