First Inclination

There.

It’s out in the open and we can just MOVE ON.

Like the time during my step-Grandpa’s funeral when the wind rattled the creepy double doors in the funeral home right before the funeral began, and I nearly keeled over trying to stuff the hysteria. Laughed so hard my sisters were giggling and elbowing beside me. Totally inappropriate.

There was the time when I took my girlfriend, Stacy, to the hospital for dehydration (read puking her guts out) while her hubby the pastor went to youth group and I laughed like a hyena while she got shots in her rear. All the nurse had to do was say, “Pull down your pants and bend over.” and I was GONE. I’m laughing now and that was completely UNFUNNY.

Once, a visiting musician came to our church and was greatly built up by the pastor.  He came up to minister to us, thanked us, and pulled out a recorder and played a tune. The recorder?!  About a minute in and I was sliding down and off the seat to stop the entire congregation from watching my body wracking from hysteria.  I have NEVER laughed at someone like that before and to this day I remember the agony of trying to stifle the bubble up.

And finally, there was the time I was sitting with friends in a restaurant talking about a terrible natural disaster and comparing stories we’d seen or read on the news, and Ryan  relayed the devastation of a teenager being sucked out of a sunroof during a tornado.  I think he was even buckled up.  For whatever reason, it just struck wrong, and I laughed at the irony of it all.

Why in the world am I talking about this terrible flaw?

Because I learned something recently that I think has the power to change me.

This may be a long quote but hang in there with it and make it to the end.  It will be worth it.

While I was teaching the video sessions for ‘Living Beyond Yourself’, God led me to discover the Greek word ‘horme‘ as I researched various passions and their power to motivate.  According to New Testament Lexical Aids, “Home is an impulse or urge, a strong and forceful movement toward something, and connotes the ideas of thrusting, propulsion and suddenness.  It is not unlike a sudden thought, whim, or dictating inclination.”  After praying that God would invade every part of my thought life, I added this new dimension to my prayers;  “God, fill me so completely with your Holy Spirit that even my reactions and sudden impulses are godly.” ….Under stress and crisis, our first reactions at various points may be fleshly and selfish.  What if we began to attentively and repeatedly pray for the Holy Spirit to invade and renew us so richly and deeply that even our impulses were godly?  That even our “default” response was sanctified.

                                             -Beth Moore  “The Patriarchs”, p. 62-63.

I actually gave you one of my more forgivable natural inclinations, but what about my inclination to flashes of anger, fits of selfishness, and a razor sharp tongue.  I have begun praying that God would change even my impulses, that He would have his way in every recess of me.  Join me?

“Search me, God, and know my heart;test me and know my anxious thoughts/ See if there is any offensive way in me,and lead me in the way everlasting.”            Psalm 139:23-24

I’ll try to finish the Revival notes soon.  Have an acronym I can’t wait to share!