a post a day.
reflecting on the word,
and life in general
Just a quick link today to something nice that I was linked to online.
fifty foot shadows has a lot of great wallpapers for your viewing enjoyment. I don’t know exactly what it is about these photos that I like, but they do seem very emotion-laden. And the author does share a little bit about every photo which is nice.
My joy is not determined by what happens to me,
but what Christ is doing in me and through me.
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That is, our joy is not dictated by our circumstances.
The title is pretty wrong.
Very wrong.
Dangerously wrong.
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Part one of this thought comes from a Steven Furtick sermon that I heard not too long ago, and he says this as one of the phrases that people should just stop saying.
There are two things that are dangerous about this phrase.
First, I don’t think we can do anything we want. Because that is making the assumption that what we want is good, which isn’t always the case. Furthermore, everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial.
If you put your mind to it is a big call too. It implies that the only barrier to anything is motivation. I know right now that I will never be an NBA basketballer. That will not change no matter how much effort I put in, or how much I “put my mind to it”.
There are specific gifts and talents that we are born with, that don’t necessarily match up with our expectations all the time.
So we’re left with this:
1. The fact that perhaps we can’t do anything we want, and that maybe the things we want aren’t good for us either.
2. The fact that there are more things in the way than our motivation. And sometimes it’s not about picking between good and bad, between right and wrong. How does this phrase help with choosing between good and good? Or between what is good and what is best?
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How do we even know?
–> Reflections on this tomorrow morning.
Luke 6:41
New International Version (NIV)
41 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
There’s a band called plankeye, or at least there was a band called plankeye, and their name came from this verse (or maybe the verse in Matthew).
I had the chance to go to one of the social nights for a national student convention on Sunday night, and I came away with an immense feeling of disappointment. People who I thought would be better or more responsible with alcohol proved otherwise. And it just felt dirty.
So the whole day I had been wrestling with this discontent, and it was only just at the end of the day where I was forced to face myself.
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See, my big deal with drinking alcohol is that it’s okay if it’s in that golden zone of knowing your limit, drinking socially and actually appreciating what you’re drinking. Now, when people go out of their way to drink too much, lose their inhibitions and actually get ataxic, then I start to question their motives.
Because it’s not about being sociable anymore, or even about enjoyment. It’s about drowning out reality in a blur of alcohol and forgetting about the life that you’re living. It’s about a reputation, and it’s about self-centredness. (Someone should probably correct me on this, because this is just what I assume the reason behind drinking excessively is).
It’s a statement saying, “My life sucks, and I spend way too much time putting up these walls to pretend that things are bearable. But now I can drink, lose my inhibitions and everything that’s stopping me from having a good time, and forget about my life for at least tonight.”
And it goes completely against the Christian belief of having fullness and completeness in Christ. We have meaning, we have joy, we have purpose, we have fulfilment when Jesus enters our lives and brings us out of what we were. We are born again.
And that’s why it hurts to see it.
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But then, I had to face the facts, and realise that I do the same thing every day. But it’s not alcohol that I use as a distraction or as an anaesthetic, it’s pride. It’s narcissism and conceit. When Medicine gets too hard to study, I fade away into fantasies that I could drop it all and make it big with a career in music. Or that full-time serving at Church would bring me fulfilment.
Or I escape into sad music, films, and the appearance of being culturally refined. Knowing the latest and greatest places to eat, genuinely liking coffee (but pretending to know more about it than I care), and just putting on this thing that isn’t who I am.
And so I was forced to notice the plank, in my own eye.
My weakness is not your weakness. But like I said only a few posts ago, we are all messed up.
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So I’m here now, after a whole day of feeling resentful and disappointed, just realising that I actually love the people I was “disappointed” in, and that we’re all in this together. It’s good to be made to feel foolish by God.
And… this is about as personal as this blog has gotten in a long time!
We have the cards we are dealt, however many times we respond negatively toward them. In meekness we hide our disabilities and parade our strengths. But this ailment is not for the mere purpose of having a burden in our life, our ailments are vessels that “the works of God might be displayed” (vs.3) – The more we have the mightier he will look. The more you have the more potential you have to overcome.
“What if I had <_______>” won’t help with anything if it’s a reflection on the past, or an opportunity that will never be. What happened happened. And this might not always be the most tactful thing to say, but it did happen for a reason, and does not detract from the sovereignty of God.
I don’t think I can unpack this any more in the public arena, it’s more of a personal conversation topic, and without proper explanation, empathy, context and relationship, these kind of statements tend to offend.
ish.
Let’s go with:
People are messed up, but God is perfect – so Jesus died to make things right, and bring people back to God.
A few things to draw from this:
People are messed up, Jesus makes it right. So we can claim who we are in God through Jesus.
We came from the same place of being messed up, so we have no permission to boast or brag except in Jesus and what he’s done for us. No judgement calls, no two-tier Christianity, no discrimination.
Our struggles are personal and unique to us – we’re all messed up in a different way.
Galatians 6:14
May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
How to succeed from Seth Godin’s blog.
11. Perform outrageous acts and say obnoxious things
12. Inherit
13. Redefine your version of success as: whatever I have right now
14. Flit from project to project until you alight on something that works out very quickly and well
While he lists a lot of ways that are excellent, and some that aren’t so excellent, I think the key point to take home from this is number 13. If you define success as whatever you have right now, then you’ve succeeded. And there-in lies the issue with success. The most important thing about success is that is it is defined.
How big of a house do you want before you’re successful? (if that matters to you)
How nice of a car?
How much do you want to be making a year?
How much influence do you want to have?
Or taking it back to what I think is really key – what kind of legacy are you leaving?
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If I’ve lived a life of obedience to Christ, being all that he made me to be and allowing others to do the same (that is, be who they are made to be in Christ) then I think that’s a legacy worth leaving. And it’s not a definite end-point, because although it has been defined, I think that when we have nothing left to offer then we will die.
Thanks Jon Acuff. Click through for the rest of the post, and then subscribe to him. Do it.
There comes a point in every journey where a character has to get over their past regrets and face the challenges ahead.
There’s only so much to be gained from feeling sorry for yourself. And that so much is actually not much at all, because you spend your time reflecting on the situations that could have been or should have been.
Furtick shares a nice way to play the “what if” game.
What if…
Well, then…
But, then maybe I’d…
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What if I made a commitment to getting fitter?
Well, then I’d have to make a diet plan, find some time to exercise, maybe join a gym, and go out of my way to be physically tired and exhausted.
And then we stop here, without following the game through to:
But then maybe I’d find a bit more energy when I’m doing other stuff. Maybe I’d be encouraged and gain a bit of confidence in my appearance. Maybe discipline in this aspect would spill over into other parts of my life.
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Maybe we need to be a little impulsive and get over feeling sorry for ourselves, and step past the “what if” and “well then” and into the “but then maybe I’d”.
As we all face another day today, one of the big questions that can really help sift through the challenges is this:
What’s worth fighting for?
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Once we know what’s worth fighting for, then we know what battles to pick, and what decisive actions to take. Once we know what exactly we are fighting for, we can prioritise the challenges that we face.
Is it urgent that you watch the latest episode of the TV show you’re following?
Do you really need to read the articles on your RSS feeder?
Should you bother making your bed this morning because you’re just gonna sleep in it tonight?
Should you ring back that person, even if they don’t return your calls? Is this relationship worth fighting for?
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God has a plan for the screwups (another Furtickism).
We are all screwups. There’s not a single person who has everything made, and everything in order. You might not have a life story involving a life of drugs and violence and a turnaround that brought you to where you are today.
There are a lot of things that we can regret in our lives. Regret doing, regret not doing. Even things that were out of our control that we can have regrets about.
But once we’ve been told who we are by who counts, we can start to determine what is worth fighting for.
I’ve used the phrase “worth fighting for” a lot this post, because it’s really a description of the way things have been in my life. Nothing comes easily, it’s all a fight – but knowing who you are determines what’s worth fighting for, and this means you know where to put your effort.
