The Christian soon learns that if he would be victorious as a son of heaven among men on earth he must not follow the common pattern of mankind, but rather the contrary. That he may be safe he puts himself in jeopardy; he loses his life to save it and is in danger of losing it if he attempts to preserve it. He goes down to get up. If he refuses to go down he is already down, but when he starts down he is on his way up. He is strongest when he is weakest and weakest when he is strong. Though poor he has the power to make others rich, but when he becomes rich his ability to enrich others vanishes. He has most after he has given most away and has least when he possesses most. He may be and often is highest when he feels lowest and most sinless when he is most conscious of sin. He is wisest when he knows that he knows not and knows least when he has acquired the greatest amount of knowledge. He sometimes does most by doing nothing and goes furthest when standing still. In heaviness he manages to rejoice and keeps his heart glad even in sorrow.
~ Aiden Wilson Tozer
It has been said that to be too heavenly-minded is to be no earthly good.
Bullshit.
Yeah beloved, that word just got used.
For the believer who has surrendered their existence to the One who is the well-spring of the same – not only do we realize that we cannot take it with us – we can’t have it now. We don’t have any life here in this world. We exist in a wholly other place and space than this cosmos.
But oddly, this makes us uniquely suited to be effective in this environment. Perhaps it is because we are no longer anchored to this sphere. We are free to move; free to love from a wholly different place than the narrow angle of our own flesh. We are no longer tethered to the body we inhabit. We are anchored on the Bedrock of Jesus Christ. And this eternal, immutable position allows us great leverage in a temporal and ever-changing world.
We now have this Life that is simply lived saturated by – and saturated in – Christ. And this saturation works to great effect in our own lives. It begins to actually make us like Him. And this Him in us begins to spill out on the people around us. The only One who can actually bring about any good thing begins to do this through our lives. Bottom-line: Before this change, it was impossible for us to do good. After the change, this good begins to be all that we are – and Jesus has brought this about in our lives.
So, to bring it home… Surely it is better said that the ONLY way to be any earthly good – is to be completely heavenly minded!
