One of the things I’ve noticed over the years is that it does not matter how you start things, or the doubts that you have, but that you finish the task. It’s something my Dad taught me, and it is something I admire about him. In his eighties, he is still active in helping people in the faith, when he is not talking to very dog he meets.
At some point you have to submit it, ship it, finish the task. And even when you do the best you can, there will be errors. This is one reason that we work in teams and use each other’s strengths.
Yesterday, for example I printed off a preview .pdf of a 50 page review and gave it to the boss and co researcher, asking him to check the spelling of every medication. While I attacked the same document with a chainsaw, removing about forty references.
Brevity is the soul of clarity, but it does not come easily.
We cannot attain perfection, but we should not give up. We need to keep our courage.
With God We Shall Do Valiantly
A Song. A Psalm of David.
My heart is steadfast, O God!
I will sing and make melody with all my being!
Awake, O harp and lyre!
I will awake the dawn!
I will give thanks to you, O LORD, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to you among the nations.
For your steadfast love is great above the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!
That your beloved ones may be delivered,
give salvation by your right hand and answer me!(Psalm 108:1-6 ESV)
I write this blog in the morning, generally with but one cup of coffee in me. It is not edited that well: the posts are generally longer than they need to be. But this is starting the day right, and also five-finger exercises for a person who, as an academic, has to write.
Habits help. When I was younger and thinner, I used to run first thing in the morning and wake up then: I cannot do that now (due to injuries). I’m looking at how I fit things that need to be done within the schedule of the day, and moving things around. Including periods of rest: including making a Sabbath, deliberately, in a society which works 24/7.
At this time we have to be countercultural. But that is reasonable, for this culture has no reason to be courageous, or to be disciplined. It has no future, but we have a future, and a hope, and a reason for courage.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
(Romans 6:1-11 ESV)
One of the reasons that there is advice within the church as to habits of living — from having a quiet time, or praying the hours, or attending service, or avoiding this situation or that show — is because most of us have our areas of weakness and on those areas we have to be disciplined. And where we are strong we need to be charitable. A simple example: gambling leaves me cold. I don’t really need advice or support there. But I need help with fitness and diet, because my job is sedentary and I have chronic injuries — and the smell of McDonalds is not repulsive to me.
One of the least fashionable parts of the Catholic way of doing things is that they have written instructions for almost every part of life — including diet (periods of fasting) and marital relations. The priests of the Magisterium think carefully about issues (generally) and give advice for the moral issues of the day. Now, I am not Roman — and part of the Reformed faith is that there is no separate class of priests, but all believers are priests and believers (it is another point where I also disagree with Pentecostal theology, because I do not see that there is a separate class of those “baptized in the Spirit” no more than I find the rite of Holy Orders within scripture).
But we need to have the courage to be specific, not vague, and consider the real evils of this day. A society that preaches against intolerance and challenges anyone who suggests rules may be needed generally has a problem with institutionalized evil.
And confronting the institutions of injustice, in our societies and in this world, be they abortion mills in the USA or habitual kidnapping and sexual slavery in of Christians in Nigeria or Somalia, will require courage.
And if our society lacks this, it is doomed.
And if we align with our society and against Christ, so shall we be.