I dropped the melded quartet off to the shuttle first thing this morning. While we were waiting for the bus to arrive, I walked down to Lake Wanaka onto the pier. The wind was up, and the waves were breaking through the duckboards of the pier (it is fixed, and the lake is high at present).
Today we go somewhere warm, leaving Central. And no, I am not spending all day online: we spent more time walking in the bush than looking at the news. Or thinking about such issues: the joy of the morning was that four young people from two families were working well together.
Today I want to chill. But it is better to do good by the power of the Spirit of God.
5:25If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.
6:1My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. 2Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves. 4All must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor’s work, will become a cause for pride. 5For all must carry their own loads.
6Those who are taught the word must share in all good things with their teacher.
7Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. 8If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. 9So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. 10So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.
There have been volumes written on these verses. The need to discipline and correct is with us at all times. But this has to be done in the spirit. Without the spirit there are two variations of this: one is to be overly controlling and harsh: the other is to tolerate all things and call it love.
As if what we do does not matter. This passage indicates that what we do matters a lot.
And that what we do will not form our future.
Today, consider this: your choices will make your future. Robyn is talking in the other room with my Dad. The family is melding, though this at times means i worry and fret and provide and choose words so that there is grace and not hurt. But the boys don’t talk to their mother: their aunt does not talk to her sister, their mother.
What you do matters. Do not listen to the sophist, who will blame others, or the gnostic, who says that all this mucky material stuff is immaterial. All the knowledge you have matters little in the life to come. for all our knowledge is imperfect, and we will see perfection. All our achievements are as nothing.
But people remain. If we can advise and help people to salvation, we are doing a great work. Continue to do this. The ragequit responses you get are not a rejection of you, but the Spirit within you. For those who hate God despise his spirit, and will quench the Spirit whenever they can, including within the Church itself.
Do not let the narrative quench the work of God in you. Do not be them. Do not be like them.
Melding is a good thing.