Not a God to FIND praise, a God TO BE praised.

Not a God to FIND praise, a God TO BE praised.

I’m very narcissistic. I get very proud and arrogant. I love to receive praise and I even plead for praise from God.

It’s painful, because it is true and sometimes truth may taste bitter at first , but that is just the medicine part required before deeper healing can occur.  

This post is a bit different and I’m gonna give it to you pretty straight because in reality, we (I) tend to fluff things up,  make them sound pretty and nice, so be prepared. Here we go.

 

God has a purpose. A plan so big, so endearing. He is at work, in fact it is happening right now as we speak. The restoration of his kingdom. However….

Reality check numero uno:

·         It’s not actually ALL about us.

We ARE important, to a certain extent. Mercy and Grace, two words chucked around Christian circles a lot; words which encompass a small fraction of God’s character. But to be perfectly honest, in sermons and talks I find they always appear as superficial words. Words with little substance, just chucked in to paint a cool picture of God. Labels. However, what if those words contain something far more personal than what we first perceive.

Look at it like this:

·         A farmer one day decides to bring in an apprentice, someone who he’ll train up in hopes that eventually, he (the apprentice) can run the farm.

·         As the apprentice is being trained up he will often refer back to the farmer asking for his approval, double checking that what he is doing is right.

·         However, after 6-12 months on the job you’d imagine the apprentice would be pretty clued up on what to do (or at least have a general understanding of what to do).

·         However, wouldn’t it seem odd if, after 12 months of working this apprentice, continued to refer back to the farmer in the same manner he did when he was being trained up? I imagine it would really test the farmer’s patience, particularly when you consider the time taken to walk back and find the farmer. Time which could be spent working. In all honesty, I imagine the farmer’s probably thought a few times, “why don’t I just do the job myself?”

Why doesn’t he?

That my friend is mercy.

Despite the Lord having the capacity to do it (restore his kingdom on earth), he chooses us. His grace and mercy is a tangible reflection of his patience towards us. Even though we doubt and question EVERYTHING about God, he still chooses us. He still chooses to make time for us. Can you imagine how frustrating (if God was a human with limited human characteristics) that would be.

1.       This reflects exactly why God is God and we are not. WE are far too limited. So limited in our understanding of grace and mercy, that even when a God so abundantly merciful is standing right in front of us, we don’t even see it. (PS: I share this because it’s totally something God is revealing to me as well. Certainly don’t have this down pact yet, may never, nonetheless he is pulling me up on this too.)

In our western culture, it is difficult to not perceive ourselves as God. Our culture thrives off, it’s created from it; making us believe we are the most important thing out. So much so that our thinking towards death is “if we are gone what will happen in this world, ‘the world will forever be ruined.’” I reckon it’s chasing after those things, ourselves, which make us forgettable. Only the ones who chased after something beyond themselves are the ones remembered, yet even then, that in itself is insignificant.

What if….we were to live a life for Him. A life far from boring and mundane.

Want a life of remembrance; lived to its capacity?

1.       It starts with submission and surrender- realising that actually we ARE blessed. God could easily complete his plan right now if he wanted to, but he is PATIENT, teaching us and using us, mere humans, selfish beings, to reflect HIM.

2.       A radical life is understanding that there will be sacrifice and suffering. Realistically in every aspect of life these elements will pop up:

·         Sacrifice

·         Suffering

The question is whether we think God is worth making a sacrifice and suffering for. If not, then what is?

I don’t know about you, but I would much rather live each day radically, uncertain of what will happen in my day, but certain of who I live for, then live the stereotypical ‘Sunday attending church’ life.

Imagine if each of us recognised that we are a part of something significant, the picture of  ‘Christianity’ would look a little different. We ourselves aren’t the ones that define that significance, we just have the choice and opportunity to facilitate in that significance: seeing GOD (not us) be exalted. In whatever form that may be.

Just some food for thought.

So there was this guy...

This is kind of a different blog post, instead of being a humorous and light hearted topic.

 

(If you've decided to continue reading, good on you you obviously enjoy reading blogs or feel sorry for me.)

 

I'll just start, I guess.

Dear person reading this who I may not know or may never meet, (but hi to you anyway,)

I am writing this letter to  you. Right now, I don't know where you are in life, what struggles you face or what merry things have flooded into your world. Maybe you have had a new cousin, daugther, baby, or maybe you just found out you've won the lotto (if you have feel free to donate a worthy charity aka. myuniversityfees.com*).

I say these next things out of love. As I said earlier, I don't know where you are in life, but regardless I want you to know that just the thought of knowing you have to endure hard times, breaks my heart. I wish I could take all the pain and hurt away. Yet despite that, I want to acknowledge to you and say that I am so proud of you for getting through the tough times. You are a real trooper.

May I boldly say, and know, that you have an absolute purpose and reason for being where you are. It may be hard, hell it may be so hard you doubt whether you can actually get through it. But I want to remind you, that you are unique, their is NO ONE else on this earth like you. We tend to compare ourselves to people and say things like "that persons better than me at....or that person looks just like me, but I'm not as..." but the reality is that, that comparison can be such a toxic wasteland. It tries to make you think you aren't good enough, you could never be good enough. But you are good enough.

Lets step back for a sec...okay. Now, what sort of things do you enjoy doing? What things would you say you were good at, regardless of what others have said or told you, why do you do those things?
The reality is you are so uniquely designed for a purpose. Martin Luther King wasn't a Mother Theresa, he probably wouldn't have been half as good as Mother Theresa because he was good at public speaking, Mother Theresa on the other hand had a servants heart. Although they were both inspirational people they were needed we they were placed. Their personalities fitted the roles, and they flourished. So I guess were I trying to get at, is that you too, have a purpose, you are needed. I don't know to what scale (community, world, country, city or maybe even one person) but regardless you are needed and valued. It is only when we look for success in others success's that we feel disappointed and unworthy.

Now I don't want you to read these words and feel I am speaking to someone else, these words are meant for you. This is not some 'airy-fairy inspirational letter' I copy and pasted from somewhere on the web (even though that would have a been a whole lot easier). Every word I have said isn't coming from some superficial 'feel good' place either. I haven't written this for your approval or for acknowledgement. This has purely been written to give you a bit of hope and remind you how valued you are. Why do we wait until we pass away before nice things can be said about us? And so that is what this is. Its an acknowledgement and a thank you for being you.

Finally the last thing I wanna say:

If you feel like you're at the end of it, metaphorically, spiritually, emotionally, physically, and you feel like you can't fight for yourself. Try fighting for someone else.

Much love,
A friend.

(*not actual website, from what I know...yeah.)