Ralph Waldo Emmerson once wrote, “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown.” I disagree. Man has been cursed with a short memory. I know because I am one.
Life has a certain way of taking something that is so clear in one moment and covering it up in the next. My problem is that the second I lose sight of it, I can’t remember what it was truly like or how to find it again. This is a struggle I face over and over again in my relationship with God. My walk with God can many times be better described as my stop with God. The relationship that defines my existence has a tendency to get lost in the midst of that very same existence. The world that I am forced to walk through leaves it’s grease and grime over the most fundamental part of my life. As I attempt to fix this problem I don’t struggle with complacency nearly as much as I struggle with my approach.
I get sick of the muck covering my heart so I try to wipe it away, but I only succeed in blurring what’s underneath even more. As I said before the problem was not a lack of effort, but a bad approach. I always tried to find my way back to the heart of God in my strength. I would study harder to try to understand Him more. (How foolish am I trying to understand a God I cannot even fully comprehend?) That inevitably fails. So I try to love people to make it back to God, but the motive of my heart is clear to Him and the immovable will not be so easily manipulated. In a last ditch effort I pout, hoping God will have pity on such a poor soul. The Father is far too great a parent to encourage good results from bad actions. The more I tried the more blurred it became.
After all of this a friend gave me the best advice I have heard in a long time. She said, “Maybe if you stop trying to analyze God, He could reveal Himself to you.” (Light bulb moment!) God is not a mystery to be solved. He is not a boss waiting for you to complete an assignment. He is not a Father who sacrifices the long term to satisfy the short term. He is God.
I am going take that advice. I am going to seek Him just to be with Him. The bad news is I tried to fix it the only ways I knew how and learned I didn’t know how to fix it. But thanks to a friend, today I remembered the good news and that is that I don’t have to know how to fix it. I just have to remember to find the One who does.
Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Monday, December 20, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
The Other Side of the Door
It is hard to imagine a world without electricity. My very ability to share these worlds relies on electricity in multiple ways. Yet only 200 years ago everyone on Earth still lived this “backwards” way of living. Even today an estimated 1.6 billion people still live without electricity.
My perspective on electricity got changed when I read a book and electricity was compared God. I grew up in a Christian believing family and have been going to church for as long as I can remember. This is a gift from God, but at the same time it is hard for me to truly know what life is like for those who have never known what it is like to have a relationship with God. I have many friends who are not saved and I can relate to them, enjoy their company, share life with them, but I cannot fully put myself in their shoes. It’s like growing up in a house with electricity. I can understand what it is like to live without electricity, but until I live without it I can never know what that truly means. I can understand that you would have go out and chop down a tree with an ax and bring the wood back to cook with and stay warm, but until my life is reliant on me doing that everyday I will never know how that affects my mind, my emotions, and my view of the reality of life.
This deep disconnect with those who have not experienced an encounter with God has always posed a problem for me. I know that part of my job as a Christian is to share this great gift with those who do not have it. This process can be very awkward. For a long time I thought the only to do this was to go out and tell them. I was the electricity salesman. I would do my duty and knock on doors to share all the great benefits of electricity. I just never took the time to wonder what it was like from the other side of the door.
From the other side of the door I was the hundredth person to show up “selling” all the great things electricity had to offer.
Feeling lonely? Christ will bring you peace! Are you sick? Jesus is the great healer! Is life too hard for you? Jesus can make all your troubles go away! All this for the low low price of total submission, weekly attendance in your local church, and 10% of your income. It’s a steal!
I was the used car salesman that would tell them whatever they wanted to hear so that they would buy the product. And I was not the only one trying to sell. Some people don’t buy because they are afraid of change. Some people don’t buy because they don’t believe the product will do what it says. Some people won’t buy because they are not willing to give up what it takes to get it. Some people won’t buy just because you smell.
Then I read two sentences that changed my life. They are found in Mathew chapter 13. Jesus tells this short story. “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” In these two sentences I found a new way to live and share the beauty of God’s love.
Right away I noticed that the merchant was never “sold” the pearl. There was no sales pitch, no bartering, no back and forth. He saw something with a value that was so obvious that none of that was needed. The only question that remained was “Are you willing to give up what it takes to obtain it?” And the only one who asked that question was the merchant to himself.
This is the ultimate challenge for me. All the luxuries I have by being plugged into the “electricity” of God, like peace, wisdom, strength, and joy, are easy for me to see, but am I inviting others into my life so that they see them as well? And am I living the life that they would want? I have been given the advantage of electricity, but how am I using it? I want to live my life in such a way that the closer people get, the more they see the value of it. That is not an easy undertaking. I need to use that electricity to do some home repair. And instead of going to their homes to tell them how much better it would be with electricity, I want to invite them to mine to share the life I live. I believe if I do it right they will clearly see the “value of the pearl.”
Many people without electricity have seen the lights through the windows and wondered. They have heard the laughter from inside the house. Don’t wait until they are all the way home. Stop them. Invite them in. Show them the other side of the door.
My perspective on electricity got changed when I read a book and electricity was compared God. I grew up in a Christian believing family and have been going to church for as long as I can remember. This is a gift from God, but at the same time it is hard for me to truly know what life is like for those who have never known what it is like to have a relationship with God. I have many friends who are not saved and I can relate to them, enjoy their company, share life with them, but I cannot fully put myself in their shoes. It’s like growing up in a house with electricity. I can understand what it is like to live without electricity, but until I live without it I can never know what that truly means. I can understand that you would have go out and chop down a tree with an ax and bring the wood back to cook with and stay warm, but until my life is reliant on me doing that everyday I will never know how that affects my mind, my emotions, and my view of the reality of life.
This deep disconnect with those who have not experienced an encounter with God has always posed a problem for me. I know that part of my job as a Christian is to share this great gift with those who do not have it. This process can be very awkward. For a long time I thought the only to do this was to go out and tell them. I was the electricity salesman. I would do my duty and knock on doors to share all the great benefits of electricity. I just never took the time to wonder what it was like from the other side of the door.
From the other side of the door I was the hundredth person to show up “selling” all the great things electricity had to offer.
Feeling lonely? Christ will bring you peace! Are you sick? Jesus is the great healer! Is life too hard for you? Jesus can make all your troubles go away! All this for the low low price of total submission, weekly attendance in your local church, and 10% of your income. It’s a steal!
I was the used car salesman that would tell them whatever they wanted to hear so that they would buy the product. And I was not the only one trying to sell. Some people don’t buy because they are afraid of change. Some people don’t buy because they don’t believe the product will do what it says. Some people won’t buy because they are not willing to give up what it takes to get it. Some people won’t buy just because you smell.
Then I read two sentences that changed my life. They are found in Mathew chapter 13. Jesus tells this short story. “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” In these two sentences I found a new way to live and share the beauty of God’s love.
Right away I noticed that the merchant was never “sold” the pearl. There was no sales pitch, no bartering, no back and forth. He saw something with a value that was so obvious that none of that was needed. The only question that remained was “Are you willing to give up what it takes to obtain it?” And the only one who asked that question was the merchant to himself.
This is the ultimate challenge for me. All the luxuries I have by being plugged into the “electricity” of God, like peace, wisdom, strength, and joy, are easy for me to see, but am I inviting others into my life so that they see them as well? And am I living the life that they would want? I have been given the advantage of electricity, but how am I using it? I want to live my life in such a way that the closer people get, the more they see the value of it. That is not an easy undertaking. I need to use that electricity to do some home repair. And instead of going to their homes to tell them how much better it would be with electricity, I want to invite them to mine to share the life I live. I believe if I do it right they will clearly see the “value of the pearl.”
Many people without electricity have seen the lights through the windows and wondered. They have heard the laughter from inside the house. Don’t wait until they are all the way home. Stop them. Invite them in. Show them the other side of the door.
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