stuff i think

I had breakfast with E.W. Kenyon this morning. I know, I know...quite the feat, what with him being quite dead for some time now. Let me clarify – I had breakfast with him. He didn’t have breakfast with me.

I’ve been reading one of his irritating little books. I’m four or five days into it and have reached page twenty seven...and I’m a fast reader. My problem with Kenyon is he makes me mad. I’m not quite sure how he looked decades into the future to point out my every little fault, but he did, and these twenty seven pages have poked and prodded me like little I’ve read or heard in years. I keep going back to reread portions, hoping Kenyon has changed his mind. So far, no luck.

The particularly irritating portion of today’s irritating reading of this irritating book says this:

“Men may not understand you. They may think you are unwise. But you live this love life. You are taking Jesus’ place, acting as Jesus would act. You are the one that loves as Jesus loved, and you are not deluding yourself now; for in John 8:12, Jesus said “I am the light of the world. He that followeth me (or practices what I teach)...shall have the light of live.
You are going to prove to the world that you have the light.”

It’s that last little sentence that really tweaks me. I like to live as if I have nothing to prove – I have little genuine regard for people’s approval. In some cases, it’s a blessing, because I have less difficulty charting my own course than I might if I were concerned about the thoughts of others. However, just as often as it’s a blessing...it’s a curse. In acting as if I have nothing to prove, I’ve shown my arrogance more often than not.

I claim to be a child of God, although if you were to follow me around, you might have a difficult time detecting it. Obviously, I have everything to prove. To live in the light is to be under the microscope...and that’s the way it should be. Viewed with anything other than close scrutiny, we all cut corners.