Walking Circumspectly

This morning at our church service the scripture reading was Ephesians 5:15-21.  The first portion of that passage reads, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”  (Eph 5:15-17)

After coming home one of my friends had a quote from John O’Donohue’s book, Eternal Echoes:  Reflections on Our Yearning to Belong.  The portion of the quote that stood out to me was this.

We rush through our days in such stress and intensity, as if we were here to stay and the serious project of the world depends on us. We worry and grow anxious; we magnify trivia until they become important enough to control our lives.

- John O’Donohue, Eternal Echoes: Celtic Reflections on Our Yearning to Belong

I think you could put the two together and they make perfect sense.  Not walking circumspectly is exactly what O’Donohue is describing.  Read them together with a slight insertion from me.

We rush through our days in such stress and intensity, as if we were here to stay and the serious project of the world depends on us. We worry and grow anxious; we magnify trivia until they become important enough to control our lives.  These things ought not to be so.  If you want to progress in life, look carefully at how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Walking circumspectly is required if you want to transition from having a heart of thorns that chokes out the fruitfulness of God’s word to having a heart of fertile soil that bears fruit.

When I stayed on the treadmill of life, I didn’t get anywhere. It may have looked like I was making worldly progress on the outside, but not much was changing on the inside.  It wasn’t until several years ago when I deliberately stepped off the treadmill and spent time in reflection and thought with God that things really began to change internally.   Eventually the internal changes began to produce external ones and continue to do so.  It is fruit that remains – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and so forth.  It takes time and work to plant a new crop, but it can happen.