Unexpectedly skewered

Do you ever have those moments when some particular turn of phrase – usually regarding something with which you are very familiar – skewers you in a new and unexpected way? I was reading a Sunday-school level introduction to Eastern theology, in a section talking about the believer’s call to holiness.

“We cannot imagine using a chalice for cocktails – it has been set apart for the service of God. However, we too have been consecrated and set apart for His service.”

There’s nothing conceptually new in that paragraph, but for some reason the phrase really got to me. As a living chalice, this waffling man’s self doesn’t even get used for cocktails most of the time. On its better days, it might hold a cheap brand of beer; on its worst days, it gets used as a spittoon. I need to do better.

I know, I know - holiness isn’t something that I as a lowly, depraved, sniveling creature can establish for myself. I can, however, either cooperate or stand in the way of God establishing it for me. I can’t set myself apart for God, but I can (and do) set myself apart for the world, the flesh, and the Devil.

This isn’t graduate-level advanced Christianity. The Gospels and the Fathers have made it clear that finding holiness isn’t exactly rocket science. My own particular traps are uncomplicated and easy to figure out. I spend too much time working, too much time surfing the net, too much time watching football, too much time eating, too much time doing anything to avoid being apart and in the presence of God. The most subtle of my traps is that I spend too much time reading and talking and blogging and thinking about God, time that I should spend with Him. Sanctification comes from contact with the Divine, not from analysis of Him. The end result is that I wind up being easy pickings for the Enemy most of the time.

Advent’s a good season in which to deal with this. It’s prayer time.

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. (Rom 12:1)