This week, it has become more and more evident at how little we are actually in control of our own lives. More than that, I have really seen how big of a war can take place when I want one thing and God may be leading me in another direction.
As I type this, I am listening to Fight by Point of Grace; such a good illustration of my point. The lyrics to the chorus go like this, "I am coming to you with all of my broken motives, all of my selfish dreams, all of my foolishness. I know that you're reaching out so what am I fighting more. Only you can save me, Only you can change me, only you can love me."
Sometimes, I think that God keeps me around for His amusement, seriously. I mean, I know I find some sort of sick pleasure in being able to say "I told you so" when a friend doesn't follow my advice. I don't see why God would be any different. Just this week alone, I feel like God has told me that very phrase that I hate hearing probably enough times to fill up both of my hands.
How many times of hearing "I told you so" is it going to take me to just start listening to Him? I mean it isn't like this is me trying to decipher whether to trust what a complete stranger has to say or even a close friend...this is me fighting to trust the mapper of my life. This is the God whom has written out all of the possible choices and then has weighed them multiple times to see which would be the most productive in my life and has picked one possibility. He has done all the work and yet I still sit here with my list of pros and cons and apprehensive mind, insisting on figuring it out on my own.
I have been around long enough to know that the conclusion that God has come to is often not the one that I want to pick. It is typically filled with pain, tears and the chance to say "I was wrong, you were right" (also a phrase I think God finds a little too much humor in hearing). It all comes back to that wide is the gate that leads to destruction and narrow is the gate that leads to life. Another little fact that I am slowly learning is that both of those paths are often clearly marked life....the wide one isn't marked destruction or it would be far to easy to just turn in the other direction. A war isn't started when you think that the other person is right and you are wrong; a war is waged when you believe yourself to be right and the other person wrong.
Hosea 6:1 has come in much comfort to me over the past few weeks. It reads, "Come let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us. He has injured us, but will bind up our wounds." I have more so seen this verse as saying that I have torn myself to pieces, but He will heal me and that I have injured my own self, but He will bind up my wounds. I have injured myself each time that I have chosen to challenge the God of the universe. Yet, like a parent He continues to come to me with a band-aid, cleaning off my wound and remembering to say "I told you so, when are you ever going to start listening to me?"
So I ask you the same question, "When are you ever going to just start listening to HIM?"
<3
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Prayer vs. Empty Condolences
One of my friends performed a social experiment this week on our college campus by responding with ''terrible'' any time someone asked her "how are you doing?" Very disappointingly, nobody on this Christian campus stopped to see what is wrong...many of them didn't even notice. This just brought to attention how a heavy question like "how are you" has been morphed into a simple greeting in which nobody really expects/wants an answer.
I feel as though, this little experiment can stretch further than this small campus and span into the entire nation. America has grown to be a very self-centered and compassionate society. We prefer the organizations in which we can just write a check to every month, preferably the ones that take the money out of our account automatically. We can spare to donate money many of the times, and have turned that into our primary way of service because choosing to actually love someone takes work. This is especially unfortunate in a nation with so many Christians; the very people that are called to show the love of Jesus through our actions.
Seriously, one of the simplest acts of love that we can preform is asking someone how they are and then intently listening to the other persons answers. So many times the people who are hurting and struggling just need someone to listen to them. Christianity has become so ingenuine (yes I know that isn't an actual word) we perform actions to make ourselves look better...and simply asking how someone is looks good to the public, we can typically get away without actually sticking around to listen.
Now to sort of change thoughts, my friends experiment got me thinking on what else Christians/the human race does in-genuinely. One action caught my eye as I was watching Letters to God just now: prayer. So many times throughout the movie, which is made by a Christian company, the phrase "I'll pray for you" is tossed around. Someone is crying or struggling in the movie and the next person just lays a hand on that person and says "I'll pray for you". Now don't get me wrong, prayer is great. However this saying has turned into an empty condolence.
I would like to go around and follow-up when people tell me that they are going to pray for me and see if they actually prayed. Seriously...count the number of times each day that you make a commitment to pray for someone....how many of those commitments do you actually follow through with? So many Christians have made prayer empty. Christians have forgotten the commitment involved in prayer. My favorite is hearing nonChristians say during like tragic events that they will pray for the people involved. It is not uncommon to attend a funeral and hear every other person announce that they are praying for the family. Seriously? When a Christian action has become so empty that nonChristians will openly say it...something is wrong.
I guess I am writing this just to make you think. I hope that you are sincere in your actions. That when you ask someone how they are, you take the time to hear it when they say terrible and ask why. That when you tell someone that you will pray for them that you sincerely pray. I pray that you take the time to love and not take the short cut out through things.
I feel as though, this little experiment can stretch further than this small campus and span into the entire nation. America has grown to be a very self-centered and compassionate society. We prefer the organizations in which we can just write a check to every month, preferably the ones that take the money out of our account automatically. We can spare to donate money many of the times, and have turned that into our primary way of service because choosing to actually love someone takes work. This is especially unfortunate in a nation with so many Christians; the very people that are called to show the love of Jesus through our actions.
Seriously, one of the simplest acts of love that we can preform is asking someone how they are and then intently listening to the other persons answers. So many times the people who are hurting and struggling just need someone to listen to them. Christianity has become so ingenuine (yes I know that isn't an actual word) we perform actions to make ourselves look better...and simply asking how someone is looks good to the public, we can typically get away without actually sticking around to listen.
Now to sort of change thoughts, my friends experiment got me thinking on what else Christians/the human race does in-genuinely. One action caught my eye as I was watching Letters to God just now: prayer. So many times throughout the movie, which is made by a Christian company, the phrase "I'll pray for you" is tossed around. Someone is crying or struggling in the movie and the next person just lays a hand on that person and says "I'll pray for you". Now don't get me wrong, prayer is great. However this saying has turned into an empty condolence.
I would like to go around and follow-up when people tell me that they are going to pray for me and see if they actually prayed. Seriously...count the number of times each day that you make a commitment to pray for someone....how many of those commitments do you actually follow through with? So many Christians have made prayer empty. Christians have forgotten the commitment involved in prayer. My favorite is hearing nonChristians say during like tragic events that they will pray for the people involved. It is not uncommon to attend a funeral and hear every other person announce that they are praying for the family. Seriously? When a Christian action has become so empty that nonChristians will openly say it...something is wrong.
I guess I am writing this just to make you think. I hope that you are sincere in your actions. That when you ask someone how they are, you take the time to hear it when they say terrible and ask why. That when you tell someone that you will pray for them that you sincerely pray. I pray that you take the time to love and not take the short cut out through things.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Lessons Learned.
So I have been without a computer for the majority of the new year because my internet has been down....therefore, I am just now getting down to writing a new blog. I have spent a lot of time in a state of contemplation over 2010 in the final weeks of 2010 and the first weeks of 2011. I have to say that 2010 was a roller coaster. There were so many new beginnings and even a few ends, there were plenty of giggles and even a few tears, it had its fair set of mistakes but also imperative life lessons.
BUT...I will spare you on the sappy life lessons that I have learned in the past year and move on to some amusing ones that I have learned in the past 46 hours of my life (we still have 34.5 hours to go). The girls and I have been working through all the seasons of Boy Meets World, clearly the best television show of the '90s. However, each of us have been close to tears in a few episodes and the challenges facing the characters have resonated with each of us. So here are just a few lessons that the girls and I have concluded one can learn from Boy Meets World:
1. It is possible to marry the person that you fell in love with at the age of six on the monkey bars.
2. Your identity should not be based on your looks.
3. Love is worth taking risks.
4. Love requires faith.
5. Family is not limited to blood relations.
6. Every relationship requires honesty and trust.
7. One should stray from cults.
8. A child should always remember their parents, friends are important, but God entrusted your parents with you for a reason.
9. One should probably NOT kiss another one that they aren't dating.
10. Friends should not kiss other friends' significant others.
11. Teachers never really stop teaching.
12. Working for the Mob is a bad thing...morals should always accompany money.
13. Love sometimes needs space to make it stronger.
14. When tragedy strikes, one will find their true friends.
15. There is a difference between a hug and a hug given when one cares about someone.
16. God doesn't always talk, but He is always here...He always listens.
17. It is important to stay in school.
18. Topanga is a hippi-city in California.
19. Parents will always be concerned.
20. 46 hours of BMW, requires frequent breaks, UNO games, snacks, drinks and frequent potty breaks.
21. One should not strive to watch more than one season of BMW in one day...it will completely wear one out.
22. Even if you have been in a relationship since you were 6, one should not push boundaries.
23. Wholesome, old-fashioned television shows are greatly missed.
There are many more lessons...and many more to come in the next three seasons.
I guess there is a serious side of this blog. God can use anything to teach us and to speak to us. He can use books we read, I have read 2 in the past two weeks and have been amazed at both. He can use television shows and the conversations that are inspired by them. He can use random blog posts like this one. Never underestimate the power of your activities because even if it isn't evident; God is going to use them.
Just some random, sleep-deprived and stir crazy thoughts.
<3 D
BUT...I will spare you on the sappy life lessons that I have learned in the past year and move on to some amusing ones that I have learned in the past 46 hours of my life (we still have 34.5 hours to go). The girls and I have been working through all the seasons of Boy Meets World, clearly the best television show of the '90s. However, each of us have been close to tears in a few episodes and the challenges facing the characters have resonated with each of us. So here are just a few lessons that the girls and I have concluded one can learn from Boy Meets World:
1. It is possible to marry the person that you fell in love with at the age of six on the monkey bars.
2. Your identity should not be based on your looks.
3. Love is worth taking risks.
4. Love requires faith.
5. Family is not limited to blood relations.
6. Every relationship requires honesty and trust.
7. One should stray from cults.
8. A child should always remember their parents, friends are important, but God entrusted your parents with you for a reason.
9. One should probably NOT kiss another one that they aren't dating.
10. Friends should not kiss other friends' significant others.
11. Teachers never really stop teaching.
12. Working for the Mob is a bad thing...morals should always accompany money.
13. Love sometimes needs space to make it stronger.
14. When tragedy strikes, one will find their true friends.
15. There is a difference between a hug and a hug given when one cares about someone.
16. God doesn't always talk, but He is always here...He always listens.
17. It is important to stay in school.
18. Topanga is a hippi-city in California.
19. Parents will always be concerned.
20. 46 hours of BMW, requires frequent breaks, UNO games, snacks, drinks and frequent potty breaks.
21. One should not strive to watch more than one season of BMW in one day...it will completely wear one out.
22. Even if you have been in a relationship since you were 6, one should not push boundaries.
23. Wholesome, old-fashioned television shows are greatly missed.
There are many more lessons...and many more to come in the next three seasons.
I guess there is a serious side of this blog. God can use anything to teach us and to speak to us. He can use books we read, I have read 2 in the past two weeks and have been amazed at both. He can use television shows and the conversations that are inspired by them. He can use random blog posts like this one. Never underestimate the power of your activities because even if it isn't evident; God is going to use them.
Just some random, sleep-deprived and stir crazy thoughts.
<3 D
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)