On Illusion and Stubbornness, Wisdom from George MacDonald, and Staying Open to Grace
A Note from Me
There are still parts of my life I have not fully surrendered. Some remain hidden from me. Others I recognize clearly, yet I still struggle to let them go.
I tell myself I’ll change later, but when has later ever been easier. So why do I keep putting it off? I’m not sure. Maybe I’m scared. Maybe I’m lazy.
What I do know is that I can’t seem to let go on my own.
When I’m stuck in illusion or stubbornness, God is left with no choice but to allow consequences to break over me. Because God’s kind of love is not sentimental. His love loves us unto purity. He will not allow me—or any of us—to stay stuck. He intends for us to grow into who he designed us to be: like Christ.
That truth scares and steadies me. God will love me into freedom. It might come as clarity. It might come as fire. But however it comes, he won’t leave me where I am—caged in on myself. He has a great good for me … and for all of us.
Because that’s what love does. It wills the good of the other.
A Voice from the Christian Tradition
“Many a man’s work must be burned, that by that very burning he may be saved... If still he cling to that which can be burned, the burning goes on deeper and deeper into his bosom, till it reaches the roots of the falsehood that enslaves him—possibly by looking like the truth.
The man who loves God, and is not yet pure, courts the burning of God...
For Love is inexorable. Our God is a consuming fire.”
—George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons I
A Question to Carry
Where have consequences in your life become God’s invitation to grow?
Until next week,
—Jon