Coming In Out of the Wind

It comes the very moment you wake up each morning.  All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. - C.S. Lewis

My first job each morning starts with resisting the temptation to check my phone for messages and notifications from those halfway around the world.  It's also shoving back all the cobwebs formed by the night's forboding thoughts; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.

My first job becomes my all-day job moment-by-moment throughout the day.  It's standing back from all my natural fussings and fretting; coming in out of the wind.  Coming out of the wind of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language (Colossians 3:8).  

And letting the larger, stronger, quieter life of tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience come flowing in. And making allowance for each other's faults, forgiving anyone who offends me by remembering that the Lord forgave me (Colossians 3:12-13).

Letting God work at the right part of us is hard work.  When He said, "Be perfect", He meant it.  It means not settling for a compromise but going in for the full treatment of putting on my new nature, and being renewed as I learn to know my Creator and become like Him (Colossians 3:10). 

- Commonplaces visits C.S. Lewis' The Business of Heaven: Daily Readings