A Life Unexpected (Part 5)

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

-C.S. Lewis

            Some of my sweetest memories are of sitting alone outside with God.  Several of these instances took place behind the chapel at Bible school.  The town was small and fairly still with the exception of the bustling of the students and the occasional mooing of cows in the distance.  As I enjoyed the various shapes of puffy clouds against the bright blue of the sky and examined the intricacies of all the different uncomfortable rocks on which I sat, I talked to God.  Unhurried and surrounded by comfortable silence, I told him whatever was on my heart and mind, I read some of His Word, and I thought about who He was as I drank in my surroundings.  Then, I would wait.  Sometimes, I could almost hear Him answer my frustrations and my questions in my heart.  Often, I already knew the answers, but I just needed to be reminded and reassured.  He was always so gentle and so patient, but direct. 

It was in one of these times that I told Him that He could do anything with my life.  In particular, I told Him that I would keep loving and serving Him even if that meant that my dreams of marriage never came true or that I would be living in some awful mud hut in a foreign land (just please, Lord, keep the snakes far away!).  I told Him I was willing and that I wanted to be obedient, and I meant it with every fiber of my being.  As crazy as it sounds, indescribable peace filled my heart, and fear had no more place.  As I have experienced different trials and allowed myself to drift away in doubt, discouragement, and fear, I have found that the quickest way back to that sweet place of peace, surrender, and fellowship is the way that I arrived there in the first place: by remembering who I am and whose I am.

Who I Am

           When trying to define myself, I am often tempted to list off describing qualities, such as: wife, babysitter, organizer, musician, etc.  In reality, these titles refer to my roles, jobs, behaviors, and hobbies and fall far short when it comes to determining who I really am.  If I found my identity in them, then I would be completely lost should they be changed or taken away.  Fortunately, my identity is much more stable, and God has told me what it is.  As a believer in Christ, I am:

And SO MUCH MORE!

This identity (or position) is at the core of every believer, and it cannot be lost.  Neither does it originate within the believer, but it is the gift Christ gives us of Himself.  We believers don’t always act in accordance with this identity, but that does not change the fact of who we are in Christ.  Paul understood this truth better than most.  He had an impressive earthly pedigree and resume, which he outlined briefly in Philippians 3:5, 6.  Continuing on in the passage, we see that he considered all of it to be a loss in comparison with knowing Christ and being found in Him.  Christ’s righteousness in him was far superior to any feeble righteousness that he could muster up on his own.  Paul’s earthly successes were garbage compared to the value of the life he could live in Christ.  He admitted that he was not complete and perfect in living out his identity in Christ, but he also knew that on this earth he was to press on in growing more like Christ and becoming in practice who he already was in his position.  This type of thinking is completely illogical to the world, which is why Paul also pointed to one very crucial aspect of the believer’s identity – that of being citizens of heaven.        

The fact that I am a citizen of heaven is one of the most encouraging truths to me in times of difficulty.  This life is not all there is, which gives me hope.  I was not made to fit into this world’s mold and to constantly chase after the ever-elusive goals of temporary self-fulfillment, success, pleasure, and happiness.  I was made for lasting joy, for meaningful worship, for deep fellowship, for liberating rest, and for eternity.  I was made to last and to be in a relationship with the one who always was, is, and will be.      

Whose I Am

            Understanding who we are is only part of the equation.  We must also understand whose we are.  I know I have touched on this in previous posts, but the answer to living a life unexpected really all boils down to this.  We are not our own.  We belong to Christ – to God.  He has not hidden His character from us.  In His Word, He has revealed that He is:

And, again, SO MUCH MORE!

            He loves us so much, and He does not find joy in our pain.  Many cultures in many ages have believed in gods who required blood sacrifices to cover the sins of man.  The one true God also required blood to cover sin, but He Himself came down and met the requirement that His character demanded.  He could have left us as lost causes to die and be separated from Him forever.  We deserve just that.  Instead, the Creator laid down His life to save us, though He knew many of us would turn our backs on Him, hate Him, and trample all over His sacrifice.  He could not give us a greater demonstration of His love.  We will suffer in this life, but only for a little while.  For those who have trusted in Christ, we know that we will have an eternity of the life that He offers, which far surpasses any short, self-pleasing life that we can dream up on this earth.  We get little tastes of that heavenly life when we take the time to worship Him for who He is and rest in the identity He has given to us.  For those who haven’t trusted in Christ, He wants you to come to Him.  He wants to have a relationship with you and to give you an identity and a purpose that are secure.  You weren’t made to go through this life alone.  We can trust Him to lead us through a life unexpected.                                         

A Life Unexpected (Part 4)

“Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.”

-Mary, the mother of Jesus, in Luke 1:38

            Have I mentioned already that I am a planner?  I love calendars, planner apps, sticky notes, lists, schedules, budgets, spreadsheets, charts, file folders, color coding, and all things pertaining to detailed organization and careful forethought.  I rate Office Depot right up with Hobby Lobby, Kohl’s, and quirky little music or book stores.  For me, making a plan or decision is a painfully slow process of thorough analysis and research, and once it is made, I don’t respond well to unexpected changes or curve balls from any source.  It drives my fun-loving and spontaneous husband crazy.

            While planning and organization are helpful skills, they (like just about anything) can become detrimental if they are taken too far.  Overly rigid schedules and disproportionate responses to interruptions and inconveniences often betray an unhealthy desire to be in control.  This inner drive to be in charge makes it incredibly hard to have a truly willing heart of obedience and surrender when it comes to following Jesus.  Time and time again, I think I have relinquished control of this life I have been given for complete dependence on God, and time and time again, He has gently shown me areas to which I am still holding on with white knuckles.  In my endeavors to gain control, I usurp Jesus’s role as Lord and treat Him instead like an adviser and a repairman.  In essence, I bow to the idol of self.  A life that revolves around self-fulfillment, self-sufficiency, self-service, self-trust, self-pity, self-worship, and/or self-absorption is not a life that honors God, and it is certainly not the abundant life that Jesus offers.       

            Thankfully, my Lord is also a loving Father who does not allow His children to get away with mutiny.  He disciplines us (Heb. 12:5-11), and He gives us instruction in His Word for living a rich and purpose-driven life (2 Tim. 3:16, 17).  In the Bible, He repeatedly addresses these issues of idolizing self and taking control by teaching us to instead humble ourselves and submit to His will.  In Romans 12:1, Paul urges us (in view of all that Christ has done) to offer our bodies as living and holy sacrifices in a spiritual service of worship.  The animals that were sacrificed in the Old Testament were completely vulnerable, powerless, and without a voice as to their fate.  Unlike them, we are exhorted as people who have a choice to be living sacrifices.  The problem with a living sacrifice is that it can get off of the altar.  This is the reason why re-dedication is such a common and recurring practice.  We can choose to obey Christ one moment and then turn around and obey our selfish desires the next.  Laying down our lives as living sacrifices isn’t something that we just do once, but we must lay them down again and again every time we are presented with the choice to follow self or to follow God. 

            To clarify, I am not speaking here about salvation.  A person is saved once for all when he or she believes in Jesus on the basis of His death and resurrection, and this does not need to be repeated.  Rather, I am examining discipleship and surrender, which are normal responses to salvation.  I could offer a more detailed explanation, but that would take us on quite a long bunny trail from the topic at hand.  If you have questions or would like to discuss it more, feel free to contact me! 

            In Galatians 2:20, Paul tells us how this life of self-sacrifice is possible by declaring, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”  Later in the same book, he describes in detail what it means to “live by the Spirit” and to “walk by the Spirit” (meaning the Holy Spirit).  God does not expect us to obey and follow Him out of our own strength.  We would not be able to do that.  Rather, He has led by His example of being the ultimate sacrifice, and He has given us His Spirit to empower us to live the lives to which He calls us.  Living by the power of the Spirit in obedience produces “…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control…” (Gal. 5:22, 23), which sounds much like the abundant life that we so desperately want and mistakenly try to attain through self-focused efforts.    

            Not only has God given us the instruction and the power to surrender our lives to Him, but He has also provided us with examples to follow.  One example that immediately comes to mind having recently celebrated the Christmas season is Mary, the mother of Jesus.  As a young virgin girl who was engaged to a man of integrity, she would have had many reasons to fear, to try to seize control, and to seek an escape from her very unexpected calling of bearing the Savior.  People would assume that she had been unfaithful, and she would have to endure the disbelief, judgment, and disapproval of everyone around her, including her fiancé.  Experiencing pregnancy for the first time can be unsettling for any mother, and she might have wondered if she would have to face it alone.  The rumors would spread, and she would even be at risk of being stoned to death according to the law.  None of this held Mary back.  She didn’t doubt, argue with, or reason with God, but she believed that the angel’s announcement would come to pass, and she responded with humble submission and an attitude of worshipful rejoicing in her God.  She chose to willfully and joyfully be a living sacrifice. 

            A modern example that God has provided for me is that of my brother-in-law and his wife (Ben and JaNae).  They recently announced their pregnancy (in one of the most creative ways ever, I might add → Click Here to See Ben & JaNae's Announcement), and their story about becoming pregnant is so fitting for this post.  JaNae shares it like this:          

In June, Ben and I decided to go camping for a night and take a kayak and float around for a few hours. He fished, and I read. While reading, this book talked all about how Christians love to say "God's in charge" but don't actually let him be in charge, and how we lack obedience. This sentence smacked me in the face, because the phrase "God's in charge" had come out of my mouth so many times when it came to having kids, and yet we were in total control over it. So we prayed and agreed...we need to give him actual control... so we gave up control and ACTUALLY surrendered it to him with the desire to be obedient! Was I ready? No! I was freaking out! But we know His plans our greater than our own, and his timing is perfect! We are TOTALLY pumped to be having a child! My mind is blown everyday by His creation, and we can't wait to meet our little loved one!!

            Ben and JaNae recognized God’s voice, and they listened.  In spite of their apprehensions, they chose to hand the reigns over in this area of their lives to the One they knew they could trust. They chose to be obedient, to be surrendered, and to be living sacrifices.  The same Spirit who strengthened Mary to be obedient by faith is working today in the lives of Ben and JaNae and in the lives of all who have trusted in Christ.  When we let Him, He enables us to say along with Mary, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word” (Lk. 1:38).         

A Life Unexpected (Part 3)

“Comparison is the death of joy.”

-Mark Twain

            Our propensity for comparing our own circumstances with those of others starts at an early age.  Little Johnny has a toy truck in his hand, and little Bobby does not.  Cue the waterworks.  Little Sally receives five goldfish, and little Suzie receives six.  Brace yourself for the deluge of outraged accusations of unfairness.  As we grow older, we begin to manage our responses a little better (or at least disguise them), but we are still inclined to draw all sorts of comparisons.  A few nights ago, my husband looked at my bowl of ice cream and expressed his indignation against the fact that I had more fudge ribbons than he had. 

More seriously, I have had to guard myself against looking at the lives of others when I am frustrated with my own unmet expectations.  When I succumb to this temptation, I find myself becoming more unhappy, cynical, discouraged, selfish, and ungrateful.  The child who is given five goldfish is content and thankful for the snack (five is certainly more than zero!) until he sees that his friend received six.  Then, all of a sudden, he forgets about what he has and can only think about the one that he does not have.  We know that this heart attitude is immature and lacking in understanding, but that knowledge doesn’t always stop us from giving in to it as adults.  God has provided jobs, a rental house where we can have all three of our dogs, several ministry opportunities, friends who can relate to us on many different levels, close proximity to family, and so much more since He moved us, but it is still far too easy to let all of that fade into the background of the missing pieces of vocational ministry and parenthood.  When I see others who do have those pieces in their puzzle, I have to fight my heart from reverting back to its childish and sinful ways.      

Not only does my heart suffer when my attention is overly fixated on the lives of those around me, but my relationship with God suffers.  A horizontal focus on my circumstances and on the lives of others leads me to doubt the goodness, impartiality, love, and justice of God.  The reason for this is that such a short-sighted mindset is backwards.  It’s much like trying to look through a solid piece of paper to try and see the characteristics of a magnifying glass.  Not only is this absurd and pointless, but it would lead us to believe false information (for example, we might think that the magnifying glass is completely opaque instead of transparent).  We do the same thing with our Creator.  We evaluate His character through the lens of the tangible circumstances of our lives instead of clinging to His character to help us see our circumstances clearly and respond to them correctly.

 

This inverted perspective doesn’t just affect our relationship with God, but it also taints our relationships with other people by prompting us to raise walls of insecurity and envy that distance us from everyone else.  How can we expect ourselves to be vulnerable with other people if we don’t really believe we are secure in God’s love?  How can we help but envy other people if we don’t really believe that God is impartial?  Our deep-seated beliefs about God (not the ones to which we merely give lip-service, but the ones that we are deeply and inwardly convinced are true) directly impact the way we interact in all of our relationships.

So, what is the solution?  We have to shift our focus back to where it belongs: on the true character of our God, made evident in His Son, Jesus Christ.  Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus is “the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature.”  When we know Him, we know God, and we can be confident to follow Him no matter where He takes us.  This is not because He won’t allow anything bad to happen to us in this life, but because He gave us His life when we did not deserve it and He has promised to cause “all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).  He is trustworthy, and He deserves our complete allegiance and obedience.  For Peter, following Jesus meant that he was going to be martyred.  When Jesus told him this, he did exactly what we have been talking about.  He looked at John, and said “Lord, and what about this man?” (Jn. 21:21).  His motive for asking this question isn’t specified, but Jesus’s response is crystal clear: “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?  You follow me!” (Jn. 21:22). In essence, Jesus told Peter that His will for John was none of Peter’s business.  Peter needed to keep his gaze directly on Jesus and follow Him, and that is what we need to do too.

This instruction is hard to accept in a culture that takes equality to an extreme.  We are told that it isn’t fair for some people to have more money than others (even if they earned it legitimately), so we must forcibly take it from those who have and give it to those who have not.  If we give a gift to one friend, then we have to give gifts of the same value to all of our other friends in order to show that we love them all the same.  All children must at least receive participation awards because we don’t want any feelings to get hurt.  We grow up in this environment, and then we expect God to behave the same way.  If He gives a certain earthly blessing to one family but not to another, then He must love the first family more or be more pleased with them.  If He allows one family to experience the horrors of cancer but not another, then He must not really be just.  If He asks one of His followers to be a martyr but not the other, then He must be cruel and unloving.  We become angry with Him because we think that if we follow a list of rules and do everything just the right way then we shouldn’t have to experience hardship or miss out on any earthly happiness. 

In reality, the only thing any of us deserves is death: complete separation from God (who is Love and Truth) forevermore in a place of eternal punishment.  In that respect, we are truly and utterly equal.  However, in His grace and mercy, Jesus gives His life just as equally and utterly to all who trust in Him.  The Creator bled and died to take the wrath that rightfully belonged to the creation.  Each breath we take is a gift that we don’t deserve: a gift of grace.  Each spiritual and earthly blessing is a gift of grace.  Whether we like it or not, even trials and hardships are gifts of grace because God takes those difficulties and uses them for good.  He never allows us to go through more than we can bear with His strength, and He never leaves us.  We have no right to expect any favor from Him, He has every right to command us to follow Him, and He has every right to lead each of His children how He chooses apart from our input (though even in this, He graciously invites us to come to Him in prayer).  When we compare our lives to the lives of others, we not only make a mess of our hearts and our relationships, but we show disregard for God’s great grace and all that He has done for us.  Following our Savior with undivided attention is truly the only appropriate response to the manifold grace we have been shown as well as the only way to a heart that is free to be thankful and content, to love others, and to love God.