Saturday.
I think every Saturday it is good to think at least a minute about the Great Sabbath of the Lord, when Jesus rested in death.
And about His saying that “My father is working still, and so am I,” (or words to that effect.)
Dear Trisham wonders if our prayers are “working.” My first answer is always, “What kind of jerk would I be if I were NOT praying?”
But in any event, I think we must say that it is God who works. Somehow our prayers make one of the materials, so to speak, that He likes to work with. But our prayers do not ‘work’ anymore than the lumber in a house builds the house. The builder builds. Even if we haul the lumber to the building site (and surely it is the Spirit that does that) we are not the builder.
If the builder is a good builder, how foolish of the house to complain, “I don’t want to be like THIS, I want to be THAT sort of house, and I want to be completed by the weekend.” God knows what sort of house it is best for us to be, and His time is more reliable than our schedule.
Vanity is to pile foolishness on folly. In my vanity I stop worrying about the sort of house I am being built to be, and start worrying about what the neighbors think.
When the neighbors fail to display what I think is the proper respect or, even, awe, then I get upset, because I am looking into their eyes to find signs of my worth.
And that’s why I got into “humility” in the first place: because it hit me one day that a lot of my anger is a product of my vanity. And that vanity is really a species of idolatry: I am looking for my salvation not to the God who lovingly builds me as I am supposed to be, but to my neighbors, who however good and wise they may be, really have no clue about God’s plan for me.
“Sophomore” means foolishly wise. That would be me, well, except maybe for the wise part.
Good morning! We’ve had a reasonable amount of sleep, for a change, and almost 24 hours without a spew. Maybe it’s a trend.
:) Day #45!
St. Maximillian Kolbe, Martyr of Auschwitz, pray for us!