I love to read other Christian women's blogs. Well, for the most part I do. Sometimes I get a bit intimidated. It doesn't take long to get the feeling that other women are quite a lot better qualified than I am in how they do the whole thing: how they live out their faith, how they write, how they pray, how they remember Bible stories and relate them to their lives. If I read them and then turn to examine my own ways, I can easily see the many ways that I come up wanting. My housekeeping. My application of Scripture. My attitudes. My ability to be the friend some of my friends need. Lots of things! I do fall short. Reading them this morning made me look at things this way. I have to stop and do something else.
(A parenthetical note to my readers, if I ever have that effect on you, please dismiss it. All you have to do is come here and check around a corner or two and you'll see a way I fall short! We must remember how it might be easy to present one image online, whatever it is, and have the living reality be quite different.)
Comparing myself with others can even make me wonder why God chose me, why He would bother to redeem such a woman who doesn't make her home the really humming haven that some women manage to keep, who has more frailties than you can shake a stick at...I shake my head in wonder. And I realize that we all have our strengths and weaknesses. On a happy morning, I can read them and rejoice in the strengths of these women; this morning, though, I see those strengths and contrast them with what I am. I think my feelings of inadequacy are all the more accentuated this morning, because in three friendships yesterday I was brought to doubt my own methods...though I realize it's not about me, but various unrelated circumstances caused me to wonder how well I'm doing at being a friend to others, or even (and I rarely do this) how they perceive me and whether choices I've made measure up to their standards. Whether I'm the friend I should be might be one worth examining, but I realize the choices I have made are not between me and them but between me and God. Still, I cringe a little...
I get up from the computer to get a cup of coffee (from my messy kitchen) and look out the window. I get a lump in my throat, because looking out the back, I see dew on the grass, a clear blue sky edged in pink, and a mist that makes the park behind us just beautiful. God did that. Only God could have done it. If I open the sliding glass door, I can also hear all the various sweet calls of the birds that I heard when I was waking up this morning. Only God could provide that as well. I think He showed all of it off to me to encourage me, to show me that He loves me even when my house is a mess. He's showing off the beauty of His creation, and here's something that encourages me: I know that if I walk through that same park, there are messes in every blackberry bush and, it would appear, some disorder even in His very orderly and beautiful creation--His creation is perfect, if a little messy in appearance. The overall view is stunning, and I am thankful that He showed it to me.
Maybe it sounds a bit trivial, but it was enough for me. He loves me. I don't know why, but He does.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
What Constitutes an Easy Life? Could it be a Matter of Perspective and Temperament...or...who your Spouse is
Recently we had some friends over, and somehow whatever subject we were on brought Gary to say that he had had an easy life. Not just, I assumed, in comparison to the bushmen of Africa, or the people living in huts made of aluminum scraps and pallets. I was speechless, but I've had to ponder it since then. He and I, I would think, had for 25 years had the same life, living in the same house and under what I would think were the same circumstances. It made me realize just how much perspective impacts our view of things. Was I stressing myself out to make his life easy, or was he taking it easy such that it stressed me out? I couldn't see that either case was true. Still...
Except in comparison with things like third-world type living, I wouldn't have ever thought to describe our lives as exactly easy over those years. Am I less resilient? Am I weaker? (Well, I guess in a sense I am.) Am I more negative? Less optimistic? (Probably--Gary is indomitably optimistic.)
When I look back and list the things that I see as making up a major impact in our lives together, the stressors stand out, flood my memory banks and impact the content of my writing; if you've read it you know this to be true. I remember being around 30 and wondering how in the world my grandmother made it to 92, being sure that I wouldn't make it nearly as far. I was tired and stressed! (And anemic; that was significant!)
I wonder at Gary, what he looks back and sees: probably each of our trips (and we did have some good ones, by God's grace--usually accompanying Gary on his work travel; once, Gary won a trip to Lake Louise!), the view from our old house in our crazy old neighborhood (the view was the redeeming feature that he loved about it, looking out over Puget Sound; I rarely felt I had time to appreciate it, and tended to focus on the scarier aspects of the neighborhood...), our various friendships over the years, our two healthy kids and the privilege of home schooling them...of course there were good things. Of course. And if that were all I recalled, I'd say we had an easy life, or at least a good life, too.
Many of our stressors have been the type that would more typically hit the wife harder than the husband. Of course our pregnancies and c-sections would affect me more directly; my other surgeries too; but those all affected him as well, if it were only in that he had to keep house much of the time in addition to his work. In the midst of a six-year period of various surgeries and health problems I had, Gary was head usher at church, and it wasn't until we left that church and suddenly became well that I attributed our constant flow of about 10 colds and 2 flus per year to his hand-shaking there. (He does wash his hands--maybe more now than then?) None of those sicknesses in themselves were major, but they added a dimension onto a substrata of stress, primarily mine since I would generally be the nurturer of the sick.
From his perspective, you would expect that Gary was affected as well by his mother's Alzheimers, by her death and his father's death that followed; by his aunt's and uncle's deaths; all the more by our losses of babies. Those all would seem significant even if the other stressors did not exist. He does handle it differently than I do.
In a recent sermon I heard, the speaker related how his own mother valued a husband who provided a meal on the table; he proposed that it was a universal need in the mind of wives. I don't think of the job gaps as central to our stressors, but it didn't make life any easier. It did train me to be all the more frugal, and above that, to have faith in God's provision outside of the usual means. He has always, always been faithful! We never did lack for basic provision. So in my view of that, maybe I am a complainer, a wimp...thinking of the difficulties rather than glorying in God's continual goodness.
Yesterday I told Katie about her father's strange perspective. She immediately had an explanation: Gary was 33 when we married, and had lost no immediate family members before that; his family life was generally happy and supportive. I was 23 when we married, had been hugely impacted by my father's death, and didn't feel especially happy from age 10 until I came to Christ at 29. So if you analyze anything of what we've been through, Gary's been married less than half his life, and I more than half. Since most of the stressors since the stressors in Gary's life have primarily been since we married and many have had to do with my health...you could certainly say that I'm the monkey wrench in the cake batter of life. Gary's single brother Doug has been telling us this all along in his own way: he has a full head of hair, while their married brother Dave's hair is very thin on top and Gary has nothing but the fringe on the sides. Doug once submitted to us that the hairline corresponds to the stress levels that come with marriage. (Sigh.) Perhaps he had a point.
Except in comparison with things like third-world type living, I wouldn't have ever thought to describe our lives as exactly easy over those years. Am I less resilient? Am I weaker? (Well, I guess in a sense I am.) Am I more negative? Less optimistic? (Probably--Gary is indomitably optimistic.)
When I look back and list the things that I see as making up a major impact in our lives together, the stressors stand out, flood my memory banks and impact the content of my writing; if you've read it you know this to be true. I remember being around 30 and wondering how in the world my grandmother made it to 92, being sure that I wouldn't make it nearly as far. I was tired and stressed! (And anemic; that was significant!)
I wonder at Gary, what he looks back and sees: probably each of our trips (and we did have some good ones, by God's grace--usually accompanying Gary on his work travel; once, Gary won a trip to Lake Louise!), the view from our old house in our crazy old neighborhood (the view was the redeeming feature that he loved about it, looking out over Puget Sound; I rarely felt I had time to appreciate it, and tended to focus on the scarier aspects of the neighborhood...), our various friendships over the years, our two healthy kids and the privilege of home schooling them...of course there were good things. Of course. And if that were all I recalled, I'd say we had an easy life, or at least a good life, too.
Many of our stressors have been the type that would more typically hit the wife harder than the husband. Of course our pregnancies and c-sections would affect me more directly; my other surgeries too; but those all affected him as well, if it were only in that he had to keep house much of the time in addition to his work. In the midst of a six-year period of various surgeries and health problems I had, Gary was head usher at church, and it wasn't until we left that church and suddenly became well that I attributed our constant flow of about 10 colds and 2 flus per year to his hand-shaking there. (He does wash his hands--maybe more now than then?) None of those sicknesses in themselves were major, but they added a dimension onto a substrata of stress, primarily mine since I would generally be the nurturer of the sick.
From his perspective, you would expect that Gary was affected as well by his mother's Alzheimers, by her death and his father's death that followed; by his aunt's and uncle's deaths; all the more by our losses of babies. Those all would seem significant even if the other stressors did not exist. He does handle it differently than I do.
In a recent sermon I heard, the speaker related how his own mother valued a husband who provided a meal on the table; he proposed that it was a universal need in the mind of wives. I don't think of the job gaps as central to our stressors, but it didn't make life any easier. It did train me to be all the more frugal, and above that, to have faith in God's provision outside of the usual means. He has always, always been faithful! We never did lack for basic provision. So in my view of that, maybe I am a complainer, a wimp...thinking of the difficulties rather than glorying in God's continual goodness.
Yesterday I told Katie about her father's strange perspective. She immediately had an explanation: Gary was 33 when we married, and had lost no immediate family members before that; his family life was generally happy and supportive. I was 23 when we married, had been hugely impacted by my father's death, and didn't feel especially happy from age 10 until I came to Christ at 29. So if you analyze anything of what we've been through, Gary's been married less than half his life, and I more than half. Since most of the stressors since the stressors in Gary's life have primarily been since we married and many have had to do with my health...you could certainly say that I'm the monkey wrench in the cake batter of life. Gary's single brother Doug has been telling us this all along in his own way: he has a full head of hair, while their married brother Dave's hair is very thin on top and Gary has nothing but the fringe on the sides. Doug once submitted to us that the hairline corresponds to the stress levels that come with marriage. (Sigh.) Perhaps he had a point.
Friday, May 09, 2008
I've Encountered Some Thoughts Worth Pondering
There are some thoughts that I have come across regarding life in Christ, and the life of Christ--they aren't my own thoughts, so I'm not taking credit for them, but I love them, I don't think they should be missed by anyone, whether you consider yourself a Christian or not:
Let us remember that this present life on earth is the worst things will get for the believer. But for the unbeliever this present life will be the best they will ever experience. (1)
Sounds good for the believer, but the unbeliever should take warning. Think a minute...
Then, the next two thought provokers that I encountered in a sermon, that seemed related in their stark contrasting nature similar to the thought above, are in the following. The pastor who gave the sermon is relating the premise that selfishness is the biggest killer of unity in the church, and just how selfless Jesus was in becoming human for us (barely even touching upon the fact that His death on the cross was pretty central to it!):
(Quoting Philippians 2:5-6)
"'Have this attitude in yourself which was also in Christ Jesus, who although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance like a man, He humbled Himself becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.' That is the mindset that he wants us to put on. We have before us an example of what is known as the humility of Christ...so we have before us...the humility of Christ, His coming down as man, and being made a curse for man, and that's our example...of not being selfish, of being in unity...Turn to Genesis 3, please...what is Paul trying to tell us with this contrast? 'He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, even though He was equal...' 'The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."'
"...What does the first man on earth do? 'I'm gonna do this because I will be like God.' Christ being God, knowing God's will and wanting to do God's will, even though He is God and equal with God, says, 'I don't want to be like that because it would be against God's plan'...see, the first Adam did regard equality with God a thing to be grasped..."
"Now we as humans may not see how low Christ came. When Christ came down as a human, we of course are humans, and we have a very hard picture, because we're...not God, to truly appreciate God taking the form of man. We have no idea what it's like to be God...we've never been face-to-face with an angel that you know of or God, it's very hard to get the concept that Someone sunk down to that form. But He has done two things...He emptied Himself, made Himself of no reputation; and He humbled Himself...Christ being in glory, full-blown in Heaven, stoops to the very low, to a filthy earth, to the place of sin, and leaves Heaven in all its glory, He sets aside His glory, He empties Himself from being Lord of all the world, the Sovereign, who takes the form of flesh, and a slave, a bondservant, a low slave at that, that would need to be obedient to His own laws. You see that the picture Paul is painting here is of perfect self-denial...the fact that He was made human was humiliation all by itself...Our human nature never looked so good as the day that Christ took it. The fact that Jesus took on flesh brought on to human flesh heights to which it had never been, to heights way above Adam...it's never been exalted that high...I'll tell you something, the greatest exaltation of human flesh by Christ's incarnation was the greatest humiliation that Christ could perform..." (2)
Yeah. I enjoyed having that put into words that I could ponder.
1: Thomas Ice, "Some Glorious and Incomparable Promises of the Bible," Pre-Tribe Perspectives, Vol. 8, No. 10, Feb. 2004, p. 5. (That wasn't where I found it--I saw it without the credit given, and found the source online.)
2: Daniel Urroz, How to Kill Church Unity All By Yourself, a sermon, http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=121105103035.
Let us remember that this present life on earth is the worst things will get for the believer. But for the unbeliever this present life will be the best they will ever experience. (1)
Sounds good for the believer, but the unbeliever should take warning. Think a minute...
Then, the next two thought provokers that I encountered in a sermon, that seemed related in their stark contrasting nature similar to the thought above, are in the following. The pastor who gave the sermon is relating the premise that selfishness is the biggest killer of unity in the church, and just how selfless Jesus was in becoming human for us (barely even touching upon the fact that His death on the cross was pretty central to it!):
(Quoting Philippians 2:5-6)
"'Have this attitude in yourself which was also in Christ Jesus, who although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance like a man, He humbled Himself becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.' That is the mindset that he wants us to put on. We have before us an example of what is known as the humility of Christ...so we have before us...the humility of Christ, His coming down as man, and being made a curse for man, and that's our example...of not being selfish, of being in unity...Turn to Genesis 3, please...what is Paul trying to tell us with this contrast? 'He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, even though He was equal...' 'The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."'
"...What does the first man on earth do? 'I'm gonna do this because I will be like God.' Christ being God, knowing God's will and wanting to do God's will, even though He is God and equal with God, says, 'I don't want to be like that because it would be against God's plan'...see, the first Adam did regard equality with God a thing to be grasped..."
"Now we as humans may not see how low Christ came. When Christ came down as a human, we of course are humans, and we have a very hard picture, because we're...not God, to truly appreciate God taking the form of man. We have no idea what it's like to be God...we've never been face-to-face with an angel that you know of or God, it's very hard to get the concept that Someone sunk down to that form. But He has done two things...He emptied Himself, made Himself of no reputation; and He humbled Himself...Christ being in glory, full-blown in Heaven, stoops to the very low, to a filthy earth, to the place of sin, and leaves Heaven in all its glory, He sets aside His glory, He empties Himself from being Lord of all the world, the Sovereign, who takes the form of flesh, and a slave, a bondservant, a low slave at that, that would need to be obedient to His own laws. You see that the picture Paul is painting here is of perfect self-denial...the fact that He was made human was humiliation all by itself...Our human nature never looked so good as the day that Christ took it. The fact that Jesus took on flesh brought on to human flesh heights to which it had never been, to heights way above Adam...it's never been exalted that high...I'll tell you something, the greatest exaltation of human flesh by Christ's incarnation was the greatest humiliation that Christ could perform..." (2)
Yeah. I enjoyed having that put into words that I could ponder.
1: Thomas Ice, "Some Glorious and Incomparable Promises of the Bible," Pre-Tribe Perspectives, Vol. 8, No. 10, Feb. 2004, p. 5. (That wasn't where I found it--I saw it without the credit given, and found the source online.)
2: Daniel Urroz, How to Kill Church Unity All By Yourself, a sermon, http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=121105103035.
Knowledge is Power, but Our Power is Generally Useless
Tim and I went for a walk today in our neighborhood. His favorite destination is down by the creek. I think he could sit for hours and watch it if it weren't for the stick in the mud who walked there with him. It always strikes me how poorly other people treat the area who visit. If they appreciate the natural setting, why do they abuse it? It's been spray painted, littered with trash, and the tree bark is gashed on all available trees, where various people must have used their pocket knives to show their macho prowess on them.
How long have people been carefully taught in the schools to appreciate the environment, to not litter, to love the trees, to leave areas unspoiled? I'm not even what I'd call an "environmentalist," but I am struck by their indifference. We homeschool; I've never taught a unit on not littering, on how important it is to love the trees, or on any of these things. Still, without all this special education tailored to the environment, my children have never littered (except maybe as toddlers, at what point they would have gotten their one lecture on it) and they would never think to carve into the bark on a tree. They may leave messes around the house, but that's different, somehow, and a topic for another day, for that matter. But to junk the sidewalks and trails with gum wrappers and pop cans that could so easily be carried home--what in the world? No amount of teaching helps society get past its lazy tendency to litter, and its inclination to destroy things of beauty. Teachers might as well just talk to empty chairs as to students who won't be influenced by the things they are taught.
The buzz-phrase in education, at least a few years back, was that "knowledge is power." I differ. Knowing that smoking is bad for you, that it can cause cancer and emphysema and wreck your breath and your teeth and make your clothes, car and house smell, and that it costs incredibly much money, this knowledge does not help teens in the fight against the desire to be included, to be cool among those who want them to join in the habit. Knowing that littering is unacceptable does not keep people from doing it. In spite of knowing that junk food is unhealthy, in spite of seeing "SuperSize Me," the documentary on McDonalds impact on one person's health, people consume it in quantity. In spite of knowing so many things, we act stupid, we self-destruct, we alienate others. We know, but it doesn't help. We are powerless in ourselves to do what is right for any significant stretch of time.
I remember wondering why I couldn't fix the problems in my life; my inclination was to have things go right, to fix things, to live a good life. Still everything went wrong. My relationships were all troubled; my health was bad; our finances were bad; our house constantly needed repair. I knew some of my factors in these troubles that would seem to help; still, trying to please my mother-in-law didn't work. I'd fix something on the house and another thing would break down. All the aspects of my life were like that. Nothing I could do in my own strength, in spite of any resolve, was enough to get through it, and the inevitable discouragement only made everything worse.
Where can we tap into the power to get beyond our own futile attempts, our own weaknesses? It isn't in practical, hands-on, general knowledge, though knowledge could help us make the right decisions if that were our inclination. It isn't in will power, because that can tend to be just a setup for failure. The only strength that can propel us beyond our own weaknesses is in Christ. He helped me to discover that my mother-in-law had been diagnosed with Alzheimers two years before--that in itself is an amazing story of answered prayer! He also helped me to find that I was anemic (which in itself can make a person feel overwhelmed and discouraged); He helped Katie get over her colic practically overnight. He didn't solve all of my troubles, but He sure did redeem my life from the pit! (For this life and for the life to come...His benefits in this life are just a tiny preview to the goodness of God, the benefits of knowing Him that will come into full view in Heaven.) Knowledge is power, but it's not enough in itself to compensate for our weakness, unless we will submit to Christ and come through Him to the knowledge of God. That knowledge and strength is the constant, ever-abundant power that we need for every aspect of our lives. Isaiah 40:28-31 says,
How long have people been carefully taught in the schools to appreciate the environment, to not litter, to love the trees, to leave areas unspoiled? I'm not even what I'd call an "environmentalist," but I am struck by their indifference. We homeschool; I've never taught a unit on not littering, on how important it is to love the trees, or on any of these things. Still, without all this special education tailored to the environment, my children have never littered (except maybe as toddlers, at what point they would have gotten their one lecture on it) and they would never think to carve into the bark on a tree. They may leave messes around the house, but that's different, somehow, and a topic for another day, for that matter. But to junk the sidewalks and trails with gum wrappers and pop cans that could so easily be carried home--what in the world? No amount of teaching helps society get past its lazy tendency to litter, and its inclination to destroy things of beauty. Teachers might as well just talk to empty chairs as to students who won't be influenced by the things they are taught.
The buzz-phrase in education, at least a few years back, was that "knowledge is power." I differ. Knowing that smoking is bad for you, that it can cause cancer and emphysema and wreck your breath and your teeth and make your clothes, car and house smell, and that it costs incredibly much money, this knowledge does not help teens in the fight against the desire to be included, to be cool among those who want them to join in the habit. Knowing that littering is unacceptable does not keep people from doing it. In spite of knowing that junk food is unhealthy, in spite of seeing "SuperSize Me," the documentary on McDonalds impact on one person's health, people consume it in quantity. In spite of knowing so many things, we act stupid, we self-destruct, we alienate others. We know, but it doesn't help. We are powerless in ourselves to do what is right for any significant stretch of time.
I remember wondering why I couldn't fix the problems in my life; my inclination was to have things go right, to fix things, to live a good life. Still everything went wrong. My relationships were all troubled; my health was bad; our finances were bad; our house constantly needed repair. I knew some of my factors in these troubles that would seem to help; still, trying to please my mother-in-law didn't work. I'd fix something on the house and another thing would break down. All the aspects of my life were like that. Nothing I could do in my own strength, in spite of any resolve, was enough to get through it, and the inevitable discouragement only made everything worse.
Where can we tap into the power to get beyond our own futile attempts, our own weaknesses? It isn't in practical, hands-on, general knowledge, though knowledge could help us make the right decisions if that were our inclination. It isn't in will power, because that can tend to be just a setup for failure. The only strength that can propel us beyond our own weaknesses is in Christ. He helped me to discover that my mother-in-law had been diagnosed with Alzheimers two years before--that in itself is an amazing story of answered prayer! He also helped me to find that I was anemic (which in itself can make a person feel overwhelmed and discouraged); He helped Katie get over her colic practically overnight. He didn't solve all of my troubles, but He sure did redeem my life from the pit! (For this life and for the life to come...His benefits in this life are just a tiny preview to the goodness of God, the benefits of knowing Him that will come into full view in Heaven.) Knowledge is power, but it's not enough in itself to compensate for our weakness, unless we will submit to Christ and come through Him to the knowledge of God. That knowledge and strength is the constant, ever-abundant power that we need for every aspect of our lives. Isaiah 40:28-31 says,
"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired; His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary."
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
God's Greatness is Far Beyond our Finite Comprehension
I was thinking the other night of the over-arching attributes of God that I find very comforting: His eternality, His perfection, His infinity. Those are what I picture as being His biggest features. Of course, the fact that He is good is vital to all of this, but I suppose that fits into His perfection. If God were any less than any of these, we would be insecure; He would not be the God He is, and there would be gaps in His divinity. How secure we are, though! We can rely entirely on Him because there is nothing in Him that can or will fail. He will not fail Himself, and He will not fail us. We will fail ourselves and Him, but the reverse can never be true.
Surely the biggest inadequacy we have as humans is the capacity to comprehend God's greatness, the absolute nature of His attributes. We who claim to trust Him can't trust Him as well as we should, because our capacity is so small. We don't understand fully, we don't know fully, we don't even seek fully to know what we could about God, if we would only try. And we forget His faithfulness of times past. We are like grass, we are like little flowers that shrivel and die and are blown away, and He is like the great sky and the sun and the wind and the soil that surround us and stretch on past our ability to perceive, and all we tap into is the part that touches us. So we think of Him as much smaller than He is, much less eternal, much less perfect, much less infinite, much less holy and loving and good, and we think our finite thoughts of Him are great because they are bigger than ourselves (hopefully!).
He doesn't condemn us for being so finite. He just works with us, molding, teaching, and stretching us, helping us to understand so we can fathom a little of His glory and glorify Him in what we can. He tells us that He is beyond us, that His capacities are beyond what we ask or think or imagine. No wonder that Paul wrote through the inspirational power of the Holy Spirit:
How can we come to know Him in such a way? Romans 10:17 says, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." Reading God's word will enrich our knowledge of Him. In Jeremiah 33:3, He says, "Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know." What better resource do we have than going directly to Him? And yet He makes Himself known indirectly as well; in Psalm 19:1 He tells us, "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands." He even uses frail humanity to help us! In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul says, "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ." Which also is an exhortation to follow Him closely if only for the sake of those who might be following us. I am thankful that we have good examples to follow these days! It isn't everywhere you find a person who truly lives out what he says he believes, but we know and can point to some; maybe too few for how many people we know overall, but God has provided us with good examples that give us plenty to emulate. God is great! Even our own life circumstances teach us to trust in our great God. I think of one of my favorite verses, Psalm 119:71, "It is good for me that I was afflicted,That I may learn Your statutes." God wastes nothing!
I will be praying today that I might go beyond my present ability to understand who He is and to love who He is and obey who He is, by His grace, through the riches of resources that He has provided...to God be the glory! As you see, there is plenty to learn and to put into practice.
Surely the biggest inadequacy we have as humans is the capacity to comprehend God's greatness, the absolute nature of His attributes. We who claim to trust Him can't trust Him as well as we should, because our capacity is so small. We don't understand fully, we don't know fully, we don't even seek fully to know what we could about God, if we would only try. And we forget His faithfulness of times past. We are like grass, we are like little flowers that shrivel and die and are blown away, and He is like the great sky and the sun and the wind and the soil that surround us and stretch on past our ability to perceive, and all we tap into is the part that touches us. So we think of Him as much smaller than He is, much less eternal, much less perfect, much less infinite, much less holy and loving and good, and we think our finite thoughts of Him are great because they are bigger than ourselves (hopefully!).
He doesn't condemn us for being so finite. He just works with us, molding, teaching, and stretching us, helping us to understand so we can fathom a little of His glory and glorify Him in what we can. He tells us that He is beyond us, that His capacities are beyond what we ask or think or imagine. No wonder that Paul wrote through the inspirational power of the Holy Spirit:
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
How can we come to know Him in such a way? Romans 10:17 says, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." Reading God's word will enrich our knowledge of Him. In Jeremiah 33:3, He says, "Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know." What better resource do we have than going directly to Him? And yet He makes Himself known indirectly as well; in Psalm 19:1 He tells us, "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands." He even uses frail humanity to help us! In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul says, "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ." Which also is an exhortation to follow Him closely if only for the sake of those who might be following us. I am thankful that we have good examples to follow these days! It isn't everywhere you find a person who truly lives out what he says he believes, but we know and can point to some; maybe too few for how many people we know overall, but God has provided us with good examples that give us plenty to emulate. God is great! Even our own life circumstances teach us to trust in our great God. I think of one of my favorite verses, Psalm 119:71, "It is good for me that I was afflicted,That I may learn Your statutes." God wastes nothing!
I will be praying today that I might go beyond my present ability to understand who He is and to love who He is and obey who He is, by His grace, through the riches of resources that He has provided...to God be the glory! As you see, there is plenty to learn and to put into practice.
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