Zeal consumes me – Pray based on God’s love – Left me helpless – Book of Life – Humble will rejoice
Big D has been busy writing essays to complete her college application process. We have “narrowed” the list to nine schools. We know she has automatic admittance to one, but that one only admits by major, so we wait to see if it is even an option. She has been admitted to the one school she has completed the application for, so eight to go. The real deal will be how much they each cost. It will be an effort to not be on pins and needles the whole time we wait.
Zeal consumes me is kind of like the rhetorical statement. If you are zealous, then you are consumed. If not, then not. Zeal is about equal to the positive of fanatic. I do not really like the way the word fan is associated with being a fanatic. I used to be an Astros “fan”, but I was not fanatic about them. I did not want to be called a fan as I had the negative association of “fanatic” always in mind, and the negative “zeal” for fantasy baseball that preceded liking the Astros. Now that I have great distaste for the ownership and business side of the Astros, and their manager, I find it hard to even watch.
Pray based on God’s Love. One of the discussion points around baseball was when people would pray their team would win, or score, or simply not be a laughingstock. In my mind, it was hard to think about praying for a sports team to win or my guys to do good or for me to get a particular baseball card. All these things seemed to circle around happiness and God seemed to be focused on our joy rather than happiness. Now, I would thank God for when the Astros won or my players did good or I got a card I was hoping for, but I never wanted to pray for them. The alternative side of the coin was that if you thanked God for them, why should you not pray for them? And furthermore, if you should not pray for something, should you not want happiness from those things?
Left me helpless. The benefit of time and forgetfulness. Helpless is the circumstance of humans. God made us to need Him and when we realize this, we find ourselves helpless to impact many of the wrongs we see around us. We want to help the people of Afghanistan, but there is little we can do now. We want to help the poor all over the world, but we can only help so many. I am helpless to know when to do what, on my own. God has provided me a counselor to help me. The Holy Spirit lives in me and when I find myself helpless, I try and seek His guidance. It beats sitting and crying.
Book of Life. When I was a kid, this book was a focus of what I thought the world should be targeting. No matter one’s “religion”, the idea was to realize the benefits of hereafter. I later learned that many people are content to live on earth and then cease to exist. I “think” I should have pity for these people and work to educate them. I know my love for them should have me “feel” pity and move it out of the sterile mental state I sometimes hold challenging ideas inside of.
Humble will rejoice. I think of the beatitudes when I see a formula like this. If we are humble, we will rejoice. In my mathematical mind, this humility is simply that we hold God in higher esteem than ourselves. It should be easy. It should be logical. It is not. It is a matter of the heart, of emotion, of the humanity within us that is impacted by original sin and makes humbling ourselves so difficult. God is not only our creator, He created everything in such a way as to make it a challenge to believe, a challenge to be humble, a challenge to experience the real joy of Fellowship with the Almighty.
We were created helpless, to find humility, to gain a spot in the Book of Life, to be consumed by zeal, and to impact the world by praying for others based on the power of God’s love. Where are you along this path? With Christ as the example, we all have a ways to go, but with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can produce fruit along the journey.