Day 276- Free to do what it takes
📖Daily Reading
1 Corinthians 9
🎥 Video
Join me on my morning walk as we rise and shine together by walking through the Bible daily and learn a practical applicable coaching nugget from the ultimate life coach - our creator (whatever that means to you). No judgement zone here, all are welcome, we are all on a spiritual journey because we are after all spiritual beings having a human experience.
📝 Reflection
1 Corinthians 9: 19
“Even though I am a free man with no master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ.”
1 Corinthians 9:22-27 NLT
“When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings. Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.”
Paul has found ultimate love and freedom in Christ and he is trying to share this good news of grace with everyone in his path. In order to do that he is willingly subjecting himself to their laws and customs while in their presence. He is being everything to everyone to the best of his ability which is allowing him to stand on common ground in their presence. This common ground allows for ears, eyes, minds and hearts to be more open to hearing what Paul has to say.
He makes the comparison which very well known and often quoted of being like an athlete and running your race. In order to be an elite athlete you have to free yourself of meeting many expectations many others may feel obligated to meet. You can be dedicated to your mission. This might mean you ‘miss out’ on some social life, eating certain foods, engaging in certain behavior. In your freedom to pursue your mission and your race you must also become a ‘slave’ to disciplines that support your training and your race.
Of course I am talking about people that are truly choosing from a place of freedom. This is what freedom does for you it allows you to be on your own mission. Fulfill your potential and do what you were sent here to earth to do. Paul uses his freedom wisely and effectively. He isn’t here just ‘pretending’, he is genuinely living in his purpose. He sees it as a gift and an opportunity that he feels so compelled to do that he refuses getting paid even though he is entitled to it.
He spends a lot of time making this argument, he almost sounds like a lawyer in court. Why is he doing this? Why is it important that we understand this? When you are free to be on your particular God given mission and assignment you will want to do your mission freely regardless of the ‘cost’. In fact you might feel ‘guilty’ getting paid because it is something you are going to do regardless. You have no choice, he uses the word compelled (NLT), he knows that he has freedom to choose, but he also feels like he has no choice. Have you ever felt that way? Driven to do something you know you were made for?
“Yet preaching the Good News is not something I can boast about. I am compelled by God to do it. How terrible for me if I didn’t preach the Good News! If I were doing this on my own initiative, I would deserve payment. But I have no choice, for God has given me this sacred trust. What then is my pay? It is the opportunity to preach the Good News without charging anyone. That’s why I never demand my rights when I preach the Good News.” (1 Corinthians 9:16-18 NLT)
Now preaching may not be your purpose, but we all have one. We all have our gifts and our talents and our consciences bug us when we don’t use them. We all have that something that we need to feel ‘terrible’ about for squandering. Life is a gift and what we do with it is a gift back to God and our fellow humans.
You too can free yourself to run your race and do what it takes. This will also help set others free by your example. But - you might also have some who will not understand. So you also have to be willing to be seen as selfish, bold, crazy, weird, ..whatever. This too is freedom, freedom from letting judgement affect you or stop you. This is just their ego telling them that something threatening is happening. It is fear in them reacting, try to keep you the same keeps them safe in their comfort zone.
He is showing us how to be humble, neutral and non threatening when with people, because it is what his mission requires. But we can all learn from this and be this even when in the company of those that might not understand and may really be questioning us. We can sit in the company and with the judgements I mentioned above that you might get, staying neutral or non-judgemental in the face of judgement is disarming. People naturally are trying to get a reaction and control with their judgement. But you can be free…
It takes practice and work but we have a lot of good role models and examples not only in the Bible but in lots of other wisdom literature and modern day saints. This is grace in action. In order to spread the message of grace you have to be graceful. In order to spread love you need to ‘be’ love. Grace is the key that unlocks love and the being-ness that Paul is trying to capture here of who he is now in Christ.
✍🏼Daily Journal Prompt
Many of us try to ‘do’ grace and ‘do’ love, maybe just try to receive and become? Let this sit with you, maybe don’t even try to understand it, or do it, just be it?
📖Tomorrows Reading
1 Corinthians 10
Coaching Opportunity
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