Sometimes it feels like the main thing we do in life is wait.
As kids we wait to grow up, in school we wait to graduate, as adults we wait to buy houses, start families, and have the career we think we want.
Waiting isn't a bad thing, and it definitely teaches us many good life lessons. There is a pitfall, however, that can come with obsessing over waiting. If all we think about is what is yet to come, then we are missing out on bright amazing parts of our lives. Abraham waited hopefully, in a good way:
"When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.”[d] 15 And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised." --Hebrews 6:13-15
Here, God Himself swore that he would give Abraham children. Abraham had a hard time waiting, his wife Sarah certainly did too, but in the end the Word of God says that Abraham waited paitently. If waiting was easy, God wouldn't use it to refine us. There's nothing wrong in admitting that waiting for something good is one of the hardest things you will ever do. Abraham tried different ways to get an heir. Sarah laughed when she heard about bearing a child, but still, their faith and trust in God is a beautiful example to us all. Abraham didn't waste those years waiting for Isaac. He built up an inheritance for him.
Instead of focusing on waiting, I think we should be preparing ourselves to receive God's promises. This means delighting in our time now, while preparing for the future. After all, there will always be things worth waiting for, but the present is here today and gone tomorrow.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Sunday, July 31, 2011
There is a friend...
Last term in school I took a "religion" class on Friendship. In it I learned that people have different views of what and why they have friendships. Aristotle describes three types of friendships:
1. Friendships of utility
2. Friendships of pleasure
3. Friendships of virtue
Number one describes a friend you have only for the connections or what you can get out of them.
Number two describes lovers, loving someone because it feels good to you.
Number three speaks of being friends with someone who has common goals.
"Iron sharpening iron."--Proverbs 27
While there are different levels of friendships, I think the Bible gives us what the main point of any friendship should be:
Friendships aren't what you can get out of it, but what you can give. If you're looking to make friends, become someone's friend.
A true friend helps each other. Helping doesn't mean you lie for them or look over all their sins. It means you encourage each other to be righteous.
What if your friend harms you? Or stops being your friend? Friendships are often up and down. I've heard it said that you have only two options: either growing closer or falling apart. God wants us to give up all our friendships to Him. If we're relying on our friends for everything (a comforting ear, a meal, etc.) instead of Christ then our friendships are doomed. The only thing in life that is certain is God, not your best friend you had when you were six.
On the flip side, friendship is a precious ointment and a safeguard against evil. Surround yourself with good friends and you will grow spiritually. Just remember, friendships are the Lord's. He may break them to recreate them, or to let someone be another person's friend. Sometimes all you can do is pray, but that is what friendship is, it never stops hoping.
1. Friendships of utility
2. Friendships of pleasure
3. Friendships of virtue
Number one describes a friend you have only for the connections or what you can get out of them.
Number two describes lovers, loving someone because it feels good to you.
Number three speaks of being friends with someone who has common goals.
"Iron sharpening iron."--Proverbs 27
While there are different levels of friendships, I think the Bible gives us what the main point of any friendship should be:
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.(John 15:13-15).
Friendships aren't what you can get out of it, but what you can give. If you're looking to make friends, become someone's friend.
A true friend helps each other. Helping doesn't mean you lie for them or look over all their sins. It means you encourage each other to be righteous.
What if your friend harms you? Or stops being your friend? Friendships are often up and down. I've heard it said that you have only two options: either growing closer or falling apart. God wants us to give up all our friendships to Him. If we're relying on our friends for everything (a comforting ear, a meal, etc.) instead of Christ then our friendships are doomed. The only thing in life that is certain is God, not your best friend you had when you were six.
On the flip side, friendship is a precious ointment and a safeguard against evil. Surround yourself with good friends and you will grow spiritually. Just remember, friendships are the Lord's. He may break them to recreate them, or to let someone be another person's friend. Sometimes all you can do is pray, but that is what friendship is, it never stops hoping.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Timing Part 1
It is often stated that "timing is everything."
I used to think timing was bogus. If you were going to love someone, then love them. God made you to love them, so why can't you love them right now?
It is our wise Father, however, who controls not just who we love, but when our love can be fulfilled.
I think many teenagers get confused about it. If you are told not to date when you are younger, or not to talk to the other sex, then you may grow up thinking you can never do that. Then, when we finally find ourselves in our twenties, we don't know what to do with ourselves. Or, we think that our liking someone when we were a teenager was somehow wrong. We are hardwired to care for someone special, it's the timing that is the issue.
It is a glorious thing to have even our timing ordered by the hand of the Creator.
"Do not stir up nor awaken love till it pleases."--The Song of Songs
I used to think timing was bogus. If you were going to love someone, then love them. God made you to love them, so why can't you love them right now?
It is our wise Father, however, who controls not just who we love, but when our love can be fulfilled.
I think many teenagers get confused about it. If you are told not to date when you are younger, or not to talk to the other sex, then you may grow up thinking you can never do that. Then, when we finally find ourselves in our twenties, we don't know what to do with ourselves. Or, we think that our liking someone when we were a teenager was somehow wrong. We are hardwired to care for someone special, it's the timing that is the issue.
It is a glorious thing to have even our timing ordered by the hand of the Creator.
"Do not stir up nor awaken love till it pleases."--The Song of Songs
Monday, May 30, 2011
The Explosive Combinations
Comparisons vs. Combinations
Comparisons happen all the time. Sometimes I think we are unconciously raised to compare ourselves to everyone around us. Everything is a challenge that must be won.
It's impossible to be truly good friends with someone, however, if you are constantly jealous of them or trying to outdo them. It is also hard to be friends if you think only your way is the right way and everything they do is ridiculous. As we shall see, not everyone has the same gifts given to them by God. This means not everyone will have the same calling or go about things the same way you do.
I have been thinking about 1st Corinthians. The book speaks about fellowship in the body of Christ a lot!
How do we get along with one another if we are constantly comparing ourselves to each other?
Paul says "Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way." (12:29-31)
If our own individual gifts are not what matter the most, what does? What is the more excellent way?
When I was younger, I memorized the next verses. I memorized them thinking that the passage describing love was about "being in love." If I wanted to have a good marriage, I needed to be kind, suffer long, not behave rudely to my husband, etc. I think you do need those things for a good marriage, but I now realize that Paul was talking to the entire church of Corinth. He was telling friends (and maybe people who don't get along so well) to suffer long in love for each other. To bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things. Not to endure things for the sake of being in love, like Romeo and Juliet, but to proclaim what love really is. Love is not seeking its own, but is being transformed by Christ's love to serve others.
If I am going to love His body, I am going to have to swallow my pride and admit my way is not the standard for all living: His way is. You can assume all you want about people, and talk about it behind their backs, but when you actually talk to them about it, you may realize they are trying to serve Him the only way they know how. And isn't that a blessing to the Church? Afterall, we are to desire the good gifts, which means desiring people to have gifts that are different than yours, but not any less inferior. So thank God for our differences. For not only would this Earth be an incredibly boring place if we were all the same, but it is through our combined strengths that we shall rebuild this world.
Comparisons happen all the time. Sometimes I think we are unconciously raised to compare ourselves to everyone around us. Everything is a challenge that must be won.
It's impossible to be truly good friends with someone, however, if you are constantly jealous of them or trying to outdo them. It is also hard to be friends if you think only your way is the right way and everything they do is ridiculous. As we shall see, not everyone has the same gifts given to them by God. This means not everyone will have the same calling or go about things the same way you do.
I have been thinking about 1st Corinthians. The book speaks about fellowship in the body of Christ a lot!
How do we get along with one another if we are constantly comparing ourselves to each other?
Paul says "Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way." (12:29-31)
If our own individual gifts are not what matter the most, what does? What is the more excellent way?
When I was younger, I memorized the next verses. I memorized them thinking that the passage describing love was about "being in love." If I wanted to have a good marriage, I needed to be kind, suffer long, not behave rudely to my husband, etc. I think you do need those things for a good marriage, but I now realize that Paul was talking to the entire church of Corinth. He was telling friends (and maybe people who don't get along so well) to suffer long in love for each other. To bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things. Not to endure things for the sake of being in love, like Romeo and Juliet, but to proclaim what love really is. Love is not seeking its own, but is being transformed by Christ's love to serve others.
If I am going to love His body, I am going to have to swallow my pride and admit my way is not the standard for all living: His way is. You can assume all you want about people, and talk about it behind their backs, but when you actually talk to them about it, you may realize they are trying to serve Him the only way they know how. And isn't that a blessing to the Church? Afterall, we are to desire the good gifts, which means desiring people to have gifts that are different than yours, but not any less inferior. So thank God for our differences. For not only would this Earth be an incredibly boring place if we were all the same, but it is through our combined strengths that we shall rebuild this world.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Random Motivating Thoughts
I've been thinking lately, which is typically a good thing.
My Pastor always says that everyone goes through a time of discouragement and darkness in their lives.
For myself, I know I get discouraged or frustrated at God sometimes. I wonder why things are happening the way they do. David seemed to do this a lot in the Psalms. "How long, oh Lord...."
Even though I get down sometimes, I was born and taught to be a very optimistic person. I can't stay in the depths for long. My biggest enemy is passiveness. Sometimes I just don't want to do anything. Once I begin something for someone else I try to do it with my best abilities. If I'm doing something for someone else I take it very seriously. Why then, do I have such a hard time doing things for myself? Especially finishing things. I believe it is my mindset that is the problem.
I am not doing all these little things for myself. I am doing them for Christ and through the Spirit.
God is the one who I do it for, and He is also the one who helps me succeed. He has empowered me to change the world for Him. Why should I get caught up in petty arguments in my head about who I am doing what for? Oh pride, how I loathe thee!
My Pastor always says that everyone goes through a time of discouragement and darkness in their lives.
For myself, I know I get discouraged or frustrated at God sometimes. I wonder why things are happening the way they do. David seemed to do this a lot in the Psalms. "How long, oh Lord...."
Even though I get down sometimes, I was born and taught to be a very optimistic person. I can't stay in the depths for long. My biggest enemy is passiveness. Sometimes I just don't want to do anything. Once I begin something for someone else I try to do it with my best abilities. If I'm doing something for someone else I take it very seriously. Why then, do I have such a hard time doing things for myself? Especially finishing things. I believe it is my mindset that is the problem.
I am not doing all these little things for myself. I am doing them for Christ and through the Spirit.
God is the one who I do it for, and He is also the one who helps me succeed. He has empowered me to change the world for Him. Why should I get caught up in petty arguments in my head about who I am doing what for? Oh pride, how I loathe thee!
Saturday, April 23, 2011
He Saved Others
Good Friday, 1987
Jesus, You know I do not understand
Your love, Your sacraments, Your sufferings,
Your grace exalting me with priests and kings
Reigning forever in the Promised Land.
I am a child who takes his father’s hand
Walking along the beach, who while he clings
Fears not the surf, but begs a tale that brings
Him dreams of sailing far beyond the strand.
O tell me once again and I’ll receive
The things I cannot know and count them true:
How if I were the only man to grieve
The heart of God, You’d take Your cross anew
(I do not understand, but I believe)
Quite a few years ago, when I was in my teens and going through a poetry phase, I was able to purchase a book of sonnets. It was sold by James Jordan, an amazing Pastor and scholar, and written by a man named Philip Rosenbaum. Every year I try to read through my Holy Week Sonnets. They have been such an encouragement to me. Check out http://christianpoet.org/Poetry_of_Philip_Rosenbaum/Home.html to read more of them.
Good Friday is indeed a good day. It was also the worst day in the life of our Savior. Today I was meditating on what our Lord went through. When I read Mark 15, this part stuck out to me:
"Likewise the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes, said,
'He saved others; Himself He cannot save.'" (vs. 31)
What's funny about this passage is, even though the pharisees and scribes were mocking Jesus, what they said was true. Jesus did save others. He saved His chosen people, and He was in the process of saving others while He was on the cross. He could not save His loved ones if He only cared about saving Himself. Christ is the epitomy of unselfishness. He couldn't save Himself even if He wanted to, because He had put His life in His Father's hands: "Thy will be done!"
Isn't this how God created life to work? The only way we can save ourselves is by saving other people.
It is a beautifully strange truth. "Lose your life, and you will find it..."
=) Happy Good Friday!
To die for me, that I might live for You.
--Philip Rosenbaum
Quite a few years ago, when I was in my teens and going through a poetry phase, I was able to purchase a book of sonnets. It was sold by James Jordan, an amazing Pastor and scholar, and written by a man named Philip Rosenbaum. Every year I try to read through my Holy Week Sonnets. They have been such an encouragement to me. Check out http://christianpoet.org/Poetry_of_Philip_Rosenbaum/Home.html to read more of them.
Good Friday is indeed a good day. It was also the worst day in the life of our Savior. Today I was meditating on what our Lord went through. When I read Mark 15, this part stuck out to me:
"Likewise the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes, said,
'He saved others; Himself He cannot save.'" (vs. 31)
What's funny about this passage is, even though the pharisees and scribes were mocking Jesus, what they said was true. Jesus did save others. He saved His chosen people, and He was in the process of saving others while He was on the cross. He could not save His loved ones if He only cared about saving Himself. Christ is the epitomy of unselfishness. He couldn't save Himself even if He wanted to, because He had put His life in His Father's hands: "Thy will be done!"
Isn't this how God created life to work? The only way we can save ourselves is by saving other people.
It is a beautifully strange truth. "Lose your life, and you will find it..."
=) Happy Good Friday!
Friday, April 1, 2011
How Could It Be Any Better Than This?
What do I have to do
To try to make you see
Trying to be like you
Isn’t good enough for me
I wont let you go
I wont let you down
I wont give you up
Don’t you give up on me now
To try to make you see
Trying to be like you
Isn’t good enough for me
I wont let you go
I wont let you down
I wont give you up
Don’t you give up on me now
Some people wonder why Lifehouse is my favorite band. Lifehouse's lyrics make me think, and their music always matches their lyrics. It's not thinking just in a logical mental state, but also in a relational way. Their music makes you think about relationships from the inside and the outside. God is logical and emotional. Indeed, He is much more than that. I think it's hard for us to be both at the same moment. I might be logical one minute and super crazy the next. God's world, however, is beautiful and complex all at the same time. Researching where Jason Wade (lead singer and song writer for LH) came from puts much more meaning into each of his songs. His songs are his reactions and ideas revolving around his most important relationships. Indeed, they tell the story of his life in an abstract way. I think a good composer is able to tell a story with their songs. Jason's stories have been some of the best encouragements to me, and that is why I will always be thankful for Lifehouse.
Jason's parents were missionaries when he was younger. It wasn't till their divorce, which really affected him, that he turned to poetry and music for support. He lived in Portland, then moved to Washington, then finally to Los Angeles. It was in LA where he met his bass player Sergio and started a worship band called Blyss. Blyss eventually evolved to Lifehouse, with Rick playing the drums. Over the years Lifehouse has changed. The band had a breakup with Sergio. Rick, however, is still there rockin' and being as goofy as ever. Bryce, awesome Canadian bass player, joined the team, and their latest member is Ben, who is a great Australian guitarist, mate!
No Name Face was their first CD, and it was a huge success. The songs off that album are really straight from Jason's soul, expressing his frustrations and his faith in God. Jason writes music hoping others will be able to relate to it and be encouraged. He doesn't write music to force ideas down someone's throat. It used to bug me that he wouldn't talk more about God, till I realized the impact his family's breaking up had on him. Still, his songs all have incredible messages, and I think that is how he communicates his worldview the best.
Lifehouse's definition of Love is interesting. Some of the main themes running through their songs are:
Holding on, not giving up
Changing for the relationship
Believing in second chances
Jason has been married to his wife Braeden for ten years. He says that they try not to be apart for more than two weeks at a time, which is tricky since Jason is on the road most of the time. He brought her on his last tour, and he says they are childhood sweethearts, best friends, and still madly in love. Now they're thinking about having kids. :)
As for Lifehouse, currently they have 5 CDs released, and are still touring around.
I've seen them three times in concert. Amazing every time. Did I mention I have their autographs, pictures, posters, shirts, and have talked to them?
I'm not obsessed, just in love.
Jason and Braedon
My pic at their last concert
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