A conclusion I keep coming back to is: I can’t change yesterday and, while I may have grandiose ideas about tomorrow, the only thing I can really affect is today, the here and now. And so I need every moment today to be a scream of consciousness. I need to “be here now.” I need my every waking moment to be a prayer: Lord, what would you have me do?
This musing brought me to Colossians, Chapter 3, which some texts title, “Put on the new self.”
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
“Put on, then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience … and above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
These passages describe the “new man” that we are in Christ, and it’s a constant process that needs to be renewed every day. I was baptized into this new life 43 years ago, and I continue battling that old man every day, discovering every few days that the best path is seeking the peace of Christ but veering off that course anyway.
We like to believe that we are complex creatures, but we’re really pretty simple, seeking comfort and easy answers.
We like to believe answers have to be complex and can only be resolved after much study, but the answer is as simple as what Paul wrote to the Colossians — put on the new self and leave that old selfish brute behind.
It seems to be foreign to our nature; even after 43 years it can be a daily fight. The victory is only won through the grace of God, isn’t it?
