8.28.09
Romans 5:8
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
When I was ten years old my sister and I did a pretty good job of getting along with one another, but the fact of the matter is that as the summer months of youth go along, days get longer and longer and hours seem to drag on for eons. As I sit and write about this period of time in my life I want to take a minute to thank my mother for being a saint, and putting up with us, but I digress. I remember one particular summer when I first moved to Richmond and it was a hot day and nobody wanted to be outside. It was the kind of hot that made you not even want to go to the pool and cool off because the walk or bike ride to the pool would cause too much anguish.
On this particular day my sister and I both stayed in the house and did not move all morning. Needless to say we began to bicker back and forth about anything and everything. This in turn led to an all out nuclear blast of a fight that culminated with me attempting to practice maturity and walking away. I went upstairs and turned on the TV to calm down. Not five minutes later she walked upstairs and did something that would push me from angry to volcanic. She walked right up to me and took the remote out of my hand and changed the channel. As any little kid would I lost it and I don't remember if I hit her or pushed her, but the next thing I knew she was in tears and I was running for dear life out of the house before my mother could get a hold of me.
Hours later I returned home, notice I said hours. I waited patiently outside of my house (more like across the street out of sight) for my father's car to pull into the driveway. Than I waited another hour or so before I finally went in the house. I thought I would give him time to cool off before I took on the yelling that I was for sure doomed to receive. When your little you assume the worst is bound to happen, but I never would could have assumed what would take place next. I slowly walked into the house where I found my father, mother and sister (who mustered up the courage to start crying again) sitting at the kitchen table waiting for me.
Here it was the moment of truth, or the worst yelling or whooping anyone ever deserved, I thought I would ever receive. That was in fact not the case, my father took me calmly and sat me down and spent an hour talking to me about how I shouldn't have left the house and I shouldn't have done what I had done, but it was even worse that I left my mother feeling sick not knowing where I was or what had happened to me. The fact of the matter is that my father was upset that I had hurt my sister, but both of my parents concern fell to the fact that their child was missing.
Had I done something wrong, absolutely. Did I owe my sister the biggest apology ever, without a doubt, but I did learn that day that my parents care about ME their son than what I did. Their love was not gauged by what I did or say but more so the fact that I am their son. I was so afraid of what they were going to do to me that I stayed away from them. I ran, when in fact I should have found comfort in the love of my parents and I should have given them the chance to forgive me and teach me.
In our spiritual lives we have a tendency to run from God when we think that He will be disappointed with what we've done or what we've said. We think that what we do is too ugly for God to love through. We think that what we do is too sinful or weighs more than other people's sin, so we avoid church, or spending time with God. We avoid fellowship with people that God puts in our lives to be an encouragement. We think it better to avoid "God things" than to have our sin continually put in our face. We assume that God throw our sin back in our face and call us sinners. The people in Christ's time ran to Him for healing, yet today we have a tendency to run away and hide from Jesus because we think He will condemn us.
The hope that we need to learn to cling to is the fact that God demonstrates His love for us in the fact that while we are sinners and will continue to sin CHRIST STILL DIED. Jesus does not want us to avoid a relationship with Him because we think we're too dirty for Him. He does not want to run from, He desires us to run to Him when we are at our weakest. He wants us to find comfort and shelter in Him and the other believers that He puts in our lives.
Are we going to sin, yes. Are we always going to have a burden of human nature, yes, but that does not mean that Jesus is any less of a savior. That does not mean that we should turn our backs on Him. He will never turn His back on you, no matter how dirty or bad you think you are. There is nothing too gross for Christ. As you think of a loving God think of one who hung on a cross and thought about your name specifically as He paid the price for the sin you think is too dirty. While we were sinners Christ died.
Thought question: What are you holding onto that makes you run from Jesus? What keeps you from having the loving relationship that He desires to have with you? Maybe it's that you think He will be mad at you, or maybe you think it's that you just are too sinful or dirty. Be secure in the fact that you are not "too dirty" for Jesus. He just wants YOU!!!!
Friday, August 28, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
In God We Trust?
8.19.09
John 14:1
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God;"
About 10 years ago I had an awesome opportunity to serve at a Young Life camp in upstate New York. My job for the month was working on the ropes course where I would get to spend time getting to know each camper as they climbed their way to the top of the trees and put their lives in the safety of only the ropes and me and the other course workers. The month started out great with a few folks who would be in tears by the time they got to the final obstacle which was the free fall. This turned out to be the hardest thing in the world to coerce some people to try. We spent hours trying to convince people that the rope was there to secure them and there was no way that they would get hurt. Some just got lowered down and gave up and others spent so much time in literal tears of fear of not knowing what would happen if they just jumped and trusted that the rope would secure them before they hit the ground. There was one girl who spent forty five minutes crying and screaming that she didn't want to be lowered and certainly didn't want to jump down. There was no way to get her to budge. It took the words and quite literally prayers of four course workers to convince her to trust us that the rope was secure and that she was in no danger by just jumping and trusting that we were trained and that the ropes course was secure.
She finally jumped after the forty five minute therapy session. The look on her face as she plummeted was awesome, but nothing next to the reaction she had when she got unhooked from the ropes. She turned to myself and her leader and asked if she could do the course again later in the week, and maybe even try a flip during the free fall. She went from tears of fear to desires of repetition all because she trusted. To think if she would have never trusted she would have never have had one of the greatest experiences of her week and possibly her life.
Trust is not always the easiest thing to give God. Sometimes it is because we have some stuff that we do not want to hand over to God. Other times it is because we feel like it is just to big. Other times it is because we feel like the stuff we have is just too dirty to bring to God and trust that He is not going to look away. The fact of the matter is that there is nothing that is too big, too ugly and too difficult for God. He wants it all.
The question that we have to ask ourselves is are we going to trust God enough to give Him all that burdens our heart and trust Him with it. One of our biggest struggles as human beings is not wrestling with God it's wrestling with thing on our own and not trusting that God is there for us and will provide for our needs.
We sit on that ropes course ledge in tears not wanting to go back and certainly not trusting enough to drop off and let God be who God is. In His very nature God is a loving, secure, understanding, merciful Father. He has always been and will always be there for us to catch us when we fall. The thought that we have to keep in mind is not whether we CAN trust God, it's whether or not we will trust God.
If we do not trust God to be who He claims to be we may miss out on the best experience that He created us for and that is a life to the full. If we lean on our own understanding and not on who God is than we might miss that free fall at the end of an exciting ropes course.
Thought question: What are you holding onto and trying to figure out on your own? What is it in your life that you will not trust the God of the universe, the creator of life, with and why?
John 14:1
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God;"
About 10 years ago I had an awesome opportunity to serve at a Young Life camp in upstate New York. My job for the month was working on the ropes course where I would get to spend time getting to know each camper as they climbed their way to the top of the trees and put their lives in the safety of only the ropes and me and the other course workers. The month started out great with a few folks who would be in tears by the time they got to the final obstacle which was the free fall. This turned out to be the hardest thing in the world to coerce some people to try. We spent hours trying to convince people that the rope was there to secure them and there was no way that they would get hurt. Some just got lowered down and gave up and others spent so much time in literal tears of fear of not knowing what would happen if they just jumped and trusted that the rope would secure them before they hit the ground. There was one girl who spent forty five minutes crying and screaming that she didn't want to be lowered and certainly didn't want to jump down. There was no way to get her to budge. It took the words and quite literally prayers of four course workers to convince her to trust us that the rope was secure and that she was in no danger by just jumping and trusting that we were trained and that the ropes course was secure.
She finally jumped after the forty five minute therapy session. The look on her face as she plummeted was awesome, but nothing next to the reaction she had when she got unhooked from the ropes. She turned to myself and her leader and asked if she could do the course again later in the week, and maybe even try a flip during the free fall. She went from tears of fear to desires of repetition all because she trusted. To think if she would have never trusted she would have never have had one of the greatest experiences of her week and possibly her life.
Trust is not always the easiest thing to give God. Sometimes it is because we have some stuff that we do not want to hand over to God. Other times it is because we feel like it is just to big. Other times it is because we feel like the stuff we have is just too dirty to bring to God and trust that He is not going to look away. The fact of the matter is that there is nothing that is too big, too ugly and too difficult for God. He wants it all.
The question that we have to ask ourselves is are we going to trust God enough to give Him all that burdens our heart and trust Him with it. One of our biggest struggles as human beings is not wrestling with God it's wrestling with thing on our own and not trusting that God is there for us and will provide for our needs.
We sit on that ropes course ledge in tears not wanting to go back and certainly not trusting enough to drop off and let God be who God is. In His very nature God is a loving, secure, understanding, merciful Father. He has always been and will always be there for us to catch us when we fall. The thought that we have to keep in mind is not whether we CAN trust God, it's whether or not we will trust God.
If we do not trust God to be who He claims to be we may miss out on the best experience that He created us for and that is a life to the full. If we lean on our own understanding and not on who God is than we might miss that free fall at the end of an exciting ropes course.
Thought question: What are you holding onto and trying to figure out on your own? What is it in your life that you will not trust the God of the universe, the creator of life, with and why?
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