“His ways are not our ways”
i was working in the temple this morning
listening to a training about speaking as little as possible
to the patrons, (which is hard to do since we are taught speaking = friendliness),
allowing for the spirit to guide
when she said
“His ways are not our ways”
and then she moved on
but i didn’t
this phrase has stayed with me all day
my first thought was oh yeah that is true
and then i thought
but why?
and it’s obvious that we are human and imperfect
and He is eternal and perfect
then i thought but isn’t that we are striving for?
to become as He is, to “become perfected in him”
how can i do this if my ways remain my ways and not His ways?
isn’t that crucial to becoming like He is?
to adapt His ways,
to strive to live as He lived
to reverence the things of God and to love our neighbors
but not merely to do this on the plain of our earthly experience
but to strive to do this on an eternal plain
why can’t we do this now on earth?
why do we have to wait to be old or to die to adapt His ways into our lives?
these questions are glaring
they began as a whisper, a thought and now they are all i can think of
it brings me back to the talk in conference by jeffrey r. holland
his talk describes Christ’s meeting with peter after he was crucified,
the disciples, not knowing how to proceed, went back to fishing
(what they had been doing before Christ gathered them)
Christ finds them there and asks Peter three times
“Peter do you love me?”
and Peter answers; “Lord,..thou knowest that i love thee”
quoting pres. holland;
“To which Jesus responded (and here again I acknowledge my nonscriptural elaboration),
perhaps saying something like: “Then Peter, why are you here?
Why are we back on this same shore, by these same nets,
having this same conversation? Wasn’t it obvious then and isn’t it obvious
now that if I want fish, I can get fish?
What I need, Peter, are disciples—and I need them forever.
I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs. I need someone to
preach my gospel and defend my faith. I need someone who loves me,
truly, truly loves me, and loves what our Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do.
Ours is not a feeble message. It is not a fleeting task.
It is not hapless; it is not hopeless;
it is not to be consigned to the ash heap of history.
It is the work of Almighty God, and it is to change the world.
So, Peter, for the second and presumably the last time,
I am asking you to leave all this and to go teach and testify, labor and serve loyally
until the day in which they will do to you exactly what they did to me.
Then, turning to all the Apostles, He might well have said something like:
“Were you as foolhardy as the scribes and Pharisees?
As Herod and Pilate?
Did you, like they, think that this work could be killed simply by killing me?
Did you, like they, think the cross and the nails and the tomb were the end of it all
and each could blissfully go back to being whatever you were before?
"Children, did not my life and my love touch your hearts more deeply than this?”
My beloved brothers and sisters, I am not certain just what our experience will be on Judgment Day,
but I will be very surprised if at some point in that conversation,
God does not ask us exactly what Christ asked Peter:
“Did you love me?”
I think He will want to know if in our very mortal, very inadequate,
and sometimes childish grasp of things, did we at least understand one commandment,
the first and greatest commandment of them all—
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.”
And if at such a moment we can stammer out,
“Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee,”
then He may remind us that the crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty.
“If ye love me, keep my commandments,” Jesus said.
So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend.
We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do.
In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord.
We can’t quit and we can’t go back.
After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before.
The Crucifixion, Atonement, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ mark the beginning of a Christian life,
not the end of it.
It was this truth, this reality, that allowed a handful of Galilean fishermen-turned-again-Apostles
without “a single synagogue or sword” to leave those nets a second time
and go on to shape the history of the world in which we now live.”
.......
”Your Father in Heaven expects your loyalty and your love at every stage of your life.”
"To all within the sound of my voice
the voice of Christ comes ringing down through the halls of time,
asking each one of us while there is time,
“Do you love me?”
And for every one of us, I answer with my honor and my soul,
“Yea, Lord, we do love thee.”
And having set our “hand to the plough,”
we will never look back until this work is finished
and love of God and neighbor rules the world.”
how can i ever be the same?
how can i go back to merely "fishing"?
i haven't found this answer yet, i'm content to serve, ponder, pray and listen till perhaps one day;
my ways will no longer be mine but His ways
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