Day 3731 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Titus 2:12 NIV

For what none of us can be as soon as today since as of today we’re still what are projects under the projection of a protection of the promise of the Son who came for us to find us from among the many who are still wholly lost and not looking to find there any reason to find the reason behind the rejection of anything and every way that may lead further astray within either this day or any of the many others that most of us still like to assume all but assured.

And why?

Because we know we need the time.

For what?

To find the better that’s somehow never been behind our inability to say “No” to anything from ungodliness to the every other version of ugliness that we can see both within the world in which we walk and within any mirror that we walk by which seems to show only the scene of the world in us. Yes, I have indeed had a long-strained relationship with every such reflection that dares show my reflection as nothing but a reflection of all the many things that I thought I never needed to so decline from a delight in my time that’s rather thus been spent upon the content of a calamity the likes of which literally none will walk away from.

Why?

Because to have walked both into and then alongside this cancer has become the same inside of us. And make no mistake, an inability to reject what needs rejected, to decline what needs declines, to remove what needs removed and to then make room for all that we need more room to have more of, it is a cancer that eats away at more than just flesh and bone. No, this cancer invades the soul and pervades there the story told of the same sold to whatever lie we’ve lived to hold within a world that’s long held us captive by the general carryings on of those around us.

Who’ve either been or since become who we’ve determined to be within what’s been but a deliberate imitation of a fallen creation.

Yes, all have sinned and fallen then short of the glory of God leaving then every knee to bow and tongue progress with the confess of a life lived making a mess of every light lost behind the darkness of either denial or depravity. Indeed, such are seemingly the only seeds we’ve known sown of what it is to say “NO”. It’s just then that they’re shown in what’s only the opposite direction of where we could have been had we been a bit more willing to stay than we’ve since become.

Indeed, to stay is anymore the only place we find any reason to choose. Doesn’t even seem to matter as to the where’s and whatnot. No, we just like the idea of idleness and every idiocy that such allows us time to either believe or become of such necessity that we daren’t say no. Or maybe both, after all, can one fail to become but a walking replication of that which they believe? I mean, from posters strewn with whatever message a person seems intent for others to know to t-shirts selling the reminder of a band of which to a concert we once elated to go, everything we do, want and even wear is a small reflection of who we are as at least partly defined by what we’ve allowed inside.

But that’s the problem precisely! What all have we let inside in light of how many of us, if not most, are still in some way in search of the better that we thus apparently never found in a life spent avoiding “NO”?

Not sure why, but this verse reminds me of my mom, and thus one oddly fitting for this Mother’s Day. Because she too has, in hindsight, done quite a lot to teach me the value of no. I remember specifically a simple, ordinary, otherwise then utterly unimportant trip to Walmart once in which I was tossing a fit over this adultish dilemma as to the buying of something she knew I didn’t need, and honestly probably didn’t even really want.

Oh the allure of spending money we’ve made! Tis truly the root of not only evil but of every excitement that manages to catch our eye as we walk on by some needless malfeasance perched atop a store shelf!

“Wait” she asked. Just wait. Give this desire a day, maybe even try for two. Walk away and see if this wanting is willing to wait as well. Say no, just for now, and step into a patient clarity as to the worth of this thing that was only a semblance of the responsibility of what it is that we around here call “adulting”. Others have simply called it by its obvious name, responsibility. Some refer to it as maturity. Still others seem to prefer something such as self-control, discipline, etc.

Whatever we call it, the problem isn’t in the naming thereof but rather the ordinary avoidance and thus failure therein. And it’s both a failure to uphold reason’s necessity and thus too the perplexity of a life lived of a remarkable simplicity as seen inside the narrowing of our focuses unto the faces, places and paths that lead us to that better that a life of mostly “yes” has never managed to track down.

For how can it? How can we ever manage to find what truly matters most when everything is allowed to matter at least somewhat? And indeed, looking back upon some of the simple lessons my mother has helped teach me over the years, seems that the majority of them have been aimed at my understanding of the difference between what matters and what doesn’t.

Just like that whatever it was that I wanted at Walmart that day. Couldn’t tell you now what it was, but the lesson I learned, well, that part stuck around!

And thus I was bettered by it. Because I didn’t get what I wanted in the moment. Because I failed to find the reason or rhyme to buy this whatever it was. Because I was asked unto self-control. Because God works just as powerfully within every “NO” we’ll hear or feel strangely the need to say as He does within what is a great big world of “yes” as always aimed at never feeling the missing of anything.

It’s just that saying yes to everything only leaves God lost amidst a great sea of other priority, and thus His every plan for our maturity and every promise made for our there arriving also things to be found mixed and mingled with the mangled miscreants of a life of missteps and misunderstanding.

But how then can we ever find that better that we know we need to be when misunderstanding both God because of what all He simply asks and too then the necessity of the many no’s He asks us to know more than the yes that’s made the mess that this place has become?

For yes is what got us into this mess! Want some fruit? Yes! Want to try this drink? Yes! Want to go to a party tonight? Yep! Want to have some fun? Sure! Want to steal a car? Why not? Want to make some easy money? You bet! Want to make fun of somebody? Sounds cool! Want to mock this weird outsider? Yes! Want to spit in His face? Sure! Want to torture Him? Let’s do it! Should we kill Him?

Yes.

Granted, most of us still see our lives as being lived within the limits of fruit and drink, maybe a party or two and there a foul joke told at someone else’s expense. And we don’t see any inherent harm done within any of this. Because if they were really all that harmful or hurtful then we’d be able to tell, right? We’d be able to notice the danger, wouldn’t we? We could come to recognize the warning signs as sown inside tears streaming down the face of someone who’s going through a hard time and doesn’t need us making fun of them or the stories we’ve heard of the mistakes others have made because they got high or drunk or followed the wrong crowd to the doing of the wrong thing that one night that nobody else was ever supposed to know about.

But see friends, that’s the point in all of this saying yes to everything everyone else asks us to do, everything that we want us to do. It just leaves the door to our eyes, our ears, our hearts and minds and lives all but open as wide as that road which we’re told leads to destruction. Why? Because there is no end to yes. We can always find an excuse to agree to do, to want, to buy, to live and die for something else. We’ve literally been doing this all our lives!

We know how to do it best!!

But where has us this left if not so lost that we now live as if to say “NO” to anything is but a confrontation. It’s truly as if we’ve come to equate saying no to telling someone we hate them! We would seemingly rather do what we know to be wrong just to get along than to say no to anything we know is wrong and thus will only lead us wrong and there leave us lost.

I’ve done it more times than I can remember, and that’s now what scares me more than just about anything! Because I am absolutely horrified by some of the things I’ve done, and of those I’ve fought to repent and become a better man. But what then of those I don’t remember? What things have I said yes to that have since become forgotten? What do I do still within the ease of yes’s agreement that I shouldn’t be so quick to agree with?

What might I be condemned by because of my acceptance of?

I think of that verse all the time these days now seeking to change my ways in search of the narrow that leads to life. Be careful that you are not self-condemned by what you yourself approve. Because the approval won within every yes is something that invites whatever we’ve then approved to be seen as something harmless and thus unable to hurt us.

But friends, I contend that of everyone I’ve hurt, I’ve only hurt me and Jesus the most, and Him most of all. Me because I now carry the scars carved of all the mistakes I made by agreeing with someone to do something that I now only wish I could somehow forget. And yet He more than all because He took them all, every flaw, every fall, every failure and every fear. He took my death as demanded of a life lived saying yes.

All so that I could then receive the gift of the Spirit which now teaches me to say no a little more than I did before.

And it is the greatest gift ever given, that Spirit and the power of no that He helps us to finally understand. Why? Because as it turns out, rejection is something of its own form of protection. Saying “NO” to something is something of a strong tower into which we can ensure our safety from the condemnation that could have come from saying yes instead. Refusing to partake of something that seems popular, sounds fun, promises profit or seems proven pretty harmless, well, it simply saves us from every unseen unsafety that we didn’t know to look for with eyes blind to the bigger picture.

Such as that horror painted by hindsight’s blatantly pulling no punches as to all the problems we’ve caused by not allowing ourselves to hit the pause and take a second to make sure that saying “NO” wasn’t maybe the only right answer.

I wish I’d have said a lot more of those no’s along the way. Not that I’d change where God’s managed to get me despite my making it so hard, but just because I wish now I hadn’t made it so hard on both of us, and whomever of those around me that had to watch me all but light myself on fire and throw myself into a lake of gasoline. I can’t imagine the pain I’ve caused to those around me because of my hesitancy to say no.

And I know now that no, whilst among the shortest, it’s also one of the most powerful words in all of human language. Because it’s one of the only words that helps us to avoid consequence. After all, we can’t be responsible for what we didn’t agree to take part in. We can’t remember the mistakes we avoided making by saying we didn’t want to risk it. We can’t feel bad about missing out on the moment in which all those who agreed to all those things we didn’t end up finding out why they should have done the same.

And that’s not to say that we should reject or refuse everything, for many things in life are there to move us closer to God, and we’d better say yes to every single one of those because we cannot grow close enough! But that’s where the discernment taught us by the Spirit comes in. It teaches us to say “NO” to ungodliness, to unrighteousness, to irrationality and unreasonability. It inspires in us a fiery fealty unto the Father alone, saying “NO” to whatever doesn’t please Him, praise Him, pull us closer thus to Him.

Friends, there will be a lot of such “NO” to be found in the still up ahead. And sure, it won’t likely be easy to agree to saying it. In fact, sometimes saying no may feel just about the hardest thing to do. But, if you can, give it day then try for two. Take a second to allow yourself a chance to think the choice through and make as sure as you can that you’re doing the right thing as defined by our knowledge of God and His definition of right and wrong.

And if you don’t have the time to take to think it through, then it’s probably best to just go with no anyway. Because after all, if something or someone is pressuring you to hurry up and decide, it’s more than likely not God. For God is patient with us, not wanting any to perish but all to come unto repentance which is a process that we’ll work through for the rest of our lives.

So slow down. Take your time. Think slow. For in that you just might find both the ability and the necessity of sometimes just saying no.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold