This month I arrived in South Africa unpacked my bag and continued the process of saying goodbye to “home” for the year. As my previous blogs have mentioned it has been a painful process. Through this I have come to see that God has had plans to bring lies to the surface that I have believed. He has displaced them and spoke truth to them. The biggest one that I have held onto for a very long time is that my home is in Oologah/Owasso, Oklahoma. And my home has my heart.
“Home is where the heart is” reads my shirt with a print of the state of Oklahoma and a red heart printed in the area where all my friends and family live.
This saying is sweet and I want to believe that is okay and healthy to feel this way because it’s where all my comfort is. I like being comfortable. I really like my friends and family and I would love to tell them they have my heart.
The problem lies in the fact that in Luke 14:26 Jesus says to a crowd that if we want to be His disciples we must hate everyone else in comparison- our father, mother, brother, children, friends, even our own life.
^^ HARD PILL TO SWALLOW, right?! At least it is for me.
Now what I dont think Jesus is saying is that we must have a heart of hatred towards our family and ourselves to follow him but that we must love Him MOST of all and have allegiance with Him and Him alone. Our love for our family and friends and our own comfort cannot even be a competitor to our feelings and adoration for Him.
My favorite analogy I have heard that explains a healthy heart in this area is that Christ should be our soft-melt in your mouth chocolate cake and all the other blessings (family, friends) That He has given us is just the yummy cream cheese frosting. The cake is super good without the frosting and we don’t need the frosting but because God is a good father He gives us frosting that just makes the cake a little sweeter.
In James 1:17 the bible says every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
My family and friends are for sure gifts from the father. I love them so much and it’s okay to miss them! But in my heart they can no longer be my all in all. I now recognize that they are only the frosting on top of the already delicious cake which is my relationship and place in my father’s kingdom.
I thank God for the shift in my perspective and the way He has moved my heart to fall even deeper in love with Him. Because He has made it so much easier to enjoy my cake! Even though it has been a painful process the Joy of knowing Him far outweighs the pain.
*last thing I want to add is that I think that this is a shift in perspective that we have to constantly ask the father for. I dont think it’s a one time deal. Because our hearts are deceptive and as humans it seems really easy to forget that He is and has to be our everything and nothing else can take that place.*
With love,
-Ryan
