Why Climb, Conserve, and Confess Should Work for us All. (Part 2)

Having now examined something of the nature of climbing, let’s move on to the Second of Rumsfeld’s Rules as he encountered them in the cockpit of his Navy Trainer.

Conserve

I think we all know what conserve means. Webster defines it as the process of keeping something in “a safe or sound state, or especially to avoid wasteful or the destructive use of…” Well in terms of Rumsfeld’s S.M.J. aircraft, I think it’s obvious that the second tier in this survival guidebook was conserve your resources long enough to find a safe and secure place to land.

Over the years, I have waged a unending battle against many within my own family about just how much we should utilize the resources at our disposal. For example, do you really want to use your “high”beams more than absolutely necessary thereby depleting their life and finding yourself in a situation where you “really” needed them, only to find them burnt out prematurely? Or maybe, again in your vehicle, do you really need to run that fan motor at top speed? After all, it only has so much life in it at high speed, and when you’re really hot, or cold, you may wish you could have enjoyed the higher potential for bringing comfort to you. My family has punished me in many ways on this one. My brother-in-law, the absolute worst offender, purposely waits till I’m in his car and then repeatedly and without concern for the contacts within his fan switch, moves the control knob back and forth from low to high…. It hurts just to say it. That said, my oldest son took this conservation thing to another level much to the chagrin of his siblings. As far back as I can remember, whatever it was that he was responsible for… this might include cereal, treats from the quick stop on a road trip, or an item that he purchased for himself with his own money, his M.O. was always the same– make it last. And so, he would be the one, the only one with cereal left after 6 months when all the others’ “gift” cereal was long gone. His candy would “rot” in his room long before he would ever get around to eating it. In fairness, I should say that his younger brother for most of his younger years defaulted to the other extreme; if he has it now, it’s going to be consumed… no saving, no conservation, but instead immediate satisfaction. Now, in fairness, I must say that both of our boys have matured and neither of them are guilty of the extremes of their youth, but… the tendencies remain. And why not, their father has exhibited both traits throughout his life. It merely depends on the day.

And yet, far more important than cereal are the other areas in our life that we would do well to consider. For the protege Timothy, it was the gifts necessary for effective ministry that he was charged to guard and conserve, that they might be used with discernment, used wisely and might bring out the best in the local church where he was working. He is to guard carefully the gospel, its message, its proclamation, and its interpretation, lest it be contorted and twisted for the benefit of easier belief and misguided behavior.

If I return to Webster’s definition I can rightly apply this to our purity. We are to hold fast to our purity,and to conserve our passions, that they might be dispensed consistent with God’s Word and His best interests for our lives. Our sexuality is a gift of God but one that is designed to be kept within the banks of God’s specific prerogatives for our stewardship of the body that He has given us and the furtherance of a culture that will prosper because of it. Paul writes to the church at Thessalonica to tell them that “this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God ( I Thessalonians 4:4-5).

We are likewise to carefully conserve our resources with good stewardship as the center of our understanding of wealth and possessions. Our priorities should be directed to the care of our families, the church, and the larger communities around us. We are commended to pursue contentment consistent with godliness rather than a consumption consistent with worldliness and materialism. We are to cheerfully give out of our scarcity and at times out of the bounty of our abundance. After all, God loves a cheerful giver. Extravagance does have a place in our lives. There is no limit to the unbroken strands of praise that are due our heavenly Father, no limit or need to conserve our testimonies to his greatness, power, immortality, or immutability. He never grows weary of hearing his name exulted on our lips, and we have no command before us in Scripture that would ask us to dismiss our dispense with our tones of unending worship.

And so we must conserve…

Next week, We Confess.

Your fellow observer.

MJC

More next time. Stay tuned