Daily: Our character is determined by our daily choices. As C.S. Lewis writes, “Good and evil increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line …” How easy is it, though, to change our daily choices?
Change: It’s not. Proverbs says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” And Augustine writes, “The key to life change is not the acts of the will but the loves of the heart.” In other words, our daily acts spring from our deep loves, and our deep loves are almost impossible to change. Our loves are disordered. We take good things and make them ultimate—money, success, power, etc. And we have no power to change this. As Emily Dickinson says, “The Heart wants what it wants—or else it does not care.”
Gospel: But Jesus came, saying, “I am the way,” not, “I will show you the way.” He took the loss of the ultimate ridge or railway line so that we may know victories we never dreamed of. Therefore, we do not give God a righteousness to placate Him; He gives us a righteousness to redeem us. When we take the gospel into our hearts, we find a deep love that orders all other loves. This changes our daily choices—even though it may not happen all at once: “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.”
Prayer: Lord, Your love is astounding and, when this reality becomes true to our hearts, the springs of life flow as mighty waters. Yet we confess that our loves are disordered and, therefore, our daily choices are misguided and unwise. Forgive us. For we are unable to change our lives. You must change our hearts. Therefore, lift our eyes to Christ and open the gates of paradise that we may walk in. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment