Giving up
No, no, I'm not giving up blogging. In fact, I may be going poor--er, pro--down the road, but more on that another time.
The "giving up" here referred to is more literal: what do we give in an upward direction to God?
There are two kinds of giving up in this sense. The first is giving of our suffering: handing over our crosses and asking Christ to carry the weight with us. "I can't do this alone, Lord, so I'm going to put success into your hands."
The second kind is what we sacrifice of our selves. There's the old joke about Augustine, that he would pray "Make me chaste, Lord, but not yet." But the joke is actually a misquotation. What Augustine actually wrote was that he would pray for the virtue of chastity, but later realized that there had been a voice quietly amending "but not yet" to those prayers. This is the kind of "giving up" I am concerned with here.
It is very easy to look at myself and say "I don't like my temper and I sin when I yield to it." It is very easy to want to be cleansed of the petty dishonesties that seem to plague me. Who, after all, wants to hang around with a person who finds an excuse for everything?
But my possessions. Hmm, you mean I really have to sunder an attachment to them? Or my sexuality? Or my lust for power? Or my need for...whatever.
The point is simply this: being serious about being a Christian does not just mean giving up the things you don't like about yourself. I have a suspicion, after all, that my temper is not going to be something I need to answer too strenuously for. I hate it, and I try to reject it, however often I fail.
Being serious about being a Christian, if it means anything, has to mean giving up the stuff you *do* like. The "camel through the eye of the needle" is not just a story of unloading wealth, but of shedding whatever baggage we would rather not set by the side of the road.
No, no, I'm not giving up blogging. In fact, I may be going poor--er, pro--down the road, but more on that another time.
The "giving up" here referred to is more literal: what do we give in an upward direction to God?
There are two kinds of giving up in this sense. The first is giving of our suffering: handing over our crosses and asking Christ to carry the weight with us. "I can't do this alone, Lord, so I'm going to put success into your hands."
The second kind is what we sacrifice of our selves. There's the old joke about Augustine, that he would pray "Make me chaste, Lord, but not yet." But the joke is actually a misquotation. What Augustine actually wrote was that he would pray for the virtue of chastity, but later realized that there had been a voice quietly amending "but not yet" to those prayers. This is the kind of "giving up" I am concerned with here.
It is very easy to look at myself and say "I don't like my temper and I sin when I yield to it." It is very easy to want to be cleansed of the petty dishonesties that seem to plague me. Who, after all, wants to hang around with a person who finds an excuse for everything?
But my possessions. Hmm, you mean I really have to sunder an attachment to them? Or my sexuality? Or my lust for power? Or my need for...whatever.
The point is simply this: being serious about being a Christian does not just mean giving up the things you don't like about yourself. I have a suspicion, after all, that my temper is not going to be something I need to answer too strenuously for. I hate it, and I try to reject it, however often I fail.
Being serious about being a Christian, if it means anything, has to mean giving up the stuff you *do* like. The "camel through the eye of the needle" is not just a story of unloading wealth, but of shedding whatever baggage we would rather not set by the side of the road.
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