sometimes sage, sometimes silly
What do I mean by that? Well, I was talking to a good friend just now on the phone and the meaning of my blog title came out of my mouth without me even realizing it.
Rewind: We were conversing on the matter of grace and the fact that everything we receive, everything we are is a matter of God's grace. I was explaining the huge leap I made in my quest for self-worth when I found the verse in Romans 9 (cf Isaiah 29) saying the pot had no business asking the Potter why He made you this way. I realized that I had no right to question God about my appearance or anything else about how I was made. I came to terms with the fact that everything about me was how God had intended it and no matter how I perceived "me," God was pleased with what He had made. However, my friend and I also talked about the world's idea of beauty and worth versus God's idea, because honestly, there are people who have not even a semblance of earthly beauty or zero social, intellectual or technical skills and it seems like God has abandonded them or failed them in some way. It seems to me that all ugliness and ineptitude is a result of the fall. I'm thinking if there had never been sin, the perfection of Adam and Eve would be all that was known. Maybe I'm totally off base, but who knows? Maybe I'm just silly.
So, we come to the moment that hit me..."sometimes sage, sometimes silly" is humans with finite minds attempting to understand and explain the Infinite. We don't know anything that God hasn't revealed to us. When we speak from that revelation, our words are sage, wise, true. But when we speak from our own understanding and attempt to sound sage, we are nothing but silly. Paul encourages us in Colossians to teach and admonish one another with all wisdom as he says he and his fellow missionaries did with the power God worked through them. He warns us not to be deceived by clever-sounding, though worldly philosophies.
But, that's not all. I do want to be sage. I want to speak about God and the meaning of life with the wisdom of the revelation we have in Scripture. I also believe, though, that there are times when we don't have to be so dadgum serious and it's ok to just be silly. So, there you have it...that's me...Sometimes sage, sometimes silly.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Crushes...
"Never settle" is a great motto and I do my best to live by that, but that doesn't stop me from those inevitable and sometimes annoying little things that come to most of us single people called crushes. See, I belong to a wonderful church where some of God's most humble and sincere (and surprisingly single) servants also choose to worship. That puts me in a difficult position. While I know that God has me single at this time of my life for His glory, I can't help but notice the people around me and think, "hey, he would make a great ministry partner" or "what would it be like to share the rest of my life with him?"
On the one hand, I believe that my crushes have usually been on the right type of guy, the type God would want me to hold out for. But on the other hand, I wonder if the crushes are in themselves displeasing to Him because they do take up thought time and emotional energy, not to mention doing a number on my sense of contentment in Christ. Also, along those lines, crushes tend to bring out the flirt in me and I'm almost certain that doesn't glorify God. Almost. So, I put the question out to the blogworld.
What are we to do with crushes? What I do is pray a lot. I confess to God that I want Him to be number one in my life and that I trust His sovereignty over my life. I ask Him for a real sense of His love for me that will remind me that not only is He in control, but He's working all things together for my good. I pray for strength and wisdom to handle myself in an appropriate and godly manner around said crush-ees. And finally, I pray for Him to "move or move me." (Thanks FFH for those words.) Feedback?
"Never settle" is a great motto and I do my best to live by that, but that doesn't stop me from those inevitable and sometimes annoying little things that come to most of us single people called crushes. See, I belong to a wonderful church where some of God's most humble and sincere (and surprisingly single) servants also choose to worship. That puts me in a difficult position. While I know that God has me single at this time of my life for His glory, I can't help but notice the people around me and think, "hey, he would make a great ministry partner" or "what would it be like to share the rest of my life with him?"
On the one hand, I believe that my crushes have usually been on the right type of guy, the type God would want me to hold out for. But on the other hand, I wonder if the crushes are in themselves displeasing to Him because they do take up thought time and emotional energy, not to mention doing a number on my sense of contentment in Christ. Also, along those lines, crushes tend to bring out the flirt in me and I'm almost certain that doesn't glorify God. Almost. So, I put the question out to the blogworld.
What are we to do with crushes? What I do is pray a lot. I confess to God that I want Him to be number one in my life and that I trust His sovereignty over my life. I ask Him for a real sense of His love for me that will remind me that not only is He in control, but He's working all things together for my good. I pray for strength and wisdom to handle myself in an appropriate and godly manner around said crush-ees. And finally, I pray for Him to "move or move me." (Thanks FFH for those words.) Feedback?
Saturday, September 10, 2005
The Problem of Pain
Do you think if Adam and Eve had never sinned, that the human race would know what pain was? Of course, we know that sin would have entered the world eventually because we were given a free will and somewhere down the road that will would have chosen poorly. But supposing it hadn't, supposing sin had never entered the world, would there be pain? In other words, is pain a result or a byproduct of sin? At first thought, I would say of course it is. Look at the curses God meted out to the original sinners. To Adam, hard work, an unforgiving earth full of throns and tough soil, as Genesis 3:17-19 says, "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life...By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food..." To Eve, the physical pain of childbearing coupled with the emotional pain of longing for a husband and having him rule over her. But then if you look more closely at the curse given to Eve in Genesis 3:16, God says, "I will greatly increase your pain in childbearing." The Hebrew word for increase, rabah, means multiply or make great. So, that makes me wonder, was pain already there or at least the potential of it without sin, before sin?
What do you think?
Do you think if Adam and Eve had never sinned, that the human race would know what pain was? Of course, we know that sin would have entered the world eventually because we were given a free will and somewhere down the road that will would have chosen poorly. But supposing it hadn't, supposing sin had never entered the world, would there be pain? In other words, is pain a result or a byproduct of sin? At first thought, I would say of course it is. Look at the curses God meted out to the original sinners. To Adam, hard work, an unforgiving earth full of throns and tough soil, as Genesis 3:17-19 says, "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life...By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food..." To Eve, the physical pain of childbearing coupled with the emotional pain of longing for a husband and having him rule over her. But then if you look more closely at the curse given to Eve in Genesis 3:16, God says, "I will greatly increase your pain in childbearing." The Hebrew word for increase, rabah, means multiply or make great. So, that makes me wonder, was pain already there or at least the potential of it without sin, before sin?
What do you think?
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Never Settle...
This has been my byline for a long time. I plan to stick to it, though it has been difficult at times to wait on God's best. Recently, an anonymous female from church wrote a semi-cynical, semi-lighthearted poem about the fact that the single men in our church don't ask girls out very much. The poem was posted on another girl's blog site...this sparked a bit of conversation, both on and off the web, and it got me to thinking...not that it takes much to get me to thinking, but thinking coherently is quite a different thing from just plain thinking. I'm hoping this is the coherent kind.
My thoughts:
Single people are single for a reason. The reasons vary from fear of committment to social ineptitude to the plain and simple fact that it just isn't God's timing for them to be married. I think this last reason is the most overspoken and underbelieved reason of all. It's right up there with "do not be anxious about anything..." See, we singles can spout faith-filled sentiments saying, "God is in control" or "I know He has somebody for me somewhere" but then, we go off and try to make things happen on our own or we pine, whine and worry about our lack of a dating life. Do we really believe God is in control and that He has someone "out there" for us if we are constantly talking about our singleness? Maybe we are using tunnel vision and seeing only marriage as the end-all, be-all of existence, when truthfully, there are limitless callings in life that are just as viable and believe it or not, fulfilling, as marriage. A lot of us who whine (and I'm including myself, because I've done my share) probably will get married eventually, but what are we doing with our singleness and do we have the mentality that even if we never do marry, we can live an adventurous, victorious and God-glorifying life as a single person? Are we willing for God to call us to singleness?
Never settle...I've always thought of that injuction only in terms of who I'd be willing to end up with. But, it's bigger than that. Never settle for less than God's best whether that be marriage or singleness, a desk job in the city or a remote mission field assignment, teaching or ministry, in my case.
I've learned that "Never Settle" is not an excuse to close my mind to what I think I don't want. It's a command to be open to what God wants.
This has been my byline for a long time. I plan to stick to it, though it has been difficult at times to wait on God's best. Recently, an anonymous female from church wrote a semi-cynical, semi-lighthearted poem about the fact that the single men in our church don't ask girls out very much. The poem was posted on another girl's blog site...this sparked a bit of conversation, both on and off the web, and it got me to thinking...not that it takes much to get me to thinking, but thinking coherently is quite a different thing from just plain thinking. I'm hoping this is the coherent kind.
My thoughts:
Single people are single for a reason. The reasons vary from fear of committment to social ineptitude to the plain and simple fact that it just isn't God's timing for them to be married. I think this last reason is the most overspoken and underbelieved reason of all. It's right up there with "do not be anxious about anything..." See, we singles can spout faith-filled sentiments saying, "God is in control" or "I know He has somebody for me somewhere" but then, we go off and try to make things happen on our own or we pine, whine and worry about our lack of a dating life. Do we really believe God is in control and that He has someone "out there" for us if we are constantly talking about our singleness? Maybe we are using tunnel vision and seeing only marriage as the end-all, be-all of existence, when truthfully, there are limitless callings in life that are just as viable and believe it or not, fulfilling, as marriage. A lot of us who whine (and I'm including myself, because I've done my share) probably will get married eventually, but what are we doing with our singleness and do we have the mentality that even if we never do marry, we can live an adventurous, victorious and God-glorifying life as a single person? Are we willing for God to call us to singleness?
Never settle...I've always thought of that injuction only in terms of who I'd be willing to end up with. But, it's bigger than that. Never settle for less than God's best whether that be marriage or singleness, a desk job in the city or a remote mission field assignment, teaching or ministry, in my case.
I've learned that "Never Settle" is not an excuse to close my mind to what I think I don't want. It's a command to be open to what God wants.
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