Headcanons and spectrums (Apr 9-15)
Happy Saturday to you!
I have a headcanon that God’s will and our performing God’s will lie within the bounds of a spectrum that extends from “I listen every minute to the voice of God and obey” to “I exercise free will within the bounds of holiness.”
Working our schedule in the Eastern time zone is the first time I feel like I have jet lag and my energy/hunger is all out of whack. We get off at dinner time and my body, even though I fed it 3 hours ago, is very adamant that I feed it. I open my eyes for the first time at 5:30 but instead of opening them again at 5:37, I fall back asleep.
So it’s fortunate that I’m reading Letters of a Modern Mystic because the entries are short, and I have been able to read one or two of them before or during my morning meal-prep.
Mr. Laubach is one of the more recent famous examples of the first end of the spectrum. He is a 20th century missionary who continues a line of Christians (notably such as Brother Lawrence) who practiced moment-by-moment communion with God. Laubach’s special addition to the history is a “game of minutes” where he sought to think of or talk to God once a minute every minute of every day.
It changed his life! As it surely would change my life and yours if we played such a game.
How often do you turn your mind to God in a day? Morning, noon, night? Every hour? Every quarter hour?
I do morning-noon-night, because I tend to hold more to the opposite end of the spectrum with the likes of C.S. Lewis and Dallas Willard - that God is interested in transforming us into a kind of person whose wants and desires are so aligned with his that all they do falls in with His will.
Both perspectives hinge on human surrender, but one trusts God is speaking directives every minute and the other trusts God will intervene when specific actions are needed. Reading Laubach’s letters has been a reminder of God’s faithfulness trustworthiness, which is less obvious when you exercise free will within holiness.
My adherence to “the bounds of holiness” is a reaction to being raised in a “minute-by-minute obedience” that was absent of God’s actual presence or voice to obey. I was taught that God’s will for my life was a railroad - you have to stay on the rails or else you will catastrophically destroy his plan and miss your destiny. Obey minute-by-minute, or else!
Threats aren’t exactly the best way to make a good and loving God’s presence known to children… so I found him in the freedom of living within boundaries. And now I suspect that His will for my life is more like a Google Maps route - make a wrong turn? Nbd, now you’re just going to take a route that is more or less scenic/dangerous/timely. 90% of the roads you turn on still lead to your destination, and you’ll probably find something valuable for the journey. Not that your choices can’t have catastrophic consequences, just that there are far fewer of those choices available to you if you generically stick to roads of holiness :)
Where on the spectrum of God’s will do you fall - obeying minute-by-minute directives, or walking within the lines of holiness? Is his will for your life a strict rail line? Or something else?
Tell me about your experiences with surrender, and consider playing a game of minutes with God this week,
-Beth
