"God Has Done... According to the Spirit."

I ask for the grace to accomplish what needs to be accomplished today.  I ask for the grace to live fully for the moment, concerned, but not anxious; committed, but not to outcome; invested, but not attached.  May I find the grace to be accepting without expectation.


Romans 8:1-4
8There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ²For the law of the Spirit^* of life in Christ Jesus has set you^* free from the law of sin and of death. ³For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin,^* he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.


1) "...no condemnation;" "...set you free from the law of sin and death;" "...so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us;" "...according to the Spirit;" "...no condemnation;" "...in Christ Jesus;" "...Spirit of life;" "...in Christ Jesus;" "...set you free;" "...according to the Spirit;" "...no condemnation;" "...in Christ Jesus;" "...the law of the Spirit of life;" "...in Christ Jesus;" "...the just requirement of the law;" "...according to the Spirit."


2) "Flesh" and "Spirit" are starting to be set in contrast to each other here, but do not refer to our literal bodies and "spirits," which are not separable in Paul's first century ideology.  He's using "flesh" and "spirit" in the way Jesus used "worldly" and "divine" when rebuking Peter.  When we feel like we are navigating an ocean of failure (or even success), we are focusing on "the flesh" or "worldly things."  Jesus and Paul, do not call us to "succeed," but to navigate what may feel like failures without attachment to success or failure, without expectation or outcome.  This isn't "We're fated to fail so why bother," but "We will most likely fail, but we will still do what is right because it is right."  "Whether we live or whether we die, we belong to Christ" will come up at the end of Romans.  St Francis learned to rejoice in his failures.  Bonhoeffer was executed for a failed assassination plot.  Jesus was persecuted and executed in the most ignominious way possible.  None of that is being asked of us, only to die to shame.


3) What is the invitation in all this?  To live according to the Spirit without expectation, without attachment to outcome.


"Holy One, help us to live according to the Spirit, denying the way of the world that would categorize each of us as successes or failures."


Breathprayer: "God has done... according to the spirit."