07 November 2010
Faith before Feelings
11/12/10 07:25 AM Filed in: From the Pastor
God,
I keep wanting to invert the order.
Feelings before faith.
But, faith doesn't work that way, does it?
Oh, now and then you ambush us, you surprise us
with an unexpected awareness of Your presence.
But, by and large, it's faith before feelings,
motion before meaning, acts before reality.
I keep forgetting this.
My empty acts grow old or I begin to worship the act,
or make it the end,
to let the motions become the only meaning.
Help me to find a balance between the two;
that middle ground where motions have meaning,
but are not the ultimate meaning.
To act fully, freely, yet without worshiping the act.
To use the act and be used by the act
but always knowing that You are not the act.
That it is not the end but just a way which,
if followed long enough, will lead to You.
I keep wanting to invert the order.
Feelings before faith.
But, faith doesn't work that way, does it?
Oh, now and then you ambush us, you surprise us
with an unexpected awareness of Your presence.
But, by and large, it's faith before feelings,
motion before meaning, acts before reality.
I keep forgetting this.
My empty acts grow old or I begin to worship the act,
or make it the end,
to let the motions become the only meaning.
Help me to find a balance between the two;
that middle ground where motions have meaning,
but are not the ultimate meaning.
To act fully, freely, yet without worshiping the act.
To use the act and be used by the act
but always knowing that You are not the act.
That it is not the end but just a way which,
if followed long enough, will lead to You.