Knowing is ONLY half the Battle
Monday, November 27, 2006
G.I. Joe had it right when they said, “Knowing is half the battle!” but they forgot the other part.
While knowing that something is good vs. bad, or advisable vs. ill-advised seems to be a good thing, it’s the not the end of the process in dealing with life’s issues. There is the part about ACTION that needs to follow the knowledge of right and wrong. Awareness is the beginning part. Action is the end part.
Why am I harping on this? This thought has been percolating through my head for almost a month now. I’m not sure what spawned it, but it’s been pretty persistent. Probaby because i’ve been trying to solve all of my life issues and am frustrated that I can’t seem to follow through with my own plans and solutions. I think it’s mostly because i thought that one would naturally follow the other. “If i KNOW better and am aware, then i will DO the right thing.” In the past, I always wondered why others couldn’t do that. I obviously didn’t see any glaring hypocrisy in my own life yet, was a little blind, if you will. As a result, i was very judgemental (not saying that i’m not *still* judgemental, but at least i’m aware...hahaha).
But really, why IS it so hard to do the “better” or “preferred” thing when you know what that is? Why can’t i keep my mouth shut when i want to get the last word in, even though i know that it will spawn another fight? Why do i lay down a “solution” for someone’s problem and then get upset when they don’t follow through? Why? I think that Paul wondered about this all the time.
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” ~ Romans 7:15-20 (NIV)
I guess it’s just part of our nature. If Paul had this issue, i’ve got no delusions of grandeur that i will be able to be better than him. So what are we supposed to do then?
Let me know what you think about this topic. Comment here!
(P.S. Hope you all had a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!)
Ah! BUT!
Paul says that it’s not you. That messed up, nasty ugly get-the-last-word character is the flesh - sin living in you. Kind of like a parasite.
Your heart is good, Kat!
Living from your heart is the damned hardest thing to do, because everything in this sad and sinful world is against that very thing. It tries to crush every attempt you make at exhibiting the true beauty that is your redeemed and new-made heart.
And Paul answers your question, by the way, in verse 24:
"Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
And keep on reading to the beauty that is Romans 8:
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus"
Which means, this whole struggle between your self (your good heart) and your flesh? Totally to be expected, and totally taken care of on the cross.
There is now no condemnation for you. This frees you to stop wasting energy beating yourself up and to focus on simply day-to-day living from your heart.
Woot! It’s like...Jesus knew what he was doing! Like...he understood what it was going to be like to try to walk with him, and he made all kinds of provision for our success!
Love you, kat. Miss you. Miss our talks about this stuff on our hellish commutes every day.
Posted by laura on 11/28 at 05:11 PMDepravity. That was the first word that I thought of after reading your post. We’re depraved humans—that’s why we need a Savior.
Funny...I read it soon after reading John Eldredge’s online devo yesterday. (I pasted it below.)
“Parents will often wonder where their toddlers learned to lie or how they came into the world so self-centered. It doesn’t need to be taught to them; it is inherent to human nature. Paul makes clear in Romans, “Sin entered the world through one man . . . through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners” (5:12, 19). Of course, I am simply restating the doctrine of original sin, a core tenet of Christianity essential to Scripture.
But that is not the end of the Story, thank God. The first Adam was only “a pattern of the one to come” (Rom. 5:14). He would foreshadow another man, the head of a new race, the firstborn of a new creation, whose life would mean transformation to those who would become joined to him: “For just as through the disobedience of the one man [Adam] the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man [Christ, the Last Adam] the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19).
A man comes down from heaven, slips into our world unnoticed, as Neo does in The Matrix, as Maximus does in Gladiator, as Wallace does in Braveheart. Yet he is no ordinary man, and his mission no ordinary mission. He comes as a substitute, a representative, as the destroyer of one system and the seed of something new. His death and resurrection break the power of the Matrix, release the prisoners, set the captives free. It is a historic fact. It really happened. And it is more than history. It is mythic in the first degree. Lewis said, “By becoming fact, it does not cease to be myth; that is the miracle.”
(From “Waking the Dead,” p.60)
My niece Sarah wasn’t taught how to hit his brother Matthew, nor was he taught how to hit her back, and kick her, too. They weren’t taught how to lie, or to pretend not to hear their parents calling them, and it goes on....
God knows that our heart is indeed good, and He’s not letting go of us just like that. He loved us so much that he sent Christ.
--me
P.S. Laura, good job on your comment.Posted by on 11/28 at 06:06 PMKat, I do think that “Knowing” is less than half the battle. The “Doing” weighs more than half (it does and it should), in my opinion.
Also, the context matters. The specifics matter, too. You’d need to clarify.
--me
Posted by on 11/28 at 10:16 PMAnd I would say that the real battle has already been fought and won on your behalf.
I think it is much easier to live the life you know you want when you realize that Christ is your Life, accept that new Life, and then live it.
Rather than trying to manufacture some representation of it on your own.
It’s still sucky hard, but it’s a battle to hold onto what you’ve already got, rather than attain the unattainable.
Does that make sense?
(I’m enjoying this topic!)
Posted by laura on 11/29 at 07:59 AMKnowing versus doing…
Doing is MORE important but we shouldn’t worry about because Jesus has my back on it. Hmmm...while it all makes sense, it just seems hard to actually apply to my life.
I see it as a constant struggle, reminding myself that action really is the fruit of a good tree (and therefore important), but that Jesus provides for the growth and maintenance of the tree.
I guess this isn’t really a new struggle to anyone. I feel so unoriginal.
Posted by kat on 11/29 at 11:54 AMHi Kat,
Thanks for speaking so honestly and “nakedly”. I think you’ve said what a lot of us are afraid to say to others (’cause they might say “What, you have trouble with that? I don’t!") or what a lot of us are afraid of saying *to ourselves*.
I don’t want to sound like “them” by offering some quick answer (jeez, haven’t I done that for as long as I’ve known most of you all? Sorry!) ... however, there was this cool thing I read in an Andrew Murray book once that said something like this:
“And let us pray & approach Christ in full confidence that, with such a Teacher as this, we cannot fail to learn.”
That shocked me—with such a Teacher as *He* is, I won’t fail to learn. I’m a poor student, but His ability to teach is stronger and more powerful and more sure than my ability to screw things up—including screwing up myself.
*****
I know we all know the correct order of “inside first” and “outside second” (knowing first, action second), but really we kind of get stuck looking at action and evaluating ourselves by that instead. In other words, I tend to judge my spiritual state by my actions or how I feel about myself. So our actions/deeds end up being the bottom line.
This passage seems to sum up a different way of seeing things:
"And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
We are “raised up and seated with God in the heavenly realms in Christ”! I don’t know about you, but I was basically taught that I should never say “I am saved”. But Paul is quite the nutter here by saying that yes, we are saved. Or rather, we have been saved. As we know this, and only as we know this, can we then live in freedom to do works, actions, deeds without the fear of these things disqualifying us somehow.
It’s like a safety-net. I heard that when people were building a big bridge once (perhaps the Golden Gate), work was going along very, very slow. But when a safety net was put below the workers, the work more than doubled in pace. It’s the same way with us spiritually. Unless we see that we are safe & secure in Christ, that “no one can snatch us out of His hand”, our works will be slowed because we’ll be worried about falling to our deaths.
I kinda wrote some stuff on this here:
http://sabbath-rest.blogspot.com/2006/04/work-in-garden-of-his-rest.htmlOkay, sorry for the tirade. I hope it’s helpful. All this said, I completely understand and don’t claim to never feel the same way. In fact, I feel it all the time. The struggle, however, has changed. Now I struggle to relax and rest in Christ, to get my focus off of myself and how I feel about myself, and see who He is, what He’s done, and how He feels about me. How He feels about me! That’s another incredible infinite wackiness! But I love Him, and He’s awesome, and boy oh boy, does He ever feel great about you!
Blessings in Jesus & in His rest,
Posted by Ramone on 12/03 at 04:02 AMI wonder if you found the answer(s) that you were hoping to find?
Posted by on 12/15 at 10:15 PM