“... work out your own
salvation...”
— Philippians 2:12 (NRSV)
God gives us one life to
work out—our own. We are responsible for no other life, unless we, for a time,
in somebody else’s life, are a guardian. We are only responsible for children
until they grow to be autonomous adults.
Now, there
are no answers in life other than what we, in our own lives, work out. God blesses an ongoing search, done
diligently. In fact, we regress in life when we don’t search.
Working out our lives or
not working them out is our choice and diligence finds its legs in taking
responsibility.
There is really no sense
in not working our lives out, because we are the only ones that suffer,
principally, apart from those who rely on us. And if those that rely on us
suffer because we aren’t diligent enough, whose true fault is it?
We can take responsibility
for these facts of life or we can choose to deny them. It doesn’t really
matter, but we are blessed to know that working out our lives is about applying
our faith. It’s about doing the work God sets us, by the challenges and
opportunities that come our way; those that proffer us toward blessing.
Working Out Life – Making Life Work Out
None of us are passive in
our own lives. Even if we are passive and we show little interest in leaving a
legacy of who we were in life we actively choose to do such a regretful thing.
We either choose to work
our lives out or we don’t—and many, tragically, don’t.
What it means to work our
lives out is we earnestly do what we can to make them fruitful exercises of
devotion to God, by discovering his will for both our moments and our overall
lives and then by doing that discerned will. It’s no good not
doing it.
We know when we are doing
this because our lives are all about growth and opportunity; we are always open
to what God is doing; we anticipate the challenges, or at least we receive them
without lasting resentment.
***
A large part of working
out our lives is also grappling with our pasts.
For every reason that we
deny our pain we miss our opportunities at healing. Healing is coming home to
the truth about our pain and emotional discomfort, in order that we can work
out our lives for the better all the more. Healing is a journey and it always
gets slowly better.
If we don’t grapple with
our pasts the potential for working out our lives will always be limited. The
past can be very important in terms of our future.
***
God gives us one life to
work out—our own. We have charge over our lives alone. We have to work with
what we have. Our lives are what they are, but they don’t have to remain the
way they are. We can have our lives work out however we want. It’s up to us.
© 2013 S. J. Wickham.
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