My thoughts on the ‘Morphing of Mabel’
John Ortberg spends the rest of the book describing different spiritual disciplines which will bring us to a place to be ‘morphed’ like Mabel.
You will notice the list of activities which the storyteller thought impacted Mabel’s life. They were “suffering, solitude, prayer, meditation on Scripture, worship, fellowship when it was possible, giving when she had a flower or a piece of candy to offer.” This is a solid list of spiritual disciplines and unless I miss something were practiced by our Lord, himself. I believe these were the ‘God things’ given to her to bring her closer to the Lord.
One of the chapters in the book is titled, ‘Training Vs. Trying,’ with a section on Training Vs. Trying To Be Like Jesus. He writes, “Spiritual transformation is not a matter of trying harder, but of training wisely. This is what the apostle Paul means when he encourages his young protégé Timothy to “train yourself in godliness.” This thought also lies behind his advice to the church at Corinth: “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”
If a person wants to dive deeper into the disciplines there is a good (and deep) book by Dallas Willard titled The Spirit of the Disciplines, Understanding How God Changes Lives. One of the quotes I have marked in my copy says, “Full participation in the life of God’s Kingdom and in the vivid companionship of Christ comes to us only through appropriate exercise in the disciplines for life in the spirit.” Italicizes are the author’s, not mine.
My prayer is that each of us pray for a longing of heart to participate with the Spirit in solitude, prayer, meditation on Scripture, worship, fellowship, giving and (yes, even) suffering to bring us closer and closer to our Lord. May our heart longingly wait each day for this time with Him exercising whatever discipline we choose? If we do this we will be ‘morphed’ daily like Mabel. Amen!!
In the next post I will provide a different idea about the story of Mabel.
2 comments:
It is notable that the first thing in the list of "God things" given to Mabel is suffering. M.E. Barber once said that suffering IS power. Her whole thought was: "We die to find that death is life, that suffering is power: that death brings victory, that our foe is robbed of all his power; we die to rise in endless life, for evermore to be in conflict undismayed and clam, for death has set us free." Suffering equals dying in her thought. But dying equals life and power. My thought on that is that when I am suffering I am instantly inclined to cry out to God; otherwise I tend to rely on my own strength. His strength is power-resurrection power. It is supplied to the one who has died. Is. 64:7 "And there is no one who calls upon Your name, who stirs himself up to lay hold of You."
Amen. Mabel shows us something very important in the christian life, simplicity. In spite of her condition she was not reasoning, blaming, or even hating. She was looking away from everything else unto Jesus. How simple. I have always tried so hard and just end up in introspection. I appreciated the part about Training VS Trying. We all need to be "morphed" but it doesn't come about by our trying. I praise the Lord that he has made it so simple for us. I was always confused about the verse "my yoke is easy, and my burden is light". The weight of "trying" to live Christ was the heaviest thing that I could imagine. Praise the Lord! He has set us free from trying and shown us that dying to the self is the way to life.
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