We all have some things in common.
We all breath (Yes, I know. I am profound).
We all have B.O. if we never shower (Yes I am talking about you, too).
Oh yes, there is another thing. We are all depraved.
We who have been redeemed and who have tasted and seen that the Lord is good still struggle. Each of us has some areas in which we are weaker than others.
I have never struggled with alcohol. Or, a potty mouth. But I can be impatient to the point of ungodliness. I can be blinded by ambition.
Some things tempt you more than they tempt me and vice versa. One of the marks of sanctification is our growing recognition of our personal weaknesses and our devotion to planning strategies to thwart them.
But there is another aspect of our lives we all must learn to cope with. For lack of a better term I will call it the pattern of life.
As we become adults and settle into a pattern or rhythm of life, certain times in that pattern find us more open to change, more filled with joy, or conversely, more easily ticked off, or more easily given to sin in our areas of greatest weakness.
Talk to most pastors and they will tell you Mondays are the worst. A pastor can have a great day Sunday and still be a little depressed on Monday. There are also seasons of the year when enthusiasm is easier—the beginning of a new series, the Easter season, etc. If you have been through a tragedy or time of great loss, you are more open to times of depression around the anniversary of that event.
I have figured out such a pattern in my life. For me, the last week or two of each semester brings with it a brief season of paralysis of analysis, the time I am most likely to overthink. I begin the semester fired up and ready to challenge students to forsake all for the gospel. I believe that as earnestly at the end of the term as the beginning. But for some reason when I get near the end, my mind focuses too heavily on the negative.
I did not know get to know some students as must as I would have liked.
I focus on the lectures that needed great improvement.
I worry over how I managed the class, thinking almost exclusively about the places I need to improve.
I deal with the realization that some students with whom I am very close are about to depart. I know, they come here to leave, but I do love them.
Of course honest evaluation makes up a critical part of one’s life. But overly obsessing on the negative demonstrates a failure to understand the gospel’s effect in all of life all the time. I do not like admitting my own frailty.
No doubt what I just described would not accurately reflect your own seasons of weakness. But you have them. Perhaps taking a little time to think about those periods in your life will help you to avoid some level of angst in the future. I know for me, one of the best things I can do is to schedule less things the last couple of weeks and allow for a little chill time (memo to self: I pretty much blew it on that one this semester).
What time of the day, the week, or the year brings you the greatest temptation to take your eyes off the gospel? When are you most likely to give in to temptation of any sort? What can you do to plan a strategy to change that? For a student, what times do you find it easiest to waste time excessively and thus trivialize holiness in the name of personal gratification? What time are you more susceptible to be involved with secret sin? When in the year do you find yourself more weak in dealing with depression or distraction?
Sanctification means more than overcoming individual areas of temptation. It means we become more aware of ourselves, and of our own tendencies to put ourselves in a place of weakness.
I will spend more time the last two weeks of the semester reflecting on the wonder that God would let me teach at such an amazing place as SEBTS. I will be sure to connect with those who really encourage me. And I will be honest in my weaknesses, avoiding the temptation to be a phony and act like all is well all the time when I really do have times I need the encouragement of others. Most of all, I will spend more time thinking well about the gospel. We could all do more of that, regardless the pattern of our lives.
