Evan and I are writing a companion Bible study guide to my next book, To Push on the Rock. I was test driving my way through the first week’s exercises, and this verse stood out: “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ” (2 Cor. 1:21a NIV).
I needed to hear that today. It hasn’t been an awful week or anything, but I’ve had a lot of insomnia, and I’m tired. Being tired makes for a crappy perspective… It’s hard to hang onto what’s true, to remember who I am. Plus, this week it feels like a lot of our friends are going through rough times–really brings home the whole living in a broken world thing.
Coming from a Tai Chi perspective, standing firm involves hanging onto your balance–which is only possible if you’re calm, relaxed, centered, grounded, and whole and total. There’s a lot wrapped up in the idea of standing firm.
So it was really nice to have this reminder. It’s not circumstances that help us stand firm or even our own ability to stand firm. It’s God. That doesn’t mean we don’t persevere, we don’t work hard to be faithful, but instead the key is to work on our connection to God first, rather than trying to change circumstances.
And it’s not our ability to help people that makes them stand firm–it’s God. I really love looking at it that way. It’s like in Tai Chi–it’s literally impossible to balance someone else because it takes a ton of internal adjustments. If they’re not relaxed or calm or centered or grounded or being out of the entirety of themselves, they won’t be balanced, and you can’t do those things for someone else. You can encourage someone. You can listen. You can’t live their life for them. It’s God who helps them stand firm, just as much as He helps me stand firm.
