Tuesday, January 19, 2010

2 Cor 5:9

Being busy with 'good things' makes you feel better, particularly in a season where the perceived weight of other people's expectations feels too heavy. It certainly helped me to cope with the expectations that I had felt were on us. It also makes writing newsletters easier. When you're involved in 'good things', there is always something interesting to write about, omething that you feel will impress the audience, ssomething that sounds fruitful and seems to make good use of their support money. And by and large they are very good things. Of course they are .Serving in the hospital, researching leprosy, running literacy groups for women, helping out at the bible correspondence course. They are good things and they are things that ber fruit for the Kingdom.


But our motives foil us at times. If my primary motive for being busy with good things is to please the supporters, then I may as well go home. "Learn to live for an audience of One". So often I was aware I was living for an audience of about 2000. But I wanted to live for an audience of One. I wanted to do my living for Him, my moments and my days, my comings and my goings. The desires of my heart were His but I was easily distracted by the larger audience.


Perhaps our motives are never pure. perhaps it is a lifelong battle to keep our eyes on Him, to keep the other audience at bay. I think it is a lifelong battle, but I think the battle intensifies during a season of expectations. During a season of expectations we can struggle even more to keep our eyes on Him. We can struggle even more to live for an audience o One. The other audience looms in, loud and insistent.
                                          Naomi Reed - My Seventh Monsoon


Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. 2 Cor 5:9
In some ways, it re-examines why we take up certain things. But after hearing from the staff/st, I realise that this awareness (or caution) can't just result in us dropping all and running away. That too isn't wise. Rather, we can pray and ask for our hearts to be changed.

posted by kmli @ 9:01 AM