Life’s stage

The stage of humanity seems to be set. Here I am, dropped onto this stage with my life, my flesh and my choice. The drama unfolds as I embark on life’s journey which must be lived out sequentially, one second after another, until the story has completely unfolded. On this journey I will be tested. The purpose of the test is to see how I will cast my choice. Will I cast it toward God, or elsewhere? To assist in the test (and to ensure that it is particularly challenging) my life has been inseparably wrapped in flesh; a strange device this flesh. It senses things like pain, pleasure, odor, taste, touch, sound. These senses will either bring me pleasure or discomfort. On top of that, this flesh comes with a built in urge to care for itself. This is probably it most annoying feature. Left to its own, it will seek to promote itself in some sort of “survival” mode. From this we get things like greed and lust. It is a dirty business playing this role wrapped in flesh. But, God promises that it can be done. He has also provided a helper, the Holy Spirit, to assist. The challenge seems to grow in complexity when you discover that other peoples flesh is having an impact on your own. You may have yours under control, but countless others have given themselves over to it like they are being held hostage. This is because the flesh, when it feels pleasure, is the most addictive drug on the planet. Urges turn inward and the flesh will do anything to get what it wants. Unfortunately, I have to deal with those in this state. Unfortunately, I find that, in survival mode, my flesh tends to react to their flesh and now my job is more difficult. Multiply this times every person I come in contact with and now you have the big picture.

If we look into our own heart and break away from those influences motivated by the fleshes desire to survive, and then we can begin to cast our choices toward God. If we feed our flesh’s desires, then we make it stronger and harder to over power. If we look to our heart and manage our lives from that point, our flesh (as a by product) will weaken to the point that it will be rendered powerless in our lives. The Holy Spirit will help us to sort through our hearts to find connections to the flesh and remove them. Sometimes, the flesh is so convincing in its seduction of us that we fall under its spell like a sirens song. The Holy Spirit is capable of knowing what is real and true and what a seductive lie is. Once we can sort this out, the Holy Spirit also assists us in removing the flesh’s influence in our heart. Once the heart is clear of the flesh we can cast our choices with abandon and keep the flesh where it belongs. Where is that you say? The flesh is the carrying case for my life. It should be treated with care as a valuable asset and managed meticulously. It is a wonderful, awesome and dangerously complicated machine. Handle with care steward or it will rot your soul. It is your choice.