Matthew 25 again

I think I need to revisit my thinking on Matthew 25. The story of the virgins in particular nags at me this time. Earlier, Jesus said "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come." He earlier said "But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say," So the keeping alert does not have to do with preparing your testimony for trials or anything like that. Jesus said that his coming wouldn't be hidden, so watching the sky can't be what He meant.

The parable of sheep and goats says we meet Jesus before he returns, and our everyday reaction to our neighbors is therefore something we need to be careful about. To be alert about?

I notice that my default reaction to some news story depends on what I've been reading/thinking about the previous day. My interactions with people are a little more structured than is probably good for us all, and if they weren't they'd probably also vary. Perhaps the goal is to be alert to what my mind and heart are doing in relation to other people all the time. Put that way it sounds kind of ego-centric.

A friend and I are putting together a series on spiritual disciplines, and I think they play a role here. If we work to put to death the "flesh" and make room to practice the works of the spirit, we change what our reaction is likely to be when the test of the moment comes. We watch by first immersing ourselves in what is good so that we see more clearly what should happen when the test comes.

We cannot just sit back on His laurels and expect that we will be satisfactory servants. The astute reader will notice some overlap between the fruit of the Spirit and the qualities we have to add in order to keep from being ineffective and unproductive.

Gal 5:22-23	2Peter 1:5-11
God's fruit	We put on
Love	Goodness
Joy	Knowledge
Peace	Self-control
Patience	Perseverance
Kindness	Godliness
Goodness	Mutual affection
Faithfulness	Love
Gentleness
Self-Control

I'd read Whitney's book about 7 years ago, and the only change it induced in my life was to cultivate the habit of "never appearing before the Lord empty-handed" but always having something, however small, to give. I also got more systematic in Bible reading, though that wasn't actually related to Whitney's book: it was triggered by waking up too late to catch the bus. In preparation for the series I've been reading much more, old (Practice of the Presence of God) and new (Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Barton--I may report on that one--, Celebration of Discipline by Foster, and so on). I'm now thoroughly convinced that reading a dozen books is of less value than even halting attempts at practice.

"The important things are always simple. The simple things are always hard." Sometimes humiliatingly simple. I was all set to complain that I'd not heard much about spiritual disciplines in church, and then I remembered a little children's song "Read your Bible, pray every day... It will make you grow." Quiet time with God, time of service, simplicity; they were all there, if not fully articulated and explained.

I'll see how well "do as I say" works.