“Don’t concern
yourself with being right in others’ eyes.
And don’t secretly hope that their lives will fall apart so that your opinion will be vindicated. Instead, concentrate on obeying God in your own life and, when possible, helping others to obey Him as well. You don’t have to prove others wrong to continue on the course you know God has shown you.”
And don’t secretly hope that their lives will fall apart so that your opinion will be vindicated. Instead, concentrate on obeying God in your own life and, when possible, helping others to obey Him as well. You don’t have to prove others wrong to continue on the course you know God has shown you.”
-Joshua Harris
Ah yes… I know my blog has been quiet. Something really
strange is happening to me. While I haven’t diverted from my common practice of
reading & self reflection… for the first time in my life, I haven’t been
able to write a thing. Instead, I’ve been talking. A lot. By now I think my husband,
my sister Yaya & my momma are becoming worn out from all my talking. & my poor friends. I can almost see them begin to roll their eyes
into the back of their heads when I open my mouth.
Ok. At the risk of causing you all to follow suit; I’m ready
to write about it… so brace yourselves.
It all
started about six months ago when I read a book called ‘Crazy Love’ by Francis Chan. This led me to pick up David
Platts, ‘Radical: taking back your
faith from the America dream’, followed by ‘Not a Fan: becoming a completely committed follower of Jesus’
- Kyle Idleman, ‘Forgotten God:
reversing our tragic neglect of the Holy Spirit’ -Francis Chan, ‘Radical Together: unleashing the people
of God for the purpose of God’ - David Platt, & courtesy of my my dad, ‘Seven: an experimental mutiny against
excess’ by Jen Hatmaker . All which I read along with the piece de
resistance, The Message Bible.
AHHHHHHHHH! Never in my life have I been so convicted about my Christian walk.
Not just in the way I study the Bible, share my faith with others or even my
commitments to our church family, but rather in the way I live my every- day
life, how I spend my time, my money, my energy.
In the end I
felt duped… & a little bit angry. There is no doubt that I have bought many
of the lies that my American culture, as well as my Christian culture have told
me. I have become so engaged in the quest for the house, the job, the church &
the relationships that I thought I had to have; that I found that I've spent much
of my life’s energy focusing on a lot of
things that just don’t matter. At least not in the spiritual sense. When had I forgotten that people are the only
thing I can take with me?
When I realized
that I’ve had it all wrong, I was devastated… I was humbled... I was moved to
do… something.
But to be
quite honest, the idea of starting my whole life over, retrain my brain to
accept everything that God was teaching me & then to actually do something
about it was so overwhelming I didn’t know where to begin. I mean, what if
Jesus really meant it when He said, “If you want to give it all you've got, go sell your possessions; give everything to the poor. All your
wealth will then be in heaven. Then come follow me.” –Matthew 19:21 GAH!
As Chuck
& began to really talk & pray about what God wants us to do with our
lives & ministry, we began to feel very strongly that we need to decrease
our lifestyle so we can increase giving to those in need around us. The first
part of following in this conviction is that we have decided to sell our house;
downsize from our four bed, three bath home & move into a much smaller
rental. We met with a realtor this week & will be putting our home on the
market in August. I know that not everyone is going to understand what we are
doing or why we are doing it. But it’s not a decision we have taken lightly. It
is a decision we feel we are making out of obedience to God & we’ve come to
realize that obedience isn’t a lack of fear. It’s just doing it scared.
I know in my
heart that this is just the first step we are taking in this crazy journey. I’m not sure what the future holds for us but
I do know that God has a plan & purpose for us.
& I keep coming back to Romans 12:1-2
‘So here's what I want you to do, God helping you:
Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.’
Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.’
