It's Not Mine - Issue #24
Without quoting the entire song, here are how the first two stanzas go:
I've found a Friend, O, such a Friend! He loved me ere I knew Him. He drew me with the cords of love, And thus He bound me to Him. And round my heart still closely twine Those ties which naught can sever. For I am His and He is mine, Forever and forever.
I've found a Friend, O, such a Friend! He bled and died to save me, And not alone the gift of life, But His ownself He gave me. Naught that I have my own I call, I hold it for the Giver: My heart, my strength, my life, my all Are His, and His forever.
There are things about being a Christian that make one impervious to a good many political slogans--certain bedrock truths that we put our feet on and inform everything about us and everything that we do. While I practiced, the words in bold above stuck out to me because they poetically summarize one of those truths in a way that's easy to grasp and remember.
Because Jesus died for me, gave me His life and mine, and His whole self to boot; He owns me, lock, stock and barrel. Nothing I have, including my own body, is mine to do what I like with. All of it is on loan from God. He has the right to command me and it is my delight to obey. And I do truly mean that. There is no grudging acquiescence from me toward God. I don't obey out of fear of punishment or hell. My obedience is a debt of love. I am glad to obey, even when it is difficult.
For this reason, such slogans as, "my body, my choice," are meaningless. This flesh that houses my soul is not mine. It is God's. He has given it to me for safe keeping, to use for His glory. And because of that, it's also not for anyone else to command or use as they see fit. I decide what I do with it and to it in accordance with God's will as laid out in Scripture.
This presupposition or prior of mine is why I act the way I do, why I dress the way I do, why I give money to panhandlers on the street, why I did not have sex until I got married, why I don't flirt with men, why I keep more towels and and dishes in my house than I need (because my house is not just for me and my husband, but a tool with which to bless other people), why I buy as much second hand as I can, why I have a guest room, why I grow flowers and...the list goes on. I don't expect or even want a medal for doing or not doing any of these things...they just naturally flow from that principle, my prior. If the first thing, then the others.
My possessions are not mine. My body is not mine. My husband is not mine. My family is not mine. All of these things were given to me from God to love and care for. But He has first rights to them.
There are two kinds of people in the world: the people who live by this prior and those who do not. Some of those who do, may not be strictly Christian, but a vestige of the Judeo-Christian ethic has stuck to them like velcro. Those who do not may try to understand why I do what I do and appreciate my resolve, but the majority don't even try and never will.
My novel, 27, is in part about a society that has almost permanently lost this prior and their reaction to someone in their midst who lives by it.
And those are my thoughts for today.
Until next time, folks.
