INVITE THE SPIRIT TO EXAMINE YOUR SOUL – Part 3 of 3

“People cannot see their own mistakes. Forgive me for my secret sins. Keep me from the sins of pride; don’t let them rule me. Then I can be pure and innocent of the greatest of sins. I hope my words and thoughts please You. Lord, You are my Rock, the One who saves me.”  (Psalm 19:12-14 NCV)

The smoke detector wasn’t my enemy; the fire was my enemy. The smoke detector was simply trying to help me.

I have a life. That’s my house. I have a soul. You do too. Do you hear any beeping sounds there?

Beeping can sound like this: A parent neglects his children. They complain, misbehave, or increase the level of conflict around the house, and the parent has a nagging sense of failure. But instead of looking closely at his parenting – instead of talking directly about it with his children – he buries himself more fully in work, hobbies, or television.

A woman feels a twinge of pain when she sees a documentary about famine in Africa. She vaguely wonders about how little money she gives. But she doesn’t like the discomfort, so she distracts herself by going shopping.

An angry man blows up at those closest to him. His “beeping sound” is his loneliness. He takes the batteries out of the smoke detector by drinking a little more, convincing himself his relatives are all difficult people.

Guilt is not my enemy. Sin, which blocks off life, is my enemy. The Spirit will often bring a sense of conviction, and when He does, the best response is not to suppress the guilt, but to get out of bed, take a look around the house, and put out the fire before it does more damage.

-- John Ortberg in “The Me I Want to Be”

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INVITE THE SPIRIT TO EXAMINE YOUR SOUL – Part 1 of 3

Trying to see the truth about myself is like trying to see the inside of my own eyeballs. “Who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults,” the psalmist asked [in Psalm 19:12]. Fortunately, we are not left on our own. The Spirit is already at work in us. Our job is simply to listen and respond.

Once, in the middle of the night, Nancy and I were lying in bed and there was a tremendously loud beeping sound. Nancy gave me an elbow to the ribs and said, “What is that sound?”

I knew that if I acknowledged hearing the sound, it would be my job to go check it out. So I said, “What sound?” But I had to say it very loudly so that she could hear me over the tremendously loud beeping sound.

And she said, “That tremendously loud beeping sound.”

“Oh, that sound! Let me go find out.”

I went into the hallway, found the problem, and took care of it. When I got back to bed, Nancy asked, “What was it?” I told her it was the smoke detector.

“What made it stop?” I told her I took the battery out.

“You can’t do that,” she said. “There could be a fire in the house somewhere.”

“Nancy,” I explained patiently, “we’re upstairs. There’s no smoke, we can’t smell anything, there’s no heat coming from anyplace. I checked. Do you smell any smoke? I don’t smell any smoke. It was clearly a battery problem. Trust me. I took care of it.”

We went back to sleep.

– John Ortberg in “The Me I Want to Be”