Seeking his glory (part three)

I don’t know if this is true of everyone of you or not, but for me, I am discovering that the older I get, the more sensitive I become.   The sad thing is that I honestly don’t know what has happened.  One moment I am strong, the next I am teary-eyed.   And, the scary thing is that there seems to be no rhyme or reason behind my emotional change.  Whether it is memories of my children, moments spent with my wife, songs that I listen to or movies that I watch, it seems to me that I have turned into a big ole cry baby. 

Here is a case in point.   This past Saturday was Candace’s birthday (an incredibly young 36) and one of the presents she received was the movie Facing the Giants.   If you haven’t seen the movie, I would highly recommend that you do so.   But, make sure that you have a box of tissues handy as it has the potential to turn you into a big ole cry baby just like it did me.

I don’t want to ruin the movie for you, but I have to reference one scene because it really deals with our subject of seeing the glory of God.   In this scene, Grant Taylor, coach of the Shiloh Eagles, just found out that he is the reason behind him and his wife not being able to have children.  In tears, he tells his wife the news and asks her if she will still love God if he doesn’t give her a child?

Think about that for a moment.   Let the implication sink in.   And, ask yourself the same question, only with a little twist.  Will I still love God if he doesn’t give me ___________.  You fill in the blank.

Is life about us, or is it about God?   If it is about us, then our love for God wavers when we don’t receive the things we want or feel we deserve.   If life is about us, our love wavers when we receive things we feel we don’t deserve.  

If life is about God, then we praise him regardless of whether we win or lose, whether we get what we want or not.   If life is about God, then we love him and seek to bring glory to his name.

In another scene, Mrs. Taylor is informed, one more time, by the nurse that she isn’t pregnant.   As she walks to her car the disappointment and fear that she may never be able to have a child overtakes her and she begins to cry.   But, rather than blame God for her disappointment, she looks up toward God and makes the comment I will love you no matter what.

For me, I know and understand that life is about God, but learning the lesson is difficult at times as I am conditioned by this world to believe that life isn’t fair if I am not getting what I want.   But, I am getting better at focusing on seeking his glory and realizing that life is not about me.

What about you?  Any particular struggles with which you need help?   Any suggestions for the rest of us?

Seeking his glory (part two)

We live in a self-centered world.   Whether we like to admit it or not, we are products of this self-centered world and tend to be self-serving in all that we do.  

The surprising thing is that we are conditioned to be self-centered from the moment we enter this world, usually by the ones who love us most, our parents.   Think about it – from the moment we leave the womb and enter the world of the walking, we are constantly told how beautiful we are, how cute everything we do is and receive standing ovations whenever we do some of the very basic things of life.  As we grow, we move from crib mobiles to cellular phones, from push toys to Playstation III, from eight-track to mp3 players.   In many ways, we are a nation of spoiled kids with adult responsibilities.

Please understand me, having nice things isn’t sinful – the self-serving, self-centered attitude that often characterizes us is sinful.   But, all of this should be no surprise to us.  After all, just consider the first of our kind, Adam and Eve.  Wasn’t their fall from grace based on this self-centered, self-serving attitude?

Listen to the serpent, you will not surely die, God knows that when you eat of the fruit you will become like him.

Can you think of anything more appealing to a self-centered, self-serving attitude than the thought of being a god?  

Well, as we said yesterday, life is not about us – it is about GOD!

Our problem is that we always think in terms of what we can do to make our walk more spiritual and acceptable to God.  We decide we need more commitment, so we determine steps to walk so that we can become more committed.  We decide we need to be more devoted, so we set out to become more devoted.   What we don’t realize is that the very words we choose speak volumes about our self-centeredness.  We don’t need to seek to be more committed or devoted, as if our actions could make us such anyways!  We need to surrender!

Surrender our wills, our desires, our need for exaltation.  Surrender our self-serving, self-centered attitudes.   Then, and only then, will we be the position to see that life isn’t about us, that life is about God.  In other words, we need to remove self from in front of the throne so that God can sit down and let his glory shine in our lives, and through our lives.

Any thoughts?

Seeking his glory (part one)

When I was young I was terrified of dying.  I can actually remember lying in my bed, curled in the fetal position, tears rolling off my cheeks, thinking about what life would be like once I was dead.

The interesting thing is that I wasn’t thinking about heaven or hell, or anything such as pain or punishment.  My thoughts always focused on the memory those left behind would have of me.  What terrified me was the thought that no one, not a single person, would know that I had existed, remember who I was or even miss me. 

I guess all of my fears came from the fact that my mother died six weeks after I was born.  Other than the few photos I had been given and stories that I had heard, the woman who gave birth to me seemed like nothing more than a figment of my imagination — it was as if she appeared for a moment, gave birth to me and then disappeared.  Her life truly was, as the Bible puts it, a vapor, here for a moment, which vanished away.  

Now that I am older, I have learned that earth’s history has exalted and remembered very few of the billions of people that have walked its surface.   And yet, every great once-in-a-while, I will find myself in that familiar, childlike position, contemplating life on this earth after I am gone.   Is all of this selfishness on my part? 

Although I do not believe that my childhood experiences with being terrified about not being remembered would be classified as being selfish, I tend to feel/think much of what I experience today could be.  After all, I am a product of today’s me-centric society.

Well, guess what?  Contrary to popular belief, life is not about me – life is about GOD!  This is a difficult, but important lesson for each of us to learn.  Whether or not I am remembered by anyone on this earth after I am dead and gone is unimportant.  Whether or not my life directs/leads someone to God is!

I am working diligently on developing this attitude in my life, not by seeking to change my fears, as if my efforts alone could do that anyways, but rather, by seeking to see his glory.   The next couple of posts will continue to explore this idea of seeking his glory and how doing such effects each of us.

Any thoughts?

Father, lead us

Ever had one of those topsy-turvy nights that no matter how much you wanted to fall asleep you couldn’t?  Well, last night was one of those nights for me.  So, at 1:00 in the morning I rolled my body out of bed and stumbled my way through the dark until I was sitting in front of the computer. 

I thought, if I can’t sleep I might as well read some inspiring blogs; believing that such would help me through this sleepless moment and perhaps give me some direction for my next blog or two. 

I think each of you know the routine, you begin at one sight then jump to another, then another and so on.  The problem with this routine is that a person can spend more time at the computer than he really wants to if he is not careful.  Know what I mean? 

Somewhere around 3:30 in the morning I began to wind down and felt like I could probably climb back into the bed and fall fast asleep.  Unfortunately, there had to be that one last search. 

I decided to see if I could discover blog sites from any of my former preaching school classmates.  So, I enter the first name into the search box and clicked enter, not really expecting to discover anything.  However, what I discovered not only surprised me, it literally shocked me as my former classmate had been arrested for soliciting inappropriate favors from an undercover policewoman posing as a prostitute.   

TIME-OUT!  HOLD ON!   WAIT A MINUTE!

Confession time – at that particular moment I am ashamed to say that I was filled with mixed emotions.  At first, I nervously laughed as I thought about this conservative of conservatives being caught at something that he would have been ready to stone another for doing.  I couldn’t help but think of all the comments he must have made about me when I, as a minister, had an affair and broke apart two families.  I couldn’t help but think of all the negative things he must have thought and conveyed to others when he learned that I had remarried.  After all, this was the person who once told me he would not baptize a person if he knew there had been a divorce and remarriage in his or her past.   

Then, it hit me like a ton of bricks – I was acting just like everyone acted whenever I made my mistake and fell into sin.  I was becoming someone I didn’t want to be, a splinter picker with a log in my own eye. 

I quickly realized that I needed to change my attitude and follow the Savior by telling Satan to get behind me.   

Now, as I think about this event my heart hurts.   It hurts for him, for his wife and his two little children.  I’ve been where he is.  I’ve found myself in need of people who care, rather than those who are simply lining up to cast stones.   When will the church start being the church, serving as doctors and nurses in the hospital of our God?   As Jesus stated, let he who is without sin cast the first stone.    

Let me encourage you to pray for several things: [1] for the church, that she may become the hospital she was intended to be rather than a monument for the righteous as we have tried to make her, [2] for me, that I may reach out with pure heart and motives to one hurting and be the servant God would have me be, and [3] for this person, his wife and his children (even though I have not mentioned names) so that the path before them is filled with caring souls who are more interested in sharing the love of Christ rather than the stones of the Pharisees.

Open my eyes

Brian Littrell, formerly of the group Backstreet Boys, released his debut Christian album entitled Welcome Home.   In one of his songs, Brian sings of his wish to have been there, to literally have seen Jesus face to face.  I am sure all of us have given thought to that same wish at one time or another in our lives. 

If it were possible to be at one event in the life of our Savior, to experience first hand the marvelous combination of deity and humanity, to witness the power and wisdom of the Christ, which event would you choose?

Difficult choice isn’t it!  After all, just think of the possibilities.  

For me, as much as I would like to know what Jesus wrote in the dirt when addressing the self-righteous crowd ready to pounce on the woman caught in the act of adultery, witness the amazement in the eyes of those who saw him walk on water and calm stormy seas or experience the quiet moments he spent in prayer; the event I would choose is the one where Jesus utilized the unlikely combination of dirt and spit to restore sight to one who had been blind from birth.  I realize this event doesn’t have the wow factor that many others have, but this event receives my vote because I so desperately want my eyes opened to him and his will for my life, to be the opposite of the Pharisees who sought to discredit him and his mission in this world.

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind …Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”  

Could you benefit from a having your eyes treated with this mixture of dirt and spit?  I know I could.

 

What event would you choose?