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Oh the irony of declaring Wednesdays on this blog “Wake-up Wednesdays” because I am definitely in need of a wake-up type message today.
It’s the time of year when alarms get set a little earlier and when everyone starts getting back into the routine of school. I know… the word school probably just put some of you back to sleep. Sorry. For the past six fall semesters, I have spent the month of August doing the final gearing up for the initial activities of the LSU Christian Student Center and the campus ministry of the South Baton Rouge Church of Christ. There are always many new students to meet, returning students to greet, and non-stop activities that facilitate an environment to connect, grow and serve. My constant thoughts and prayers are with the LSUCSC and with all of the campus ministries, teachers, professors, and students that have been or will be heading back to school.
It’s a season of new beginnings. It’s a time of new (school) year’s resolutions. Whether this season of your life revolves around a school calendar or not, it is an opportunity to mark a new beginning. Remember the 1st day of school pictures? (I love all the ones I’m seeing on Facebook.) We didn’t do all of that growing and maturing overnight, in comparison to the previous year. The picture merely marks the anniversary of that growth. It was a process and one that goes by more and more quickly the older we get…
So take a moment today to thank God for all of the growth and maturing you’ve done over the past year and whether you make any official new school year’s resolutions or not, resolve to walk with God each and every day and allow Him to guide your steps, one at a time. I know I’m certainly not where I thought I would be a year ago. Almost every one of last year’s resolutions never came true, but I treasure the relationship with my Father that has grown and developed through the past year and I look forward to all the ways He will lead and guide me in the next year and season of life.
(Speaking of new beginnings, a very happy birthday to my mom who began a new school year with her students yesterday.)
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Praütes – a Greek word I was unfamiliar with until Sunday night and am still trying to grasp the full meaning of. According to Peter vanBreeman in As Bread That Is Broken (1974), it is a word that “can only be translated very inaccurately into English.” It’s more like the fruit of the Spirit that isn’t a list of nine qualities, but the combination of those qualities that embodies the Spirit itself and the qualities we have access to through the Spirit.
The translations of praütes that most resonated with me were the ones that described a “stillness of the heart” and one that “knows him/herself loved by God.” For me, those two things are very connected. I cannot attempt to manifest a stillness of the heart if I do not know myself loved by God and allow that and only that to define me.
When I think of Jesus’ reaction to the crowd that wanted to kill Him and yet He just walked right through them (Luke 4:16-30), only a man with stillness of heart and that knew Himself loved by God could do that. When I think of Jesus going to the cross, facing all the human emotion and inner turmoil that came with those circumstances—only a stillness of the heart and knowing Himself loved by God would get Him through. Praütes. May we have the hope and peace that come from stillness of the heart and knowing ourselves loved by God.
On this Transformational Tuesday, may we follow the model of Christ and be characterized by praütes.
Special thanks to Mandy Lillich for sharing her book and her insight!