Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Challenges, in the personal sense

So I was reading through My Utmost for His Highest this morning, and this is the article for the day:

Shallow and Profound

“Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow aspects of life are not ordained by God; they are ordained by Him equally as much as the profound. We sometimes refuse to be shallow, not out of our deep devotion to God but because we wish to impress other people with the fact that we are not shallow. This is a sure sign of spiritual pride. We must be careful, for this is how contempt for others is produced in our lives. And it causes us to be a walking rebuke to other people because they are more shallow than we are. Beware of posing as a profound person—God became a baby.

To be shallow is not a sign of being sinful, nor is shallowness an indication that there is no depth to your life at all—the ocean has a shore. Even the shallow things of life, such as eating and drinking, walking and talking, are ordained by God. These are all things our Lord did. He did them as the Son of God, and He said, “A disciple is not above his teacher …” (Matthew 10:24).

We are safeguarded by the shallow things of life. We have to live the surface, commonsense life in a commonsense way. Then when God gives us the deeper things, they are obviously separated from the shallow concerns. Never show the depth of your life to anyone but God. We are so nauseatingly serious, so desperately interested in our own character and reputation, we refuse to behave like Christians in the shallow concerns of life.

Make a determination to take no one seriously except God. You may find that the first person you must be the most critical with, as being the greatest fraud you have ever known, is yourself.

Funny how it's the small things that challenge you the most. Take no one seriously, don't be afraid to be shallow. How counter-culture is that today? We are challenged by the world to lie to everyone around us, be something more than what we are, and put on a good face. The strongest, and the deepest survive. You would never want to admit that at any particular moment you are shallow.

God forbid that you just want to enjoy a day with some friends without some depth to that. An interesting observation. More on that later, it's time for lunch.

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