A few ideas (and one corresponding Scripture passage) brought to you courtesy of this week's Green Book readings:
"Willingness is the opposite of willfulness, being full of our own will and ways and satisfaction in being self-made or self-controlled persons...Willingness is a chosen position of vulnerability that recognizes we are ordinary beings in need of God's love, companionship, and guidance.
"[Willingness] includes our acknowledgement that we are not all we would like to be or all that God hopes for us and point toward our desire to hear and follow the Spirit's invitations even when it means giving up our ways in favor of what we perceive as God's ways." -Jeannette A. Bakke, Holy Invitations
This is a particularly tough pill for me (Aaron) to swallow, as I'm about as willful a person as you are ever likely to meet. And my own willfulness, admittedly, often leads me away from the path of of loving, Christ-centered willingness that I want my life to reflect.
Fortunately, I've discovered a solution! Well, God created a solution and helped me stumble gradually upon it: a life immersed in Scripture, sermons, devotional music, reading, and writing.
The Apostle Paul said it like this:
"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you have learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." -2 Timothy 3:14-15 (NIV)
What's your solution?
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