The title of your previous post was "When is enough enough?" And the answer is, according to my understanding of Scripture, never. Our entire lives will be spent being sanctified; that is, tested and refined by God. The ironic thing is, I am led to understand, that the further down the trail one gets, the more one realizes how much further one has to go. It is like an asymptotic line -- one that trends toward, but never touches, the axis. Well, never touches until we are glorified in heaven.
C.S. Lewis wrote an interesting book on this subject called, "The Great Divorce." The premise of that book is that our lives represent trajectories. After death, that trajectory continues into eternity, producing either creatures of incredible glory, or creatures of horrible evil. The book got him into some measure of trouble by some fundamentalists because the story provided people in "hell" an opportunity to repent and go to heaven. ("Hell" was portrayed brilliantly in the story as like a grim, gray city that goes on forever because everyone in it can't stand one another and tend to move further and further apart from one another.)
It's a life-long journey, one of continued and incremental submission, gaining further insights and understanding, and undergoing more and more trials and testing in the act of sanctification. Or so I'm to understand. This parallels the story offered in "Pilgrim's Progress" -- the main character, "Christian," encounters repeated difficulties on his way to the "Celestial City."
Note: This notion runs somewhat contrary to contemporary evangelical Christianity -- at least within some circles -- whereby the act of regeneration is a "road to Damascus" moment, followed by perfect obedience and perfect happiness. I think that presentation is disingenuous. Well, that's being civil -- I think that presentation is flat-out wrong. I don't think Scripture supports that view, at least not at the high level. Perhaps a passage here or there could be extracted to support it, but the whole of the New Testament message is one of continued submission and refinement by the Holy Spirit.
From personal experience I can attest to this. I can only count as a blessing my awareness of my painful shortcoming. When I take the time to ponder the forgiveness offered, and what that means in terms of salvation from sin, and then compare that to my response ... well, the picture isn't pretty. The serious question I must answer is "Why?" I really don't know, other than the act of killing my former self takes time. Galatians 2:20 is not an instantaneous thing with me, I guess.
But I must keep striving towards that goal. That I know.
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Here's another passage that caught my eye:
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Phillipians 4:4-7, NIV
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Thanks for the update on Wimbledon. I think tennis is a dead sport, sorry to say. I'm no expert on the topic, but from what I understand, part of the problem is the technology and the training, particularly in the men's category. Apparently the serves are getting to be so fast and powerful that they're almost unreturnable.
Interesting topic thread there ... what sports are "dead?" One, I think, is boxing. Certainly at the heavyweight level. I imagine there'll always be localized interest, but there'll never again be a Muhammad Ali. Hockey, here in the United States, suffered a year-long lockout over contract disputes. Television ratings for hockey here are virtually zero. The league is over-extended and the talent is too thin.
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