Self Defeating

A work colleague recently related a story to me in which he was attempting to repair a sanitation pump. He'd opened the flooded tank chamber and was attempting to empty it with a cup. The process was tedious, requiring repeatedly filling and emptying the cup into the basin above. Yet after twenty minutes, the water level remained the same... It took another ten minutes mindless activity before he finally realised he was foiling his own efforts, emptying the cup into the very basin that was refilling the flooded tank.

Ever had your efforts thwarted? Most have. In many competitive sports, players devote themselves to disrupting an opponents attempts to win. In fact, in some arenas of life it is broadly accepted as part of the job to interfere with a rivals progress; politics, courtrooms, policing, military.

However, when is it not acceptable to compete with another’s efforts?

Imagine loving parents, daily making efforts to pass on training and instruction to their child. Then, several times a week a person enters the home, forces the parents into another room, and then spends their time undoing the parents efforts. Would that be acceptable, even moral?

Or imagine a medical professional devoted to the health of a patient with a chronic illness, providing them with therapy, medication and health counselling. Only to discover that the pharmacist has been ignoring the prescription and issuing sugar-pills instead. He did this so as to defame and get more business into his sons clinic down the road. Acceptable or just plain wrong?

How about paying for a course of studies so as to earn a respected certification at work. The course arrives, you study it diligently. However, come exam time you find that the coursework is completely irrelevant to the test material. You fail. Later, you discover that the coursework was doctored so as to minimise the number of certificate holders and so increase it's value as a qualification; at your expense.

I think you get the point. Most agree that these examples represent unacceptable immoral, even punishable behaviour.

However, let's make this more personal. What about when we thwart ourselves? When we persistently think, say and do those things that go against our best interests. It would be nice to say that nobody does that deliberately, but we know that's not true. I think most of us are very aware of those self-defeating attitudes and behaviours in our lives; they're normally those things we would rather hide from others; others we respect at least.

But let's ramp it up again. What about when we thwart God's efforts? And let's keep it personal. When we thwart God's efforts with us?

In what way are we refilling into our lives what God's trying to empty, or emptying what he's trying to fill?

God desires that we desire and pursue our best. 
What areas of your life are thwarting God's efforts?
...and what are you doing about them?

Like with the other examples above, it's not acceptable to thwart God's efforts.