In case anyone didn’t see Bonhoeffer in today’s Treasury reading (on the building of the church):
“It is a great comfort which Christ give to his church: you confess, preach, bear witness to me and I alone will build where it pleases me. Do not meddle in what is my province. Do what is given to you to do well and you have done enough. But do it well. Pay no heed to views and opinions. Don’t ask for judgments. Don’t always be calculating what will happen. Don’t always be on the lookout for another refuge!....Christ alone is your Lord; from his grace alone can you live as you are. Christ builds.”
(No time for further comment right now, except to note that it seems like I’m always chewing on (ruminating, as it were) that don’t always be calculating what will happen morsel—can’t quite seem to just swallow it and be done with it).
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I can't stop calculating either. At 36 weeks, it could be any minute or it could be in 6 weeks when I'm *strongly encouraged* to take an induction, as has been my track record. I have very little chance of getting my doctor; ergo very little control over what will happen once I enter the hospital. Birth plans aren't really taken seriously, in my experience.
"Do what is given to you to do well and you have done enough. But do it well. Pay no heed to views and opinions. Don’t ask for judgments."
I like that part too. Thanks!
Here is a full exposition of this point.
Amen and Amen! I really like this post, thanks.
By the way, Untamed Shrew, I too am 36 weeks on my first pregnancy so it's good to hear advice like not to take birth plans too seriously. That's how all of life should be - not taken too seriously!!
But if I weren't always calculating what will happen what wcould I think about?
"Do what is given to you to do ... but do it well."
Crud.
Living/working in a situation that we knew could be very temporary, or become permanent...
and currently being three weeks into it and not knowing which one that will be...
and that it might very well end three weeks from now or less...
and having no clue what we will do with ourselves and our worldly possessions if/when that time comes...
I find this to be particularly timely. Go figure.
But as I tell my nine children regularly, "Don't ask me if this, then that questions; not only do I not know what's happening next week, I don't even know what's happening tomorrow. We'll find out when we get there. In the meantime, I'm only thinking ahead the next five minutes; that's all I can handle."
Pam: Really, we all live (or should be living) in such daily dependence on our Lord and holding lightly of positions and possessions...it's only that some of us, like your family at the moment (!), are given such clear circumstantial vision to see it. Wow. God's peace!
Gauntlets: I frequently choke sputteringly on that little morsel too :P
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