Thank you, Jesus, for a love I've never deserved, and for a life that was bought for me.
Happy Easter
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Change
I love change.
I love the feeling that ensues after looking back at the past year of my life and realizing how far I've come in just 365 days (give or take). I love knowing that I'm not stuck, that I will continue to grow and mature and develop into something better than I am now. I never understood why people are so afraid of change. Yes, there is such a thing as bad change, but even bad change allows room for hope and the aspiration of becoming something new and altogether improved. Change, as I see it, is a marvelous thing.
Lately, I've been praying more and more for God to make me into someone he's happy with, someone who looks like him in action and in word. It's been consuming my thoughts: be more like Christ, be more like Christ. I fail daily. I'll come to the end of the day and realize there were so many alternatives to the things I said or the way I acted, and I get so frustrated with myself for simply forgetting to be like Christ. For the past few weeks, I haven't been able to figure out why I feel no change. Then, I read something that inundated my spirit with understanding.
"His mind and Spirit are available to us, and His presence in our lives will, in fact, change us dramatically. But do you pursue God simply for the change He can bring you?"
I read those words from the devotional that I pick up every night before climbing into bed, and I was floored. After racking my brain so many nights trying to understand why I wasn't maturing, the reason was finally laid out clearly onto a page right in front of my face. I was seeking a Godly change in my life so intensely that I forgot to seek God himself.
Maybe it sounds ridiculous to you; both are good things. I'm reminded of a discussion my Western Lit. class had earlier in the semester about desire. My professor drew a vertical line on the board and put "God" at the top. Beneath that, he wrote things like, "My Wife," and "Football." He numbered the list. God was first, his wife was second, and football was somewhere around five. He explained to us that it is perfectly normal to desire all those things.
"The problem," he said, "is that we start to desire number four in the place of number two. It isn't that we desire bad things; it's that we desire good things in the wrong way."
I tucked his words away into my memory for future use. His illustration was simple yet brilliant. How easy it is to get our desires confused! It is okay to seek change, to ask for it, to desire it. But honestly, if I'm seeking, asking for, and desiring God, the change will come naturally. My motive to serve God should never be only for the change He can bring me. My motive to serve God should simply be to serve God. Change is just a beautiful side effect.
I love the feeling that ensues after looking back at the past year of my life and realizing how far I've come in just 365 days (give or take). I love knowing that I'm not stuck, that I will continue to grow and mature and develop into something better than I am now. I never understood why people are so afraid of change. Yes, there is such a thing as bad change, but even bad change allows room for hope and the aspiration of becoming something new and altogether improved. Change, as I see it, is a marvelous thing.
Lately, I've been praying more and more for God to make me into someone he's happy with, someone who looks like him in action and in word. It's been consuming my thoughts: be more like Christ, be more like Christ. I fail daily. I'll come to the end of the day and realize there were so many alternatives to the things I said or the way I acted, and I get so frustrated with myself for simply forgetting to be like Christ. For the past few weeks, I haven't been able to figure out why I feel no change. Then, I read something that inundated my spirit with understanding.
"His mind and Spirit are available to us, and His presence in our lives will, in fact, change us dramatically. But do you pursue God simply for the change He can bring you?"
I read those words from the devotional that I pick up every night before climbing into bed, and I was floored. After racking my brain so many nights trying to understand why I wasn't maturing, the reason was finally laid out clearly onto a page right in front of my face. I was seeking a Godly change in my life so intensely that I forgot to seek God himself.
Maybe it sounds ridiculous to you; both are good things. I'm reminded of a discussion my Western Lit. class had earlier in the semester about desire. My professor drew a vertical line on the board and put "God" at the top. Beneath that, he wrote things like, "My Wife," and "Football." He numbered the list. God was first, his wife was second, and football was somewhere around five. He explained to us that it is perfectly normal to desire all those things.
"The problem," he said, "is that we start to desire number four in the place of number two. It isn't that we desire bad things; it's that we desire good things in the wrong way."
I tucked his words away into my memory for future use. His illustration was simple yet brilliant. How easy it is to get our desires confused! It is okay to seek change, to ask for it, to desire it. But honestly, if I'm seeking, asking for, and desiring God, the change will come naturally. My motive to serve God should never be only for the change He can bring me. My motive to serve God should simply be to serve God. Change is just a beautiful side effect.
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