REFLECTIONS

As Christians, followers of Christ, lovers of God, the BRIDE, we are called to be a reflection of God. Right? The idea that if God is the sun, we should be the moon (thanks, Phil Wickham). Typically, we get a bad rap because we can't seem to "practice what we preach," if you will. We are excellent at TALKING about what life lived for the Kingdom LOOKS like, but not as great at living it out. This is a disastrous disappointment to many - Christians and nonchristians alike. Especially as Christians we get flustered that other Christians (even ourselves) seem to be shaming the name of God even as we carry it, etched deeply into our hearts. But have you ever stopped to think about what is asked of us?
God's love is perfect, pure, and true. Humans are imperfect, impure, and altogether disloyal/faithless. How could we possibly ever depict an accurate image of Christ in ourselves? No wonder so many people get a skewed view of Christianity! The people delivering the message are flawed and sinful. Left to us alone, we could never show what it is that His Kingdom represents. Never! Luckily he is faithful and has our back. He is bigger than our sins and failures, no matter how far and wide they may seem to expand... God expands farther and wider. Always. Without fail. PTL.

We are happy.

We want. We get. We are happy. Right? Not necessarily. Sometimes we miswant.


Let me explain... I was reading my social psychology book last night and it was throwing out all kinds of facts about how out of touch we are with ourselves. Most often, we have no idea what will make us happy, sad, excited...you get it. In general, we are awful predictors of our own emotions. We tend to overestimate the enduring effects of bad things that happen in our lives, we underestimate how soon we will finish our tasks, and we simply misestimate the length of our relationships with others. 


I don't know about you, but this paints a vivid picture of my omnipotent God. How crazy is it that we don't know ourselves? BUT, how awesome is it that we can't figure ourselves out and God know every last thing about us?! So refreshing that I could stumble across God's presence in the science of psychology.

LORD, my Lord.

I'm flawed at even fully understanding what I'm about to type, therefore my explanation is also flawed. But stick with me, okay? This is a lot cooler if you SEE it in your bible yourself, so if you have a bible near by, flip to Psalm 8. If not...I'll type it anyways.

"O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens!" Psalm 8:1

Notice the fact that the first "LORD" is written in all caps, and the second "Lord" is written with the "L" in caps and the "ord" in lowercase. Cool thing here.... They mean different things! LORD refers to our heavenly father and always has covenant implications. Lord, on the other hand, is simply a name for a master or someone superior to the user...not explicitly God. Lord specifically refers to the term "adonai." Upon learning this, I googled adonai because I had always associated adonai with God...I thought they were interchangeable or something. Nooope. Adonai simply signifies ownership or mastership.

Clearly, the verse in Psalm 8 is referring to God. So, by using the term Lord (instead of God, Yahweh, LORD, Father....etc) David (author of Psalm 8) is noting specifically that God has ownership over him. Total possession. David was in complete submission. So so cool!

Today, ask God to be your Lord. Give Him total possession. You won't regret it!

Recklessness of Joy

In church Sunday our pastor mentioned what he called "the recklessness of joy," which struck a note with me.

 This is Kaitlyn and Carson. They are fantastic. Reckless, but fantastic. Kaitlyn is nearly strangling her baby brother...and I'm allowing it for a perfect photo opp. Good babysitting, eh? Anyways, these smiley kids are engaging in reckless joy, I think. Carson is trying to wiggle free and Kait is squeezing him tighter and tighter so he won't slip out. It's funny, but the second Carson finally breaks free or Kait gives up, Carson is on the floor...which is a far drop from a couch when you're 18 months old. But the risk was worth the joy they each experienced.

Okay, so there's not much risk involved in this one, but he's cute..and so very joyful =]

Kaitlyn thought it would be fun to climb the shelves at daycare. Until she fell off and broke her arm.. 

Reckless joy at its prime.

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his JOY went and sold all he had and bought that field." Matthew 13:44

Yep, I'd say that's pretty reckless. We are CALLED to be reckless for God's kingdom, reckless with our God-given joy. Isn't that cool?

At a moments notice we are supposed to willingly and joyfully ABANDON EVERYTHING for the kingdom of heaven. AMEN.

Amazing GRACE

Last night I was planning a lesson for my youth group at church. I stumbled across the idea of grace and ran with it. While trying to figure out what exactly to tell these kids (6th through 12th grade), I was thinking to myself "self, what's so amazing about grace?" Really though. It doesn't sound that special.

HOLY COW. What a joke. 

I get so desensitized to the fact that I am showered in grace by a good, precious, and loving Father that I don't always remember that grace is THE COOLEST THING EVER. Jesus loves us the way God intended us to be. Not for how we turned out: sinful and flawed. He sees through the filth and crust of degeneration...He sees the divine original within us - the rawness that God created us as.

When we embrace this grace, we are changed! God can change ANYONE... as Trip Lee would say, He can CINDERELLA you! When we are changed, we are given new eyes with which to see the world. Instead of offering a judgmental eye to those in sin, what if we saw a REAL person who our Father loves. Instead of identifying others with their sin, what if we saw the sin as something ALIEN, something that doesn't belong to them?

Jesus was able to love because He loved right through that nasty layer of mud. No matter how thick. Can't we do that too?

Luckily for us, God dispenses gifts, not wages. But what does that mean, really? It means that there is nothing we can do to make God love us MORE - no amount of spiritual workout or repenting, no amount of knowledge gained, no amount of crusading on behalf of righteous causes and righteous living. This also means there is nothing we can do to make God love us LESS - no amount of lies or racism or pride or adultery or lust or even murder. Grace is darn near the coolest thing ever.

Hope you enjoyed my VERY FIRST BLOG!! That's right...I'm a blogging virgin! Well..not anymore I guess =]

Over and out.