Yesterday, I encountered Natasha again. She rather nervously submitted to the whole routine of the milking process. I might have detected a slight touch of aroma of special sauce on her, but I can't say definitively that I did. Maybe my advice to her to act in a way that will allow her to stay far from the Golden Arches was taken to heart. Anyway...Natasha has sparked a good deal of conversation with you all. Natasha reminds us of ourselves, and the people around us.
One of my observations about Christians is that we create a God that we like; a paradigm with which we are comfortable. Most of us have an image of God that falls into two opposing viewpoints. (1) God is like a benevolent grandparent that smiles on us regardless of what we do, or (2) God is a distant judge with a big stick just waiting for us to step out of line so that He can punish us. Neither paradigm aligns with the revelation of God in the scriptures.
In the scripture, we find the concept of love and discipline deeply intertwined. We cannot separate the two. The book of Hebrews speaks of the discipline of God, of the purpose of the discipline, of the pain and of the benefits. One of the things that bothers me deeply is seeing Christians resisting God's discipline, choosing instead to go their own way, doing their own thing. I can say with certainty - they will never be fruitful, productive, or truly fulfilled until they submit to the hand of God. They are destined to be wanderers, aimlessly drifting through life without purpose. They will be complainers, victims, forever blaming others, never taking responsibility for their own actions.
God disciplines us for the purpose of dealing with the issues that keep us from experiencing abundant life. His love compels Him to target the things that hold us back from fulfilling His good plans for us. Yet far too frequently, we resist the parameters of the discipline, disconnecting from God in the process. I understand the difficulty of God's discipline. However it is the only path to abundant life.
Natasha has begun to submit to the protocol for a healthy productive life in the herd. Yesterday it was still obvious that she didn't really want to submit but she did. She was a bit nervous, uneasy in our interaction. Yet she never lifted a foot during the milking process. I am encouraged about her future!
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The illusion here is that Natasha is giving up control. While talking with a friend, it was revealed to me that this is not the case. My friend said "Nothing happens in my life that I do not allow." Which at first everything in me rebelled against this. But God does not impose His will on the unwilling. When we are reacting in fear, selfishness, or pain, we are actually allowing those things to control us. So by trying to remain "in control" we are actually losing the control. So when bad things happen did I actually allow that to happen? I won't ignore that in some cases the answer is yes. Sometimes, things happen as a result of our illusion of controlling our lives, when in truth we are the ones being controlled by outside influences. In some cases bad things happen to us for no obvious reason. BUT if we allow the circumstances to affect our choices or attitudes, we are losing control to the problem. Compare James 1:5,6. The truth here is that when we give up our illusion of control, we are more in control than we ever were before. That is discipline.
Jesus spoke about this - if anyone seeks to save his life he will lose it. If anyone loses his life, he will find it.
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