This last month I have fallen into a very bad habit that I slide into from time to time. Someone will ask me to do something, or they will state some thing that needs to get done, and I will volunteer. After all, it doesn't seem like very much extra, and the sun is up so much longer, making the time seem that much more available. Unfortunately, no matter how long the sun choses to grace the sky, there are still only 24 hours in a day. The real result of all this volunteering to make other lives seem easier is that my own rapidly falls into chaos. I have to start juggling priorities and deciding not only which activity is more “worthy” but which relationship is more important.
I come back to Matthew 10:39 a lot. It says “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
What do we mean when we say 'get a life' in our 21st century culture? For the most part, we are talking about getting a 'real' job with real benefits and real potential for taking on more responsibility at that job. We are talking about buying a house and taking on repairs and mortgages and actually buying furniture. We are talking about getting married, and creating new rituals and responsibilities with another person, and often having children. The problem is, that sort of life is expensive, it is time consuming, and very rarely do all of those other responsibilities and commitments line up with the work that we have been left to do by Jesus Christ. When we find that life, we spend a great deal of time afraid that we will lose it; And often we do.
About two years ago, Shannon and I committed our lives to following the small still voice of the Holy Spirit. To be fair, He was making his wishes pretty clear with a combination of high rent and no job. Still, the call had come before and I had always chosen the security of the world over the security of the sparrows and the grasses. It was time to consider the definition of stupidity and make a change.
Suddenly, I was spiritually mature enough to understand this verse. It wasn't about getting heavenly mansions at all, it was about the amazing transformation of priorities and needs and fulfillments that happen when you do listen to that voice; when you do lose your life for His sake. The freedom from fear is the true freedom of grace. That grace has brought about a refocus of just about everything I was taught to do with and for my family. I have to say, we slide a lot between what the culture tells us is important to us and what is important to God.
Peace and grace our gifts to us from Jesus Christ if we lose our lives for his sake. Living faith is a commitment that has to be affirmed every minute of every day. It is counterintuitive to human priorities and it has a way of cutting through the detritus of human affairs. When I am not listening to what God asks of me, and arranging my life accordingly I get very distracted by the coulda, the shoulda, and the woulda; and not very much actually gets done at all. What does get accomplished is often only done with half my heart and half my attention. Unfortunately, then I am left with the other half of both my heart and my attention focused on the undone. What I could, should and would do, if I was ordering my life according to His will and not my own is often very different. I do admit, it is very hard to let God take care of the details. It is even harder to consider that if I did not do the things that are not asked of me, and they didn't get done, that too is God's will.
I challenge each one of you to think about what you are doing right now in your life that is an unwelcome obligation, a time bleeding commitment that does not glorify God (you will know them by the feeling in your heart) and a task you think that no one else will do if you don't. Let them go. It may be that they are not important to God, and it might be that you are taking away someone else's opportunity to glorify God and live by grace.
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Sunday, April 3, 2005
Coincidental Distractions from God
When do circumstances constitute random events, a distraction, or a call to growth? Several upheavals have occurred in the life of our family recently, and Shannon and I have been discussing how to tell the difference between coincidences, distractions and calls from God.
As many of you know, Shannon is looking for a new job because his company cannot make payroll. It isn't something he did, it isn't downsizing or outsourcing, it is just circumstances and a really small business. The strange and quirky thing is that this is that 2 years ago Shannon lost his job for the same reasons and at the same time. Easter isn't exactly the best time to get bad news. For us as Christians it is the most exciting time of year and filled with the most possibilities; Christ is risen, all things are possible.
The last time this happened we cut our losses and moved back in with our parents. It didn't seem like we were lining up our lives for any great revelatory events but it turned out to be a wonderful opportunity for growth, individually and as a family. Shannon got to stay home with the kids, whom he had hardly seen in 5 years and I reached a place spiritually that has led to things like leading prayer services and writing these articles.
Now, two years later, we are wondering if God has something to teach us and we missed the boat the last time. We began second guessing some of our previous choices and reevaluating of our current circumstances. We were wondering if the job loss at Easter – again – was just a coincidence. Is looking for a new job now a distraction from the work we should be doing for God's purpose, or is it a call from Him to grow in new ways that we have not been able to do before now?
Coincidence, luck, happenstance, serendipity. I think they are all just words we use to describe events with our pattern-making brains. I think the events in themselves are not all that important. What matters is what you do with them. Do you use them as an opportunity to get distracted from fulfilling Jesus' work on earth? Do you use them as an excuse to avoid doing God's work? Every one of us is guilty of having changed our perspective to avoid the things we don't want to do something about.
One of the important lessons that Christianity teaches us is that we do not have control over the happenstance of our lives, all we have is the knowledge the there is a God and He does express His will. We can cooperate with that will by conforming to the revelation, reason and tradition that God has given us or we can do our puny best to thwart it. However, God's will does prevail, not our own. Jesus was for us the perfect example of how to do God's work. He then left us to continue his work. The important thing is to see every event as an opportunity to grow in our Christ-like behaviors. More important is to use every opportunity to be Christ-like.
I am picking up more work at my job, and Shannon has had a couple of interviews already. We have family and friends and Samaritans who will use our circumstances to be more Christ-like in their lives, just as we have utilized the circumstances of others to be more Christ-like in our own. The things of this world are fleeting, jobs especially, but the opportunities are golden.
As many of you know, Shannon is looking for a new job because his company cannot make payroll. It isn't something he did, it isn't downsizing or outsourcing, it is just circumstances and a really small business. The strange and quirky thing is that this is that 2 years ago Shannon lost his job for the same reasons and at the same time. Easter isn't exactly the best time to get bad news. For us as Christians it is the most exciting time of year and filled with the most possibilities; Christ is risen, all things are possible.
The last time this happened we cut our losses and moved back in with our parents. It didn't seem like we were lining up our lives for any great revelatory events but it turned out to be a wonderful opportunity for growth, individually and as a family. Shannon got to stay home with the kids, whom he had hardly seen in 5 years and I reached a place spiritually that has led to things like leading prayer services and writing these articles.
Now, two years later, we are wondering if God has something to teach us and we missed the boat the last time. We began second guessing some of our previous choices and reevaluating of our current circumstances. We were wondering if the job loss at Easter – again – was just a coincidence. Is looking for a new job now a distraction from the work we should be doing for God's purpose, or is it a call from Him to grow in new ways that we have not been able to do before now?
Coincidence, luck, happenstance, serendipity. I think they are all just words we use to describe events with our pattern-making brains. I think the events in themselves are not all that important. What matters is what you do with them. Do you use them as an opportunity to get distracted from fulfilling Jesus' work on earth? Do you use them as an excuse to avoid doing God's work? Every one of us is guilty of having changed our perspective to avoid the things we don't want to do something about.
One of the important lessons that Christianity teaches us is that we do not have control over the happenstance of our lives, all we have is the knowledge the there is a God and He does express His will. We can cooperate with that will by conforming to the revelation, reason and tradition that God has given us or we can do our puny best to thwart it. However, God's will does prevail, not our own. Jesus was for us the perfect example of how to do God's work. He then left us to continue his work. The important thing is to see every event as an opportunity to grow in our Christ-like behaviors. More important is to use every opportunity to be Christ-like.
I am picking up more work at my job, and Shannon has had a couple of interviews already. We have family and friends and Samaritans who will use our circumstances to be more Christ-like in their lives, just as we have utilized the circumstances of others to be more Christ-like in our own. The things of this world are fleeting, jobs especially, but the opportunities are golden.
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