Today was the day for faithfulness. In some sense, like many of the other fruit it is a rather esoteric principle that contains little extra actions that need be taken. I mean, hopefully I'm faithful already. Or, at the very least, not unfaithful.
But it does make one think. What, after all, need I be faithful to? What is it in my life that requires my dedication? My long obedience? My steadiness?
My relationship with God. My relationships with others. My commitments as a student. My calling as a minister. My duty as a son. The list goes on.
Faithfulness makes me think of my grandfather...he was always a stickler for it. For being dependable. For keeping your word. Its something I'll always remember about him. It's something I believe in.
It's something I believe in so much that, as I thought about it today, one needs to be careful about how much they pledge to be faithful to. How much they commit. For if being faithful truly means being steadfast and fully present to the commitments we make, spreading ourselves too thin with a multitude of promises is almost as bad as casually ignoring them.
Turns out priorities are important even when deciding what to be faithful to.
Both lazy disregard for commitments and stretching our bounds with pledges too many runs the risk of being unfaithful. And that's something all of us--especially us overachieving pastors--need always keep in mind.
3 comments:
My eyes are always bigger than my stomach when it comes to scheduling, and everything looks like a good/worthwhile thing to do (or read, or allot money to, or whatever).
Quick Rich Mullins quote: "You're left to live with the choices you make . . . I could cross the most distant reaches of this world, but I'd just be wasting my time, because I'm certain already I'm sure I'd find you're my One Thing . . . and the pure in heart shall see God."
God give us the grace to be faithful to him with pure, undivided hearts.
There once was a man named Joshua Zeifle.
Who promised to many he would be faithful.
But a promise too many he feared as untasteful.
a poem.
I couldn't resist. But indeed, a well taken point by introspective German freind. And a point on which you are an example we should all strive to mimmick.
If I am in a right spiritual condition, I can't help being faithful.
One's duty as a son is, to my mind, very different from one's duty as a minister, in that different expressions of that faithfulness are called for.
I believe that consulting with the Heavenly Father will tell me what my duty is at any given moment.
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