I’d forgotten it here, but one of my favorite Bible passages is here in Galatians. Galatians 5:16-26. Look it up. I don’t feel like retyping the whole thing here. This is after Paul is done with his argument that Christians are justified by faith, not works, and he’s gone on to say how Christians should live. A couple highlights:
Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. (5:16)
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things. (5:22-23)
(I love that self-control is included in that list.)
On one level, Paul is saying that just because we’re not bound to Jewish law doesn’t mean that we have a free pass to do whatever we want.
And also he’s saying that if we live a Christ-centered life, then we should be acting like good people anyway.
It reminds me of what I’m talking about when I talk about balance and centeredness. It reminds me of times in my life when I was more prone to, as they would call it, “gratifying the desires of the flesh.” (Also known as my “hippie” days.) I think about the times that I drink more than I should and how my life felt so unbalanced at those times. They were damn fun times, but they weren’t “good” times.
I understand the idea that refraining from such activities frees a person to live a truly fulfilled life. I find great joy in being centered & free from such things. Christ has not always been the means for me to find that centeredness, but I understand how he could be. I like the idea that Christ is there as a constant path — that if you stray from living in healthy, self-loving ways, that Christ is always there guiding you back. Sometimes it can be hard to find your way back from that path.
It’s nice to think that Christ is always there to guide you back. Because he’s the same as he’s always been, he’ll be easier to recognize the next time you get lost.
William said,
November 9, 2007 at 2:39 am
It is interesting that you would mention that Christ is there to guide us back to the “strait and narrow”. This is one area I have really struggled with in the last 8 years now. I have tried to walk this path, it has been easy to be generous and gentle to others and when I am around others, joy. But I am filled with such anger over how I was treated for these 8 years and all of it has been directed at God. I have prayed long and hard for help and it never seems to come. Ironicly it is easier for me to love others than myself especially with how I look now.
To steal a line, I feel like I know what it is like to be all alone in the night (B5).