"Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."
2 Corinthians 3:6
This scripture seems to encompass a lot of life. The spirit does give life... when we listen to God, and try to see the whole picture. Sometimes it seems like we can't see the forest, or even a whole tree, because we are trying to figure out how many leaves we can fit in our pockets, or we are banging our heads against a fallen log instead of climbing over it. We get so involved with thinking about the rules, and the details, and the limitations, that we can't see the world around us, and why we are here, and all the amazing things that await us. The verse says letter... as in letter of the law. How often do we find ourselves looking at the letters instead of reading the words? Arguing over a specific interaction instead of seeing the overall relationship? If we can keep the spirit with us, and continue to communicate with God all the time, then we’ll know when the exceptions are… and know how to pull success out of situations that seem hopeless. We’ll know when to be strict and when to bend… in order to assist the overall plot of the story… to help everyone and to bring joy, rather than getting caught up only in this chapter and just doing things for the sake of doing them, robotically, not seeing the reasons behind all of it. God wants us to be happy, overall. Let’s work on remembering that big picture as we go throughout our days... not to let the details kill us, but to draw life through the spirit. When we find ourselves face-down on the ground—not seeing the forest, or the trees... just the dirt—maybe we can talk to God, and ask him for a little perspective. :)
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