Well, technically it will be after midnight when I post this, so does that mean I missed a day?

Oh well, I'm not a legalist.

Oh wait, maybe I am?

See, I've ruffled some feathers the past two days and I'm a sensitive enough person that 5% bad feedback and 210% positive feedback doesn't even out. I'm also sensitive about my math skills, so please don't correct my wildly absurd percentages.

I mean that I'm a legalist in the sense that when my lifestyle or theology feels barged in on by others, all the latent pride in me bursts out inside and complains to the highest bidder about how right I am and how wrong whoever else is. They are that 5% in case you didn't know.

I have always known legalism to be my besetting sin (and the sin from which all my other besetting sins branch off). My parents were generous when I was young, they called it stubbornness. I believe it was termed "rebellion" when I was a teenager. After age 20 it was all legalism though, a long stubborness in a different direction. Still the same sin, though. Still that same, I'm right, you're wrong and you're not changing my mind about it.

One of the things I am so grateful to be learning about God's character is His unchangeableness. He is unsurprised by my sin, my faults, my failures or my mishaps and He does not change His will one iota when I manifest one of the aforementioned. My pastor here says, "God's doesn't drive an ambulance. He isn't surprised by your accident."

But another thing I am learning about God is that He does not reveal one iota of His plan to us until His timing is right.

Which means that sometimes we don't have the whole picture.

Which means that I get it wrong sometimes, you do too.

Which means that though the Word does not change, His revelation to us through it might and should!

Which means that sometimes, we just put one foot in front of the other, believing with all our hearts that we're doing the right thing, only to find that there might have been a better thing and He will lead us into that too.

He will lead us into all righteousness. I love that.

I love that He is holding reveal party after reveal party, unfolding pieces of life and goodness and His word and theology and heaven, small glimpses that keep us putting one foot in front of the other in faith. He's that good.

So I am a legalist at heart, holding on tightly to theologies on which I've staked my life, but be patient with me: He's revealing slowly.

Too much would be too much for this soul.

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth,
for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak,
and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
All that the Father has is mine;
therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
John 16:12-15

day five of 30 day challenge put down by one Jason Alan Churchill Thorburne Morris.