‘Showing up’! It is a phrase that means, when you go to work and meet your co-workers, or arrive home and meet your family, or when you are simply out with your friends—what is their experience of you?
I am not suggesting we be phony or contrived.
Rather, the Scriptures encourage us to be thoughtful and diligent. Consider what we see (v.8), or how we have an argument (v.8), or how we choose our words (v.9), or how we not be boastful (v.14).
The list goes on, turning to those we really don’t get along with—our enemies.
You might say you don’t have enemies. Okay, for the sake of it, let’s read verses 21 – 23. They set a very high bar.
Finally verses 26 & 28 strike me. If you and I are reading and thinking and praying about Proverbs, then we aren’t surprised by them. Yet, they certainly put on point on the impact of how we ‘show up’.
26 Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.
28 A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.
It is one thing to understand the theory, it is quite another challenge to live it—to ‘show up’ as the Proverbs repeatedly encourage us to.
Knowing the right way versus the wrong way is rarely the issue. It is living the right way. When we “fold”, we are like muddied, polluted water—ouch!
Further, when we know the “right-way”, and then lose control of ourselves, we compromise any of our defenses—not good.
At this point, reading Proverbs isn’t much fun. It is one thing for me to read along and say, “Oh, yes, that is exactly correct.” It is quite another to have the Holy Spirit remind me when I was muddied water for others—who wants to be muddy water!
So, the question might be, “What does it take to ‘show-up’ consistently as a woman or man of God?”
Great question.
The answer is Jesus. Jesus is our righteousness. Jesus is our strength. We cannot do this in our own strength. Here is the first of three blogs on building our spiritual muscles.
Bet not discouraged. Get clear on the path. Then let’s get going on the living into his plan!