Friday: Guidance from the Outer to the Inner
WEEK 35
FRIDAY
GUIDANCE FROM THE OUTER TO THE INNER
Isaiah 40:11
The guidance in the Acts moves from the outer guidance of events—wet fleece, lots, sacrifice through fire—to the voice of God within the soul. But that voice was not independent of or apart from human intelligence. Sometimes where the intelligence could not be a part of the decision, the voice was direct and immediate and imperative. But mostly the Holy Spirit’s voice and the human intelligence coincided and were one. This statement, “It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” (Acts 15:28 RSV), is the high-water mark of guidance. Yet even that was not free from marginal irrelevance. For instance, the account says, “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from unchastity” (vv. 28-29 RSV). The two items “from blood” and “from what is strangled” were practices of the Jews, which they tried to pass over into the Gentile world as universal practices. They failed. The RSV margin note says, “Other early authorities omit and from what is strangled.” It was quietly dropped out. It was local and temporary and not universal. Yet the guidance not to put the Jewish yoke of circumcision on the Gentile Christians was right. It was so right it could stand the marginal irrelevance introduced and still be right.
Sometimes the guidance of the Spirit was a no. “Paul and his companions traveled throughout the regions of Phrygia and Galatia because the Holy Spirit kept them from speaking the word in the province of Asia. . . . They tried to enter the province of Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus wouldn’t let them” (16:6-7). But that no was in order to guide them to a larger yes. For the closed doors into Asia meant an open door into Europe; the man of Macedonia called them to Europe and to us. God never closes one door without opening a bigger one. “I just love red lights,” said the overflowing “Mary.” Why? “Because he gives me a red light in order to give me a bigger green.” God’s blockings are God’s blessings—always—if we know how to take them.
O Lord, I know that your red lights are only in order to guide me to a more glorious green. Help me to take gladly your prohibitions in order to take your possibilities. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: If I am blocked today, I shall look around to find the larger open door.