The Lie.

There is this little lie that we as human beings have been fed that pervades our lives and influences our day to day actions. This lie is whispered to us daily: to be effective we have to have it all together, and it is compounded on by the lie that we CAN have it all together. This can be said even more so of Christians; that somehow, to be able to truly walk a walk of faith, we have to be able to meet a set of requirements, to make up for our inadequacies before we can be in relationship with God.

This is called religiosity and I want nothing to do with it.

We have to stop trying. Make loving God another obligation burn out will happen and we end up focusing even more on ourselves. How can you command others to stop sinning in order to love God, when we have to love God to stop sinning? It is when we stop actively loving and pursuing God that we slip into sin.

I need God to help me to love God. That's the beauty of it, our efforts are totally out of the picture. He died so that we could love him, he helps us to love him.

Read it yourself:
Gal. 5 v. 13-14, John 10 v. 10

Putting the Gifts Down

I have been living the last six weeks burdened by the desire to be in two places at once. After two wonderful years of discovery and growth I am once again living the the town in which I grew up.

I love this place, I could go on about it for hours, to the extent which I always get looks from friends that are underlaid with the question "WHY!?!". With it's rustic and rural beauty, it's history, and it's broken, eccentric, and beautiful people, this little town of Gold never ceases to amaze me. However, I am in love with another place, another group of wonderful, eccentric people, a second home.

Today was a message on a segment of Abraham's story. It is a story I have heard countless times, but somehow never appreciated the gravity of the story's background. It is the story of Abraham's test to sacrifice Isaac his only son, and the greatest promise from God in a covenant to Abraham. If you know this story you have probably asked, as I have, why on earth would God test Abraham in such a manner? This kind of test would never blow over in this day and age, and you would be right. Yet, how Dennis pointed out, God often uses the same lessons, he simply uses different packages.

Gifts, especially gifts from God come in all sorts packages. They may be an assortment of talents, they may be unexpected blessings, or in my case a group of amazing people. We like to cling to these gifts with everything we have. Which is understandable, they are wonderful examples of God's love for us. The problem comes when we cling to these gifts so tightly that, when God steps in and asks us to take his hand and follow him, our arms are too full to take hold. It's really hard to trust God enough to set down our beloved items in order to be in relationship with him.

I feel a calling to follow God by joining the Peace Corps, this may sound ludicrous, and sometimes I ask myself the very same thing. Inasmuch, it has meant placing some of the gifts that I have been given down in order to take God by the hand. Yes, it is extremely hard. Not only am I facing not being near some of the people I love the most for a short while, but it also means facing the knowledge that in the future I am going to have to put down even more to live in a foreign country for 2 years. Yet, if I truly desire to follow God, this is what I am required to do. Thankfully, I stand in the knowledge that putting my cherished down for now doesn't mean I am required to do so forever and, thankfully, it is for a God who knows our backgrounds, who declares that he will never test us beyond the portion of our faith, or beyond our ability to succeed.

God is not always easy to listen to, but he's worth it.