(Project 31, Day 6..if you haven't noticed, I'm not going in order here. :)
...Literally. I'd watched some Christian friends who I respected and loved go down a path of worldliness. I was dismayed and discouraged, knocked flat by the jaded beauty and the messed-up priorities that infiltrate our world, wondering how people can change so quickly. I felt utterly helpless, and let's face it: organized, overly-planned me definitely does not like feeling helpless. When I did Beth Moore's wonderful Bible study Stepping Up a couple summers ago, I learned to pray prostrated in utter humility before my Savior. So that's exactly how I started this week: nose-to-the-ground on my bedroom floor, crying out to my Ever-Present Help in trouble.
Eventually I turned my Bible to Philippians 4:11 and read the verse about being content in all circumstances. Unfortunately, at that moment I really didn't feel like being content. "Doesn't God know the kind of day I've had?" a little voice inside me whined.
But God always knows what we need. The more I thought about that verse, the more I truly did feel like rejoicing in my Savior. Yes, people here change. Things here are hurtful. But God is still God, unchanging, always Enough for me, always my Rock, my Security, my joy. Even this painful situation shows His love; He is unfailing when everything else seems transient; He is graceful when people are ready to judge; He is beautiful and whole when the world seems fake and shallow.
What awesome truths to know and believe. How incredible that I am a recipient of the never-changing love of my Heavenly Father. But even beyond these truths about God, my time on the ground this week reminded me of two things about myself that I'm prone to forget. I realized I am:
1. Helpless without Him. Depending on my planning and critical thinking to solve life's problems is ludicrous when the One who created me desires to lead me every step of the way. I want my heart to always be in a position of utter humility before Him, whether I'm face down on my bedroom floor, or talking to my friends, or teaching a class of first-graders, or anything else.
2. Humbled, but not defeated. Yes, sometimes I'm knocked down and jaded by this world. But Jesus has made me more than a conqueror. I will use prayer to fight incessantly for those around me to see the truth: only Jesus can bring contentment and wholeness to life. (Quick plug here for one of my favorite books--Wrestling Prayer by Eric and Leslie Ludy has a whole wealth of information on this. :)
Crazy what you can learn with your nose on the ground, but then, I serve an awesome, unpredictable God.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Meant to Live
Project 31, Day 3
"Live for heaven and you get earth thrown in; live for earth and you get neither." ~C.S. Lewis
Sometimes I wonder if our world could possibly get more shallow. Like when I watch 7-year-olds getting brand-new iPod touches for Christmas. Or when I see teenagers who'd rather surf the internet on their phones than talk to you. Or Christian young people who are swept up in the high school soap-opera of who-likes-who rather than being consumed with Christ.
I'm currently reading this super-amazing book, Tramp for the Lord, by Corrie ten Boom. Corrie lived through an unimaginably hideous German concentration camp during World War II (for more on that story, read her book The Hiding Place). She was barely fed, forced to stand in the freezing cold for hours in threadbare rags, made to watch her sister Betsie and many other women die under the horrible cruelities of the guards. Just reading about it gives me the heeby-geebies, but Corrie knew that, to those who have found Jesus, where He is, it is heaven:
"Betsie and I walked to the square where roll call was being held in the concentration camp. ..The head of our barracks was so cruel that she had sent us out into the very cold outdoors a full hour too early. Betsie's hand was in mind. We went to the square by a different way from the rest of our barracks-mates. We were three as we walked with the Lord and talked with Him. 'Isn't this a bit of heaven!' Betsie had said. 'And Lord, this is a small foretaste. One day we will see You face to face, but thank You that even now You are giving us the joy of walking and talking with You.' Heaven in the midst of hell. Light in the midst of darkness. What a security!"
And farther on in the book...
"There [in Korea] I saw the poorest shack I had ever seen. It was a tiny lean-to, made from materials collected from the garbage heap--pieces of cardboard, tin cans which had been smashed flat, old boards...As we drove past, though, I heard the beautiful voice of a woman singing. Seldom, even in the concert halls of Europe, had I heard such a sweet voice. We stopped the car and listened, for it was like the song of a skylark. I said to the missionary who was travelling with me, 'Do you know that song?' 'Yes,' she said, 'it says, Where Jesus is, 'tis heaven there."
This is true beauty. Realizing that all the shallow, material comforts and fads of this world mean nothing. In the lowest valey or on the highest mountaintop there is joy if Jesus is there. That is what life should be: Living for something far greater than comfort or fun or popularity. Living for a Savior, being so enraptured with His love that nothing can separate you from His joy.
"Live for heaven and you get earth thrown in; live for earth and you get neither." ~C.S. Lewis
Sometimes I wonder if our world could possibly get more shallow. Like when I watch 7-year-olds getting brand-new iPod touches for Christmas. Or when I see teenagers who'd rather surf the internet on their phones than talk to you. Or Christian young people who are swept up in the high school soap-opera of who-likes-who rather than being consumed with Christ.
I'm currently reading this super-amazing book, Tramp for the Lord, by Corrie ten Boom. Corrie lived through an unimaginably hideous German concentration camp during World War II (for more on that story, read her book The Hiding Place). She was barely fed, forced to stand in the freezing cold for hours in threadbare rags, made to watch her sister Betsie and many other women die under the horrible cruelities of the guards. Just reading about it gives me the heeby-geebies, but Corrie knew that, to those who have found Jesus, where He is, it is heaven:
"Betsie and I walked to the square where roll call was being held in the concentration camp. ..The head of our barracks was so cruel that she had sent us out into the very cold outdoors a full hour too early. Betsie's hand was in mind. We went to the square by a different way from the rest of our barracks-mates. We were three as we walked with the Lord and talked with Him. 'Isn't this a bit of heaven!' Betsie had said. 'And Lord, this is a small foretaste. One day we will see You face to face, but thank You that even now You are giving us the joy of walking and talking with You.' Heaven in the midst of hell. Light in the midst of darkness. What a security!"
And farther on in the book...
"There [in Korea] I saw the poorest shack I had ever seen. It was a tiny lean-to, made from materials collected from the garbage heap--pieces of cardboard, tin cans which had been smashed flat, old boards...As we drove past, though, I heard the beautiful voice of a woman singing. Seldom, even in the concert halls of Europe, had I heard such a sweet voice. We stopped the car and listened, for it was like the song of a skylark. I said to the missionary who was travelling with me, 'Do you know that song?' 'Yes,' she said, 'it says, Where Jesus is, 'tis heaven there."
This is true beauty. Realizing that all the shallow, material comforts and fads of this world mean nothing. In the lowest valey or on the highest mountaintop there is joy if Jesus is there. That is what life should be: Living for something far greater than comfort or fun or popularity. Living for a Savior, being so enraptured with His love that nothing can separate you from His joy.
Oh Jesus, please show us what we were Meant to Live for.
Switchfoot: Meant to Live official music video
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