James 3 - Thursday 3rd October

Today’s reading is James 3

Tom writes:

How we make decisions shows who we follow. Every choice casts a vision of what we love. It breaks down like this. What stuff we love, how we think things actually get done and what things we try to avoid, fuse together into what we could call our “wisdom for life”. This “wisdom” is the sum total of all our conscious and unconscious desires; it is our playbook, our “code” to help us get where we want to get. And so - whether we realise it or not - this wisdom acts as the hidden umpire of our minds; determining how we act or respond, how we plan or let things slide. Many believers do not have Jesus as their umpire; their “wisdom for life” is unaffected by their faith. They may show up in the right rooms and use the right phrases but the seat of power in their minds is still occupied by the same old loves. So they say stuff and do stuff that is “vile”. James’ agenda is to unseat the old umpire and put Jesus in his place. What would it look like to do this? Well, it may take effort. It may take time.

The first thing to focus on is the purity of Christ. The priority of a pilgrim is purity of heart. Stop a minute and think on that. When considering a job offer, or which coffee to buy, or how to reply to a child, the first instinct of immanuel is “which option will make me more pure?”. Purity here is about all pointing in one direction; it is about a life that isn’t frayed at the edges or conflicted in any way. I buy a coffee and speak words that most advance my pursuit of God. Trying to rewrite our decision making habits to make them pure like this will take time and effort. Something like 95% of our decisions are made subconsciously. But if we start with the 5% we are conscious of, then our “wisdom” will begin to change. And so for thirty days or so we push into purity; we ponder on it and play around with it. We imagine how our day might look different if we were totally pure. And then we choose to act that way as much as we can. And God, in his mercy, will speed the change along.

Question for reflection

What decisions could you make today to pursue even greater purity?