Confession: Christianeze, Spiritualeze i.e. Christian Talk... makes me want to vomit.
** Disclaimer: Yes, I've done it!
Unfortunately this disdain has grown and no longer filters out genuine vs. rhetoric and I find hearing God is good from the most sincere person causes my eyes to roll all on their own!!
** Disclaimer: I know God IS good .. ALL the time God IS good!!!
I've become so anti-spiritual talk that my FB does not even give my religious views yet I'm officially a missionary! The one time my status reflected what God was doing in my heart and my own brother called in shock and awe that I had publicly proclaimed that Jesus had washed my sins away!
**Disclaimer: God has done AMAZING things in my life and He IS my life, I want nothing more than to please Him and proclaim Him and for EVERYONE to know Him.
However, Christianeze makes me sick! STILL!
Our TALK is so FULL of Christ, so STICKY, SICKENINGLY SWEET! and so many times our ACTIONS are so EMPTY, non-exisistent, and SICKENINGLY something else! So much so there's a whole book on how UN-Christian we really are!
**Disclaimer: I've been so guilty of this that it is SICKENING!
I find myself overwhelmed with love and compassion for the victims of Christianity.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
You didn't have to do it!!!!
I'm at the end of the 90 day Beth Moore study on the life of Jesus and this hit me tonight like a ton of bricks! Let me back track a little bit, today I was reading a group email from close friends we're all weighing in on where we are on the journey right now and one friend wrote this:
"I have started reading Matthew and the verses that talk about how Jesus would climb a mountain or cross a lake or go hide in a garden really have stuck out to me and challenged me…I keep thinking, if Jesus made it a priority to be by himself, then who am I to think I don’t need it??"
Tonight I was reading in Luke one such passage, Jesus is at the Mt of Olives alone, praying? observing? resting? thinking? Probably thinking about what He knew was about to come, the fulfillment of His purpose, His life being sacrificed on that cross. What was going through His mind as He overlooked the city? I wondered to myself... Jesus, did you ever contemplate NOT doing it? Somehow getting around the sacrifice of the cross!? Probably not, but it just hit me, He didn't HAVE to do it!
As I wrote the words, "You didn't HAVE to do it!" in my journal... I thought WOW those are powerful words! In this case it provokes extreme relief and gratefulness that He didn't run from His calling or wash His hands of us all together when that's exactly what we deserved!
But what if I said to you, "You didn't HAVE to do it!" What does it bring to mind... for my missionary friends you didn't have to go, to pack up your whole life and move far away from your loved ones (namely from me!!!), but I hope you look at the precious lives you're touching and are glad. You didn't have to: Get married, but hopefully you roll over and see your spouse and think oh but I am sooo glad I did! Have children: and then they give you sticky kisses and tell you they love you and you can't imagine life without them. The list could go on and on and on.
For others it might go in the "other" direction it might be "I didn't have to do it." Stay in that relationship... let my weight get out of control, say that terrible thing, drink and drive... compromise in that way.... venture off the straight and narrow and take life into my own hands...go further and further into debt... again the list could go on and on!
"You didn't have to do it!" A powerful statement that can go either direction positively or negatively... to describe 1 choice w trillions of consequences!
It becomes even more powerful of a question when I think of Jesus sitting on that Mt of Olives overlooking the city, hypothetically in a moment of decision, He had free will just like us He didn't HAVE to do it. He made a choice and because of that choice... even when we make the wrong ones and set the wheel of consequences in motion in a direction that we never wanted them to go.... because He DID what He didn't HAVE to do (1 choice trillions of consequences).... we have the opportunity to do what we don't HAVE to do, make 1 choice w trillions of consequences to surrender our lives to Him and let His grace and mercy take us in a brand new direction.
You didn't have to do it, but You did! A trillion thank yous! Love, your most needy recipient & one of a trillion consequences.
"I have started reading Matthew and the verses that talk about how Jesus would climb a mountain or cross a lake or go hide in a garden really have stuck out to me and challenged me…I keep thinking, if Jesus made it a priority to be by himself, then who am I to think I don’t need it??"
Tonight I was reading in Luke one such passage, Jesus is at the Mt of Olives alone, praying? observing? resting? thinking? Probably thinking about what He knew was about to come, the fulfillment of His purpose, His life being sacrificed on that cross. What was going through His mind as He overlooked the city? I wondered to myself... Jesus, did you ever contemplate NOT doing it? Somehow getting around the sacrifice of the cross!? Probably not, but it just hit me, He didn't HAVE to do it!
As I wrote the words, "You didn't HAVE to do it!" in my journal... I thought WOW those are powerful words! In this case it provokes extreme relief and gratefulness that He didn't run from His calling or wash His hands of us all together when that's exactly what we deserved!
But what if I said to you, "You didn't HAVE to do it!" What does it bring to mind... for my missionary friends you didn't have to go, to pack up your whole life and move far away from your loved ones (namely from me!!!), but I hope you look at the precious lives you're touching and are glad. You didn't have to: Get married, but hopefully you roll over and see your spouse and think oh but I am sooo glad I did! Have children: and then they give you sticky kisses and tell you they love you and you can't imagine life without them. The list could go on and on and on.
For others it might go in the "other" direction it might be "I didn't have to do it." Stay in that relationship... let my weight get out of control, say that terrible thing, drink and drive... compromise in that way.... venture off the straight and narrow and take life into my own hands...go further and further into debt... again the list could go on and on!
"You didn't have to do it!" A powerful statement that can go either direction positively or negatively... to describe 1 choice w trillions of consequences!
It becomes even more powerful of a question when I think of Jesus sitting on that Mt of Olives overlooking the city, hypothetically in a moment of decision, He had free will just like us He didn't HAVE to do it. He made a choice and because of that choice... even when we make the wrong ones and set the wheel of consequences in motion in a direction that we never wanted them to go.... because He DID what He didn't HAVE to do (1 choice trillions of consequences).... we have the opportunity to do what we don't HAVE to do, make 1 choice w trillions of consequences to surrender our lives to Him and let His grace and mercy take us in a brand new direction.
You didn't have to do it, but You did! A trillion thank yous! Love, your most needy recipient & one of a trillion consequences.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
2 years and all I got is a title!!!
Stepping cautiously, she pauses, deep breath, eyes widen at the brightness of the screen, a moment of hesitancy, another deep breath, rapid clicking of the keys, one click and then some silence (the backspace). Repeat this scenario multiple times over the course of about 2 years and you will thus have my entrance to the blogger world!
I picked the name of this blog years before blogging even existed and for nearly 2 years it's all that has been on this page!
Where did the title come from? Glad you asked. Leadership guru John Maxwell gives the illustration that as leaders (heck as people in general!) we're likely,(FOR SURE TO) to slip up, to fall down, to get knocked down, to fail, and so on so forth thereby spending a lot of time on the floor. (Don't worry it's not ALL gloom and doom!) He reminds us that while we're down there to learn something, to take something of value from the situation... to pick up the 'change' if you will.
I used to remember this bit of information because in the year 2000 I spoke in my first graduation commencement exercises. I was so nervous and didn't want to be boring to the class of 2000 or their many friends and family members who would be there! So I inserted a little skit so to speak at the expense of a couple of teenage girls. I sent Crissy Miller and Ashley Day two cute, but scrawny under classmen girls across the stage carrying one of those big clear plastic bottles of change that probably weighed as much as they did combined!! To their horror one of them had to trip and fall in front of everybody. I don't really remember who drew the short straw that day, but one of them fell, the audience laughed, and the other said, "What are you doing down there?" And of course her line was "well, while I'm down here I thought I might as well "pick up the change!" Cheesey I know, but it eased my nerves to know the comic relief was on its way in point number 2 of my message!
Since then LIFE has taken place and this bit of info is no longer remembered because Crissy and Ashley did a skit! (If only!) I remember it from the personal experience of time spent on the floor! Nearly 10 years later I can't (or rather don't want to) begin to tell you the countless times I've failed, tripped up, been knocked down... found myself on the floor! I should be rich by now with all that change and picking up the change should be down to an art form for me! Rather than hang my head about this, I've got to tell you that while I'm not proud of my times of failure, that I'm proud of the change I've picked up! Hoping it can somehow be seen and shared...
Jeremiah 29:11-14, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity..."
I picked the name of this blog years before blogging even existed and for nearly 2 years it's all that has been on this page!
Where did the title come from? Glad you asked. Leadership guru John Maxwell gives the illustration that as leaders (heck as people in general!) we're likely,(FOR SURE TO) to slip up, to fall down, to get knocked down, to fail, and so on so forth thereby spending a lot of time on the floor. (Don't worry it's not ALL gloom and doom!) He reminds us that while we're down there to learn something, to take something of value from the situation... to pick up the 'change' if you will.
I used to remember this bit of information because in the year 2000 I spoke in my first graduation commencement exercises. I was so nervous and didn't want to be boring to the class of 2000 or their many friends and family members who would be there! So I inserted a little skit so to speak at the expense of a couple of teenage girls. I sent Crissy Miller and Ashley Day two cute, but scrawny under classmen girls across the stage carrying one of those big clear plastic bottles of change that probably weighed as much as they did combined!! To their horror one of them had to trip and fall in front of everybody. I don't really remember who drew the short straw that day, but one of them fell, the audience laughed, and the other said, "What are you doing down there?" And of course her line was "well, while I'm down here I thought I might as well "pick up the change!" Cheesey I know, but it eased my nerves to know the comic relief was on its way in point number 2 of my message!
Since then LIFE has taken place and this bit of info is no longer remembered because Crissy and Ashley did a skit! (If only!) I remember it from the personal experience of time spent on the floor! Nearly 10 years later I can't (or rather don't want to) begin to tell you the countless times I've failed, tripped up, been knocked down... found myself on the floor! I should be rich by now with all that change and picking up the change should be down to an art form for me! Rather than hang my head about this, I've got to tell you that while I'm not proud of my times of failure, that I'm proud of the change I've picked up! Hoping it can somehow be seen and shared...
Jeremiah 29:11-14, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity..."
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