If not here, where?
If not now, when?
If not you, who?
I have found that most of us are pretty good at qualifying and disqualifying ourselves in various aspects of life. Areas we feel secure about quickly become qualifications that others should just as quickly recognize and praise. And the areas we feel more insecure are immediate deadends and disqualifications; ignored, hidden, and riddled with excuses - or possibly insufficiencies we pour our energies into fixing.
"Follow me and I will make you fish for people..." Mark 1:17
In scriptures we see that when Jesus called His disciples, the command "follow me" was connected with a promise "I will make you."
The command to "follow me" is a clear invitation for relationship, which is where Jesus begins with all of us.
The promise "will make" is clearly focused on Jesus' activity, not ours. The word "make" is translated from the Greek verb poieo, which is the root of the words "poem" and "poetry". He is forming and crafting our lives as an author writes a story.
He doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the called.
How has God written a story through your life?
Are you still disqualifying yourself? Or are you following and letting Him do the making?
"... you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God." II Cor. 3:3-5
/ Audacity / Recklessly bold. Eager. Daring. Disregard of normal restraints.
Some men arrived carrying a paraplegic on a stretcher. They were looking for a way to get into the house and set him before Jesus. When they couldn't find a way in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof, removed some tiles, and let him down in the middle of everyone, right in front of Jesus. Impressed by their bold belief, he said, "Friend, I forgive your sins." Luke 5:18-20
For this rule-keeper, it's pretty bold action tearing into someone else's roof. At first read, it is very hard to put myself into the position of the friends or the man on the mat for that matter. I get a little nervous and uncomfortable with this brazen behavior of taking matters into their own hands.
However, as I dive into the story a little deeper, I begin to consider the paraplegic and what it must be like to have no freedom of movement. Or to be a friend of someone who has been bed-ridden with no hope of ever walking. And I consider the moments I have thought or said if I could do anything for a suffering friend I would do it.
When they couldn't find a way - they made a way.
There's a fine balance to be found between acceptance and resignation. To find it, I think the question we must ask is, "Am I making a way?"
With resignation there is no way to find and you give up. You've hit the dead end and declared it to be. You disengage from the rejuvenating gift of life and the process of dying sets in.
With acceptance, you embrace the opportunity to make a way. You see the dead end and begin to look for roofs to cut through. You breathe deeply the air you are blessed to breathe and engage more fully in life than you ever have, knowing full well your life or someone else's may depend on it.
Living in sync is not always the path of least resistance, but it is always the path of life. Go ahead. Be a little reckless and bold. Take every set back and obstacle as the opportunity to make a new way forward. And while you are at it, don't forget to do it for your friends, too.
I really enjoy running. It's like a simultaneous exchange of releasing energy and gaining it at the same time. A breathing out of my tension and stress, and a breathing in of oxygen and life.
Typically, I run alone. My schedule is not very structured, so I carve out time when I can to exercise.
Last night, we ended up a the Y and I was running on the indoor track. Here is the place I find my occasional fellow runners. While we don't necessarily run together, we do by the nature of being on such a small track.
Without thinking about it, I began to gauge the speed of others and determine my own pace. Clearly wanting to avoid running over walkers or whacking into each other on the corners. Can anyone tell me why these tracks have to be so small that you almost feel like a hamster wheel going round and round and round?
At one point, a high school girl jumped in right behind me, shadowing my run. Well, I thought. This is my opportunity to pick up my pace and see if I can stay ahead of her. Maybe, just maybe it has to do with being over 40 and facing another birthday this month. Or possibly the adrenaline of running was taking hold.
So, I did pick up my pace. And she stayed right there, about two steps behind. We rounded corner after corner and I hit the sweet spot of my running. Fast enough to be stretching myself out of a lethargic jog and steady enough that I wasn't exhausting myself or getting a side stitch. It was pretty darn fun.
After several laps, my daughter popped her head into the track and I knew she was ready to go home. I held up two fingers, announcing two more solid laps. Then I pushed into overdrive. Could I hold a sprint for the final two laps without fizzling at the end? Would my running partner stay in step with me?
Off I went, and off she went. Right with me, in step with my every step. Two laps later as we slowed down for a cool down my spontaneous running partner looks over with a grin and says, "Good job".
Not only did this make my run more fun... but I think there's a principal of life caught up in this little moment we shared. Make the most of every moment. Live it with the people around you. Let the energy of moments & people spur you on to accomplish more than you could do alone.
Live life at its best!
"He that believeth in Me... out of him shall flow..." John 7:38
Our lives are designed as containers. Not to fill and contain; but with the purpose to be poured out and given away to others.
How silly it would be to fill my water pitcher at home, but never pour it out to satisfy thirst and replenish the physical needs of people.
In the same way, how can I view my life as a pitcher, but never pour it out to satisfy the thirst and replenish the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of people around me?
Let's face it, the pouring out and emptying of our lives can be a little scary. Particularly when we view ourselves as the source of what we give. We try to think how much more can I give, I mean I need to take care of myself too...
And while there is a necessary 're-filling' for the pitcher for more to be poured out, what I've found is that He who calls me to pour out my life is well able to keep filling! When Jesus is my source of life (rather than myself) I can trust there will always be more than enough to give to others.
And the Lord will continually guide you,
And satisfy your desire in scorched places,
And give strength to your bones;
And you will be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail."
Isaiah 58:11
Living our best lives is not about containing; but rather learning the rhythm of being filled and poured out... filled and poured out... filled and poured out. To him be the glory.
Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Ephesians 1:4
We live in two worlds; the interior and the exterior. The interior is hidden and often remains unseen, or so we think. In actuality, I believe what we see - the exterior of our life - is directly related to the condition of our interior life.
If this premise is true, it is a crucial consideration for us as we consider living life at its best and bringing about the changes we see necessary to achieve this.
More often than not, we consistently address our exterior lives when seeking change. We seek training, set goals, address challenges, and more. All of this is very good and necessary.
However, if we do not take into consideration the interior aspect of our lives; we will find ourselves getting exhausted, falling short, re-addressing issues and never truly living our best lives. Once we begin to address "the thing behind the thing", we can experience a freedom and inspiration that will literally feed the exterior life and change we are seeking.
If change is hard, I suggest taking time to consider your interior life. Ask yourself what is behind the exterior change you are desiring. Here are a few questions to get you started:
- What do I believe about this?
- What am I afraid of?
- Why am I doing this?
- Where does my strength come from?
As you sit with these questions, may they propel you more fully into who you were created to be and the exterior changes you seek come naturally. May you find yourself living your best life ever.
Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Psalm 127:1
I will build my house and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18
There is something quite restful when we surrender our lives to the Lord as builder. When we come to the end of ourselves and realize it's about His much bigger hands building what only He can build.
However, it's not an easy place to get to. It's a sifting process, in which we allow Him to define and re-define our lives. It means letting go of our own building materials and putting down the hammer of knowing what we need and want to accomplish in our lives.
It means embracing the amazing work of grace that brings dimensions and depths to our lives that can come no other way. It means the fullness of living - not in vain - and not overcome by hell's onslaught.
It is for His glory and the stewarding of His grace in Christ, an invitation to live life at its best.
Where have you been laboring that needs to be put in the Builder's Hands?
Yet God has made
everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the
human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s
work from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11
Within the cocoon, hidden away - a deep, transformation is at work. As the old life structure is broken down, "imaginal" cells begin to emerge into a new life that is beyond imagination... a life it was designed to live from all of eternity. A lowly ground-crawling caterpillar is soon to be a lovely air-soaring butterfly.
When you feel wrapped up & hidden away, and like your life is being broken down on the inside... don't lose heart. He is getting ready to bring forth a new thing. A lovely work of freedom and beauty. It's the process of transformation at work, and you can't even imagine what is yet to come. In due time, you will see the eternity of God's heart being played out right before your eyes. Hang in there.
What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived the things God has prepared for those who love him. I Corinthians 2:9
