Day 3963 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Matthew 13:14 NIV

Can’t or won’t

In truth, such are the only two when it comes to every one of the things in life that we elsewise leave undone, unknown, unwanted, unwon, unrealized, unlegitimized, unobjectified. There is no other option as to why things in this life are to be found as unfinished, and so too then we the same. It will indeed all come down to a simple principle of reality as is found inside the difference between can and can’t and won’t. And the gravity of this reality is that to be measured in eternity.

For once there at the cusp of, we’ll each be given as our deeds and efforts deserve.

His words, not mine.

It’s literally all right there in Romans 2:6 which says, “God ‘will repay each person according to what they have done.’” Which is itself something of a quote taken from the Old Testament in such verses as Psalm 62:12 and Proverbs 24:12 which say, “and with you, Lord, is unfailing love’; and, ‘You reward everyone according to what they have done’”, and, “If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?’” respectively.

The verse of Proverbs being the more applicable in regard to today’s topic in that it speaks to a self-indictment as is given by all of us inside this rather juvenile estimation that we might actually hide something from He who both weighs the heart and thus must perceive the very thoughts and attitudes therein. Something which is itself a promise proven within Genesis 6 in which God declared that “every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.”

Prompting Him to determine “how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth.”

A measure which resulted in Genesis 6:6 stating that, “the LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.”

All because, as Jesus puts it a little later on here in Matthew, 15:19 specifically, it’s what comes out of a person’s mouth that defiles them. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” Which is said in step with what He’d said back in one of His verbal bouts with the Pharisees back in Matthew 12, verse 34 particularly, which ends in stating that “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

And thus all of this points unto the very same problem:

We’ve let in the wickedness of the weeds amongst whom we’ve grown which has both kept them from listening and perceiving as they continue to contend that hearing and seeing are somehow enough, and sadly then so too us.

Thus proving the danger of the leaven of the Pharisees against which we were all expressly warned against.

Why?

Because, as Christ says over in John chapter 9, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”

Why?

Because if we claim we can do something then we are thus responsible to do something. Such is the very problem that has literally given rise to all our others as was found in God’s warning first given unto Adam and Eve to stay away from that tree. It was and remains because that which we grow to know becomes the very same as that with which we’re forever then on responsible for upholding well.

Which has become the problem it so vastly is because, well, we don’t really seek to uphold anything well other than our will which is based all but exclusively upon our wants as are wanted simply because we’ve become of the mindset that’s sat upon this saddening assumption that all of life is something given us so as to please ourselves, enjoy ourselves, protect ourselves, prove ourselves.

The first and last becoming the most clearly widespread.

The first done exclusively in the very selfishness in which we find the most enjoyment of life and the second chosen because we just can’t seem to break away from this idea that pleasing others will somehow profit us in some way that is so fruitful and fulfilling that life itself is apparently changed radically for the better for having so chosen to seek the applause and adoration of those who likely walk in step with the wicked who back then would have cheered on Christ’s death.

That’s a thought that yesterday arrived me upon one of my favorite lines ever written in any of these posts so far:

“What do we gain in the applause of a people who cheered on the death of our Savior?”

And, well, truth be told, perhaps the same isn’t all that different on an even more selfish perspective. For in truth, what do we gain in seeking the applause of ourselves as is met within the pleasing of a pride so vain and venomous that we violently hate anyone who hints in any way that we’re doing anything we shouldn’t, or, that we’re not doing anything we could?

Such as honoring God, upholding His will, glorifying His Son, seeking His mercy as is needed somehow more on the daily in which we should be able to see and hear so many things we say and do that simply should have no such room in the hearts, minds or mouths of those who are claiming to be His.

Indeed, Ephesians 4:29 comes to mind in which we’re told to “not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” A command which seems something of a specified offshoot of that which asks that we love others as ourselves, seeking there the mutual growth of they as we seek such for we.

Growth.

But no. See, this is the issue that becomes from our having become so numb that we’re now dumb unto the reality that we ourselves proudly proclaim that we ourselves have insisted it become. We tell everyone all the time all about how we’re the ones who are managing to make life go however well it’s going. We’re all about this perpetual patting of ourselves on the back as is done to, again, please ourselves as is done via our enjoying ourselves as is done in protecting the things that we enjoy for ourselves as have been learned from those very same blind guides that stand still in a blanket blatant opposition to much of what God’s Word asks, declares, defines.

For such is the danger of following blind guides!

It’s found in that those to whom we seek to teach what we’ve decided we want to know can only teach us what they know themselves.

And thus going to the blind to learn how to live a life will only there find that we ourselves learn how to be blind. Going to those who can’t hear to teach us how to listen will leave unable to listen to anything we hear. Looking or listening unto they who are but dead men walking will only leave us walking in their dead ways toward what is the promised dead end of this life in which all will arrive but there few find that there’s life more.

Which brings me back to that question I asked right off the bat:

Can’t or won’t?

Because you see, again, if we truly cannot do something, like it’s entirely out of our realm of ability, an absolutely legitimate impossibility, then fine. We are not able to be held responsible for that which we truly cannot do, know, contemplate, understand or recognize. For that would be unfair, unreasonable, unkind.

Problem is that we, like the Pharisees, claim we can see. After all, again, we tell everyone all the time how we managed to find our way to whatever, wherever, whoever we are. And we do this seeking their applause, their approval, their affirmation that what we’ve done, where we’ve gone, who we’ve become is as justifiable as our lust for it had become that became the reason we followed to get to wherever, whoever, whatever we’ve come to become.

All adding up to our proclaiming, in our daily foolishness shouting for all to hear that “WE KNOW WHAT WE’RE DOING”, that we can see, can hear, do understand, do comprehend.

Why then is there such fruit being grown as that being shown to all who too have eyes to see and ears to hear but yet have not the ability, the audacity, the courage to admit that they won’t?

Do you understand the difference?

Can’t and won’t.

One is a legitimate excuse because if we legitimately cannot do something, cannot see something, for whatever reason or physical condition cannot hear something, then said ‘something’ is something that we are then veritably unable to uphold, to understand, to undertake.

But friends, the other is a choice.

And indeed, I have seen this discrepancy play out time and again in my life thus far. I’ll give you a quick example. Years ago I hurt my wrist helping a “friend” move. It was raining and I was cutting some twine that we’d used to tie down some stuff in the bed of my truck and the hand holding the knife slipped and slashed and led to my getting stitches shortly thereafter. First time I’d ever seen a bone of mine own before. Freaks me out still!

But anyway. The result of this injury included finding me unable to put much weight on that wrist, and that for quite some time. I distinctly remember every time that I’d even go to get up off the floor this deep aching that almost felt as if my arm were breaking. I mean truly couldn’t put much weight on my left hand without it hurting quite impressively.

But eventually, despite time healing said wound, the same became an excuse. There were things that I just wouldn’t do because I remembered the pain and therein assumed that even trying wasn’t worth the risk. And this kept me from doing a great many things along the way. It in fact became something of a mental barricade unto basic movements that prevented me from living healthily.

And yet, as you might know from having read these posts, there came a day years ago in which I finally got tired of being fat and tired and determined to make use of the tiny gym at the first apartment we moved in. But then something had to be done. I had to face the fear of feeling that pain, that misery, that agony of thinking my arm would break if I put on it any weight.

As of today, literally as soon as I finish this post for today, I’ll set to my weekly meeting of Monday with 200-300 pushups.

No pain.

And that’s because, somewhere along the way, God helped me to realize the difference between can’t and won’t. Indeed, for a time there I truly could not put weight on my hand as the pain as truly real and something in my arm just was not able to handle the pressure. It was a physical limitation that legitimately kept me from doing certain things.

But at some point, having healed whenever said mission became accomplished, that worry met within that pain became only an unwillingness to even try.

I took what I at one time could not do and allowed it to become that which I would not do.

What example(s) of this do you know in your life?

What are the things that you honestly can’t do, can’t understand, cannot for the life of you tolerate or accept or stand listening to? And then, so too, what are those that you simply won’t do, won’t try to understand, won’t attempt to tolerate or try listening to? We all have them, and perhaps some of them are decent and upstanding. Again, for a personal example, I cannot stand seeing commercials for any of the filth that’s passing for entertainment these days.

So whenever one comes on, I turn away.

Same too, I cannot stand the sound of foul words coming out of my mouth anymore. And so whenever I slip and catch myself saying something I hate hearing, I thank God for helping me notice it so that I can then pay more attention and hopefully help keep it from happening again.

Because I want to. Because I know I can. Because I know He wants me to. Because I know that He still has a plan that includes my, our continued growth in sanctification as is evidenced in our growth in the bearing of good fruit met alongside our ceasing of the bearing of bad.

All because a good tree cannot bear bad fruit and nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

And too we will all be judged by the fruit we bear.

So what then is your fruit? What do you have to show for the amount and kind of growth going on in your life? Are you growing in Christ? Are you sharing His light? Are you speaking His truth and proclaiming His news and reaching as if His hands and feet unto all corners of this spinning ball seeking there all that you might be so blessed as to play a part in their not being left?

Or are you not doing any of those things?

And if not, why not?

It’s not because we can’t as that cross was taken for all of us so as to open unto all of us the very same access to the very same Father who wants not for any to perish but rather for all to come unto repentance. A repentance offered always only in His patience, which we sadly take for granted as if instead weakness which then allows us to continue ahead not doing what we probably could simply because we don’t think we need to as, well, He hasn’t done anything about it yet.

So maybe He can’t.

“Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” Romans 2:4

“But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.” Romans 2:5, which leads up to the Romans 2:6 quoted above in which God “will repay each person according to what they have done”.

Which leads into 7-8 in which we discover finally the point I’m getting to: “To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.”

And that point is that we’re all seeking something that we’ve thus chosen to chase in what is a decision we’ve made because we’ve determined it something we can do, something we want to do.

And thus we find the fruit for which we’ll be judged as is already being shown inside the things we do, the things we say, the things we understand, those we’re honestly trying to, and those we won’t, those we don’t.

All of it boils down to the fact that God didn’t create us as these lifeless robots that simply pick one path and stick to it because they are truly unable to do anything any different. Rather He created us with such a capacity to learn, to grow, to change if and when we come to realize that we need to. But sadly we don’t. In fact we do so little of all the above that it is becoming perfectly reasonable to ask if we’re even living life anymore.

Because life moves. Life tries. Life wants to feel alive and is then willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that outcome. Thus life refuses to be defined by won’t.

Because life tries.

It might fail, we might fail. In fact, that much is pretty much perfectly promised. We will fail. We will mess up. We will get things wrong. We’ll make mistakes and jump to conclusions and hear things wrong, taking them often out of context. But in this we can learn. We can grow. We can improve in terms of understanding and belief and trust and love. We learn best sometimes by learning what not to do, what not to say, what to never try again.

But we can learn nothing from everything we won’t try.

And so what’s stopping you in regard to this call to grow in Christ?

Is it that you can’t? That the cross didn’t achieve for you what it did for literally every human who has ever lived? That the blood of Jesus couldn’t quite erase all your sins? That His mercy isn’t quite big enough, deep enough to reach where you’ve been? That you’re just afraid that He’s going to change His mind and decide that you still should die? Is it that you’re terrified that you will die?

What’s holding you back?

So many things in life are just swept under this rug of an assumed inability that we choose to believe in thinking it will save us from failing, falling, looking like fools in the process. And we’re truly afraid of those things as they can’t add up to the glory and praise we’ve sought for ourselves for so long. And this has left us unwilling to risk them and thus unwilling to try anything that risks them. And we amass all of these fears into this blanket estimation of things we can’t do.

But friends, the fact is that most of the things we don’t do are simply things we won’t do.

There are some we can’t, like how I can’t fly or speak French or run a Michelin star restaurant.

But most of those are because I’ve not tried to learn how. True, the flying part is obvious as God didn’t create to do such. But we can learn other languages. We can learn how to cook. We can learn how to lift weights and eat right. We can learn to pray. We can read, or at least learn how. Thus we can study the Bible. Thus we can come to know more of the Gospel. In this can we grow to know more of Christ. In this we can begin to understand better the purpose of life. In this we can see that the life we have lived is nothing for which He created us.

In this we can repent and turn away from our sins and back toward the Son who did what we can’t.

But many here won’t.

That’s the difference in those who will find life eternal and those who can’t.

It’s decided by who will and won’t try.

In truth, there’s nothing holding us back from growing in Christ and His hope in us. So is it truly that we can’t or just that we won’t?

Bottom line is that He made the way my friends. It’s now on us as to whether we open that door He’s been knocking on.

If we open our hearts to Him He’s said He will come in.

But if we won’t, well, He won’t.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold