Welcome, May!

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The past few weeks have been stressful. Training new employees, dealing with difficult customers, not sleeping well, not exercising (I’ve gained 20 pounds in the last two years), getting through family drama (two life-threatening events in the same day, 2000 miles apart: my dad’s heart attack in NM and a 9 year grandchild starting the rest of his life with Type 1 Diabetes) . . .  My CrossFit lifestyle withered into oblivion when I lost my job at the University in 2020, as Covid got going. Deep depression brought me to a standstill as I took a few months to try to reset. Since then, my physical status has been on steady decline. Now my daily schedule looks something like this: Work 3-11 pm (on a good day), Go to bed at 4 am, get up between 10:30 am and noon, get booted up and go back to work. If I get one day off a week I’m fortunate. At least I don’t have to work all night for now. That was the worst.  So I haven’t had time or energy to do much, even read, much less write. And since my

Supernova

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Thinking about: Galatians 5:16, "Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh."

Think for a moment of the vastness of space and all that exists in it. Consider for a moment that light travels 186,000 miles per second through the vastness. Our closest star is approximately 4 light-years away. If I've done my math right that means that light our sun is roughly 2,479,127,040,000,000 miles from our closest star. And there are objects far above and beyond that.

God our great creator is outside of all that we call "Universe;" yet, when He indwells those in whom put their faith and trust in Him--where can He go? Can we contain God? He has no choice but to overflow.

One is reminded us of the seed that has fallen between the slabs of paving and has grown and grown until the great concrete blocks are lifted, even broken by the power of the life contained within that seed. This is the triumph of God's Spirit over our flesh.

When we overflow of ourselves (we who live on this pale blue dot called "earth", or "iortt" for our SETI friends out there), we overflow all that is in our heart: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, fightings, jealousies, angers, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkennesses, revelings, and things like these. This is what we are really like at heart.

Now someone may say this is not true. Perhaps one may make their claim for good and their upholding the Golden Rule or some Rede or similar rule. I challenge you: if you have ever lied to anyone for any reason, you have broken your own code of good. You have demonstrated the evident deeds of living out of yourself. It only takes one lie to make one a liar, and a liar demonstrates love for himself first.

On the other hand, if the Almighty God indwells our hearts after we have repented (turned our back on) our sin and on our own feeble attempts at our own righteousness, and fills us with His Holy Spirit, we have no choice but to supernova things like love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

If we are walking in the Spirit, we must be always walking in the Spirit. We should not be returning to the things from which we are set free. It was for freedom Christ set us free, so we must stand firm and not be subject again to the yoke of slavery.

Those belonging to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. This is the very thing Augustine spoke of in the first chapter of his "Confessions". This applies to how the Spirit shows His fruits.

Unlike the "falling in on self" that theoretically fuels a supernova, we need to be filled in order to explode. We must first be filled with the Holy Spirit. Second, we must pray and concern ourselves with God's glory. Third, we must study the Bible and saturate our minds and direct our actions in obedience to it. Cut out the frustration that comes from caving in. The chaos on the event horizon is not part of God's work.

Walking in the Spirit protects us from ourselves.

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