Only Natural

Acts 23:1–11

Phrases that spoke to me today:
• "I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day"
• "God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall!"
• "I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest"
• you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people

Applying the Word to My Life:
Modern culture has a ready answer for almost any impulse: it is only natural. And that is true — many of the things we feel are entirely natural. But if you think back to the biggest moments in your life, I would be willing to bet the common denominator has been someone else going out of their way to do something just for you. Someone going out of their way for a special birthday, helping you out when you were in need, or just giving you some badly needed time out of their packed day.

We are called to love one another as Christ loved us but we can't get there as long as we are centered on ourselves and our personal desires. But one of the things that makes us distinctively human is the capacity to govern those impulses. We are not simply at the mercy of what we feel. We can choose. That capacity — to restrain what is natural in service of something greater — is not a limitation. It is part of our dignity, it is part of what makes us human, it is what gives us the capacity to love as Christ did.

This doesn't mean always getting it perfect. Paul illustrated that in front of the Sanhedrin. The high priest ordered him struck on the mouth — unjust and illegal. Paul fired back: "God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall!"

That is a man reacting.

When he learned this was the high priest, Paul corrected himself immediately. No defensiveness. No justification. The standard applies — even to him, even now.

Self-control is the Holy Spirit's work in a believer that enables them to restrain sinful impulses and choose obedience to God. It is not the absence of impulse. It is what governs the response after the impulse fires.

That is what the church has always known. Lenten fasting and asceticism are not punishment. They are training. Deny yourself in small things, and when the larger requests come, you have already built the muscle.

For a long time I didn't see the point of fasting. Then I started doing it as part of a spiritual exercise and something unexpected happened. Mastering hunger — one of the most primal impulses we carry — opened self-control in other areas of my life. The small denial was training for larger ones.

And the goal is bigger than self-improvement. We quiet our self-centered impulses so we can treat the people around us as the beloved children of God that they are — with the same love Christ has for them. Self-control clears the path for everything else the Spirit grows in us.

Paul caught himself in the middle of the Sanhedrin. That is what formation produces — not perfection, but a practiced return to God's call.

It starts small. It might even start with saying no to lunch.

My Response for Today:
Today I will say no to one thing I want — and offer that small denial as training.