Over the course of twenty-three years you pick up a thing or two. Though the following revelations might sound overly simple or trite, they served to and even now shape/inform the person I am today.
“Is God not enough for you?”
Distinctly remember my freshman year, sitting in a dorm hallway with a friend, way past any sensible bedtime, sharing a few recent struggles. To which he responded with the above one-liner and it knocked me off my feet. Because how could I ever say that he’s not. No matter what I’m lacking, no matter what I’d like to have, the fact that he shows me love and grace when I’ve never for a second deserved it is literally all I need.
“Blessings are your thorns, thorns are your blessings.”
Along the lines of getting caught up in the gift not the Giver. It’s the hardships in life that have caused me to cling to him and affirm what it is that I really believe, what it is that I’m really living for. They show me what’s in my heart. As wandering and wayward as my heart can be, in the end he irresistibly and gently calls it back. It’s the gentleness I fall for.
“Love is not a feeling it’s an action.”
Probably the most oft repeated, yet difficult to live out. There’s another quote I forget from where that goes, he has bound himself to us in a covenant so that even though feelings come and go, the relationship remains unchanged. When love is only an action and never a feeling I find myself grumbling/despairing. But more often than not feeling tends to follow action. Or at the least, action (based on biblical imperatives) tends to be a more trustworthy guide than is feeling.
“Best prayer you can pray for someone is that they’ll love Jesus first and foremost, above everything else.”
Not like praying for success, happiness, health, stability, relationships is bad. But everything in life ought to take a backseat to and acknowledge the ultimate purpose in life. It’s not about us. To be selfish for God’s glory, for his name to be proclaimed and made known, not ours. When Jesus is front and center, everything else is put in proper perspective, and no matter what the situation, there is joy.
“The only thing beautiful about me is Jesus Christ.”
The beauty industry is in the multi-billions, yet no amount of makeup or even surgery can remove our sins like scarlet and give us hearts as white as snow. I am attracted to and deeply captivated by beauty and would be a much vainer creature were I not convinced everything withers and fades, but his word and what he has called us to stands forever.
“Must hold onto the commands just as tightly as onto the promises.”
That we might be less a people that cries “Lord, you said you would do this and this” and more a people who asks “Lord, show me in every crevice of my heart and soul how I can further submit myself to your will.”
“We’re not to hold back any of our heart, mind, strength, or soul.”
Love him with all of them was never fully comprehended till considered in the reverse. Senior year in college during small group my co-leader presented it thus, and enabled me to see how much I was holding back, was yet wary to let go.
“Strength is for service, not status.”
Not just physical strength, talents in general. Though at times I question whether I have any to speak of. It’s the 10,000 hours of practice pointed out in Outliers; I want to get really good at something, think he puts that desire in all of us, but must keep in mind that it’s not for personal acclaim, and all for serving him and his Kingdom.
“You can’t be a lone ranger Christian.”
Those who believe all you need is a relationship with Jesus and a bible, I was one of them. Christians proved to fail and disappoint possibly more than non-Christians, because you place that extra expectation on them. The ever-increasing awareness of my own depravity and duplicity beckons me to treat others with the patience/gentleness I hope to be shown. And it’s only in personally experiencing/offering that grace and mercy that we see hints and shadows of what God has done for us.
“Great danger is not that we will renounce our faith, but settle for a mediocre version of it.”
I can go for months without really reading the Bible, long stretches without pouring out my heart in prayer. Assurance of salvation allows me to feel excused to exert efforts in more “pressing and immediate” concerns. It’s like getting married and spending all your time with everything/anything but your spouse, since you’re bound to him in a covenant and you know you’ll never abandon each other. But for all intents and purposes you already have. I want my relationship with God to be more dynamic and real and life-giving than any earthly one.
WYSINWYG 