Isn't it funny (and awesome) when prayer is answered almost immediately? That happened to me today. Thank you brother Bill :)
Tonight I thought about having the right perspective about things, and finding out what's important in life and WHY it's important. Some background first...I've been in a little rut lately. Only halfheartedly seeking God, halfheartedly reading the Bible and praying, and still somehow expected that God would fill me up the rest of the way. That's not how it works, at least that's not what I've found. So I talked with my best friend Bill today and we both prayed over this, among other things. And after we hung up I felt a little better, but still wasn't really hopeful or feeling like things were different. So I went back home to Halifax to visit my parents and aunt, and I found the refresher I needed.
The drive to Halifax is always beautiful. It's just a totally different atmosphere...even from other countryside environments, it still feels different. The locals call it God's Country, for very good reason...it just seems that God's peace is all around. And every time I cross that beautiful mountain, 88.5 is immediately tuned on my radio, and K-LOVE is blaring its God-music through my car. So I finally got home, and it's somewhat chaotic. My aunt had her tonsils removed and is staying with my parents until she heals up, and her 2 dachshunds are staying there as well, so they have to keep Diesel separate from them. So while she rests upstairs, I got to lift downstairs while my parents were cleaning up the storage room. Yeah I know, not extremely chaotic...but it was just a little different, it seemed like everyone was moving around and being busy.
Well, just before I left we started looking through old pictures from when times were simpler, at least in my own little world. Past Christmas times, birthdays, family vacations with my cousins, oh what great times that seem to be left in repressed memories. Well, it got me thinking. At the time, these were pretty much the only people I knew, and I had fun with them. Even though my cousins were all girls and always wanted me to be the dad when they played house (and even though I always ran to my treehouse when they did, haha), I still had fun with them and I miss those times. Now the youngest of my cousins is in college, and my younger cousin and older cousin are both mothers of 2 and 3 kids respectively. Man, how things change! But these relationships are, still, very important to me.
In the past few years, as we all get older and attitudes change, perspectives change as well. I didn't really know how to deal with the change, so I kept trying to live in older times while everyone continued to grow up around me and I became slightly bitter toward my families. Holidays were more of a burden for me than a joy. But then I looked at these pictures. I remembered how ridiculously blond my hair was, how awesome my cousin Ashley was (and still is), how my cousin Carla was like a sister to me, and how much we laughed when my cousin Emily called my mom "Uncle Deb". :) I started to remember just how much my cousins were there for me and how much I was there for them too. Dare I say...perspective changed? I used to consider family a burden...I don't know how I let that change from being the joy it once was.
So that was a longer background than I anticipated, and I've said in the past that my posts are like mind vomit...I don't really know how it's gonna come out, it just comes out. So if anyone is still reading this far in, seriously, I'm touched! But I want to get more to my point. All of this combined to be the answer of my prayer today, and I got to drive back with a new perspective under the most beautiful nightly cloud cover I've ever seen. The new perspective I got tonight was on the importance of family, but also on the importance of my God. And this made me question what is important to me and how important is it to me. And as I said before, the reason I've been down is because I've only been halfheartedly serving God. I let stuff at work get to me and left a nice little path for Satan to mess with me. Well, all of this stuff combined led me to one conclusion. One word. It's a word that's been tossed around in every contemporary church like tomatoes in a food fight.
Love. Heck, we could all use a bit more love. See, my natural tendency is to see the bad in people before I see the good. And this leads down a road to destruction at breakneck speed. But when we put on glasses of love and care toward each other, we see the world at a different perspective...we begin to see the good in people, and attribute the bad to the influence of Satan. We're not defined by bad things that we do (That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts - Ephesians 4:22), and we're not even defined by good things that we do (But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away - Isaiah 64:6). We're defined as God's prize, His glory (For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them - Ephesians 2:10). And this isn't conditional...we were always this way (Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations - Jeremiah 1:5). EVERYONE is a creation of God's handiwork, and none of us have any right to degrade another. It's true we're all in a spiritual warzone, but a lesson for me is to be careful how to fight it. "I'm in a fight, not physical. I'm in a war, but not of this world." - Counting on God by Phillips, Craig & Dean. Our war is not against our fellow man, but with the evil one (For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. - Ephesians 6:12). And toward our fellow man, we show love.
But love's hard! Heck yes it is...especially when we don't receive it back. I mentioned before of how different the worlds are between Mechanicsburg and Halifax. Living in Mechanicsburg, I became a little more hard-hearted, to my regret. As I was driving in Halifax tonight, a car driving in the other lane kept flashing their high beams at me. I don't typically get road rage, but I was a little annoyed. Then a second person in a row did it, and I got stupidly defensive. "Seriously?! What the heck! Am I doing something wrong???" Then the realization came upon me, and sure enough, there was a deer standing alongside of the road ready to run out in front of somebody. Those people weren't upset at me, they were just lovingly trying to warn me of some danger (sounds like a gospel message, no? I'll save that for another post :) ). I can't say for sure if Mechanicsburg people would be so kind. But that's the beauty of it, and that's why I'm placed where I'm at right now. I'm God's man for the job! "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." - Matthew 5:14-16. Yeah it's harder to love people over here than it is in Halifax, but that's why I'm here. There's plenty more people here that need God's love, and I still need it just as much as everyone else. I can't claim that it's important to me and then not live it. So let me pose that same question. How important is love to you? How important is God to you? How important are people to you? Hopefully you can answer "very" to all of those questions. Life's too short to hate. Just love. It hurts, but it's worth it. One man about 2000 years ago took three nails and about 40 lashes because of love. It hurt, but he said we were worth it. And I believe him.
Tonight I thought about having the right perspective about things, and finding out what's important in life and WHY it's important. Some background first...I've been in a little rut lately. Only halfheartedly seeking God, halfheartedly reading the Bible and praying, and still somehow expected that God would fill me up the rest of the way. That's not how it works, at least that's not what I've found. So I talked with my best friend Bill today and we both prayed over this, among other things. And after we hung up I felt a little better, but still wasn't really hopeful or feeling like things were different. So I went back home to Halifax to visit my parents and aunt, and I found the refresher I needed.
The drive to Halifax is always beautiful. It's just a totally different atmosphere...even from other countryside environments, it still feels different. The locals call it God's Country, for very good reason...it just seems that God's peace is all around. And every time I cross that beautiful mountain, 88.5 is immediately tuned on my radio, and K-LOVE is blaring its God-music through my car. So I finally got home, and it's somewhat chaotic. My aunt had her tonsils removed and is staying with my parents until she heals up, and her 2 dachshunds are staying there as well, so they have to keep Diesel separate from them. So while she rests upstairs, I got to lift downstairs while my parents were cleaning up the storage room. Yeah I know, not extremely chaotic...but it was just a little different, it seemed like everyone was moving around and being busy.
Well, just before I left we started looking through old pictures from when times were simpler, at least in my own little world. Past Christmas times, birthdays, family vacations with my cousins, oh what great times that seem to be left in repressed memories. Well, it got me thinking. At the time, these were pretty much the only people I knew, and I had fun with them. Even though my cousins were all girls and always wanted me to be the dad when they played house (and even though I always ran to my treehouse when they did, haha), I still had fun with them and I miss those times. Now the youngest of my cousins is in college, and my younger cousin and older cousin are both mothers of 2 and 3 kids respectively. Man, how things change! But these relationships are, still, very important to me.
In the past few years, as we all get older and attitudes change, perspectives change as well. I didn't really know how to deal with the change, so I kept trying to live in older times while everyone continued to grow up around me and I became slightly bitter toward my families. Holidays were more of a burden for me than a joy. But then I looked at these pictures. I remembered how ridiculously blond my hair was, how awesome my cousin Ashley was (and still is), how my cousin Carla was like a sister to me, and how much we laughed when my cousin Emily called my mom "Uncle Deb". :) I started to remember just how much my cousins were there for me and how much I was there for them too. Dare I say...perspective changed? I used to consider family a burden...I don't know how I let that change from being the joy it once was.
So that was a longer background than I anticipated, and I've said in the past that my posts are like mind vomit...I don't really know how it's gonna come out, it just comes out. So if anyone is still reading this far in, seriously, I'm touched! But I want to get more to my point. All of this combined to be the answer of my prayer today, and I got to drive back with a new perspective under the most beautiful nightly cloud cover I've ever seen. The new perspective I got tonight was on the importance of family, but also on the importance of my God. And this made me question what is important to me and how important is it to me. And as I said before, the reason I've been down is because I've only been halfheartedly serving God. I let stuff at work get to me and left a nice little path for Satan to mess with me. Well, all of this stuff combined led me to one conclusion. One word. It's a word that's been tossed around in every contemporary church like tomatoes in a food fight.
Love. Heck, we could all use a bit more love. See, my natural tendency is to see the bad in people before I see the good. And this leads down a road to destruction at breakneck speed. But when we put on glasses of love and care toward each other, we see the world at a different perspective...we begin to see the good in people, and attribute the bad to the influence of Satan. We're not defined by bad things that we do (That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts - Ephesians 4:22), and we're not even defined by good things that we do (But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away - Isaiah 64:6). We're defined as God's prize, His glory (For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them - Ephesians 2:10). And this isn't conditional...we were always this way (Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations - Jeremiah 1:5). EVERYONE is a creation of God's handiwork, and none of us have any right to degrade another. It's true we're all in a spiritual warzone, but a lesson for me is to be careful how to fight it. "I'm in a fight, not physical. I'm in a war, but not of this world." - Counting on God by Phillips, Craig & Dean. Our war is not against our fellow man, but with the evil one (For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. - Ephesians 6:12). And toward our fellow man, we show love.
But love's hard! Heck yes it is...especially when we don't receive it back. I mentioned before of how different the worlds are between Mechanicsburg and Halifax. Living in Mechanicsburg, I became a little more hard-hearted, to my regret. As I was driving in Halifax tonight, a car driving in the other lane kept flashing their high beams at me. I don't typically get road rage, but I was a little annoyed. Then a second person in a row did it, and I got stupidly defensive. "Seriously?! What the heck! Am I doing something wrong???" Then the realization came upon me, and sure enough, there was a deer standing alongside of the road ready to run out in front of somebody. Those people weren't upset at me, they were just lovingly trying to warn me of some danger (sounds like a gospel message, no? I'll save that for another post :) ). I can't say for sure if Mechanicsburg people would be so kind. But that's the beauty of it, and that's why I'm placed where I'm at right now. I'm God's man for the job! "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." - Matthew 5:14-16. Yeah it's harder to love people over here than it is in Halifax, but that's why I'm here. There's plenty more people here that need God's love, and I still need it just as much as everyone else. I can't claim that it's important to me and then not live it. So let me pose that same question. How important is love to you? How important is God to you? How important are people to you? Hopefully you can answer "very" to all of those questions. Life's too short to hate. Just love. It hurts, but it's worth it. One man about 2000 years ago took three nails and about 40 lashes because of love. It hurt, but he said we were worth it. And I believe him.
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