Tuesday, September 24, 2013

The fine line

Acting out of honest loyalty to his deepest convictions about God and his unfolding plan in history, Saul came to see that his whole take on God, himself, Israel and the Gentiles, and confidence in his moral zeal was wrong. (Ch. 1)

This is a tough one. On the one hand, we should have a sense of faith and assurance. One the other hand, we should be humble enough to admit that we might be wrong about some (or all?) things. How do those two reconcile with one another?

To me, it has a lot to do with the heart. I have talked to many people who (like Saul?) were very zealous about what they believed. But it seemed at times that it was more about being right than it was about following Jesus. Jesus said that we should have "ears to hear." So I think that within the element of faith there is also an element of humility that keeps us in line, examines our heart, and allows us to be attractive to others in the sense that those who want to hit them over the head with our "spirituality" or "be like me" mentality cannot do.

So Saul was able to question his belief system. Somewhere, deep inside of his being, he knew what he was doing did not match up with the truth of God. That had to be tough for him, because surely God was with him on his fast track to the top of Judiasm. What a change of heart, change of view, change of life. Am I strong enough to question mine? Are you?

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