The SOURCE of LIFE

THE SOURCE OF LIFE

There are many people in life who will try to tempt us to be drawn away from our Source, which is Christ.

They may attack us with words, accuse us, misunderstand us or deliberately look for a reaction.

They are drawing from their source. And sometimes that source is putrid.

It carries anger, bitterness, accusation, jealousy, hurt and all the things that have collected there over a lifetime. When they speak from that place, there is a temptation for us to reach into it and draw something back.

Their anger produces our anger.

Their accusation produces our defence.

Their hostility produces our hostility.

And suddenly we have been pulled into their source instead of our own.

Christ is our Source.

If we fail, it is because some of the putrid still lives in us.

Jesus showed us this.

When He was reviled, He did not revile in return. When He was accused, He did not allow their accusations to determine what came out of Him. Even when He answered and corrected what was being said, He never entered into the spirit from which they were speaking.

He remained grounded in the Father.

That is the place I want to live from.

Not a place where I never speak.

Not a place where I cannot correct something that is wrong.

Not even a place where words cannot hurt me.

But a place where another person's behaviour does not drag me into a reaction.

Perhaps this is one of the deepest works of maturity in us.

To be the reflection of Christ!

To become so grounded in Christ that another person's anger cannot determine our response. Their bitterness cannot make us bitter. Their hatred cannot stop us loving.

Their source may be putrid, but I do not have to drink from it.

Their words do not determine what flows from me if I stay grounded in Christ.