You'd Think I'd Learn

On Friday I went to the pain doctor via a county run bus for elderly and disabled people.  My appointment was for 10:30....but there were three people on the bus (aside from the driver) so he picked me up first at 7:30.  We got to NY --where the doctor is--at 9:00.  I lucked out and they took me in almost immediately.  However that just meant that I had to wait for the other two ladies....and it turned out the second lady had an epidural on her spine so was under anesthesia and it took FOREVER....We didn't get home until 2:20 PM.....Well, on the way to the doctor, it had struck me: "I forgot to take my medicine"  --and that included my pain medicine.  Well, I was seriously hurting ....Fortunately I had my cane but could barely walk from the bus to my house when I got home (and he was parked in my driveway!!)  I thought to myself, :Well here's a good lesson.  You got to see how much your pain pills really are helping and you will NEVER be so stupid as to forget them again.....

.....Until this morning that is. Yep. I went to church without them.  Some folks just never learn.  And I'm one of them!

Today's sermon was on sanctification.  On Jehovah M'Kaddesh - the Lord who Sanctifies....Sanctify is an interesting word.  It has its roots in the Hebrew word for Holy: Qadosh.  It means set apart for the purpose of worship.  It's like making a vase to hold flowers....that vase is sanctified to hold flowers.  It's doing what we were made to do.  We were made to worship....and God has set us apart for that purpose.  It also means "set apart" as in wholly different than anyone or anything else.  Now in that sense only God is holy.  Only God is wholly "other."  However, we are called to be other than the people surrounding us.  The Bible says we are to be as stars shining in the darkness.  Brilliant points of light in a dark canopy of human failings.

We are both sanctified by God...set apart for worshiping him and called apart to be holy--unlike the rest of the world.  We participate with God in the process of our sanctification..and that is what it is: a process....by agreeing with God in his purposes for us.  We agree that we want to be "holy as God is holy" and so we strive to make choices that are pleasing to God.  That doesn't mean we won't make mistakes....No matter how much it hurts us, we still will sometimes choose the wrong thing ...or forget to do the right thing (like taking our medicine!)  But all in all, our heart is in tune with God's purpose for us.  We want to worship him by doing what is right and by the growth of character gems...the fruits of the Spirit in our hearts and lives.  And we stumble along in our baby steps, striving to follow in the Father's footprints ,...which are hopelessly too big for our stride with our baby legs....but once in a while we can catch up and plant our foot in the spot where the FAther has walked...or where Jesus has walked....and that fills us --and the Father--with joy too.