Some Are Set and Some Are Not

Some Are Set and Some Are Not (1,151)

May 19th, 2011

Somerset, Wisconsin—my latest stopover on my journey. It is located on the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin. Candidly, lots of people are located on borders somewhere in their lives. We are all positioned between two worlds—one a realm of tradition and responsibility and the other the natural urging toward adventure. If we remain indecisive about where to situate ourselves and build a home between those two forces, we experience some level of trauma.

To me, the choice is plain and simple—whether to go with what I know or to go with the show.

Let me begin by saying that I was infused with information from birth to the present about how someone of my culture, status, gender and ability is supposed to conduct himself. Yet how am I supposed to react when the events coming my way that appear to demand my evolution?

So when I present my programs, I understand this skirmish going on inside every human being. Bluntly, spiritual truths do not always “snap in” well with cultural acceptability. Just the precepts of “loving your neighbor,” “praying for those who despitefully use you” and “turning the other cheek” are enough to upset the apple cart in our common marketplace.

So what do we do? Jesus said, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

There are just some folks who are set. They are sure of what they believe, what they are, where they live and where they’re going. It seems right to them and they have no intention of being swayed from their sense of correctness. They aren’t bad people—but often their choices do not lend themselves to abundant life. And more often than not, they are highly critical of those who failed to find the same path to righteousness. So the benefit they could afford to their fellow-humans is tainted by their own sense of completeness.

Honestly, my dear, sweet friends, there is little I can do for such folks. Jesus, himself, walked away from the mission of trying to unearth the cemented. He said he was going to sinners—to “call them to repentance.” After all, repentance is not only impossible, but actually seems unnecessary if you have determined that you are righteous.

On the other hand, people who are dissatisfied with the “status quo” are able to be motivated to the status “go.” But this requires that you accept your present position as a sinner—someone who has fallen short of the true, glorious potential that God envisioned for mankind. And that demands that you succumb to the reality that you are not right. If you escape the sense of surety, you are then free to adjust your lifestyle, culture, beliefs and thinking to where the show of the spirit is going instead of what you have been instructed to know.

This is why we are led of the spirit instead of merely taught by the spirit. We need the spirit in every moment to show us the wisdom of the correct choice instead of merely what Moses, David or the Apostle Paul might have thought.

You don’t have to agree with that. Some of you won’t. Some of you have found your “sense of right” and you are completely satisfied with your choices. God bless you.

But there are those who will not just “move on what they know”—but will “go with the show.” I am one of them. Of the options open in our universe of solid, liquid and gas, I am presently an emotional liquid, trying to become a spiritual gas. I respect those of you who are solid and righteous—but I am not called to teach you, share with you, or maybe even worship with you. If you already know what’s right, why would you need me? (Of course, a case could be made that if you already know what’s right, why would you need God?)

As Jesus said, he was not called to the righteous, but to sinners.

So some are set and some are not. And if you are set in your righteousness, please feel free to see it through to a conclusion. For after all, it will play out in the end.

But for me, I’m going to go with the show—and see where the movement and the blowing of the spirit takes me. It may not be as predictable as you like things. But after all, like most humans, I require a certain amount of adventure.