Daily Sheet: Day 101: Belief

Family Book: “I Believe: The Nicene Creed”

Travel: Congo

Map: Mary Kingsley’s Travels

Video: “Creed” – Rich Mullins (with introduction by Rich)

I hope I would leave a legacy of joy; a legacy of real compassion.  Because I think there is a great joy in real compassion.  I don’t think that you can know joy apart from caring deeply about people, caring enough about people that you actually do something.  But I have a feeling like if my life is motivated by my ambition to leave a legacy, what I will probably leave as a legacy is ambition.  But if my life is motivated by the power of the Spirit in me, if I live in the awareness of the indwelling Christ, if I allow His presence to guide my actions, to guide my motives, those sorts of things, that’s the only time I think that we really leave a great legacy.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.  My ambition to be a good guy is a fleshly ambition.  And when Christ calls us to take up our cross and follow him, a lot of us think that what that means is we’re supposed to lay down our vices, and we’re supposed to cling to virtues, but I think that unless Christ is Lord of our virtues, our virtues become dangerous to us and dangerous to the people around us.  I think that when Christ calls us to take up our cross, what He means is you must die not only to whatever vices are in your life, which he will eventually kill out, you must also die to whatever virtues are in your life.  Your life is not valuable because you are an articulate speaker, your life is not valuable because you are a generous person, your life is not valuable because of any of that.  If we empty ourselves of everything and allow God to be present, then it’s no longer us, it’s Him.  Then it becomes a spiritual thing.  And that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.  And that’s when I think Christianity really begins to make sense.

Video: “Creed” – Rich Mullins with Third Day (with Croatian subtitles)