Month: May 2017

If I were to rewrite the dictionary, I would eliminate the word ‘growth’ and substitute it with ‘pain’.

Just sayin’.

God never promised an easy life; on the contrary, He tells us in His Word, “In this world, you will have trouble…”. But the next part of this verse gives me all I need to keep going: it says, “…but take heart, because I have overcome the world.” Those weeks and months when I plead with God to stop what He’s doing because I don’t think I can take any more pressure have a purpose; to make me like Him. In fact, He shows us through His creation how beautiful things come out of intense pressure and heat: diamonds are formed over long periods of time with intense pressure; pearls are formed by an irritating piece of sand lodged in a mollusk’s shell; metals only have the highest quality after being heated to a high temperature and having their impurities skimmed off the surface; and the list goes on. The highest quality things only come with at least one of these ingredients: heat, pressure, and time. Will I let the pressure crack me, or will I let Him make me stronger and more refined through it? It all depends on my source of strength during that time. God knows exactly how much of those three ingredients I need, and He won’t give me more or less.

Since this post is about growth, I couldn’t resist adding something about gardening. I have been ‘in charge’ of my family’s vegetable garden for several years now, and one thing I have observed is how the first crops to ripen are usually the first to wither away in the summer heat, while the vegetables I have to wait longer for are the ones that last longer. For example, lettuce is one of the first crops to mature, but is also the first thing to die off; but vegetables such as carrots onions and carrots are the last things I harvest, and I can store them for months in the proper conditions so they won’t spoil. God wants to do work in me that will have a long term effect, but I’m going to have to be patient and wait on Him for it. He doesn’t always work in a way that makes me happy, but that is not His goal; He works to conform he to His image.

What about a middle eastern man who lived two thousand years ago is so incredible that His life and teaching are still studied, debated, and by some, followed?

Everything.

Every single one of His teachings are so countercultural because none of them line up with human nature. But perhaps the most incredible thing about the way He lived – and the way His followers are called to live – is summed up in the following verses:

“Have this attitude in yourselves that was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking on the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Philippians 2:5-8 (NASB)

Human nature demands that we make a name for ourselves by declaring to the world who we are and what we can do, but that’s not what Jesus did, and that’s not how He calls us to live. Jesus is God, but He let His status go (without actually letting go of being God) and came down to our terminally sin-sick world and gave us life. He put aside His splendor and stepped into the story He was writing, but there wasn’t a moment when He wasn’t in control. The really awesome thing is how He used His power as God; He didn’t use it for His benefit, He used it to give us eternal life. When it looked like He had lost and death had won, Jesus stepped out of the shadows of the grave into the sunshine and showed the world that He was the Son of God.

To sum all this up in a few words and pass on the challenge I received: Jesus died for me so I can live for Him.