Last week I wrote about a Podcast[1]
that I listened to that talked about how the priorities of aviation can share
the priorities of that of ministry.
These are simply to:
1.
Aviate (properly fly the plane), then to
2.
Navigate (determine how to get to your
destination and get there), and after those two priorities have been met then
we can
3.
Communicate (radio others about what is
happening out here)
Today I am going to discuss the second priority of
aviation – Navigating and my Christian
faith.
Last week I assessed myself and asked the question, am I
really a Christian[2]. After establishing that I indeed was a
Christian through my faith in the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ I now want
to assess if I am navigating this Christian life properly.
I always struggle with this as there are many voices in
my head that attempt to guide and direct me.
I am the king of justifying my decisions and opting to do what I think
is right and “good”. Even when I read
the scriptures about what was done in history by the men and women of faith
before me, I really am left wide open to much interpretation in what I think God
is communicating to me. So knowing
myself I have developed a more simple method of understanding the direction of
God in my life. I allow the Spirit of
God to guide me directly through the scriptures, my fellow Christians, my mind,
and my heart.
Generally I am guided by these two passages from
Scripture.
Matthew
22:35-40
35One of them,
an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36“Teacher,
which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37Jesus
replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like
it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 16:24-25
24Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever
wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow
me. 25For
whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.
When Jesus said that all of the
Law and Prophets hang on loving God and our neighbor he basically nullified the
necessity to have the 10 Commandments hanging on my living room wall. No longer was the goal to NOT murder, steal,
or lie but loving God was shown to be the actuality of loving my neighbor. For the separate ideas of loving God and
Neighbor are inseparably intertwined.
John verifies this when he writes:
1
John 4:20
“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a
brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and
sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”
In my understanding here the
epitome of loving God is in the action of loving my neighbor. This loving action then is not just a verbal
ascent. For the words of Jesus in
Matthew 16:24-25 are words of personal sacrifice: As Jesus sacrificed to save (love) me I am instructed
likewise to sacrifice myself in order to save (love) others (my
neighbors).
This is my general guidance in my
day-to-day life as a follower of Christ.
But for a more specific guidance I seek confirmation for what I believe the
Holy Spirit has put on my heart and mind by my spouse, Christian friends who
pray with me, or other things that seem almost coincidental (but are actually
in direct response to specific prayer for guidance) and most of the time my
decisions are directly confirmed by my wife who has prayed for specificity as
well.
When I put it all together I know
that God is leading me when my self-interested humanity is fighting against
what I believe He is leading me to. This
may sound funny but it is true. When, in
the past, I was happy to do what I believed God was calling me to, I discovered
that it was not God at all but my own sense of accomplishing what I wanted and
convinced myself of what God wanted too.
So navigating this Christian life
is learning to be directed by the Holy Spirit.
It’s not a simple three-step process but the intricate nuance that is
only known through the real and living relationship with God through Jesus our savior.
And it must be noted that this is how I
navigate personally. It is unique in my
personal relationship with Jesus and may not look like your own navigational
method. I would like to think that my way
can be easily transferable to others but it would be foolish of me to think
that other Christians are not likewise unique in their own relationships with
our God.
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