Rubbing the sleep from my eyes

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Romans 13: 11-14

 I am pretty sure that that most of us are would be surprised to see quarreling and jealously ranked right up there with sexual orgies as works of darkness. But I totally get it, since my life is quite filled up with the quarreling and not so much with the orgies and drunkenness.  

And really, I imagine that orgies and drunkenness result in bad headaches the next morning and maybe stained furniture and sticky trash to be taken out, but after a good scrub and a long nap, the residue is sort of washed away. 

But quarrels. Yikes. They drag on forever and can poison every interaction and sneak into all of those loose thoughts and drive people away from our Lord and Savior, or at the very least, poison His body into settling into being ineffectual puddles of sludge rather than being fresh flowing rivers of Life. 

No provision for the flesh. No distractions. Every moment is to be lived in what is good and pleasing and perfect. To walk in the light as He is in the light. And Nicole is putting together this manual for the book Do What Jesus Did and we talked about whether she should include this big fat checklist of things that hold us captive to help sort through lives and look for footholds for the Accuser to stand upon or whether we should simply sit quietly in His presence and give Him free rein to wander through our mind and heart and body and look for wicked ways, but either way the point is No Excuses. 

And every person has their favorite finger-pointing stance. In the opposite direction, whether it be violent video games or unforgivenness. Political intrigues or yoga. Ambition or Magic Eight Ball. So I am not so much in favor of lists. Because they can be distractions in and of themselves and sort of smack of smug look what I can do-ness. But it’s not me. It Him.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Bind that little What Would Jesus Do band around my wrist and His words shall be as frontlets between mine eyes: Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. And the second is likewise: love your neighbor as yourself.

And nothing else.