We live in a world where we can literally be connected with individuals at nearly any place on the globe with the press of a button. Texting, Skype, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, email, and other resources are at our fingertips to communicate with almost anyone at any time, and we often, in very real ways, live our lives through these technological lenses . . .
Does the meal taste just as good if you don't take a picture of it and post it on Instagram first?
Is your life just as fun and exciting and filled with travel and accomplishments and good times with good friends as it appears on Facebook?
Have you ever done something just so you can tweet about it or update your status?
Why can't we talk about the tough stuff on social media too . . . like loneliness or depression or real struggles in real relationships?
Is it really possible for us to show our real selves on the Internet . . . #nofilter?
I have never thought about this before, but I've realized lately that we live out much of our spiritual lives entirely in the public eye because of social media and other technologies. We post about church and prayer and the Bible and charitable work and the ministries we support and what God's doing in our lives. We Instagram photos of megachurch services with thousands of people with their hands raised in praise--but only after choosing the perfect lighting, contrast, and cropping, of course. When we do something for God, my goodness, we let people know about it. Think pictures of college students surrounded by African children at an orphanage on their short-term mission trip, or statuses about what a great time you had volunteering for XYZ Christian humanitarian organization. I do it too, and I'm not condemning it in the slightest, but I think we need to stop and think about it just a little bit more.
Have we ever considered that maybe, by so much sharing and clicking and connecting and posting and tweeting, we're bringing the whole world into some areas of our lives that were meant to remain intimate--just us and the Lord? That we're cheapening sacred moments by turning them into statuses? Because some things are meant to be between you and God, in the secret place.
Consider Psalm 91: "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." Or Isaiah 45: "I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name." And even Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount commanded His listeners not to tell the world about everything they do for God: don't let everyone know when you're fasting, don't pray on the street corners where everyone can hear you, and when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. In other words, sometimes we need to shut up about it! I read that verse in Matthew last night and my first thought was, "Oh. I think I kind of forgot all about this." God cares about your heart, not what you tell the world online. It is far better to do something for God that only you and He know about it than to do something for Him primarily so that you can tell the world all about what you did. And maybe, at an even more basic level, we need to stop posting so we can start experiencing. Put down your iPhone so you can join others in worship. Forget the camera for a day so you can really look in those children's eyes and share with them how much God loves them. Don't live your life in retrospect through the photographic and social media-driven trail we can create--live it as it happens. It's a whole lot better that way.
I don't want to miss out on these secret moments with God. And I don't want you to miss out on them either. Moments where He whispers His grace and mercy to your heart, and yours alone. Where He reminds you of his promises, holds your tears in his hands, and sings songs of joy over you. Moments where you can laugh and cry with God. Those things aren't always meant to be shared. There is much to be said for the deep and heartfelt and passionate intimacy of the secret place, for life experiences we share with God and no one else, for dreams and secrets and stories and confessions that only He knows about. He desires intimacy with you, and I believe that intimacy can be affected in real ways by our obsession with sharing every detail of our lives with the world. Sometimes you shouldn't share it, because it is your treasure to keep. Don't bring Facebook or your Twitter account or your smartphone into the secret place. It's secret for a reason. Don't let technology compromise your ability to be alone with God; your ability to do things for God just because you love Him, not because you think they'll make you look good; and your ability to experience life with Christ as it unfolds, not later. Your relationship with God is not about showmanship or competition with others or being better than the next person.
May we not forego the blessings of the secret place because we feel compelled to share it with the world.
Showing posts with label Christian life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christian life. Show all posts
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Monday, January 20, 2014
30 Ways to Seriously Make a Difference in 2014
I don't know about you, but when I read books or hear stories about people who have done great things for God, I'm incredibly impressed, but at the same time, I start listing in my head all the reasons why I CAN'T do what they did. I'm talking about people who have up and moved to foreign countries to do mission work or started their own non-profits from scratch or people like the girl who wrote Kisses from Katie. It can feel overwhelming to some of us--I'm not in a place in my life to start a nonprofit, and most of us have job, family, and/ or financial/ debt responsibilities that keep us fairly grounded in our day-to-day lives and can keep us from pursuing huge, bold steps of faith--leaving us to find small ways to make a difference in our lives day-to-day. Yet sometimes the small things are not so small.
I've pulled together this list for you all in the hope that it will inspire you--yes, YOU--to make your corner of the world a better place and touch it with the light of Christ. Although some of the items on this list do require a lot of time, money, and planning (like 22 and 23), most of them don't. You can do a lot of these things right now--for example, 6, 8, 17, and 28. Some of them without even leaving your computer, in fact. So here's the list. And I will definitely be adding to it as I get more ideas.
1) Sponsor a child through World Vision or, if you already do, become a child ambassador to help more children get connected with sponsors.
2) Be a microphilanthropist, which basically involves donating the price of your morning latte or some other small expense to a good cause each day, like this guy.
3) Participate in Operation Christmas Child.
4) Do something you already probably like--shopping online--for a good cause by using Amazon Smile, where Amazon automatically donates a percentage of each purchase to the charity of your choice.
5) Next time you're at Walmart, get some extra deodorant and shampoo and socks and donate it to your local rescue mission or homeless shelter.
6) Send someone a text message that says you're thinking about them or praying for them--in my experience, these can totally make a day.
7) Invite people over to your house for dinner. You don't even have to be able to cook. You can connect with people and minister to them just as well over pizza delivery as a gourmet meal.
8) Do a beginning-of-the-year home cleanout and donate unused clothes, shoes, jackets, canned goods, etc. to the food pantry/ thrift store/ Goodwill.
9) Donate blood.
10) Celebrate 100% tip day and tip an unsuspecting waiter or waitress the full cost of your meal.
11) Connect with old teachers and thank them for the difference they have made in your life.
12) Visit residents in a nursing home.
13) Get a haircut and donate to Locks of Love, which provides wigs to kids with medical conditions that have made them lose their hair.
14) Write a handwritten letter to an old friend.
15) Go on a short-term mission trip.
16) Call your parents, grandparents, or other important people in your life.
17) Pay for the coffee of the person in line behind you.
18) Send thank-you notes.
19) Write cards or put together care packages for the troops overseas.
20) Volunteer at an adoption agency or crisis pregnancy center.
21) Volunteer at a soup kitchen or community food bank.
22) Go on the World Race mission trip or support someone else who's going.
23) Explore the option of being a foster parent.
24) Send thank-you notes to people who have positively impacted your life.
25) Run a race for a good cause, like Race for the Cure or myriad other races of varying distances that support local non-profits.
26) Pray for the nations of the world. One way to systematically do this is with Operation World, which can help you be aware of prayer needs in countries you never even hear about, like Togo or Tajikistan.
27) Get connected with local volunteering opportunities through Volunteer Match.
28) Commit to only putting kind, encouraging things on the Internet . . . Twitter updates, Facebook statuses, blog posts, comments on other's articles, encouraging emails, etc.
28) Check out Freerice.com. If you like trivia games, this site is for you. Basically you can play vocabulary games for free, and grains of rice get donated to needy areas for every correct answer you give.
29) Make a different to-do list for your day or week: not all the errands you need to run or chapters you need to read, but people you can help, causes you can support, and little things you can do to show the love of Christ around you.
30) Deliver on all the commitments you've already made to help the people closest to you. We often get so caught up in helping "the community" or "the world" that we forget that there are people in our everyday lives that we've told we would help with one thing or another. For example, I told N. awhile back that I would help him with cover letters and J. that I would help her with Moot Court, but I haven't done those things yet, and I need to. Today.
If you have other ideas, let me know in the comments!
I've pulled together this list for you all in the hope that it will inspire you--yes, YOU--to make your corner of the world a better place and touch it with the light of Christ. Although some of the items on this list do require a lot of time, money, and planning (like 22 and 23), most of them don't. You can do a lot of these things right now--for example, 6, 8, 17, and 28. Some of them without even leaving your computer, in fact. So here's the list. And I will definitely be adding to it as I get more ideas.
1) Sponsor a child through World Vision or, if you already do, become a child ambassador to help more children get connected with sponsors.
2) Be a microphilanthropist, which basically involves donating the price of your morning latte or some other small expense to a good cause each day, like this guy.
3) Participate in Operation Christmas Child.
4) Do something you already probably like--shopping online--for a good cause by using Amazon Smile, where Amazon automatically donates a percentage of each purchase to the charity of your choice.
5) Next time you're at Walmart, get some extra deodorant and shampoo and socks and donate it to your local rescue mission or homeless shelter.
6) Send someone a text message that says you're thinking about them or praying for them--in my experience, these can totally make a day.
7) Invite people over to your house for dinner. You don't even have to be able to cook. You can connect with people and minister to them just as well over pizza delivery as a gourmet meal.
8) Do a beginning-of-the-year home cleanout and donate unused clothes, shoes, jackets, canned goods, etc. to the food pantry/ thrift store/ Goodwill.
9) Donate blood.
10) Celebrate 100% tip day and tip an unsuspecting waiter or waitress the full cost of your meal.
11) Connect with old teachers and thank them for the difference they have made in your life.
12) Visit residents in a nursing home.
13) Get a haircut and donate to Locks of Love, which provides wigs to kids with medical conditions that have made them lose their hair.
14) Write a handwritten letter to an old friend.
15) Go on a short-term mission trip.
16) Call your parents, grandparents, or other important people in your life.
17) Pay for the coffee of the person in line behind you.
18) Send thank-you notes.
19) Write cards or put together care packages for the troops overseas.
20) Volunteer at an adoption agency or crisis pregnancy center.
21) Volunteer at a soup kitchen or community food bank.
22) Go on the World Race mission trip or support someone else who's going.
23) Explore the option of being a foster parent.
24) Send thank-you notes to people who have positively impacted your life.
25) Run a race for a good cause, like Race for the Cure or myriad other races of varying distances that support local non-profits.
26) Pray for the nations of the world. One way to systematically do this is with Operation World, which can help you be aware of prayer needs in countries you never even hear about, like Togo or Tajikistan.
27) Get connected with local volunteering opportunities through Volunteer Match.
28) Commit to only putting kind, encouraging things on the Internet . . . Twitter updates, Facebook statuses, blog posts, comments on other's articles, encouraging emails, etc.
28) Check out Freerice.com. If you like trivia games, this site is for you. Basically you can play vocabulary games for free, and grains of rice get donated to needy areas for every correct answer you give.
29) Make a different to-do list for your day or week: not all the errands you need to run or chapters you need to read, but people you can help, causes you can support, and little things you can do to show the love of Christ around you.
30) Deliver on all the commitments you've already made to help the people closest to you. We often get so caught up in helping "the community" or "the world" that we forget that there are people in our everyday lives that we've told we would help with one thing or another. For example, I told N. awhile back that I would help him with cover letters and J. that I would help her with Moot Court, but I haven't done those things yet, and I need to. Today.
If you have other ideas, let me know in the comments!
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Are We Going to Just Let This Happen?
Compassion for people in need, and helping people in need, is SO important. And for anyone who claims to follow Christ, it's simply non-negotiable. If we as Christians won't help those who hurt, who will? If we won't feed the hungry, visit the sick, and comfort the grieving, then who will? Forgive me if I get a little too preachy and long-winded in this post or if my writing is a little more raw and unrefined than it usually is, but this is just too important not to talk about, and this is one of my deepest passions.
The question that's been on my heart lately is this: Are we going to just let this happen? Are we going to just let people in Africa starve, or children in Romania freeze in the winter because they don't have warm clothes or blankets, or let people die of preventable diseases, or children be conscripted into armies and sex trafficking? And we can, of course, bring the question closer to home: Are we going to just let that fellow student be bullied and not be a friend? Are we going to let the struggling single mom end up unable to pay her rent and care for her children? Are we going to ignore the needs of thousands of children in foster care, or children who don't really have any adult they can look up to in their lives? Ultimately, are we going to leave our neighbor--whoever that is and whatever color their skin is and wherever they're from and whatever their "issues" are--laying beaten up by the side of the road?
Are we really ok with this?? When people just don't care about the needs of others, I just want to yell at them and be like, "Doesn't it even bother you to think about the same happening to you? Wouldn't you be hurting and lonely and desperate if you were in their situation?" Maybe we just lack the empathetic imagination we need, the ability to perceive the plight of others and to care enough to get off our butt and do something. How can it NOT bother you? Compassion requires that we be able to imagine the suffering of another, to put ourselves in their shoes, to, as a fabulous quote from To Kill a Mockingbird puts it, "step into their skin and walk around in it." We desperately need this empathetic imagination. I crave it. Lord, let me feel what they feel, cry with them and rejoice with them. I need to feel my neighbor's tears on my face and their smile on my lips.
And before I write another sentence, let me make a couple things clear. In my opinion, it is totally false that everybody should move to Africa/ Asia/ a Third World country to help with the need there, or that it's "lesser than" to be more passionate about helping people who hurt right here in the US, or in our neighborhood, than in foreign lands. I'm not going to mince words--it's simply B.S. to create gradations of compassion or to say that one person's way of showing it is less worthy and valuable than another's. I've read plenty of books that pretty much suggest exactly that, and I beg to differ. We're not all called to show compassion in the same way. We're not all passionate about meeting the same needs, and it is not my intention to guilt-trip anyone if some of the needs I've mentioned already are not where YOU feel led to pour out your efforts. In fact, maybe we'd have an easier time showing compassion if people would just stop judging how other people show compassion and shed the holier-than-thou attitudes like last year's fashion. No, we're called to rectify ANY injustice. ANY. Any sorrow or heartache, any pain, any loss, any desperation, any need.
And secondly, if you've read my blog for long enough, you know I'm not a fan of the "religion of social justice" and compassion is not what gains us right standing with God. But Jesus talked and talked and talked about helping the poor, the widow, the sick, and the orphan, and I just can't sit back and ignore it anymore. And throughout the Bible, God has always emphasized how desperately important it is that His people be a people who help. You can't say it much more clearly than it's said in Jeremiah 22:16: "He defended the cause of the poor and needy. . . . Is that not what it means to know me?"
Or in Isaiah 58, and this passage is so amazing I'm just going to copy the whole thing: "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter--when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? . . . . If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings." Spending ourselves on behalf of others . . . wow. That is the high calling we have.
And probably the most important statement Jesus ever made about this topic was this: "Whatever you do for the least of these, you have done for me." And I believe we could also say, "Whatever we don't do for the least of these, we have not done for Christ." Since Jesus didn't turn his back on me, I cannot--and I will not--turn my back on them. Jesus had the ultimate compassion. He wrapped himself fully in our pain and heartache. He walked among us and bled and cried and felt deeply.
None of us can give it all or do it all or be it all, but we all can do something! We all have either time, or money, or talent, or a VOICE to offer for people in need. It's time for us to start considering whether, by NOT doing anything, we're acting like we're ok with it, and in our silence and in our inaction giving a tacit seal of approval to suffering.
For me, I am most passionate about helping children. I don't particularly see myself being a mother myself, but I have pictures on my fridge of the two beautiful little girls I sponsor in Africa and we write letters back and forth and I feel like they are "my" kids. I want to be an attorney so I can fight for children who have no voice, for children who live in abusive and broken homes, to give a future to children who don't have one. This fall when I start school again, I want to start volunteering at my local adoption agency. Maybe your passion is the homeless, or fighting for unborn children, or opening your home to people who've hit hard times. You decide how much you can give, and that's between you and God. No one is "better" than anybody else just because they happen to give more hours of their time or dollars from their pocket, or even a greater percentage of their overall resources. We are all called to help, to defend others, to fight for those in need, and to speak up for those who can't speak up for themselves.
Are you going to let this happen? If not, what are you going to do about it?
The question that's been on my heart lately is this: Are we going to just let this happen? Are we going to just let people in Africa starve, or children in Romania freeze in the winter because they don't have warm clothes or blankets, or let people die of preventable diseases, or children be conscripted into armies and sex trafficking? And we can, of course, bring the question closer to home: Are we going to just let that fellow student be bullied and not be a friend? Are we going to let the struggling single mom end up unable to pay her rent and care for her children? Are we going to ignore the needs of thousands of children in foster care, or children who don't really have any adult they can look up to in their lives? Ultimately, are we going to leave our neighbor--whoever that is and whatever color their skin is and wherever they're from and whatever their "issues" are--laying beaten up by the side of the road?
Are we really ok with this?? When people just don't care about the needs of others, I just want to yell at them and be like, "Doesn't it even bother you to think about the same happening to you? Wouldn't you be hurting and lonely and desperate if you were in their situation?" Maybe we just lack the empathetic imagination we need, the ability to perceive the plight of others and to care enough to get off our butt and do something. How can it NOT bother you? Compassion requires that we be able to imagine the suffering of another, to put ourselves in their shoes, to, as a fabulous quote from To Kill a Mockingbird puts it, "step into their skin and walk around in it." We desperately need this empathetic imagination. I crave it. Lord, let me feel what they feel, cry with them and rejoice with them. I need to feel my neighbor's tears on my face and their smile on my lips.
And before I write another sentence, let me make a couple things clear. In my opinion, it is totally false that everybody should move to Africa/ Asia/ a Third World country to help with the need there, or that it's "lesser than" to be more passionate about helping people who hurt right here in the US, or in our neighborhood, than in foreign lands. I'm not going to mince words--it's simply B.S. to create gradations of compassion or to say that one person's way of showing it is less worthy and valuable than another's. I've read plenty of books that pretty much suggest exactly that, and I beg to differ. We're not all called to show compassion in the same way. We're not all passionate about meeting the same needs, and it is not my intention to guilt-trip anyone if some of the needs I've mentioned already are not where YOU feel led to pour out your efforts. In fact, maybe we'd have an easier time showing compassion if people would just stop judging how other people show compassion and shed the holier-than-thou attitudes like last year's fashion. No, we're called to rectify ANY injustice. ANY. Any sorrow or heartache, any pain, any loss, any desperation, any need.
And secondly, if you've read my blog for long enough, you know I'm not a fan of the "religion of social justice" and compassion is not what gains us right standing with God. But Jesus talked and talked and talked about helping the poor, the widow, the sick, and the orphan, and I just can't sit back and ignore it anymore. And throughout the Bible, God has always emphasized how desperately important it is that His people be a people who help. You can't say it much more clearly than it's said in Jeremiah 22:16: "He defended the cause of the poor and needy. . . . Is that not what it means to know me?"
Or in Isaiah 58, and this passage is so amazing I'm just going to copy the whole thing: "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter--when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? . . . . If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings." Spending ourselves on behalf of others . . . wow. That is the high calling we have.
And probably the most important statement Jesus ever made about this topic was this: "Whatever you do for the least of these, you have done for me." And I believe we could also say, "Whatever we don't do for the least of these, we have not done for Christ." Since Jesus didn't turn his back on me, I cannot--and I will not--turn my back on them. Jesus had the ultimate compassion. He wrapped himself fully in our pain and heartache. He walked among us and bled and cried and felt deeply.
None of us can give it all or do it all or be it all, but we all can do something! We all have either time, or money, or talent, or a VOICE to offer for people in need. It's time for us to start considering whether, by NOT doing anything, we're acting like we're ok with it, and in our silence and in our inaction giving a tacit seal of approval to suffering.
For me, I am most passionate about helping children. I don't particularly see myself being a mother myself, but I have pictures on my fridge of the two beautiful little girls I sponsor in Africa and we write letters back and forth and I feel like they are "my" kids. I want to be an attorney so I can fight for children who have no voice, for children who live in abusive and broken homes, to give a future to children who don't have one. This fall when I start school again, I want to start volunteering at my local adoption agency. Maybe your passion is the homeless, or fighting for unborn children, or opening your home to people who've hit hard times. You decide how much you can give, and that's between you and God. No one is "better" than anybody else just because they happen to give more hours of their time or dollars from their pocket, or even a greater percentage of their overall resources. We are all called to help, to defend others, to fight for those in need, and to speak up for those who can't speak up for themselves.
Are you going to let this happen? If not, what are you going to do about it?
Thursday, February 28, 2013
I'm Tired of Hearing That True Love Waits.
I'm a little scared to even write about this topic for fear that my intentions or feelings might be misunderstood . . . but you know, I've written a series on relationships and singleness before and I feel the need to approach that topic once again!
So here's what's on my heart.
Every Christian young woman has heard it before, probably about a thousand times: True love waits. You may have worn the ring with that motto, read all the books about it, heard the speakers, gone to the youth group events, sang the songs, taken the pledges, etc. And still you wait.
I understand that "true love waits" was initially intended to refer to purity and saving intimacy for a future husband, and don't get me wrong--that is so Biblical and so good (not to mention so counter-cultural). And maybe I'm about to be too hard on whoever first came up with that slogan, but hear me out. I am so tired of hearing that true love waits, and here's why.
First of all, in my estimation, about 95% of the time the concept of "waiting for marriage" is only addressed to women--not men. As if they don't need to wait, because they're not passive. They do, and they act, but we as women wait. Really? Is that really the message we want to send?
True love waits. I know that the "waiting" terminology started off meaning one thing, and a very honorable thing at that: preserving purity. But "waiting" has expanded way beyond its initial moorings in sexual purity, and it's become synonymous with this damaging overall attitude that pretty much all Christian single women are expected to have: you wait because it's the right thing to do, the only thing to do. You pray for a husband, and wait, and hone your domestic and babysitting skills, and learn how to cook a great lasagna and sew your own clothes, and then you wait some more. You put your life on hold because you're, you know, waiting. Because that's what true love does.
So many Christian young women I know have bought into this idea that finding a mate is the be-all and the end-all of life, and that until you find a husband, your life can't be complete. And so then your whole life is put in a holding pattern, and you're not getting anywhere, because you've placed marriage on a pedestal where it really doesn't belong, and you've idealized it. Or rather, you've idolized it.
And then, when women struggle to find a husband, a common problem, people around them start acting like God uses a form of divine reverse psychology, if you will. "Stop wanting it so much, and then you'll get it. Find your completeness in God, be spiritually satisfied in him, and when you least expect it, you'll find someone!" And then if it still doesn't happen, women who love Jesus more than anything and know it begin to question their own relationships with God, feeling like they've held up their end of the bargain and perhaps, He hasn't held up His. And the broken dreams can lead to broken spirits, leading women to want to rip the "true love waits" ring right off their finger and grieve because there's not an engagement ring to replace it. I don't mean to discount in any way the grief caused by an unfulfilled desire for a husband, because it is so real. I haven't been there yet, but friends have been there. Family has been there, and I know it is so painful to feel tantalized by something you feel like you just can't get.
But at its core, being spiritually satisfied in Christ is about being satisfied in Him and loving Him because He loved you first. He delights in you. He has written your name on the palms of His hands, engraved you on His heart. He sings songs of joy over you even if you never hear the sound. He laughs with you and cries with you and, in fact, even prays for you. Finding your joy and satisfaction in Jesus Christ is about that. Y'all, it's not a bargaining chip to find a husband. It's not like, "Just find your joy in the Lord, and then, you'll definitely be rewarded with a husband." It should not even be like that. Because knowing and loving the Lord is its own reward. It shouldn't be part of a deal we make with God. It shouldn't be something we cheapen to achieve our own ends. Am I guilty of trying to do that? Oh, yes, I am. We all are. Yet another reason why we all need grace, why Christ came to redeem lives just like ours.
And waiting, always waiting, for a mate, and engagement, and marriage, and a family . . . I think it engenders an attitude that we as women shouldn't be acting. We fall into the trap of thinking we shouldn't be out there pursuing our own dreams and living the lives God has blessed us with right now, because we should be waiting. I'm a feminist and I admit it, but isn't that a little archaic? Not trying to sound like Joel Osteen, but you can have your best life now. It doesn't have to be later. Don't wait to start the life God wants you to live. Don't wait for a husband. Don't wait for children. Don't wait to finally have that engagement ring on your left hand. Please, let's just stop waiting. Let's start pursuing our God-given passions, following God wherever He leads, dreaming, having a vision, and going for it. True love doesn't just have to wait. True love can act, and dream, and pursue a vision NOW. Go for it now. I promise, you won't miss the wait.
So here's what's on my heart.
Every Christian young woman has heard it before, probably about a thousand times: True love waits. You may have worn the ring with that motto, read all the books about it, heard the speakers, gone to the youth group events, sang the songs, taken the pledges, etc. And still you wait.
I understand that "true love waits" was initially intended to refer to purity and saving intimacy for a future husband, and don't get me wrong--that is so Biblical and so good (not to mention so counter-cultural). And maybe I'm about to be too hard on whoever first came up with that slogan, but hear me out. I am so tired of hearing that true love waits, and here's why.
First of all, in my estimation, about 95% of the time the concept of "waiting for marriage" is only addressed to women--not men. As if they don't need to wait, because they're not passive. They do, and they act, but we as women wait. Really? Is that really the message we want to send?
True love waits. I know that the "waiting" terminology started off meaning one thing, and a very honorable thing at that: preserving purity. But "waiting" has expanded way beyond its initial moorings in sexual purity, and it's become synonymous with this damaging overall attitude that pretty much all Christian single women are expected to have: you wait because it's the right thing to do, the only thing to do. You pray for a husband, and wait, and hone your domestic and babysitting skills, and learn how to cook a great lasagna and sew your own clothes, and then you wait some more. You put your life on hold because you're, you know, waiting. Because that's what true love does.
So many Christian young women I know have bought into this idea that finding a mate is the be-all and the end-all of life, and that until you find a husband, your life can't be complete. And so then your whole life is put in a holding pattern, and you're not getting anywhere, because you've placed marriage on a pedestal where it really doesn't belong, and you've idealized it. Or rather, you've idolized it.
And then, when women struggle to find a husband, a common problem, people around them start acting like God uses a form of divine reverse psychology, if you will. "Stop wanting it so much, and then you'll get it. Find your completeness in God, be spiritually satisfied in him, and when you least expect it, you'll find someone!" And then if it still doesn't happen, women who love Jesus more than anything and know it begin to question their own relationships with God, feeling like they've held up their end of the bargain and perhaps, He hasn't held up His. And the broken dreams can lead to broken spirits, leading women to want to rip the "true love waits" ring right off their finger and grieve because there's not an engagement ring to replace it. I don't mean to discount in any way the grief caused by an unfulfilled desire for a husband, because it is so real. I haven't been there yet, but friends have been there. Family has been there, and I know it is so painful to feel tantalized by something you feel like you just can't get.
But at its core, being spiritually satisfied in Christ is about being satisfied in Him and loving Him because He loved you first. He delights in you. He has written your name on the palms of His hands, engraved you on His heart. He sings songs of joy over you even if you never hear the sound. He laughs with you and cries with you and, in fact, even prays for you. Finding your joy and satisfaction in Jesus Christ is about that. Y'all, it's not a bargaining chip to find a husband. It's not like, "Just find your joy in the Lord, and then, you'll definitely be rewarded with a husband." It should not even be like that. Because knowing and loving the Lord is its own reward. It shouldn't be part of a deal we make with God. It shouldn't be something we cheapen to achieve our own ends. Am I guilty of trying to do that? Oh, yes, I am. We all are. Yet another reason why we all need grace, why Christ came to redeem lives just like ours.
And waiting, always waiting, for a mate, and engagement, and marriage, and a family . . . I think it engenders an attitude that we as women shouldn't be acting. We fall into the trap of thinking we shouldn't be out there pursuing our own dreams and living the lives God has blessed us with right now, because we should be waiting. I'm a feminist and I admit it, but isn't that a little archaic? Not trying to sound like Joel Osteen, but you can have your best life now. It doesn't have to be later. Don't wait to start the life God wants you to live. Don't wait for a husband. Don't wait for children. Don't wait to finally have that engagement ring on your left hand. Please, let's just stop waiting. Let's start pursuing our God-given passions, following God wherever He leads, dreaming, having a vision, and going for it. True love doesn't just have to wait. True love can act, and dream, and pursue a vision NOW. Go for it now. I promise, you won't miss the wait.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
The Best Is Yet To Come.
Late last night, I got an exciting email about an opportunity for my third year of law school that I have never even thought about or expected to have. I'm not sure if I will move forward with it or not, but just the same, it made me filled with anticipation for what next year--and beyond, the future, the great unknown--will hold.
I'm a huge planner, and so often I honestly catch myself thinking that I've probably contemplated pretty much every angle my life could possibly take--as far as how my career trajectory will go, what my family will look like, where I might live, etc. I know it's crazy, but I sometimes feel like there's no way the future will surprise me THAT much, because surely I've considered most of the paths my life will logically follow. But then God gently reminds my heart that I haven't seen anything yet. You can't out-plan God. You can't out-dream Him. You can't get to a place of such stable expectancy that He is no longer able to surprise you!
If I would have known ten years ago everything that was going to happen to me in the next decade, I would never have been able to handle the weight of that knowledge. That's why not knowing is such a blessing. And even though I didn't know ahead of time, God took me into each day and gave me what I needed, when I needed it. There are things that I've done in the last few years that I never would have thought I could do, until the time came, and I found that I had the strength to move forward. (For example, I was just reminiscing this morning about my first day in this city, when I was panicking about everything, got in a fender bender at a Zaxby's, and was about to pack my bags then and there and quit law school because I didn't think I could handle it. I'm so glad I didn't because I have been so blessed here).
Sometimes I feel fearful of the next couple of years, particularly in the job realm. My thoughts frequently look like this: Oh my goodness will I get a job if so where will it be what if I hate my job will I have enough money how will I repay my student loans I'm freaking out!! But every step of the way, God is there. Helping me, holding my hand, teaching me that He is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever. Whispering to me that I need to keep living in wide-eyed wonder, because the best is yet to come. My future holds amazing possibilities that I haven't even thought about yet. Yours holds potential that's beyond what you can imagine now. Don't even try to imagine it all, because there will still be surprises. Embrace that spiritual adrenaline rush once in awhile--God delights to surprise you with blessings you never imagined could be yours!
Here's what I want to do in the next ten years: Write blogs and e-books and regular books and inspire people through my writing to a closer, more passionate, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. Practice law and help people in my career. Work in legal education and administration. Travel travel travel. Live in new cities. Become debt-free. Buy my own home. See the Northern Lights, sunrise over the Grand Canyon, and the Holy Land. Those plans make me really excited but . . . God's plans for my life are still better. And the same is true for you. Get on the roller coaster and hold on for the ride, because I know one thing: it's going to be exciting.
I'm a huge planner, and so often I honestly catch myself thinking that I've probably contemplated pretty much every angle my life could possibly take--as far as how my career trajectory will go, what my family will look like, where I might live, etc. I know it's crazy, but I sometimes feel like there's no way the future will surprise me THAT much, because surely I've considered most of the paths my life will logically follow. But then God gently reminds my heart that I haven't seen anything yet. You can't out-plan God. You can't out-dream Him. You can't get to a place of such stable expectancy that He is no longer able to surprise you!
If I would have known ten years ago everything that was going to happen to me in the next decade, I would never have been able to handle the weight of that knowledge. That's why not knowing is such a blessing. And even though I didn't know ahead of time, God took me into each day and gave me what I needed, when I needed it. There are things that I've done in the last few years that I never would have thought I could do, until the time came, and I found that I had the strength to move forward. (For example, I was just reminiscing this morning about my first day in this city, when I was panicking about everything, got in a fender bender at a Zaxby's, and was about to pack my bags then and there and quit law school because I didn't think I could handle it. I'm so glad I didn't because I have been so blessed here).
Sometimes I feel fearful of the next couple of years, particularly in the job realm. My thoughts frequently look like this: Oh my goodness will I get a job if so where will it be what if I hate my job will I have enough money how will I repay my student loans I'm freaking out!! But every step of the way, God is there. Helping me, holding my hand, teaching me that He is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever. Whispering to me that I need to keep living in wide-eyed wonder, because the best is yet to come. My future holds amazing possibilities that I haven't even thought about yet. Yours holds potential that's beyond what you can imagine now. Don't even try to imagine it all, because there will still be surprises. Embrace that spiritual adrenaline rush once in awhile--God delights to surprise you with blessings you never imagined could be yours!
Here's what I want to do in the next ten years: Write blogs and e-books and regular books and inspire people through my writing to a closer, more passionate, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. Practice law and help people in my career. Work in legal education and administration. Travel travel travel. Live in new cities. Become debt-free. Buy my own home. See the Northern Lights, sunrise over the Grand Canyon, and the Holy Land. Those plans make me really excited but . . . God's plans for my life are still better. And the same is true for you. Get on the roller coaster and hold on for the ride, because I know one thing: it's going to be exciting.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
When to Stop Setting Goals
I've had a pretty exciting week so far--besides a good start to the semester overall, I just found out that the paper I wrote last semester on patent protection in biotechnology is going to be published, so I'm happy about that. It's no great American novel or anything, but it is exciting to be able to officially "be a published author"--something I've wanted to be for a really long time. It was pretty satisfying to pull up my goals list and check that one off!
And that started me thinking about goal-setting in general, and about how making and pursuing goals is a really big part of my life. In fact, I make goals on many different occasions--the new year, a new semester, the start of summer, my birthday, a new month, and you get the idea. And while I don't think there's anything wrong with that, and in fact it keeps me motivated and makes me want to work harder, I've started thinking that it can be possible to set goals and plan out your life so obsessively that you almost push God out of it, and that's something I want to make sure I stay away from. The biggest goal we can have is still so much smaller than God's plans for our lives! God can do more in you, through you, with you, and for you than you could EVER plan for and more than your biggest goals could EVER reflect. Your goals for your own life are miniscule compared to what the God of the universe wants to do in your life, if you'll allow Him to do so.
Whatever you do, don't fall into the trap of thinking that God's plan for you is only as big as your plan for yourself. Your most farfetched, wildest dream for your life is only a drop in the bucket compared to what God dreams for you. Don't settle for simply setting and meeting your own goals when the Lord wants to pull you out of your comfort zone, continually surprise you with His goodness and mercy, and lead you into His dynamic and divine plans for your life, which are greater than what you can dream up or set goals about. Don't be so focused on your own plan that you miss greater things for your life. Cultivate your capacity for awe--awe at how deeply you are loved, at how exciting, unexpected, and wonderful God's dreams for you truly are, at how great His thoughts about you are, and at the fact that the One who keeps the planets in orbit cares to know your name.
Everyone's talking and blogging about coming up with a "word" or phrase to define your year in 2013. I've read a lot of people's choices: abundance, joy, revival, etc. My 2013 phrase? "Awestruck wonder." Because living out God's dreams is living in a place where the amazing becomes ordinary, where heaven meets earth, where the oceans part and the mountains move--and that's something to be in awe of every day.
And that started me thinking about goal-setting in general, and about how making and pursuing goals is a really big part of my life. In fact, I make goals on many different occasions--the new year, a new semester, the start of summer, my birthday, a new month, and you get the idea. And while I don't think there's anything wrong with that, and in fact it keeps me motivated and makes me want to work harder, I've started thinking that it can be possible to set goals and plan out your life so obsessively that you almost push God out of it, and that's something I want to make sure I stay away from. The biggest goal we can have is still so much smaller than God's plans for our lives! God can do more in you, through you, with you, and for you than you could EVER plan for and more than your biggest goals could EVER reflect. Your goals for your own life are miniscule compared to what the God of the universe wants to do in your life, if you'll allow Him to do so.
Whatever you do, don't fall into the trap of thinking that God's plan for you is only as big as your plan for yourself. Your most farfetched, wildest dream for your life is only a drop in the bucket compared to what God dreams for you. Don't settle for simply setting and meeting your own goals when the Lord wants to pull you out of your comfort zone, continually surprise you with His goodness and mercy, and lead you into His dynamic and divine plans for your life, which are greater than what you can dream up or set goals about. Don't be so focused on your own plan that you miss greater things for your life. Cultivate your capacity for awe--awe at how deeply you are loved, at how exciting, unexpected, and wonderful God's dreams for you truly are, at how great His thoughts about you are, and at the fact that the One who keeps the planets in orbit cares to know your name.
Everyone's talking and blogging about coming up with a "word" or phrase to define your year in 2013. I've read a lot of people's choices: abundance, joy, revival, etc. My 2013 phrase? "Awestruck wonder." Because living out God's dreams is living in a place where the amazing becomes ordinary, where heaven meets earth, where the oceans part and the mountains move--and that's something to be in awe of every day.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Quote for the Day
"Imagine what would happen if God completely captivated thousands of lives . . . and ruined them for anything less than the well-determined plan He had in mind when He created them. What if nothing less than the flagrant fame of Jesus Christ became their life ambition? The wholly surrendered life in Christ is the most exhilarating adventure available for human flesh and blood. It is the offer to live for something so much greater. It is the offer for a life that matters here long after we've vacated this planet." --Beth Moore
Monday, November 19, 2012
Reading for Today
I know I am *supposed to be working* on my two papers due on Wednesday and not posting anything on this blog till they are done . . . but please read this article called "The Real Evangelical Disaster." It's about the inexcusable conflation/ confusion of religion and politics in American culture. It is the best thing I've read in a long time, and it hits the nail on the head.
Happy Monday . . . and back to paper writing for me. More substantive updates coming soon, I promise!
Happy Monday . . . and back to paper writing for me. More substantive updates coming soon, I promise!
Friday, October 26, 2012
The Prayer Diaries
This week has been a whirlwind, not just in terms of my schedule, but also emotionally, and I just want to really share from my heart with you all, my readers, about what God has been doing in my life lately. It's hard for me to really expose myself and be vulnerable in my writing, but I really think what I want to say could be helpful for some of you experiencing similar things.
So there are some things I've been praying for literally this entire year. I know that in the grand scheme of life, that's not that long at all--many people have faithfully prayed for years before they've seen their prayers answered, and some may never see those answers. At least not this side of heaven. But I am still quite young, and this is about the longest period I've ever prayed, at least consistently, for something and seen absolutely no answer. And I have worked hard, so hard, to make the things I'm praying for a reality, but that hasn't changed the situation either. When that's the case, it can make you feel overwhelmed by inefficacy, like nothing you're doing is even mattering. And it makes you feel desperate, grieving over needs that appear to be going unmet.
I'm not sure why this has been the case, but I've also noticed that several times in this journey, my hardest and most intense prayers have been immediately followed by the situation becoming worse, not better. It had gotten to the point where I was scared to pray anymore, because it seemed to only make things worse. That was what happened on Tuesday, and I was so discouraged by it, I really didn't even know what to do anymore. It honestly felt like the prayer was sabotaging my efforts, not helping them. I wanted to say to God, "You do realize that I still NEED this, right? I wouldn't ask you for it if I didn't really need it, and it's not going to go away--I'm not going to wake up tomorrow and suddenly not need it anymore."
Have you ever wished there was some magic formula to ensure that your prayers would result in getting what you asked for? I sure have. I've thought, "Lord, if there is something you want me to do or say or be before you'll answer this prayer, just tell me what it is and I'll do it!" You start to feel like you're literally strategizing to figure out how to get the answer you need so much, instead of just letting God do the work. And it can leave you feeling like God has simply let you down--I know that's not the "Christian" thing to say or feel, but that's exactly how it feels.
Then on Thursday this week, I got some great news. It wasn't by any means the complete answer to my prayers, but it was a HUGE step in that direction. And today was another big step. And I am now closer than I've been all year to having this huge need met and this desire fulfilled. But I'm not there yet, and I know that this may not be the beginning of the answer that I think it is. And I am so close, but I'm honestly scared to get my hopes up too high. I got home tonight and didn't really know how to feel. I was so happy for the progress that had been made, but also so apprehensive, because if it doesn't work out now, it will be the biggest disappointment yet. I felt happy, but also stressed out about how this will end up, and totally worn out from this whole process. And I would rather have never made those steps this week if they're not going to take me all the way.
But then I realize that I am not in control--God is in control. (The control freak inside of me positively cringed when I just wrote that). I am not a patient person, y'all, and I also like to have all my ducks in a row, so it is so hard for me to relinquish control and wait for the Lord. Especially when you've waited for weeks, and months, and maybe even years, and you have to keep waiting.
I was tempted tonight to stop praying now, for several reasons. One is that I'm, like, one phone call (that I may or may not get) away from having this prayer answered anyway, so I feel so close it's tempting to just stop now. The other reason is that, like I said, I'm afraid to get my hopes up about this because I've been disappointed so many times during this journey, but the essence of prayer is hope, right? It's not really possible to pray without hoping, so if I am to continue to pray, I must contine to hope. And we can't stop asking God for what we need and want deeply: after all, he asks us, "What do you want me to do for you?" and he longs to know our deepest desires.
But I decided that I will not stop praying, because when you've been running a marathon, no matter how tired you are or how close you are to being done, you never, ever walk across the finish line. No, you sprint across. And that's exactly what I'm going to do, even if the finish line is further away than I think. I will just keep running.
So there are some things I've been praying for literally this entire year. I know that in the grand scheme of life, that's not that long at all--many people have faithfully prayed for years before they've seen their prayers answered, and some may never see those answers. At least not this side of heaven. But I am still quite young, and this is about the longest period I've ever prayed, at least consistently, for something and seen absolutely no answer. And I have worked hard, so hard, to make the things I'm praying for a reality, but that hasn't changed the situation either. When that's the case, it can make you feel overwhelmed by inefficacy, like nothing you're doing is even mattering. And it makes you feel desperate, grieving over needs that appear to be going unmet.
I'm not sure why this has been the case, but I've also noticed that several times in this journey, my hardest and most intense prayers have been immediately followed by the situation becoming worse, not better. It had gotten to the point where I was scared to pray anymore, because it seemed to only make things worse. That was what happened on Tuesday, and I was so discouraged by it, I really didn't even know what to do anymore. It honestly felt like the prayer was sabotaging my efforts, not helping them. I wanted to say to God, "You do realize that I still NEED this, right? I wouldn't ask you for it if I didn't really need it, and it's not going to go away--I'm not going to wake up tomorrow and suddenly not need it anymore."
Have you ever wished there was some magic formula to ensure that your prayers would result in getting what you asked for? I sure have. I've thought, "Lord, if there is something you want me to do or say or be before you'll answer this prayer, just tell me what it is and I'll do it!" You start to feel like you're literally strategizing to figure out how to get the answer you need so much, instead of just letting God do the work. And it can leave you feeling like God has simply let you down--I know that's not the "Christian" thing to say or feel, but that's exactly how it feels.
Then on Thursday this week, I got some great news. It wasn't by any means the complete answer to my prayers, but it was a HUGE step in that direction. And today was another big step. And I am now closer than I've been all year to having this huge need met and this desire fulfilled. But I'm not there yet, and I know that this may not be the beginning of the answer that I think it is. And I am so close, but I'm honestly scared to get my hopes up too high. I got home tonight and didn't really know how to feel. I was so happy for the progress that had been made, but also so apprehensive, because if it doesn't work out now, it will be the biggest disappointment yet. I felt happy, but also stressed out about how this will end up, and totally worn out from this whole process. And I would rather have never made those steps this week if they're not going to take me all the way.
But then I realize that I am not in control--God is in control. (The control freak inside of me positively cringed when I just wrote that). I am not a patient person, y'all, and I also like to have all my ducks in a row, so it is so hard for me to relinquish control and wait for the Lord. Especially when you've waited for weeks, and months, and maybe even years, and you have to keep waiting.
I was tempted tonight to stop praying now, for several reasons. One is that I'm, like, one phone call (that I may or may not get) away from having this prayer answered anyway, so I feel so close it's tempting to just stop now. The other reason is that, like I said, I'm afraid to get my hopes up about this because I've been disappointed so many times during this journey, but the essence of prayer is hope, right? It's not really possible to pray without hoping, so if I am to continue to pray, I must contine to hope. And we can't stop asking God for what we need and want deeply: after all, he asks us, "What do you want me to do for you?" and he longs to know our deepest desires.
But I decided that I will not stop praying, because when you've been running a marathon, no matter how tired you are or how close you are to being done, you never, ever walk across the finish line. No, you sprint across. And that's exactly what I'm going to do, even if the finish line is further away than I think. I will just keep running.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
"I Can't Live Without Finding God"
So when I look at the statistics of how many page views I am getting on my blog, and what countries those viewers are coming from, I can also see what kinds of Google searches led people directly to my blog. Usually the search terms are just obvious, like the title of this blog or something about lawyers in this state and so on. But every once in awhile, someone stumbles across my blog by using some really unusual search terms.
Here's what it was a week or two ago: "I can't live without finding God." Someone, somewhere, put this search into Google and then found my blog as a result. I don't know who they are or where they are or what exactly they were hoping to find that day. But knowing that someone with such a desperate hunger for God, someone I almost certainly don't even know, is reading words I've written? That reminded me of what a responsibility I have to write in a way that glorifies God and points people to His grace.
Those of us who are Christians all have a tremendous responsibility to write and live and work and love in a way that points people to the hope we have in Christ. And honestly, this can be more important than ever when, via the Internet, people can peruse our lives in ways never imagined possible even 20 years ago.
This experience reminded me that I don't know everyone who reads this blog, or who looks at my Facebook page, or who observes the way I conduct myself in everyday life. For that matter, I interact with people every day that I don't know--whether it's the person who helps me at the drive-through or who swipes my student ID card at the gym or the random 1L I pass in the hallway or, indeed, the strangers who read my blog! We all have these interactions--are they positive? Do our lives exude the joy and compassion of Christ, even to people that we don't know? Would people be closer to understanding the grace of God as a result of their interaction with us?
Just some food for thought--and a reminder that the way we live DOES matter, even if we think no one is really looking.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
What Do Politics Have to Do With Faith?
In case you don't want to read this because you're already sick of reading about people's political views, I promise you that this post is NOT going to endorse any political party, view, or candidate. But with a presidential election coming up in less than two months, it seems that politics are at the forefront of everyone's mind right now. Commentary about the parties and candidates dominate Facebook and Twitter every single day. And much of that commentary consists of people engaging in all-out bashing of the party or candidate they oppose. In fact, at least in my experience, bashing the opposing party is much, much more common than actually demonstrating what is admirable about the party you support. In this area as in most, perhaps just because of human nature, it's easier to tear people down than to build them up.
But I've noticed something very troubling: if the derogatory comments about other parties and candidates aren't bad enough, people also take it upon themselves to tear down anyone who supports the party or candidate they don't like. Romney supporters use online forums to attack Obama supporters, and vice versa. They try to attack their intelligence, their upbringing, their patriotism, and even things like their femininity or masculinity. (Don't believe me on that last one? Haven't you heard people say, "I don't know how anyone could vote for Romney and still consider herself a woman"?)
Here's the worst part: I've noticed that many, many Christians have no qualms about maligning the faith of other Christians simply because of who they vote for. They take no issue with telling other people, at least in so many words, "You can't possibly be a Christian/ be making the Christian choice if you vote for [insert a candidate here]" or "It's only really 'Christian' to vote for the candidate I support, and if you don't, then I call your faith into question." I see this attitude all the time, even though it's admittedly a lot more subtle than in the examples I just gave. And indeed, Christians need to seriously consider how their faith and the principles of God's Word should affect who they vote for. But here's the thing: it's not as if it's "Christian" to vote for one candidate and "non-Christian" to vote for another. There's no explicit indication from God about who to vote for in the 2012 election. And so we must each make a choice through prayer and discretion--but it's not as if one choice is "right" and the other is "wrong," as long as they are made after seeking out God's will on the issue.
And this form of tearing people down and judging others through political posturing has got to stop, because if it doesn't, I fear it will cause fault lines to form in the church itself. We cannot treat other people as if we doubt their Christian faith simply because of who they vote for.
And what else do politics have to do with faith? We are to pray for and submit to the leaders and governing authorities that God has placed over us. Yes, that does mean what you think it means. Even if you hate our current President and everything he stands for, God still expects you to pray for him. The same goes for whichever individual is elected in November. I know I don't make this a regular part of my prayer life, but I certainly should. We are to pray for our leaders and to show respect for them. According to 1 Timothy 2, we are also supposed to thank God for them. Now call me crazy, but I'm not really sure how bashing candidates we oppose fits into that framework. Why are we so willing to assume others aren't voting "the Christian way," when there's no one perfect "Christian candidate," when we aren't even willing to follow the political instructions God has explicitly given? Pray for our leaders. Thank God for them. Respect them. Submit to them. Simple as that.
Judging from the opinions I've heard over the past couple of months, some people pretty much think the world is going to end if their favored candidate doesn't win. Does the President have power to change our lives dramatically? Yes. But who is really in control? The leader in the Oval Office, or God?
I believe that God appoints leaders for such a time as the one we're living in. As an article I read recently pointed out, every generation thinks they are living in the most important time in human history. Every generation thinks the next election will totally change life as they know it. But good times and bad times have faced the American people before, and God has still--always--been the one on the throne.
The Bible says, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." Not, "Blessed is the nation whose president is Mitt Romney." Not "Blessed is the nation led by Barack Obama." Or anything else. "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord."
So I leave you with this: Yes, it's important who we vote for. Yes, we need to seek God's leading in all of our political decisions, as in everything else. But before we enter total political panic about what's going to happen in November, we need to be asking ourselves, "Do we live in a nation whose God is the Lord? Do we live a LIFE in which the Lord is God and the Lord is in control?" That's where real change and transformation starts. And if we allow the Lord to be in control, life as we know it really will change, but the blessing will ultimately be ours.
"There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord." --Proverbs 21:30
Monday, August 27, 2012
Encouragement for Your Monday
If you are a child of God, then you know that the Lord goes before and will be with you, and He will never leave you nor abandon you. Nothing and no one can snatch you from His hand. The Lord is the one who has upheld you since you were conceived and has carried you since your birth, and He will sustain you all the rest of your life. He holds you by your right hand. God is the strength of your heart and your portion forever, no matter what.
The Lord is your guide. He is your Redeemer, who teaches you what is best for you and directs you in the way that you should go. His faithfulness surrounds you. He will lead you forward and keep you in perfect peace as you trust in Him completely. Cast your cares on Him, because He will sustain you. The Lord has called you for a righteous purpose, and He will fulfill His purpose for you in perfect time. He makes all things beautiful in His time. His mercies begin afresh each morning. He will always direct your steps as you trust in Him.
The Lord delights in you and rejoices over you, and He will quiet you with His love. He is your rock and your refuge, and even the most intense storm can't take that refuge away. He is your hiding place. His everlasting arms are holding you up. He is mighty to save. He is with you and will watch over you wherever you go. Because God is for you, no one can be against you. He has not given you a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and a sound mind. The joy of the Lord is your strength, and as you hope in Him, He will infuse you with new strength to face whatever you have to face.
And God's grace is always, always sufficient for you. For me. For all of us.
The Lord is your guide. He is your Redeemer, who teaches you what is best for you and directs you in the way that you should go. His faithfulness surrounds you. He will lead you forward and keep you in perfect peace as you trust in Him completely. Cast your cares on Him, because He will sustain you. The Lord has called you for a righteous purpose, and He will fulfill His purpose for you in perfect time. He makes all things beautiful in His time. His mercies begin afresh each morning. He will always direct your steps as you trust in Him.
The Lord delights in you and rejoices over you, and He will quiet you with His love. He is your rock and your refuge, and even the most intense storm can't take that refuge away. He is your hiding place. His everlasting arms are holding you up. He is mighty to save. He is with you and will watch over you wherever you go. Because God is for you, no one can be against you. He has not given you a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and a sound mind. The joy of the Lord is your strength, and as you hope in Him, He will infuse you with new strength to face whatever you have to face.
And God's grace is always, always sufficient for you. For me. For all of us.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Worship High
I read a really fascinating article this week about a new study that has found that megachurch services and similar highly emotional worship experiences actually release oxytocin and other chemicals in the brain that can become addictive. This type of worship was then compared to a "drug" or a "high" that people are desperate to come back to again and again. The author pens, "This pursuit of transformation by consuming external experiences creates worship junkies who leap from one mountaintop to another, one spiritual high to another, in search of a glory that will not fade." He goes on to suggest that these "mountaintop" worship experiences are purely external and a poor substitute for an internal connection with God through the Holy Spirit. And as the title of the piece ("When Worship is Wrong") suggests, he believes this type of feel-good, passionate worship is actually wrong.
As someone who's very interested in both neuroscience and religion, I find it fascinating that researchers have suggested that the neurochemicals released during this type of worship can actually be addictive. And when I first read this piece a few days ago, I found myself agreeing with most of its premises . . . after all, an emotionally charged worship experience isn't a substitute for the continual practice of the presence of God in daily life. Ideally, I would be worshipping while I wash dishes, drive, do bioethics reading, go to the gym, spend time with friends, etc., and not just for a little while in church on a Sunday morning.
But the more I think about this article's attack on emotionally charged worship, the more troubled I feel by it. For one, I think it's a major reflection of a faulty school of thought that is still quite prevalent in our faith: if it feels good, then it must be wrong. I don't need to elaborate on how many other activities would suddenly become sinful if that theory were correct! And I also disagree that this phenomenon of emotional engagement happens only in the megachurch environment or in loud and excited worship with other people. Haven't you ever experienced it too after prayer in the quiet of your own heart? I have.
And I also have to wonder if maybe God, Creator of our brains and our hearts and our spirits, purposely designed worship to be a satisfying, fulfilling experience that would indeed often make us "feel" good. After all, we are commanded to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, which suggests that our emotions as well as our rational, thinking side needs to be involved. Of course there will be times when we experience no emotion during worship, or when our heart's not really in it, and we have to continue to love and trust God when the feelings aren't there. But that does not mean that an emotional worship experience is bad. Emotion is a vital, integral part of the human experience, and it should be able to be a part of our worship and a part of our interaction with God.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Spiritual Dissection
Last Sunday in D.C., Meagan and I had the privilege of going to National Community Church, which Mark Batterson pastors. This church meets in several different places around the city, but we went to its location in a theater on Barracks Row in downtown D.C. The worship was amazing and the people were so welcoming.
Mark was actually preaching that Sunday, and he said some profound things that I've been thinking about all week. At one point, he was talking about Hebrews 4:12, which says, "For the Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." And he had this to say about that passage: "Far too often we try to dissect the Word of God instead of allowing it to dissect us. We try to get through the reading of the Word instead of allowing it to get through us." That really hit me, and I've been pondering on it ever since. We try to dissect the Word of God instead of allowing it to dissect us.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with studying the Word, analyzing it deeply, considering it from every angle that we can. But when we are more focused on tearing apart every little nuance of the Word, even arguing and nitpicking about minor disagreements on Scripture, than we are on allowing the Word to penetrate us and expose us for who we really are--then there can be a problem. The Word is powerful enough to expose our deepest motivations and conditions of the heart, and we have to be willing to allow that exposure to happen. We are all in need of that point of conviction that drives us toward repentance and the grace found in Christ alone.
And on another note . . . as I promised, here are some pictures from our adventures in the nation's capital:
Mark was actually preaching that Sunday, and he said some profound things that I've been thinking about all week. At one point, he was talking about Hebrews 4:12, which says, "For the Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." And he had this to say about that passage: "Far too often we try to dissect the Word of God instead of allowing it to dissect us. We try to get through the reading of the Word instead of allowing it to get through us." That really hit me, and I've been pondering on it ever since. We try to dissect the Word of God instead of allowing it to dissect us.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with studying the Word, analyzing it deeply, considering it from every angle that we can. But when we are more focused on tearing apart every little nuance of the Word, even arguing and nitpicking about minor disagreements on Scripture, than we are on allowing the Word to penetrate us and expose us for who we really are--then there can be a problem. The Word is powerful enough to expose our deepest motivations and conditions of the heart, and we have to be willing to allow that exposure to happen. We are all in need of that point of conviction that drives us toward repentance and the grace found in Christ alone.
And on another note . . . as I promised, here are some pictures from our adventures in the nation's capital:
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
The Way That I Take
I always write inspiring quotes, verses, song lyrics, etc., on the inside front covers of my journals, based on the things I find inspirational at the time. While I was cleaning my room tonight, I was flipping through an old journal and found this forgotten gem of a verse that I had copied down inside: "But the Lord knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold" (Job 23:10).
The Lord knows the way that I take. He knows the way that I take when I am walking through the deepest and darkest valley. He knows the way that I take when I am shouting his praises from the mountain top. He intimately knows my fears, my sorrow, my heartache, my passion, my joy, my tears, my yearning. As 1 Samuel 2:3 simply reminds us, "The Lord is a God who knows." He knows. He understands. He commiserates. He gets it. There is no path we can travel that our Savior will not know. And not only does He know all of our paths, He experiences all of life with us. He doesn't just know about our pain; He knows our pain as if it were his own. He holds our tears in the palm of His hand. He knows our need, our losses, our triumphs. He is a God who knows. His understanding is unfathomable, matched only by His unrelenting love for us.
Our paths and our ways are not forgotten. They can never be so dark that God doesn't see what we're experiencing. The rain in our lives can never fall so hard that the Lord loses his view of our paths or His grip on our hearts. He walks through all of our paths with us, holding us by the hand, turning the mountains into roads so that we might glorify Him. No matter what you are facing--failure, illness, disability, unbelief, loss, financial setbacks, or even the Georgia bar exam next week--remember that your Savior is a God who knows the way that you take and feels the pain and the joy with you.
The Lord knows the way that I take. He knows the way that I take when I am walking through the deepest and darkest valley. He knows the way that I take when I am shouting his praises from the mountain top. He intimately knows my fears, my sorrow, my heartache, my passion, my joy, my tears, my yearning. As 1 Samuel 2:3 simply reminds us, "The Lord is a God who knows." He knows. He understands. He commiserates. He gets it. There is no path we can travel that our Savior will not know. And not only does He know all of our paths, He experiences all of life with us. He doesn't just know about our pain; He knows our pain as if it were his own. He holds our tears in the palm of His hand. He knows our need, our losses, our triumphs. He is a God who knows. His understanding is unfathomable, matched only by His unrelenting love for us.
Our paths and our ways are not forgotten. They can never be so dark that God doesn't see what we're experiencing. The rain in our lives can never fall so hard that the Lord loses his view of our paths or His grip on our hearts. He walks through all of our paths with us, holding us by the hand, turning the mountains into roads so that we might glorify Him. No matter what you are facing--failure, illness, disability, unbelief, loss, financial setbacks, or even the Georgia bar exam next week--remember that your Savior is a God who knows the way that you take and feels the pain and the joy with you.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Validation Addiction
Hi, my name is Lauren and I'm addicted to validation and approval from others. There, I admit it. And I'm willing to bet you're addicted to it too, since most people are. Maybe I need a 12-step program . . . well, really, maybe we all do. We're addicted to approval and obsessed with what other people think about us. We love it when they like us and stroke our ego and affirm us, and we're crushed when they don't seem to like us, or simply when they say nothing about us. Silence has become equated with rejection. For far too many of us, we allow the opinions of others to hold us in bondage.
I believe that while this sort of addiction has been around in some form or another since cavemen roamed the earth, it has grown like wildfire because of technology--namely, social media. Don't get me wrong--I love social media and I use it daily. It's incredibly useful for keeping up with people and with events happening in the world, and I don't think it's necessarily harmful when people post about their successes and accomplishments as a way to keep friends in the know or to advance their careers. However, social media fuels our addiction because it's no longer enough to be liked and validated in the real world; you also have to be liked in the virtual world. It's no longer enough to simply succeed; you have to post news of your success on Facebook and have the requisite number of people "like" it. You have to get enough comments and pageviews on your blog. Enough visitors to your website. Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, blogs, Twitter . . . the opportunities for virtual validation are endless. People have to retweet you, follow you, share your work, comment on your posts, friend you, and connect with you. And counterintuitively, how others perceive you and interact with you in the virtual world has become a skewed sort of litmus test for how you're actually doing in the real world.
In addition to social media, the message in our culture that "reputation is everything" fuels this addiction to approval and to being perceived highly by others. And in a lot of careers, especially law, reputation is . . . well . . . everything. It can take years to build a good one, and mere seconds to destroy it. But I believe it can get to a point where we value our reputations more than our actual identity and more than our true character. And it's not the same thing. Your reputation is all about who others think you are, while your character deals with who you really are, even if no one else knows about it. And it's easy to get to the point where we care more about what other people think about us than who we really are.
The second commandment tells us that we are not to make for ourselves any graven image (an idol). But yet, when we are obsessed with what other people think about us and how they perceive us, we ARE constructing and worshipping an image: our own image, as seen through other people's eyes! What people think about us can be an idol. Reputation can be an idol. Validation from others can be an idol. Our validation addiction is a way of breaking and shattering the second commandment even in our own day, and a few months ago, the Lord deeply convicted me of my failings in this area. He gently, but somewhat painfully, reminded my heart that who I really am in Christ should matter much more to me than simply who others think I am and what they think about me. If your reputation and approval from others is more important than your true identity in Jesus, who bled to make you His, then that's an idol you need to smash at the foot of the cross, and walk away finally free.
I think the hopeful thing about all this is that our validation and approval addiction means that we're craving influence and starving for impact. And people who crave influence and impact can use that to tremendous advantage in pursuing Kingdom purposes. But will our spheres of influence be about us, or about God? How can our obsession with influence and approval be transformed into a vehicle of grace and compassion for a hurting world? Thoughts? (I feel like it would be totally ironic for me to solicit comments on this post, so I won't. Just some food for thought!)
I believe that while this sort of addiction has been around in some form or another since cavemen roamed the earth, it has grown like wildfire because of technology--namely, social media. Don't get me wrong--I love social media and I use it daily. It's incredibly useful for keeping up with people and with events happening in the world, and I don't think it's necessarily harmful when people post about their successes and accomplishments as a way to keep friends in the know or to advance their careers. However, social media fuels our addiction because it's no longer enough to be liked and validated in the real world; you also have to be liked in the virtual world. It's no longer enough to simply succeed; you have to post news of your success on Facebook and have the requisite number of people "like" it. You have to get enough comments and pageviews on your blog. Enough visitors to your website. Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, blogs, Twitter . . . the opportunities for virtual validation are endless. People have to retweet you, follow you, share your work, comment on your posts, friend you, and connect with you. And counterintuitively, how others perceive you and interact with you in the virtual world has become a skewed sort of litmus test for how you're actually doing in the real world.
In addition to social media, the message in our culture that "reputation is everything" fuels this addiction to approval and to being perceived highly by others. And in a lot of careers, especially law, reputation is . . . well . . . everything. It can take years to build a good one, and mere seconds to destroy it. But I believe it can get to a point where we value our reputations more than our actual identity and more than our true character. And it's not the same thing. Your reputation is all about who others think you are, while your character deals with who you really are, even if no one else knows about it. And it's easy to get to the point where we care more about what other people think about us than who we really are.
The second commandment tells us that we are not to make for ourselves any graven image (an idol). But yet, when we are obsessed with what other people think about us and how they perceive us, we ARE constructing and worshipping an image: our own image, as seen through other people's eyes! What people think about us can be an idol. Reputation can be an idol. Validation from others can be an idol. Our validation addiction is a way of breaking and shattering the second commandment even in our own day, and a few months ago, the Lord deeply convicted me of my failings in this area. He gently, but somewhat painfully, reminded my heart that who I really am in Christ should matter much more to me than simply who others think I am and what they think about me. If your reputation and approval from others is more important than your true identity in Jesus, who bled to make you His, then that's an idol you need to smash at the foot of the cross, and walk away finally free.
I think the hopeful thing about all this is that our validation and approval addiction means that we're craving influence and starving for impact. And people who crave influence and impact can use that to tremendous advantage in pursuing Kingdom purposes. But will our spheres of influence be about us, or about God? How can our obsession with influence and approval be transformed into a vehicle of grace and compassion for a hurting world? Thoughts? (I feel like it would be totally ironic for me to solicit comments on this post, so I won't. Just some food for thought!)
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Surrender to God
Surrendering one's heart to God is not a passive process, but rather an extremely active one.
It is not giving up.
It is not merely "letting go."
It does not mean allowing people and situations to push you wherever they will and assuming that you have to accept all of it unflinchingly because it must be part of God's plan.
Surrendering to God's will and leading and purpose is an inherently active process. Why? Because it must be a conscious and courageous choice--a declaration that you have the ability to walk in any number of directions, but you will choose to walk with God. No matter where He leads.
It is not giving up.
It is not merely "letting go."
It does not mean allowing people and situations to push you wherever they will and assuming that you have to accept all of it unflinchingly because it must be part of God's plan.
Surrendering to God's will and leading and purpose is an inherently active process. Why? Because it must be a conscious and courageous choice--a declaration that you have the ability to walk in any number of directions, but you will choose to walk with God. No matter where He leads.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Finding God in Our Brokenness
Our society is so obsessed with people having it all "together." In fact, we idolize "togetherness" (I realize that's probably not a word, but you know what I mean). Think about it: we say, admiringly, about people: "So-and-so really has it all together." And we say, critically, "So-and-so really needs to get their act together." And I don't think these are just innocuous figures of speech--having it all together, putting on a good face for people, and never displaying any weakness or brokenness are all valued ideals in our culture. And it's incredibly hard to learn how to embrace a reckless vulnerability around people we've spent years trying to convince of our own strength.
But what does that say about brokenness, and the people who experience it? And let's be honest with ourselves--we ALL experience brokenness, tears, weakness, grief, and loss. It is part of the human condition, no matter how hard we may try to suppress it or ignore it. But I believe that when someone is experiencing brokenness, whether it be in body, mind, heart, or spirit, our natural tendency is to try to to help them "get over it" as quickly as possible, and we feel like we need to help them "fix it"--ASAP.
But sometimes, there is that season of deep brokenness, when the quick fixes utterly fail to accomplish their purpose, and when almost no words can help. It's those times when we feel pressured to hide our pain from others, desperate to reconcile our own condition both with our society's demand that we "get it together," and with the common assumption that God, Himself, expects us to have our lives together in order to come to Him. This usually is our condition when we lose things--or people--we thought we could never live without. We don't know how we can come before God in these times because we feel as though we have less than nothing to bring. We try to pray, but we can't even say anything. We can't put words on our experience--our hurting hearts are quiet.
But then the questions bubble up to the surface of our hearts and can't be ignored: Can our own theology coincide with a shattered heart? And, perhaps the simplest question of all: how can we keep our eyes on Jesus when they are full of tears?
And in times like these, we find ourselves asking, “Is Jesus really, truly ENOUGH?” Just Jesus. Jesus and nothing else, nothing that we thought we had to have just to survive. Is Jesus still worthy of all our praise? Is Jesus enough in the desert while we beg for rain? Is He enough when we are brokenhearted? Is Jesus enough in the wilderness, in the darkness, in the valley of the shadow of death? Is His name still worthy to be blessed?
I don't know all the answers, but I do know that Christ steps into the gap and experiences our brokenness with us. John 11 describes Jesus' response when he went to visit Mary and Martha, whose brother Lazarus had just died. Mary ran out to meet him and fell at his feet weeping. John then writes, “When Jesus saw her weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled . . . Jesus wept.” I find it very moving that the only time recorded in Scripture in which Jesus broke down in tears was in response to a woman weeping. When Jesus saw Mary weeping from her loss, devastated and broken, He cried with her.
In Spanish, to say “I’m sorry,” people say, “lo siento,” which literally means, “I feel it.” I feel it. I’m sorry. I’ve always thought this expression was just a bit richer, a bit more genuine, than our quick and often halfhearted “sorry.” I feel it. I feel with you. Perhaps in some way, Christ, crying with this weeping and broken woman, was expressing the original “lo siento.” A divine compassion of unmatched depth. The original, “I feel it.” This means that we never feel anything alone. No matter what we experience, Christ experiences it with us. No matter how dirty, how awful, how excruciating. He feels it. He is sorry in the truest sense of the word. And He cries with us today, no matter what brokenness or what loss has caused us to collapse at his feet in tears. This is true sympathy and true compassion, both of which come from Greek words meaning "to suffer with another." Christ suffers with us. He mourns with us. He weeps with us.
And God still invites us to come to Him--no matter how messed up our lives are and how far we may be from "having it all together." We can glorify him in the desert as well as in the harvest. We are invited to bring our tears and our pain to the altar before him, not just our blessings and our joys. Frankly, God can handle our mess, if anyone can. He invites us to come even when all we have to bring is anger, grief, desperation, and doubt. God doesn’t tell us just to bring him our praises, all the while clutching our pain close to our hearts and keeping it to ourselves. Here’s what I think: coming to God with our pain IS a form of praise. Trusting God with our pain IS worship. Even if that's all we have to bring, God still wants us to come.
Our brokenness is actually, in some strange way, a miracle--because if we weren't broken, we wouldn't need a Savior. Grace is for lives like ours--which can be a mess and are most assuredly not perfect.
I can't claim to know why brokenness happens, but I do know, from my own experience, that Jesus is indeed ENOUGH. Even in doubt. Even in gut-wrenching grief. Even in tears. Even in a very dark and very painful wilderness. He is enough. And that is enough for me.
But sometimes, there is that season of deep brokenness, when the quick fixes utterly fail to accomplish their purpose, and when almost no words can help. It's those times when we feel pressured to hide our pain from others, desperate to reconcile our own condition both with our society's demand that we "get it together," and with the common assumption that God, Himself, expects us to have our lives together in order to come to Him. This usually is our condition when we lose things--or people--we thought we could never live without. We don't know how we can come before God in these times because we feel as though we have less than nothing to bring. We try to pray, but we can't even say anything. We can't put words on our experience--our hurting hearts are quiet.
But then the questions bubble up to the surface of our hearts and can't be ignored: Can our own theology coincide with a shattered heart? And, perhaps the simplest question of all: how can we keep our eyes on Jesus when they are full of tears?
And in times like these, we find ourselves asking, “Is Jesus really, truly ENOUGH?” Just Jesus. Jesus and nothing else, nothing that we thought we had to have just to survive. Is Jesus still worthy of all our praise? Is Jesus enough in the desert while we beg for rain? Is He enough when we are brokenhearted? Is Jesus enough in the wilderness, in the darkness, in the valley of the shadow of death? Is His name still worthy to be blessed?
I don't know all the answers, but I do know that Christ steps into the gap and experiences our brokenness with us. John 11 describes Jesus' response when he went to visit Mary and Martha, whose brother Lazarus had just died. Mary ran out to meet him and fell at his feet weeping. John then writes, “When Jesus saw her weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled . . . Jesus wept.” I find it very moving that the only time recorded in Scripture in which Jesus broke down in tears was in response to a woman weeping. When Jesus saw Mary weeping from her loss, devastated and broken, He cried with her.
In Spanish, to say “I’m sorry,” people say, “lo siento,” which literally means, “I feel it.” I feel it. I’m sorry. I’ve always thought this expression was just a bit richer, a bit more genuine, than our quick and often halfhearted “sorry.” I feel it. I feel with you. Perhaps in some way, Christ, crying with this weeping and broken woman, was expressing the original “lo siento.” A divine compassion of unmatched depth. The original, “I feel it.” This means that we never feel anything alone. No matter what we experience, Christ experiences it with us. No matter how dirty, how awful, how excruciating. He feels it. He is sorry in the truest sense of the word. And He cries with us today, no matter what brokenness or what loss has caused us to collapse at his feet in tears. This is true sympathy and true compassion, both of which come from Greek words meaning "to suffer with another." Christ suffers with us. He mourns with us. He weeps with us.
And God still invites us to come to Him--no matter how messed up our lives are and how far we may be from "having it all together." We can glorify him in the desert as well as in the harvest. We are invited to bring our tears and our pain to the altar before him, not just our blessings and our joys. Frankly, God can handle our mess, if anyone can. He invites us to come even when all we have to bring is anger, grief, desperation, and doubt. God doesn’t tell us just to bring him our praises, all the while clutching our pain close to our hearts and keeping it to ourselves. Here’s what I think: coming to God with our pain IS a form of praise. Trusting God with our pain IS worship. Even if that's all we have to bring, God still wants us to come.
Our brokenness is actually, in some strange way, a miracle--because if we weren't broken, we wouldn't need a Savior. Grace is for lives like ours--which can be a mess and are most assuredly not perfect.
I can't claim to know why brokenness happens, but I do know, from my own experience, that Jesus is indeed ENOUGH. Even in doubt. Even in gut-wrenching grief. Even in tears. Even in a very dark and very painful wilderness. He is enough. And that is enough for me.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
What Do You Want Me to Do for You?
In The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis writes, "It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
Recently, I've been thinking about this issue, and I've realized that a lot of Christians tend to be afraid of desiring anything too much--unless they are wanting a better relationship with God or something very directly related to the spread of His kingdom. I think there's an idea that deep, strong desires for anything that isn't overtly "spiritual" is suspect, at best, and sinful, at worst. But here's the thing: I think that's a lie.
Shrinking away from powerful desires is a way to shield ourselves from vulnerability and protect ourselves from being hurt. We all learn early in life that it makes your heart ache to want something you just aren't getting. While nothing feels quite like when God finally fulfills a long-held desire of the heart, unfulfilled desire is tantalizing and painful. So as a means of self-protection, we try so hard to suppress and quiet the part of the heart that dreams, yearns, and desires. In reality, we may want children, or health, or healing, so badly that it tugs at our heart strings. We may want to get married, to get a better job, to have our broken relationship with a loved one restored. And we want it badly. But we get skilled, so skilled, at convincing ourselves that these desires aren't as strong as they truly are.
Perhaps we worry that if we express a desire that is not being fulfilled, it will reflect badly on our faith and our relationship with God. We think, "Doesn't the Bible say that if we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our heart? Am I not delighting in Him? What's wrong with my faith?" And on the flip side, sometimes I even worry about getting something I deeply desire--because what if it's not what I dreamed of, and I'm left disappointed, and wondering if God might just like to say, "I told you so"?
And finally, wanting to suppress desire and act like we don't want is a pride issue. We feel "better" than others if we can act like we don't have strong, heartfelt desires. We assume that those who do are ruled by their desires. Can desire lead to sin? Absolutely. But that doesn't mean that desire itself is bad or sinful.
But over time, by trying to convince ourselves that we don't want the things we want, we dull and desensitize the part of the heart that was made to yearn for the things God wants to give us, the part that was made to crave what He longs to offer us. Why do we think it is wrong to want? The part of the heart that wants is deep, restless, and uniquely human. God put it in us, and He wants us to awaken that part of the heart--not to act like it doesn't exist. Because we are made in the image of God, we have the ability to desire deeply, to dream about new possibilities for our futures and our lives. God is the one who desired first--and His desire was for us. It is okay to want, even to want deeply. God wants us to have desires, dreams, and visions, and to express those desires. We have to have a vision, or, according to Scripture, we perish. God wants us to dream--in fact, a dream is a mark of God's Spirit being poured out (Joel 2:28). When God's Spirit is unleashed, people dream dreams and have visions. I think it's possible that we could even quench the Spirit when we refuse to dream.
Could it be that the question we need to answer is simply this one: What do you want?
In Luke, chapter 18, Jesus encounters a blind beggar by the side of the road. The man cries out to Him, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! Son of David, have mercy on me!" But Jesus doesn't just heal the blind man then and there. Instead, he first asks him a question that seems simple, but is also deeply profound: "What do you want me to do for you?" What do you WANT? The beggar says, "Lord, I want to see." Jesus then--and only then--responds, "Receive your sight; your faith has healed you." Could it be that verbalizing our honest, deep desire is not only a precursor to blessing, but also an expression of the kind of faith God rewards?
A similar scenario occurs in John 5. There, Jesus met a man who had been paralyzed for 38 long years. But before He healed him, Jesus asked him, "Do you WANT to get well?" It might seem so obvious--of course, that's what he wanted! But yet, it is so beautiful that the God who hung the stars in the heavens and spoke into the darkness to create light and knows every beat of your heart is looking people in the eyes and asking them what, exactly, they want. Because it matters to Him! He cares about what you want. He wants you to verbalize your desire, even though He already knows what it is! That thing you daydream about, or that keeps you up at night, or that you fill the pages of your journal writing about. The thing that brings tears to your eyes and an ache to your heart. The desire that YOU, like that man, may have had for 38 years, and no one has ever bothered to ask you what it is. But God does. I am overwhelmed to think that the God of the universe would ask people just like you and me what they WANT.
And notice that those desires aren't all overtly spiritual! The blind man didn't say, "Lord, I want you to use my blindness to allow me to minister to others, or to bring others to You." No, he just said, "Lord, I want to see." Lord, I just want to see. Sometimes, we hesitate to express our deepest, most heartfelt desires because we think they are selfish and not sufficiently "spiritual." But sometimes, after suppressing our true wants for too long, the masks and facades are suddenly stripped away, and all that's left is our genuine desire. And that is exactly what the Lord wants us to express! Even if it's not "spiritual." Even if we think it's weak, and painful, and difficult, and better left unsaid. Sometimes, we just want to see--and God will take care of the rest.
And I leave you with this: Could the Lord be asking you, even today: What do YOU want?
Recently, I've been thinking about this issue, and I've realized that a lot of Christians tend to be afraid of desiring anything too much--unless they are wanting a better relationship with God or something very directly related to the spread of His kingdom. I think there's an idea that deep, strong desires for anything that isn't overtly "spiritual" is suspect, at best, and sinful, at worst. But here's the thing: I think that's a lie.
Shrinking away from powerful desires is a way to shield ourselves from vulnerability and protect ourselves from being hurt. We all learn early in life that it makes your heart ache to want something you just aren't getting. While nothing feels quite like when God finally fulfills a long-held desire of the heart, unfulfilled desire is tantalizing and painful. So as a means of self-protection, we try so hard to suppress and quiet the part of the heart that dreams, yearns, and desires. In reality, we may want children, or health, or healing, so badly that it tugs at our heart strings. We may want to get married, to get a better job, to have our broken relationship with a loved one restored. And we want it badly. But we get skilled, so skilled, at convincing ourselves that these desires aren't as strong as they truly are.
Perhaps we worry that if we express a desire that is not being fulfilled, it will reflect badly on our faith and our relationship with God. We think, "Doesn't the Bible say that if we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our heart? Am I not delighting in Him? What's wrong with my faith?" And on the flip side, sometimes I even worry about getting something I deeply desire--because what if it's not what I dreamed of, and I'm left disappointed, and wondering if God might just like to say, "I told you so"?
And finally, wanting to suppress desire and act like we don't want is a pride issue. We feel "better" than others if we can act like we don't have strong, heartfelt desires. We assume that those who do are ruled by their desires. Can desire lead to sin? Absolutely. But that doesn't mean that desire itself is bad or sinful.
But over time, by trying to convince ourselves that we don't want the things we want, we dull and desensitize the part of the heart that was made to yearn for the things God wants to give us, the part that was made to crave what He longs to offer us. Why do we think it is wrong to want? The part of the heart that wants is deep, restless, and uniquely human. God put it in us, and He wants us to awaken that part of the heart--not to act like it doesn't exist. Because we are made in the image of God, we have the ability to desire deeply, to dream about new possibilities for our futures and our lives. God is the one who desired first--and His desire was for us. It is okay to want, even to want deeply. God wants us to have desires, dreams, and visions, and to express those desires. We have to have a vision, or, according to Scripture, we perish. God wants us to dream--in fact, a dream is a mark of God's Spirit being poured out (Joel 2:28). When God's Spirit is unleashed, people dream dreams and have visions. I think it's possible that we could even quench the Spirit when we refuse to dream.
Could it be that the question we need to answer is simply this one: What do you want?
In Luke, chapter 18, Jesus encounters a blind beggar by the side of the road. The man cries out to Him, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! Son of David, have mercy on me!" But Jesus doesn't just heal the blind man then and there. Instead, he first asks him a question that seems simple, but is also deeply profound: "What do you want me to do for you?" What do you WANT? The beggar says, "Lord, I want to see." Jesus then--and only then--responds, "Receive your sight; your faith has healed you." Could it be that verbalizing our honest, deep desire is not only a precursor to blessing, but also an expression of the kind of faith God rewards?
A similar scenario occurs in John 5. There, Jesus met a man who had been paralyzed for 38 long years. But before He healed him, Jesus asked him, "Do you WANT to get well?" It might seem so obvious--of course, that's what he wanted! But yet, it is so beautiful that the God who hung the stars in the heavens and spoke into the darkness to create light and knows every beat of your heart is looking people in the eyes and asking them what, exactly, they want. Because it matters to Him! He cares about what you want. He wants you to verbalize your desire, even though He already knows what it is! That thing you daydream about, or that keeps you up at night, or that you fill the pages of your journal writing about. The thing that brings tears to your eyes and an ache to your heart. The desire that YOU, like that man, may have had for 38 years, and no one has ever bothered to ask you what it is. But God does. I am overwhelmed to think that the God of the universe would ask people just like you and me what they WANT.
And notice that those desires aren't all overtly spiritual! The blind man didn't say, "Lord, I want you to use my blindness to allow me to minister to others, or to bring others to You." No, he just said, "Lord, I want to see." Lord, I just want to see. Sometimes, we hesitate to express our deepest, most heartfelt desires because we think they are selfish and not sufficiently "spiritual." But sometimes, after suppressing our true wants for too long, the masks and facades are suddenly stripped away, and all that's left is our genuine desire. And that is exactly what the Lord wants us to express! Even if it's not "spiritual." Even if we think it's weak, and painful, and difficult, and better left unsaid. Sometimes, we just want to see--and God will take care of the rest.
And I leave you with this: Could the Lord be asking you, even today: What do YOU want?
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