Stand Up Straight - Part 3

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Peterson, Jordan B. 12 Rules for Life: an antidote to chaos. Great Britain: Penguin Random House, 2018. Rule 1: Stand Up Straight with Your Shoulders Back – part 1 pp. 23-30

Opening Thought: We wrap up our first rule by looking at two pieces of Peterson’s thought. The first piece, from my understanding, is about finding a balance in one’s confidence. To do this well, there is a certain level of responsibility in recognizing the monsters within oneself and, also, standing up to the monsters in the world. You must be willing to bear teeth, in a world that wants to tear you down. This may seem like a pessimistic view, but it is sadly a truth we know too well. Peterson notes the reality of bullying, how even little children can go to dark places in the pursuit to assert dominance. Just as children need to learn to stand up for themselves to prevent the tyranny of a bully looking to oppress them, adults too need to stand up and be willing to push back too. The interesting thing about Peterson is that he equates the internal strength, needed to push back against the harsh realities of the world, with the inner monster in all of us. Sometimes we need to come to terms with the full arsenal of tools that the good Lord has given us. Sometimes those tools are the more aggressive traits. If someone is attacking us, physically, we need the monster inside to help us to fight against our oppressors. When we see injustice, or harm being done to the innocent, it should stir in us an anger or hatred against the darkness in the world. The very same internal protocol that teaches the animals instinctively to stand and fight for a home and/or their offspring, can inspire in us a beast that can roar against evil and injustice. But to be able to find the strength to let the beast roar; allowing our internal monster to fight for us, we must come to terms with the fact that without restraint on our inner monsters, they can also end up fighting against us and God’s ultimate call for morality, and we too could become the tyrants.

The second piece is simple – come to terms with the harsh reality of life and rise up to meet the challenge of it.

Opening Prayer: Gracious God, helps us to find the strength to stand up straight with our shoulders back. Welcoming the day and challenge of life with open arms, keen senses, and the wisdom to discern the days demands. Let us walk with confidence in our faith, but with a humility guiding our steps. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Reflection: One of the things I have always found interesting about Peterson’s work overall, is his willingness to look at humanity as having a great potential for malevolence. He doesn’t assume that this malevolence is a rare occurrence either, that only some people have it, rather he assumes we all have this potential inside us. So how do we avoid becoming a horrible monster, when sometimes we need to play to the games of a world of monsters to survive. This is in essence a theological question. How can fallen people, living in a fallen world, ever hope to live out a “good” life. When I say good, I use it in two ways, first, mean prosperous, a life that has a balance of work, meaning, and pleasure. And the second use, meaning morally good, so that we obtain this balance without falling to malevolence, evil, or tyranny. This in many ways is like trying to walk on the edge of a knife. This challenge of finding this balance is even more troublesome if at this point in your life you have never been able to find a level of confidence where you feel you can begin to grapple with the moral dilemma. This is where the second piece, which I mentioned earlier, really comes into play. Sometimes the first step in finding the confidence is just adopting it. You choose the confidence which you do not yet possess. This is not far off from the idea of moral living. No one is morally perfect, but you adopt a life of morality, and you seek it despite your moral imperfection. No one finds a perfect morality in one instance, like tripping over a stone and suddenly finding themselves to be a good person. They must claim morality as an internal goal, welcoming Christ to renew their fallen nature into a Christ nature, only once they claimed morality as something important to hold and try the hardest to live up to - will they begin to be transformed by it. Confidence is the same way, we must claim confidence, and let it transform us, by living up to its ideal.

Now the biggest challenge is living up to moral confidence, to a Christ-like confidence, knowing that in Christ we are made whole, and by claiming that, wanting it, and doing everything to live up to it, that is when the grace within the experience will transform us, and we will find a new a greater capacity in ourselves through the power of the moral confidence of God’s Son.     

Scripture Brought to Mind: Hebrews 10:35-36

Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

Life for the early church was no walk in the park. The ruling classes did not approve; thus, imprisonment, execution, and torture were not out of the possible consequences to be faced. In addition, converts were often rejected by families who did not see the value in the Christian life. How could anyone find the confidence to live a life of faith. Well, faith itself was a strength by which these early people found the confidence to press forward. Faith in a witness, of the resurrection of Christ, the power of his ministry, and the transformative strength of his gospel message. They took into faith the reason, will, and experience of Christ and his teachings and found a new anchor in life. When the early church came to terms with the fact that God was reaching into their lives to pull them forward through life. Even through hardship, they discovered a greater truth to their existence. The disciple and their journeys were a part of God’s plan.

They understood that their conflicts to survive the physical world, were not conflicts in vain, but rather battles to which all of God's glory would continue to be shared through time and space. If that knowledge of being an active part of God’s plan for the world doesn’t put a spring in your step and grant you a sturdy spiritual backbone, I don’t know what will.

Continual Work: Stand Up Straight with Your Shoulders Back: enough said. Get to it!

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: I like this as the first rule set out by Peterson, it tells you right from the beginning, that this is not a quick self-help scheme, it is an aggressive self-actualization and accountability. I’m going to carry this forward.

Prayer for your week: God, help us this week, awaken us to the strength you have placed within us. You have given us the moral law, written upon our hearts, you have given us the event of the Cross, salvation to catch us when we fall. So, breathe into us the confidence to carry your Gospel forward and share the good news about your Son. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Artistic Close: Another way to think about faith, confidence and morality is that they are all like muscles in our spirits. We need to work at them for them to grow. But you cannot expect them to grow without using them first. Spiritual growth means you pay the bill first and then you get to witness the benefit. So, get out there and live the Christian life and you will see it transform you, in your faith, confidence and morality.

Source: https://www.rawpixel.com/image/474020/fit-black-man-working-out