I went to a Switchfoot concert this evening. One of my passions in life is music, both live and recorded. See music has always had a place in my heart that I have never fully been able to describe. There are those songs that stir me to the core, or that just have something about them that is drawing. Because of this lack of explanation that I had for it, I simply did not really try to describe it to people. I simply said that music was a passion and let them believe that it was just something I liked.
However I was reminded of something at this Switchfoot concert. Switchfoot has a song called Your Love is a Song and they came to this song in their set, and then as they progressed through the chorus it hit me,
"O Your Love is a symphony, all around me, running through me,
O your Love is a melody, underneath me, run into me,
O Your Love is a song"
These are the words of the chorus. I simple could not describe the full extent of what I felt with certain songs or certain melodies, because it was God's love language with me. it was his way of expressing his love to me, of showing me a cool rift, or something that stirs my core. It is the same as the love between a husband and a wife. There is that "it" factor that can't really fully be describe (while I don't know this from first hand experience, it is something that I understand to be true. There is that love in an intimate relationship that you can try and describe in the best sense that the english language will allow, and yet it still falls short.
This realization was huge for me, and while it helps me to explain that feeling (although I am sure that the first time I say "it's god's love language to me" I will get some funny looks) it is not the same for everyone.
I encourage you to look for the love languages that God has put into your life. If your not really into music or it does not hold that place in your life, what does? Sports (the rush of competition, I am in this boat too because God speaks his love in more than one way), art?, servanthood?, teaching?, learning? what are your passions? start there, whatever gets your blood rushing to the point that it is hard for you to describe to others, that is probably the thing that God is speaking his love to you through...
next time you get that feeling thank him and remember he loves you.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Fighting!
When did you last get in an argument or fight? Like a real fight, a real argument, you were actually upset... Do you remember what it was about? If Yes keep reading, if no... keep reading. I think that a lot of our arguments and fights are because we feel a sense of entitlement. In some cases we are right, but I think a lot of the time it is simply the sense that we think we deserve better or should get things OUR way or that THEY are wrong. Pride seems to be at the centre of a lot of our arguments. I think a lot of this has to do with the culture that we live in but can not be fully attributed to it. A lot of the time these arguments could be resolved if we stepped back looked at the situation and stopped thinking about ourselves. If we lay down our pride and looked to lifting somebody else up rather than "winning" the argument. A lot of the petty arguments and anger that infilitrates our lives comes from this sense of entitlement. We have this sense in our culture that "we deserve the best" therefore if we get anything less than what we deserve we get mad, get angry, DESERVE BETTER.
It is not an easy thing to just remove yourself from a situation and tell yourself that well maybe it is just my ego in the way. Trust me, I have struggled with anger issues for the better part of 16 years and by the grace of God have been described as "always happy" nowadays. This is not true, obviously, I am not always happy but I like to think that I am able to remove myself from situations better, something that came with practice and God's help in self-control. Yet, a lot of the times I got angry it was not even justified, but it was because I felt that I deserved better, that I should have gotten better, or that something went wrong so something must be wrong with someone/something else. I pointed the finger instead of looking at my own expectations and what I thought I deserved.
Many times Jesus demonstrates and talks about being a servant. Often times we take this to mean actually physically serving others. I think we can miss the full extent of this meaning, and instead serve others through humbling ourselves before them. In everyday life, whether the person at the drive-thru window got your order wrong, whether someone makes a small mistake that costs you, in a bunch of situations. humbling ourselves before others is a huge thing that we seem to be missing today.
Now there are times where anger is okay. Many times we point to the fact that Jesus got angry when turning over the temples too far. But we need to continually ask ourselves, am I angry for the right reasons? Is this something that could be avoided by me simply laying down my expectations for myself and serving others? Or is it something that needs to be dealt with and anger is an appropriate response. I think we will find that most of the time the first option is completely acceptable.
So next time your angry take a step back and try humbling yourself, ask God to give you the self-control to do this and try lowering your expectations for yourself and for others towards you. Humble yourselves.
God Bless
It is not an easy thing to just remove yourself from a situation and tell yourself that well maybe it is just my ego in the way. Trust me, I have struggled with anger issues for the better part of 16 years and by the grace of God have been described as "always happy" nowadays. This is not true, obviously, I am not always happy but I like to think that I am able to remove myself from situations better, something that came with practice and God's help in self-control. Yet, a lot of the times I got angry it was not even justified, but it was because I felt that I deserved better, that I should have gotten better, or that something went wrong so something must be wrong with someone/something else. I pointed the finger instead of looking at my own expectations and what I thought I deserved.
Many times Jesus demonstrates and talks about being a servant. Often times we take this to mean actually physically serving others. I think we can miss the full extent of this meaning, and instead serve others through humbling ourselves before them. In everyday life, whether the person at the drive-thru window got your order wrong, whether someone makes a small mistake that costs you, in a bunch of situations. humbling ourselves before others is a huge thing that we seem to be missing today.
Now there are times where anger is okay. Many times we point to the fact that Jesus got angry when turning over the temples too far. But we need to continually ask ourselves, am I angry for the right reasons? Is this something that could be avoided by me simply laying down my expectations for myself and serving others? Or is it something that needs to be dealt with and anger is an appropriate response. I think we will find that most of the time the first option is completely acceptable.
So next time your angry take a step back and try humbling yourself, ask God to give you the self-control to do this and try lowering your expectations for yourself and for others towards you. Humble yourselves.
God Bless
Heaven or God?
Have you ever noticed bow many people seem to have problems with God? There seem to be a lot, and a lot of the time it seems that the response to why they have problems with God is either evil, or lack of gifts bestowed on people (meaning 'he has not done anything for me lately', this belief of course being despite the fact that he allowed them to breathe for another day) but anyway.
Have you also noticed that many of these people (mostly non-christians) seem to still have a belief in some sort of heaven? Never mind that as a Christian this means the consequent hell belief must go with it, however this is not the point. I find it super interesting that while people can have huge issues with God that cause them to either reject him or choose not to believe in him (which has issues on its own, because even though God does not do things for you in your own mind does not mean you can choose to make him not exist)they seem to have no problems with heaven. While as a christian community our beliefs tend to lie in the fact that these two are inseperable, could it be that we have given the wrong idea of what heaven is?
Now it is hard to get into it without offering up a view of heaven that could seem suspect, because it is also hard to say "I know what heaven will look like" it seems to be a touchy subject, however i will try and offer up a view that can be expected by most, if not all.
The secular belief about heaven seems to be that it is this nice place that you get everything that you want. There is a warm fuzzy feeling that goes along with the idea of heaven that it is the ideal place to be. While I have no problems with this why is their concept of God so much different. You see the reason is that Christians have portrayed heaven like this for so long. As long as you are "in" it is going to be this amazing place that basically is everything that we want. I don't know that this is necessarily the right way to look at heaven the "everything you want" attitude. While I don't think this is necessarily wrong either.
I think that we must believe that heaven is in sync with the character of God. Heaven cannot be something that is out of God's character or contrary to his character that would defeat the purpose of a lot of other theology behind the Christian belief. However, it seems to have been portrayed that heaven can somehow be separate from God and/or his character, or the secular community is just picking up on things about the christian faith that they find appealing, and it could easily be either one or a combination of these options. Yet, I think that it must constantly be spoken and implied that you can't have heaven without God, heaven is an outpouring of God's character. It is the in essence the incarnation of his character fully realized by humanity, his character showed in the way that humanity can enjoy. It is relationship with God in it's fullest extent, a relationship with God that is fully realized.
So while it may be easy to separate God and heaven for the secular world, I think it is important to realize that this portrayal is not necessarily truth, and to keep reminding ourselves that in the end we get to spend an eternity with our creator and how wonderful it will be!
Have you also noticed that many of these people (mostly non-christians) seem to still have a belief in some sort of heaven? Never mind that as a Christian this means the consequent hell belief must go with it, however this is not the point. I find it super interesting that while people can have huge issues with God that cause them to either reject him or choose not to believe in him (which has issues on its own, because even though God does not do things for you in your own mind does not mean you can choose to make him not exist)they seem to have no problems with heaven. While as a christian community our beliefs tend to lie in the fact that these two are inseperable, could it be that we have given the wrong idea of what heaven is?
Now it is hard to get into it without offering up a view of heaven that could seem suspect, because it is also hard to say "I know what heaven will look like" it seems to be a touchy subject, however i will try and offer up a view that can be expected by most, if not all.
The secular belief about heaven seems to be that it is this nice place that you get everything that you want. There is a warm fuzzy feeling that goes along with the idea of heaven that it is the ideal place to be. While I have no problems with this why is their concept of God so much different. You see the reason is that Christians have portrayed heaven like this for so long. As long as you are "in" it is going to be this amazing place that basically is everything that we want. I don't know that this is necessarily the right way to look at heaven the "everything you want" attitude. While I don't think this is necessarily wrong either.
I think that we must believe that heaven is in sync with the character of God. Heaven cannot be something that is out of God's character or contrary to his character that would defeat the purpose of a lot of other theology behind the Christian belief. However, it seems to have been portrayed that heaven can somehow be separate from God and/or his character, or the secular community is just picking up on things about the christian faith that they find appealing, and it could easily be either one or a combination of these options. Yet, I think that it must constantly be spoken and implied that you can't have heaven without God, heaven is an outpouring of God's character. It is the in essence the incarnation of his character fully realized by humanity, his character showed in the way that humanity can enjoy. It is relationship with God in it's fullest extent, a relationship with God that is fully realized.
So while it may be easy to separate God and heaven for the secular world, I think it is important to realize that this portrayal is not necessarily truth, and to keep reminding ourselves that in the end we get to spend an eternity with our creator and how wonderful it will be!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)