Hey family,
I’ve been in a transition mode since we moved out of our apt and into my parents room until our condo’s construction work is done...and in this time I’ve been trying to “be still.” I go through some hours feeling guilty that my husband wakes up at 5am to go to work while I get to sleep in, or lazy that I’m really not doing much that appears productive, or afraid that boredom will lead me to idol activities or instant gratification, so to preoccupy my mind I’ve been reading a lot, sleeping, and journaling. And it has reminded me why I love God so much. He is in the moments we realize we do nothing (even if sometimes we can fool ourselves into thinking we do something by filling our schedules as I often do) but when I have a moment like this, where I’m not “obligated to do something” I see how all along my only obligation was to be with God and enjoy Him. To be still and know that He is God.
Sounds simple but it’s harder when you actually attempt to do it! Haha but then you actually do it and it’s sooo nice :)
Soaking in His wisdom, His truth, His provision, His ways...so that when I do find myself back in a schedule it will not be any different.
Because whether I’m at work, school, home, with mentees or mentors, at the DMV or serving at encounter, I am still doing nothing (in the sense that I can produce good things to happen in my life by working for it) and God is doing everything for me to be in His presence. That is, wherever we are, God is calling us to be with Him and entrust our lives to His sovereignty because that is how we will walk in the good works He has prepared for us to walk in with the most blessed attitude.
This part in the book I’m reading called “a long obedience in the same direction: discipleship in an instant society” renewed my mind to remain in the truth about myself, my life, and my God. I had lunch with lily a while back and we were talking about how our social media generation is all about maximizing every moment, and this has caused us and our future children to be more fearful of a real life that isn’t always instagram-worthy.
So it got me meditating on how I should expect a life in Christ to be like, and then how to teach that life to my youth kids and my daughter. Such a life is certainly not always instagram-ready. Many times following Christ has long seasons of minimal excitement and excess confusion, but it is built securely on an eternal destination. A long obedience in the same direction reminds us that our lives are worth living by not chasing temporary snapshots with fake filters, but on the hope that Christ has shown us the only way back Home.
Here it is:
“Rescue me from the lies of advertisers who claim to know what I need and what I desire, from the lies of entertainers who promise a cheap way to joy, from the lies of politicians who pretend to instruct me in power and morality, from the lies of psychologists who offer to shape my behavior and my morals so that I will live long, happily and successfully, from the lies of religionists who “heal the wounds of this people lightly,” from the lies of moralists who pretend to promote me to the office of captain of my fate, from the lies of pastors who “get rid of God’s command so you won’t be inconvenienced in following the religious fashions!” (Mk 7: 8). Rescue me from the person who tells me of life and omits Christ, who is wise in the ways of the world and ignores the movement of the Spirit.
The lies are impeccably factual. They contain no errors. There are no distortions or falsified data. But they are lies all the same, because they claim to tell us who we are and omit everything about our origin in God and our destiny in God. They talk about the world without telling us that God made it. They tell us about our bodies without telling us that they are temples of the Holy Spirit. They instruct us in love without telling us about the God who loves us and gave himself for us.
The truth about me is that God made and loves me. The truth about those sitting beside me is that God made them and loves them, and each one is therefore my neighbor. The truth about the world is that God rules and provides for it. The truth about what is wrong with the world is that I and the neighbor sitting beside me have sinned in refusing to let God be for us, over us and in us. The truth about what is at the center of our lives and of our history is that Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross for our sins and raised from the tomb for our salvation and that we can participate in new life as we believe in him, accept his mercy, respond to his love, attend to his commands.
John Baillie wrote, “I am sure that the bit of the road that most requires to be illuminated is the point where it forks.” The psalmist’s God is a lightning flash illuminating just such a crossroads. Psalm 120 is the decision to take one way over against the other.
It is the turning point marking the transition from a dreamy nostalgia for a better life to a rugged pilgrimage of discipleship in faith, from complaining about how bad things are to pursuing all things good.
This decision is said and sung on every continent in every language. The decision has been realized in every sort of life in every century in the long history of humankind. The decision is quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) announced from thousands of Christian pulpits all over the world each Sunday morning. The decision is witnessed by millions in homes, factories, schools, businesses, offices and fields every day of every week.
The people who make the decision and take delight in it are the people called Christians.”
-Eugene Peterson
This is our pilgrimage until Jesus returns,
And our battle with the world is not against drugs, pornography, losing money, addictions or other people who mistreat us...but against the expectations in our hearts that either tell us to go this way or that way. It is about who we are committed to be our truth. If our truth is Jesus then we commit to denying ourselves to follow Him no matter what, but if our truth is to feel good then we will commit to following what we expect is good for us. This is so hard, because anything that takes so much time before results is hard!
But it’s easier than we think when we finally realize there is no other way haha.
God wins. The end. It’s just foolishness to keep fighting for the wrong team.
But we do it all day, until we stop to be still and know that He is God.
“Before a man can do things there must be things he will not do.”
-MENCIUS
I will not think or expect that I know what’s best for me if it goes against my joy and satisfaction in Christ.
Happy February everyone!
Jmegrey
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