A while ago one of my professors suggested to our class that perhaps taking what Jesus asks of us is as simple as boiling it down to one question, that maybe, hypothetically, He might even ask us when we face Him in Heaven:
"What did you do with the power I gave you?"
The money, the resources, the education, the relationships, the passions, the opportunities, the positions, the life experiences, etc.
What did you do with it?
What did you make of it?
Did you use it for Me or did you use it for you?
Did you pile up things on Earth or did you store up treasures in Heaven?
Was your life an example of making the most of every day,
or was it an example of waiting for a powerful moment to happen,
all the while neglecting the power that you have been given all along?
Hm.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
THIRTY YEARS
We talked about the constant struggle to be present and live in the now (the now surely seems mundane and repetitive sometimes). We discussed how confusing it is and frustrating it is to keep waiting and seeking a big moment, when you are living in the midst of little moments that end up being missed as a result. We talked about how we have this skewed perception that God's Will and His Plans are at Point B and we are still at Point A waiting to get through the in-between to finally get there. We miss (or forget or don't realize) that God's Will is in us, and among us, and around us and it doesn't take getting to another season or point in life to reach that. God has that for me now. Woah.
She then mentioned the fact that Jesus didn't start his ministry until he was 30.
Then it all clicked. I truly feel like in that moment, everything in my life made sense. A burden had been lifted and I felt like the sea lacking clarity and purpose in my life had been parted (or even vanished for that matter).
Jesus spent the years of His life that aren't mentioned in the Bible doing the same mundane, repetitive things that we do sometimes. He spent those years honoring his parents, probably having play dates as a kid, sleeping, eating, getting educated, pursuing a job, working, building relationships, traveling, and going to church.
Jesus spent thirty years getting to live out life and endure hardships (ex: His dad's passing) in order to know where humans are coming from. He walked the walk before He began to talk the talk I suppose.
He may have seen some crazy miracles, but He also may not have. He may have changed a million lives, but at that point maybe He hadn't gotten even close to yet. It took thirty freaking years though. Thirty years of Jesus being patient. Thirty years of Jesus learning. Thirty years of Jesus loving those around Him. Thirty years of Him becoming even more intimate with God the Father perhaps. Thirty years of Him learning the problems humans face.
Every single one of those years had a purpose that brought Him to where He needed to be.
Jesus then, kinda looks like me right now. Going through the repetitive, mundane, enduring the small things and waiting for God to hand you the big thing you are yearning for. Jesus waited though. He lived in the now, was blessed by the now and needed all those years to prepare Him for where God was going to bring Him.
Every single day and seasons and year has incredible purpose. Even if we don't see it.
If you don't feel like you are being used as much as you think you should be, rest assure, Jesus maybe didn't feel like that either in those years. But know one thing, God's got you. He's got you. And instead of viewing it as useless seasons of waiting or preparing, view it as purposeful seasons of serving in the ordinary things and making the Kingdom known in the day-to-day. Who says that isn't just as powerful as loving orphans in Africa? Make the Kingdom known in the lives of people who have lost a grip on that because of life's many distractions and love without ceasing in this world where love like that is hard to come by.
"It was because Jesus faithfully performed the smallest duties that the greatest task in all the world was given him."
Sunday, December 16, 2012
A FORGOTTEN WORD // PART TWO
[click to read part one]
Sometimes I just have to shake my head in life and think "only you God, only you." Truly. God has a way of doing things that I am either puzzled at, amazed with, shiver because of, or just have a dropped jaw in the end. God is God. And He sure is a God of great humor.
After a semester of being at school and watching podcasts of my home church, I could not wait until today to finally get to go to my own church. It's been a while. With no alarm clock and my phone charging downstairs, I just prayed to wake up on time. (Some people need alarm clocks all the time, as for me sometimes I just use God to wake me up. He's pretty good at it.) Just in the nick of time I woke up, had 15 minutes to get ready, hopped in my car, and just smiled because I made it just in time for church. I knew that God had something for me today.
So I sit down in church after we finished worship, I opened up the little pamphlet they hand out before the service, and just shook my head and laughed. Literally; I laughed.
The pamphlet read:
"Jesus is the Vine" John 15:1-11
"REALLY God? You've only pounded this into my head this past YEAR." It was a pretty daing monstrous coincidence if you want to call it that. I just know it was very intentional on God's part, no coincidence in my mind. Also perhaps no coincidence that I just posted a blog on this the other day.
At the end of the sermon, my pastor gave a little run-down on the word abide. I could not stop thinking about how crazy it was that the ONE word that was laid on my heart for over the past year, was being preached on. No other word would have had the same effect as this one. It was crazy. It was like God was stringing together everything that had gone on in the past year of my life and connected it all back to Him in the most beautiful way.
Honestly though, one part of the sermon gripped me and convicted me more then anything else... but yet gave me so much unfathomable peace, beyond what I could even say on a blog post. It was the part when my pastor talked about the ways in which God helps us to produce fruit in our lives. The first way was to remove unfruitful branches, and the second part was to prune so that we bear more fruit. The second part boggled my mind.
God knows our imperfections, yet he promises to complete us. He promises to take the parts of our lives and our walks with Him that are not bearing fruit and to change them so that they do. Through it all I think that God wants us to maintain an attitude of "CONSIDER IT ALL PURE JOY" because the pain of pruning could be immense. But to look past the pain and to be able to see the fruit that will come out of it, that is what will get us through it. Focusing on the pain does not allow us to see how God is going to use it for His glory. Focusing on the pain makes your hurt or your trials unbearable... focusing on producing fruit makes your pain worth it.
The most clarifying things that my pastor said was that once God has you, He has you. The Father always knows what He's doing. All we have to do is to trust in that. All that abiding means is to surrender, to make our home within God, to wake up every morning and know that we can do nothing apart from God. To abide is to give up our own life, to cease doing 'our own thing' and to stop living for ourselves.
To say that this year has been easy would be the biggest far off lie that has ever been told. This year has stretched me and broke me down in ways that I would have never fathomed twelve months ago. Heartache covers more then just a boy hurting my heart, it covers more hurts then I could count on my fingers, hurts of all kinds. Trials and droughts that I never saw coming indeed did stretch my faith and my trust in God. But the central theme of it all is that throughout everything, I learned what abiding looks like and feels like. Sometimes it is full of peace and clarity, at other times clarity is lacking as God prunes you when sometimes you have trouble seeing why that area needs pruning to begin with. God's knowledge always trumps our own though.
Abiding doesn't feel easy and it doesn't lack pain, it just has a bigger picture in mind the whole way through. The bigger picture is God's plan, the one we always get trapped inside is our own.
"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit"
John 15:1-2
Sometimes I just have to shake my head in life and think "only you God, only you." Truly. God has a way of doing things that I am either puzzled at, amazed with, shiver because of, or just have a dropped jaw in the end. God is God. And He sure is a God of great humor.
After a semester of being at school and watching podcasts of my home church, I could not wait until today to finally get to go to my own church. It's been a while. With no alarm clock and my phone charging downstairs, I just prayed to wake up on time. (Some people need alarm clocks all the time, as for me sometimes I just use God to wake me up. He's pretty good at it.) Just in the nick of time I woke up, had 15 minutes to get ready, hopped in my car, and just smiled because I made it just in time for church. I knew that God had something for me today.
So I sit down in church after we finished worship, I opened up the little pamphlet they hand out before the service, and just shook my head and laughed. Literally; I laughed.
The pamphlet read:
"Jesus is the Vine" John 15:1-11
"REALLY God? You've only pounded this into my head this past YEAR." It was a pretty daing monstrous coincidence if you want to call it that. I just know it was very intentional on God's part, no coincidence in my mind. Also perhaps no coincidence that I just posted a blog on this the other day.
At the end of the sermon, my pastor gave a little run-down on the word abide. I could not stop thinking about how crazy it was that the ONE word that was laid on my heart for over the past year, was being preached on. No other word would have had the same effect as this one. It was crazy. It was like God was stringing together everything that had gone on in the past year of my life and connected it all back to Him in the most beautiful way.
Honestly though, one part of the sermon gripped me and convicted me more then anything else... but yet gave me so much unfathomable peace, beyond what I could even say on a blog post. It was the part when my pastor talked about the ways in which God helps us to produce fruit in our lives. The first way was to remove unfruitful branches, and the second part was to prune so that we bear more fruit. The second part boggled my mind.
God knows our imperfections, yet he promises to complete us. He promises to take the parts of our lives and our walks with Him that are not bearing fruit and to change them so that they do. Through it all I think that God wants us to maintain an attitude of "CONSIDER IT ALL PURE JOY" because the pain of pruning could be immense. But to look past the pain and to be able to see the fruit that will come out of it, that is what will get us through it. Focusing on the pain does not allow us to see how God is going to use it for His glory. Focusing on the pain makes your hurt or your trials unbearable... focusing on producing fruit makes your pain worth it.
The most clarifying things that my pastor said was that once God has you, He has you. The Father always knows what He's doing. All we have to do is to trust in that. All that abiding means is to surrender, to make our home within God, to wake up every morning and know that we can do nothing apart from God. To abide is to give up our own life, to cease doing 'our own thing' and to stop living for ourselves.
To say that this year has been easy would be the biggest far off lie that has ever been told. This year has stretched me and broke me down in ways that I would have never fathomed twelve months ago. Heartache covers more then just a boy hurting my heart, it covers more hurts then I could count on my fingers, hurts of all kinds. Trials and droughts that I never saw coming indeed did stretch my faith and my trust in God. But the central theme of it all is that throughout everything, I learned what abiding looks like and feels like. Sometimes it is full of peace and clarity, at other times clarity is lacking as God prunes you when sometimes you have trouble seeing why that area needs pruning to begin with. God's knowledge always trumps our own though.
Abiding doesn't feel easy and it doesn't lack pain, it just has a bigger picture in mind the whole way through. The bigger picture is God's plan, the one we always get trapped inside is our own.
"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit"
John 15:1-2
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