Sunday, March 18, 2018

The Both/And Life


March 18 (Colossians 1:28-29)


Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.  (ESV)


Jesus is both divine and human, yet He is one person.  God Himself eternally exists as three persons, yet one essence, meaning we worship one God, not three.  In other words, everything we know about God involves both/and.  Is it any wonder, then, that we, who are created in His image, must also live both/and lives?  Is it any surprise, too, that Satan tries to wreck our lives by getting us to think in either/or terms?

Take, for example, how we go about our daily existence.  Some tend to do it all on their own, whereas others want to do nothing and let Jesus handle everything.  Now look at how Paul approached the most important work of his or any Christ-follower’s life.  His job was to proclaim the gospel of Jesus, to warn and to teach, to present back to God everyone he met as a mature Christian.  How does he do it?  He works hard at it.  He toils and struggles, but he does so with the energy that God Himself was using to bring that very toil and struggle to fruition.  He lived a both/and life.

One of the most difficult aspects of being a Christian is to live the both/and life.  It is a tension, but it is a beautiful and mysterious tension, one that causes us to keep our hands stretched in two different directions, which is an incredibly hard thing to do.  Just ask Jesus about His experience at Calvary.

Jesus, the more I go along in this life of following You, the less I seem to understand.  I used to think I had it all together, but then I realize that I’m just kidding myself and others.  Help me not to overthink things.  Help me not to force my faith into a formula or try to do it all on my own.  Help me to live the both/and life, toiling and struggling with all the energy that You powerfully work in me.  Amen.


Copyright © 2018 by Steven R. Perkins

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