Stepping into Character

I was reading in Hebrews 11-12 yesterday, and got a little nugget from the Lord :)
Anyway, Hebrews 12 starts out talking about how we should throw off everything that hinders and the sin that weighs us down, etc etc. and how instead of considering our sturggle, we should consider the struggle that Christ endured for us and take that as encouragement...
So I'm meditating on this, and thinking of a few other instances in the bible that talk about putting off the old man and putting on the new. And that, directly applied to some things in my own life, I saw in a new light. To me that had always seemed sort of like putting down something that i had before and picking up something that i was supposed to have. Or purposefully stopping doing something and starting doing something else. I mean, I guess that's not totally inaccurate, but i just saw it in a different way... and I like this way better. It's not about refraining from saying mean things when you're mad or whining about it when you're hurt so that you're walking out the motions of walking in love-- it's about ceasing to be that person who reacts to a situation or event out of selfish concern (hurt or anger or pleasure or what have you) and stepping into the love of God, seeing through His eyes, and through that reacting out of love. Not forcing yourself to love, but reacting out of love.

Ok I'm gonna make another acting methods connection here. One method of characterization that I've been exposed to is to literally visual the character, standing in front of you-- their looks, their attitudes, mannerisms, strengths, insecurities, beliefs, desires, motivations, etc. Build all of that into this visualization in front of you. It can be alive, or as a shell, with all of these things sort of dormant, waiting to come to life. When it's complete, you step into it. So that, in a sense, you're wearing this character-- you put it on, you become this person as you designed him/her. Whether they look like you or not. It could be a tree, or a bunny rabbit, or a fairy queen, or the girl who looks remarkably like you. Doesn't matter. You put it on, step into it, and you become that.

Well, I think that walking in righteousness (walking in holiness, walking in love, running the race, putting on the Armor of God, putting on the new man, living as a new creation... however you want to think of it) is quite similar. Take the armor of God for example-- you've got the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of [the readiness that comes from] the gospel of peace, the helmet of salvation, and the shield of faith. All of these you put on, except the shield of faith, you kinda would pick that up i think. anyway. same concept. Meditate on these, and how the Word says to apply these, and simply step into that. When you think about it that way, you're actually experiencing the world around you through these things-- like a filter, of sorts. But the point is, just like with this characterization exercise in acting you're becoming that character that you created in your mind rather than trying to immitate what it would look like, you're not trying to immitate what it looks like to have a breastplate of righteousness on; you're actually wearing a breasplate of righteousness. the difference of course being that you didn't create the breastplate of righteousness in your mind, it's an actual tangible tool given to you in the Spirit.

But all of that more or less just presented itself a moment ago. The way I experienced it yesterday is that, when you shed your own self, your selfish concerns-- rather than suppress them or ignore them-- and consciously step into the love of God and the way that He sees the people around you... suddenly you're not trying to walk in love. Because you're actually in love. And when you're in love-- in the midst of it, not just experiencing it from one side-- then it becomes the filter that you experience the rest of the world through. Your input AND your output come and go through love.

Pshew. I'd love to be able to articulate this better than that^ but it's hard to articulate things that you didn't learn in words. (interlude: Spirit Thing, by the Newsboys. oldschool) I'll chew on it a bit more. okay.

<3