In various articles over the past few months I’ve spoken a lot about purpose; pursuing our higher calling and the process of becoming. It wasn’t until bible study tonight that I realized there’s more to becoming than just the pursuit of purpose....there is also the abandonment of comfort and conventional thinking.
In class we discussed John 2, most specifically verses 4 & 5. Everyone has heard of Jesus’ first miracle - turning water into wine, but tonight we heard a very new perspective on the recollection. The Pastor spoke about Jesus’ knowledge of what His purpose was on this earth, knowing that not long after being called to lead, He would be called to die.
That got me thinking. In this discussion about actualizing purpose, we’ve spoken of various obstacles to becoming, but we have failed to address the first step - the process of unbecoming.
A great deal of what makes the actualizatuon of purpose so difficult is not the pursuit itself. No calling is easy, but what truly makes it hard are all of the burdens, baggage and beliefs that we take with us along the journey.
I posted earlier today that ‘my worst enemy is my memory’. Though I posted it with a particular person in mind, it is absolutely true for each and every one of us - Jesus included. The human mind possesses the uncanny ability to encase memories (good and bad) within a steel vault, for recall with OR without our permission.
Some would have you believe that Jesus perhaps doubted His power and wasn’t sure that He COULD perform the miracles that He would be called to perform. I prefer a line of thinking that would have us to understand the underlying humanness of Christ during His walk on this earth. True, He was void of stain and sin, but nowhere in the Bible is He portrayed as void of emotion. As such, no matter how He worked to overcome it, his unavoidable crucifixion must have been in the forefront of his mind.
This was God in MAN. He had a family - mother, brothers, a whole life, before He stood to take His rightful place in this world. He knew the task that had been set before Him. In order to fulfill the Will of God, He had to lay everything down, including His life. For Him, there was no turning back.
I think that’s where we often get caught up. Our past experiences and the memories thereof haunt us in a way that nothing else can. Our memories are the only things that are present before us at all times. So, when you hear a word from God, oftentimes, before you act on it, memories creep in to warn you of so many reasons why you shouldn’t act on that word. You start to recall all of the times you’ve been hurt, rejected, disappointed, or all the times that things just plain didn’t go your way. Before long, you’ve talked yourself clear out of alignment with Gods’ will and back into the comfort of your own foolishness.
You abandon purpose for the humdrum of your everyday life, thinking that the devil you know is safer than the devil you don’t, when the reality is that both devils are the same. The purpose is to deter you from pursuit of the promises of God - not because you can’t attain them, but because you can.
The Bible says that the enemy comes but to steal, kill and destroy, and we often forget that HE USES US to do that. He uses the hurtful and sometimes hateful acts of others to steal us of our joy and hope. He uses the memories of that/those instance(s) to kill the vision that God gave us for our lives, and he plants a seed that WE ALLOW TO TAKE ROOT, and destroy ourselves.
Yes, the pursuit of and actualization of purpose can get pretty uncomfortable, BUT IT WONT KILL YOU! The only person whose purpose was to die was Jesus and He did so willingly. We should all try to remember that as we fight to remain devoted to the process of unbecoming.
Follow Me as I Follow God
@RevealingRuth
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