SUNDAY: Bible Study - 9:00 AM | Worship - 10:00 AM | PM Worship - 6:00 PM WEDNESDAY: Bible Class - 7:00 PM ~ 8110 Signal Hill Road Manassas, Virginia | Office Phone: 703.368.2622

How is it that things can change so quickly? Something new enters the picture and has the ability to shield you from the former emotions you felt so strongly. As I hear the wind hit the building with great force I know a storm is approaching and I think about how appropriate its timing is. One day we talk about how cold it is or how it’s been a strangely warm day in winter and then a stormy cold front enters town and changes all that. Sure, we may mention something about how the day before was so different but we don’t really think about it that much because we’re so enthralled by the current situation.
Why is that?
It’s crazy how quickly things can be placed into perspective. One day we’re so excited about buying something new and the next we see a homeless person curled up on the side of the street and vow never to buy anything for ourselves again. Even after all of this it’s likely that we’ll buy something for ourselves again once we’re engulfed in consumer culture. It works both ways. Something more important will put something less important into perspective. Similarly, when alienated from something more important for long enough, the less important tends to take precedence.
It’s strange how often even the silly things will overpower that which is most important. One day we’re absorbed by thought concerning the purpose of life and the next some bickering arises between you and another intensifying to something awful. One day we can be calmly pondering the mysteries of life and the next our hair is on end ready to destroy someone in traffic. Certain things have the ability to manipulate our emotions much more easily than we would like.
When something has excited our emotions, often the object of our hostility doesn’t experience it alone. When you’re upset, everyone has to know and most likely will know because those feelings aren’t easily concealed. I know this is true for me and I’m willing to bet I’m not alone. All this thought is very timely for me as I’m a recent victim of my emotions.
Victim sounds so innocent.
What does it take to defeat this tendency? You know, I think many people have a problem with surrendering their life to God because they want control over themselves. But, it’s rather ironic that it’s always the small things that control us. I look at a cigarette and think about how something so small controls so many people and I bet those people understand what I’m saying. It’s the small things that entice us so well. We tend to want to be our own gods as if we believe we can steady our hand with anything. The problem is that no cape or mask with which we choose to adorn ourselves will make us anything but human. We can try to be something else or complain about not being something else, but we’ll always be ourselves despite any cosmetic embellishments.
I have so many Achilles heels that it’s not funny—as if an Achilles heel contained any humor in the first place. Frequently, it seems that I try to kick things with my heel only to find it never works. I’ll approach something knowing my weakness thinking I’ll control it this time. During those times it never dawns on me that the only story I know about an Achilles heel involves someone dying. Concurrently, I continue to use it in an attempt to take control only to fall before my opponent in embarrassment.
Furthermore, when I consider how much I desire to be in control, I think about my Achilles heel. I know that the only way anything is going to work out for the best is if I swallow my pride and submit all control to Jesus. But when Jesus said “he who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me,” I wonder about myself. Judas wanted something selfish, raised his heel, and fell. When my temper gets the best of me in relation to one of His followers, I think about this passage in John 13:18. I think about how most of the time my temper is tested, it’s related to selfishness. And I think about how receiving His people is related to receiving Him.
It’s almost as if we all have Achilles heels to remind us that we can’t do this alone. Discovering how fearfully and wonderfully we’ve been made only reveals how we can’t do it all ourselves—we aren’t the makers but the made. The encouraging side of it all is that we “can do all things through Him who strengthens” us (Philippians 4:13). He didn’t place us in this condition to depress us and make us feel powerless but to demonstrate His unrelenting mercy, sufficient grace, and unconditional love. We are His and it is good. When we look at it all out of selfishness is when we fail to acknowledge who He really is and what He’s done for us.

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