Related articles - Our Outer World
I have just finished today, rewriting the Twelve Step guide to spiritual wholeness which we use in our church for recovery and growth. Scores of teenagers, men and women have benefited and are growing healthy by their participation in our Twelve Step programs, but I have likely been the person who has benefited the most. Although I always hated exam time when I was in school, I’ve come to understand why we had to take them. The only way we can grow as people is by honestly examining ourselves to see how we’re doing. It’s much easier on the short term to live in denial about my anger, fear, resentment, shame, insecurity or critical nature; but on the long term denial breeds weeds in my life which will ultimately choke out anything healthy that exists.
My question for this week is, how does our inner world reflect in the way I live? My car can be well tuned, fuelled up, cleaned and polished, while sitting in the garage. But until I get it out on the road, it really is not successfully accomplishing what it was designed to do. Likewise, we can have integrity, be exceedingly humble and wise enough to compete with Solomon, but the real question is, how are our mind, emotions and attitudes seen on the streets, in our homes and at work? How are my driving habits? Do I arrive on time for appointments? Am I generous with my things? Am I gracious to my neighbours? Do I love my wife? How does my yard look? Are my telephone manners polite? Are my kids obedient? The way we live in this world either promotes grace or disgrace to those around us.
Three outer world life pillars that I will examine over the next few weeks are: right living - there is a right path and a wrong path for each of us to walk. Our hundreds of daily choices determine which path we travel. Discipline - as children we learn how to walk on the right pathway by discipline, and as adults we stay on that path by self-discipline. Thirdly, we’ll listen to our speech - we have each been assigned a two-edged sword with which we can give life or destroy lives. How we use our tongues is a good marker of the health of our outer worlds.
A study at the University of Connecticut discovered that a person’s inner world can often be accurately judged by his outer appearance and behaviour. The professor concluded that a book can indeed often be judged by its cover. His class was instructed to rate six students, without talking to them, by a first impression. They were to take into consideration the students’ facial expressions, body language, appearance, words and tone of voice. Their conclusion; sixty-seven percent of their first impressions were accurate. Four out of six of their assessments were right on.
No wonder Solomon teaches us to examine our behaviour and words. They really do reveal what’s going on inside of our thoughts and feelings.
