Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Fruit of the Spirit - Part 7 GENTLENESS

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against these things!                        Galatians 5:22-23

Gentleness is never to be confused with a lack of strength or resolve.  Rather it is just the opposite; gentleness is the strength to not react badly, but to receive others, faults and all.  There were more than a few times that must have pushed Jesus’ gentle nature to the limit.  The disciples could be fiercely loyal to Jesus, but they bordered on being spiritually bi-polar.  Simon Peter would see the divine in Christ one day and lie like a newly elected politician saving his hide the next day.  James and John loved Jesus but tried to leap-frog over their fellow disciples by asking Jesus to make them King no.2 and 3 when He got to the throne.  Of course, we all remember Judas’ kiss was a betrayal, not friendly at all!  Gentleness sees faults like these as teachable moments to bring health and strength into the lives of others; to bring out the best qualities, not scorch the ground with retribution.
But, sometimes bringing up those higher qualities may require a little heat.  When our youngest child, Carrie, was about 6 or 7 she was allowed to go to her friend, Amber’s house, just around the block from our place.  Carrie was a very cooperative child, always listening to Mom and Dad; but sometimes she would forget.  One such time she had been at Amber’s after school having a great time and she lost track of the time.  By the time she arrived back home the streetlights had already come on against the coming nightfall.  Carrie came skipping up our street in the approaching darkness, so carefree and happy, even though she was well-past the dusk curfew.  It was not until she reached our side door that she saw the grim reaper (me), standing, arms crossed, scowl strategically in-place on my face.  She looked up at her towering executioner and gulped:  I’m dead meat!
To this day I’m not at all sure how I managed to keep that stern look when my insides wanted to burst with laughter.  The good news is that our daughter endured the obligatory week’s grounding for missing her curfew with grace and contrition; lesson learned!
Now, this begs the question of how God is gentle, or can be described as gentle, when we experience such unhappy things sometimes.  It’s my conviction that the reason God doesn’t let us off the hook when we’ve lost track of who we are, and how we’re supposed to behave, is that sometimes we must go through the darkness before we see the light.  That may border on glib, or triteness, but it makes sense, nonetheless.  We learn best when we experience the consequences of our actions.  God may rescue us in the severest of consequences, because He doesn’t want us lost…but when we do dumb stuff, or trivial selfish things, we will often have to feel that isolation, that dead-meatness of the circumstance which we create. 
Mother was right after all, the bed you make is the one you will sleep in!
For You Today
God’s gentle ways will help us through our foolishness, and even our rebellion.  But, it’s a good thing to remember that he wants us to be that way towards the foolish and rebellious people in our lives as well.
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com  
             Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©

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