Prayer 23

So many times my mind initiates my movement when my movement should be transforming my mind. My faith should be an active faith, out of the realm of mind, into the realm of limbs and tangibility. I should be acting out my faith. I should be imitating my Shepard. I should be engaging the world. Instead, I often shrink back into the feeble trenches of intellectual reflection, bound to a chair under the captivating security of a book.
Reading... Thinking... Conceptualizing...
As if there were scorpions in all the window sills; vipers in the doorways; tarantulas on the parapets. As if, in my endless reading, I might stumble upon just the right series of propositions that will entail just the right conclusion that will make living out my faith as a disciple inevitable, unambiguous, and easy. As if constructing the perfect concept of your kingdom will finally unshackle me and animate my movements. But the transformation of the mind does not begin in the mind, it begins in the sacrifice of the body (Romans 12:1). And 'understanding' is not about the concepts in our brain, but about the content of our behavior(Job 28:28). Knowledge grows from who I am and what I do, not what I know. Amen.