God is at work in us

For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. 

—2 Peter 1:5-7 NRSV

My husband was kindly helping me by going to pick up some groceries. I told him I needed just three things. But as he was going out the door, I thought of something else, “Oh, can you pick up some tofu, as well?” There was a healthy pause before I added, “And I need some cauliflower for the curry . . . and some coconut milk and . . .”

“It looks like I better write this down,” he smiled.

Have you had the experience where someone keeps piling on what is expected of you? Peter, in writing to the new Christian churches in Asia Minor, created quite a list of requirements for them. He said that they should have faith and goodness, knowledge and self-control, endurance, godliness, mutual affection and love. Whew! That is a bit overwhelming! Any one of those things is an aspirational goal, but it might seem completely out of reach to think about living the entire list.

Fortunately for us, Peter gives us the key to a life transformation such as the one he suggests. Verse 3 says that God “has given us everything needed for life and godliness.” He goes on to say that God’s promises ensure that we can avoid failure. He didn’t just present the list; he gave practical help about how to achieve it.

Imagine if, instead of giving my husband the grocery list and then adding to it several times, I had said, “I need some groceries. Let’s go get them together.” It would have changed the experience for him entirely. He wouldn’t have felt stressed about missing something. We would have been doing it together and the responsibility wouldn’t all be on him.

God has high hopes and plans for our lives, but thankfully, he doesn’t leave us on our own to achieve those goals. As Philippians 2:13 says, “It is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

We are in good hands!

—Kathy McMillan, MA, is director of Employee Spiritual Care for Loma Linda University Medical Center.