During Men’s Pursuit at Grace Church, Steve Znachko discussed the need to surrender and trust in the Lord. He drew a picture of a deep gap between man and God. While Christ provides passage to God, we cannot see Him. We must surrender and trust that God will catch us when we leap out over the edge into His will for us. Unfortunately, we will often experience a free fall, and it may not always be short, but it will always be into the presence of God and to a place further down the path God planned for us.
The picture reminded me of the gap between stimulus and response. That infinitesimal period of time where we have the opportunity to choose how we respond or act. We can ignore the gap and live controlled by impulse, or we can be mindfully aware of that moment between stimulus and response. Will we listen to the Holy Spirit and be inspired to travel on the narrow path.
Being Mindful of the Gap will allow us to:
- Achieve freedom from our sin nature, our impulsive behavior / our mindless reactions.
- Seize the opportunity to put what we know into action.
- Be in the world but not live according to the world’s systems.
- Become a follower of Christ and not simply be a fan.
- Feed the good wolf, see the Cherokee proverb of the two wolves.
- Become “that guy”, you know, the one who is on fire for God.
- Build our portfolio of God stories, where you could clearly experience God in your life.
Renewing our Mind to see and take advantage of the Gap:
- Purposely look for those gaps rather than simply reacting.
- Surrender your need for independence where we tend to only care for ourselves.
- Strive for interdependence were we are aware of others and how our actions impact them.
- Craft a mission statement or purpose for your life.
- Make your principles real enough to motivate you into action.
How can you tell if you are minding the gap? Think back to your last God story and examine how you responded in that situation.