Week 1 | Day 3 | The Way is Your Why

Command:

Enter through the narrow gate. Matthew 7:13 (NIV)

Read:

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6 (NIV)

Reflect:

Like most people, there came a time in my life when I asked a big question. Why am I here? What is my purpose? What is my why? This is a big question because the answer impacts my manner of living. Living by the excessive survival instincts of anxiety, anger, and appetites causes all kinds of problems and ends in despair and shame. I don’t have to learn this way of life. I live this way by default. 

Christ is the source of all goodness that include traits of assuredness, agreeableness, and contentment which bring peace and joy. But these are not defaults. They must be acquired by processes of formation into the ways of Christ. 

By focusing on Christ’s traits of goodness and intentionally acting out his ways of life I gradually change forms into his likeness. Gradually, Christ forms in me. I have found this process to be so challenging that the words of Paul ring true. My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. Galatians 4:19 (NIV) 

Something (good or bad) is always shaping my soul. I’m learning to ask myself, “What is forming in me today, this hour, this moment? Anxiety or assuredness, craving or contentment, anger or agreeableness?”

Since the purpose of life is to become as Christ is, the way of Christ forming in me is the “why” of my life. 

React:

Today I will pause and notice the trait of Christ’s goodness I need in challenging moments. I will act out that expression of Christ until it is formed in me. This way of Christ is the “why” of my life.

Pray:

Lord, give me the grace to pause and follow your ways of life.