Don't Worry 'Bout It:

SOMETHING  TO THINK ABOUT Generally speaking each STTA is a stand alone.  This one, however is the last of a series of four.  You might want to go hereand read the last three STTAs, start with 1/14 and work back to yesterday.   "Aiming at nothing," and "Mission Creep," are ways of describing people or organizations who have no, or have lost their, direction.  "Rigid," "Inflexible," or "Suffering from hardening of the categories," describes others, on the other end of the spectrum, who fail to adapt to changing conditions. How do we maintain a balance between being flexible but lacking in core convictions, and being rigid about things concerning which we ought to flex?  I've been especially concerned about the end result of a life.  It's possible to be so blown by the wind that the end will reveal a result determined by external, often impersonal, and sometimes hostile, forces. Speaking to the Ephesians the Apostle Paul said, that mature Christians would not be, "tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine."  (Ephesians 4:14)  Yet an examination of the great Apostle's ministry indicates a remarkable flexibility.  See 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 for an example.  It is absolutely clear that Paul wanted to be effective, but above that he was committed to being faithful.  I need to make obedience to God the number one objective of my life.  Of course, in order to do that I have to understand the commands.  That is a life-long project.  As I live a life of obedience, I run into a lot of forces that would toss me here and there, and carry me about.  It may be to appropriate to adapt.  In fact there are times when obedience demands that I flex.  The Pharisees were not wrong because they kept the rules.  They erred because they kept too many rules, sometimes being blinded to essential, by an undue focus on peripheral matters. I should try to be effective, relevant, engaging, and useful, but I should never be any of those things if it means I must be disobedient to God.   There are a lot of things I face that I don't understand and can't control, but God does, so I must trust Him. So, after four days of musing, I find myself back in SundaySchool.  Mrs. Marsceau is holding up the flash cards to a song, "Trust and Obey, for their's not other way to be happy in Jesus, but to Trust and Obey. It's STTA.