On sublimating myself to God
Submitted by d on April 12 1999 at 18:50:09
In reply to A brief question... Submitted by Tygyr on April 11 1999 at 19:40:46
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>How do you justify (if you do) sublimating your own self in favour of someone else's ideal? Because when I don't I live to regret it. Seriously, a few times in the last few years I've deliberately and knowingly told God to "bug off" in a particular part of my life (the details varied each time) & told Him I was going to do {whatever} my way. He put stumbling blocks in my path and I knew good and well that God was giving me an "out." But I kept saying "my way" and eventually God let me have it my way. After I did it "my way" I wished I had listened to God and not been so stubborn. The only good that came of these episodes were 1) the aftermath drove me closer to God (being forgiven tends to do that for me) and 2) it made me able to better relate to others who have gone down this road also, or who are in the middle of going down this road. Note that the {whatever} is unimportant, it is the "I know, God, what you want me to do & I want to do the opposite and I'm going to do it so there!" attitude that was important. These "few times" are (I hope) completely past me [not terribly likely] or [much more likely] decreasing in frequency. Note that in my case it wasn't a complete rebellion, it was more like a teenager who loves his parents obeying (or sincerely trying to obey) them in all ways EXCEPT insisting on staying out past curfew or some other single "hot" issue for the parent. -d (david_tx on IRC) |