The Continuum

This is an idea that occurred to me sometime back and I have been refining it in an attempt to create a picture of walking with God. The continuum represents the side to side representation of our walk in life as defined in attitude. In this image I am suggesting that the middle of the road is our objective and that there are markers that let us know where the edges of the road are and I will even go on to describe what the sides of the road are.

This road, which I will refer to here as a godly attitude, is marked by two aspects or qualities. The first is humility. Humility in my simplest understanding is just that we are not sufficient in and of ourselves for anything. The scripture that I think of is "We can do nothing apart from Him."

Some see humility as a weakness. To them, it is some sort of groveling, "I am useless and helpless" kind of attitude. I see it more as a sober-minded attitude that admits that no one person can have all the answers; that no one person is the answer to all problems. As a humble person, I can admit that I don't have all the answers and be okay with myself. A humble person has no difficulty in asking for help. A humble person doesn't think that they are better than others. A humble person realizes that we are all different and we all have different gifts and abilities, but that doesn't make us better or worse than someone else especially in God's eyes. God is the giver of gifts. God is who created me. I must look to him find my value, while at the same time realizing that as his creation, I am only adequate to do what He has created me to do. Humility is freeing. I don't have to be perfect, I just have to know where to look for help.

The other key aspect of a godly attitude that I think we need to walk with faith in "The Way of God" is confidence. I find confidence in the scripture that says that I can do all things through Him who gives me strength. Confidence says that I trust God to help me to accomplish that which He has called me to do. Confidence says, I am confident in whom God made me to be. I am not a mistake and I can use my talents, abilities and gifts to do immeasurably more than I can think or imagine because His power is at work in me to will and to do.

So then I see us in this tension between humility, which says I can do nothing apart from Him, and confidence, which says I can do all things through Him. To walk with a godly attitude in The Way of God we need both. Confidence helps us to be obedient and prevents us from falling into fear and condemnation. Humility helps us to avoid arrogance and thinking that we don't need God.

Walking in the way of God is then a combination of humility and confidence. Its not one or the other. The two are not opposites but rather compliments. Together they combine to give us a right perspective of self - right esteem.

This leaves us to define the two sides of the road. When we lose either confidence or humility we end up off the path. Without humility confidence can be twisted into arrogance. Arrogance says "I don't need anyone else, I am sufficient in and of myself to face anything". Arrogance says, "I don't need God." Its idolatry where we elevate ourselves to godhood. We become our own god. It doesn't make us necessarily atheists, but such an attitude makes dependence on God a weakness instead of a strength. There is much more I would like to say about arrogance and it causes and consequences, but I will have to leave that for a later article.

Now on the other side of The Way of God there is, for lack of a better word, "Brokenness." When we try to live lives without confidence in God and who God has made us to be we fall into this defeated mindset that seems to say "Even God can't help me." People who have strayed off the path here may want God's help and even cry out for it, but they really don't believe it will come, because they have no confidence in Him. One might even say they have more confidence in their ability to fail than in God's ability to help them.

Now my objective in this article is not to condemn anyone who gets off the path. It's more an attempt to help people recognize when they are in "The Way of God" or off the path. Our walk with God is a constant effort to seek His Face and His Will. To do so we have to die to ourselves in a act of humility and trust and we must rise in to a new life where we are more than conquerors. To live such a life takes being self-aware and working at examining ourselves and asking God for guidance. I pray that I have given you some tools to help you in your pursuit to follow God. Tools that will help you find your way.