Practice what He preaches

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Colossians 3:12-13 NIV

This post may seem a bit random, but I am struggling with a couple of topics and as God would have it, they are covered in consecutive verses. So, it may seem scatter-brained to you, but I just want to work out a conversation I am having with myself and God.

In the last few weeks, I have realized that I am an old man. A couple of months ago I somehow hurt both feet and at times can barely walk. I say somehow because I have no idea how it happened, just woke up one day walking like a zombie. I find myself watching the news and longing for the way things were “back in my day”. My job is also a struggle right now. It is not an industry wide phenomenon, just a prolonged slump for me personally. I guess I am in the midst of what I am thinking of as a season of testing.

In spite of it, I feel like I am exactly where God intended. I think I am doing the very thing God put me on earth to do. I have peace. But have you ever just been tired? Right now I am, physically and spiritually. I have been wondering if maybe I have a flat spot in my heart, sort of like a wheel that is out of balance. It turns, but it wobbles. Maybe God is working on me in some area. I am searching.

Colossians 3:12 tells us that “as God’s chosen people” we are to “clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” That is not an accurate description of how we seem to be clothed right now. It is not a universal problem with every person, just a prevailing trend with a lot of people. Everyone seems either pretty tired of being alone or scared to look up. Those two combined are isolating forces. If we cannot go to church, we miss the weekly fill up that Sunday often provides. I think we are drifting a bit because of that.

Maybe I am the one who has drifted. I see people having less patience for each other. Maybe it is just me having less patience. We are also told to be “kind, humble and gentle”. How do we do that in an atmosphere that hates anything that varies from our own train of thought? If I were not a Christian, I think it would be hard to be attracted to faith by all of the arguing over minutia. If we cannot improve on silence, maybe we shouldn’t try to.

So as I am thinking about this today I realized that the verse in Colossians 3:13 was going to trip me up. If I see a Christian brother arguing about something that I consider to be pointless, I have not been very forgiving of that. I have been thinking for a couple of weeks about people being wrong for arguing. It dawned on me today that if I stayed away from social media, I would not even be aware of the arguing. If I stopped watching the news, maybe I would not be so tired of it.

I have been my own worst enemy. I have not been filling my idle thoughts with forgiveness. The bible tells us that we are to grow to be more like Jesus. The truth is that I cannot actually become Him. Maybe the fatigue that I feel is caused by the fact that I am running like I am on a four-lane highway when I should be going for a walk on a simple path. I need to practice what He preaches.

Why do I confuse the battle? Struggling with spiritual fatigue is usually caused by spiritual misalignment. I should know better.

Why does it take me so long to recognize being out of alignment and get back to following Him?

Challenge: I think I am emotionally strong, but I confuse that with being faithfully reliant on Him. I have not wavered on purpose, I just sometimes have trouble recognizing the slow drift.

Rick Claiborn