So, I’d love for you to find Sean Smith’s World Race web page and read through some of his blogs. There was one (not sure if it was written or video) that talked about this same concept with a bit more detail. I’m not sure where I first heard of this but I’ve heard it now a few different times and it is starting to sink into my heart.
Growing up I was a “momma’s boy” in many respects. I also became “the nicest guy in the world” as a couple of friends referred to me. I never really took that as an insult because I knew what they meant in their heart by it. However, there was an unsettling in my heart every time I heard it because there have been times in my life where I have learned to be too nice. I’ve avoided some issues or sugar-coated things at times where I never should have. In a way, I learned to lose a bit of my backbone to stand for the things I needed to stand for…that doesn’t at all mean that I wasn’t passionate about things or that I didn’t have a way of getting things done. That also doesn’t mean that I was weak or that I didn’t have courage. But the more I became submissive, the more I learned to use my strength to just restrain myself…Right now, I’m learning to lean on God’s strength and His presence to stand for those who don’t know how to stand for themselves….That’s a pretty big switch and I’m about to share just a taste of how that part of me shifted….
Growing up I followed the example of what I thought a “good” christian boy ought to be. I based my life on Christian principles…I think it would be fair to say that I’m not alone in that department. It is because of that lifestyle that I think there are many people who look at Christianity and think that it is based on an idea and not a God…If we serve an idea, than we can make up our little principles, maintain control of our own lives and even set up a system to judge others where we don’t feel like it’s wrong! If we serve a God, than He is our Lord (check out what that truly means because most of us don’t live like that) and we relinquish our control…scary thing to ACTUALLY do!!
I grew up without swearing….If you’ve ever heard me swear, I challenge you to write it down in a comment on here…I guarantee you won’t find a response that’s valid! I grew up without ever smoking a cigarette (I’ve smoked a few cigars in the past couple years.) I’m 24 years old and I’ve had exactly two sips of alcohol in my life with three of my closest friends in the mountains of Montana. I’ve never had sex. I’ve never been in a real “relationship” and I haven’t even kissed a girl (outside of my mom and grammas…) You know what…About five years ago I sat back and thought about all of the things I didn’t do and realized how prideful I had become for that. Then it hit me that I’ll never be judged for the things that I didn’t do…yet, how many of us put so much stock in these things? Am I saying to go out and cuss, drink, smoke and commit adultery? By no means…but who are we to think that the ultimate thing for us to do is to not get polluted and to avoid the world? Love is messy and we like to be clean!!!
So how did I get there? Well, I think our culture in general has been stripping males of their authority and their strength. Before you get worked up I also want to say that it isn’t necessarily women’s fault. This is not about men vs. women because women have been shoved down as well…However, guys have been given the opportunity to take a back seat to women who are growing increasingly assertive and many of those guys are copping out…There are Godly women out there who are taking the reigns and leading the charge because there aren’t enough men willing to stand up and fight for them! Am I at all upset with those women for taking charge?? NOOO Way…they are giving us a heck of an example, but that ought to stir a guys heart up and want to wake his heart up…think of how you would feel if 5 out of every 6 soldiers we sent to Iraq were females??? Well, that’s essentially what we are doing on the spiritual warfare front…I dare you to check out your local christian book store…check and see how many shelves of books are dedicated to raising up women and stirring their hearts…Then look at how many there are for the men. Now take a closer look and you will realize that half of the ones for the men are written by women or about dating advice for nice guys…WAKE UP MEN OF GOD!!!!!
I’m getting on a tangent- I grew up in a society where men’s roles and women’s roles are becoming one. That is both a good and bad thing…regardless it is becoming true. I grew up in a time where “tolerance” has become a virtue and the only thing that isn’t tolerated is an absolute truth…everything has become grey and we’re learning how to not stand for anything. Tolerance at it’s root may have some really good things about it, but not the way most Americans live it. We’ve used it as a blanket word to allow us to avoid other people, cultures, ethnicities, socio-economic groups, religious groups, political groups or anyone else who believes or acts differently than us. We embrace ignorance and avoidance through it instead of embracing people! Even churches are embracing this type of tolerance in subtle ways. I know there are many Christians who live with open arms to anyone and everyone who is willing and wanting to live like them! Is the goal to make people like Christ or us??? I know because I have lived like this and I was wrong! Plain and simple: I’m learning to set my expectancy, goals and life higher than the basement level of “tolerance.”
Well, you say, isn’t the bible a book of rules and regulations and traditions we ought to follow? Even Jesus said that He didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill it…didn’t he? Listen, those traditions, laws, rules and regulations were set up to bring us life-not death! Is He pleased more with someone who follows all the rules but doesn’t spend time with Him, or someone who is a hardened criminal with the vilest of backgrounds who turns and desires to be in His presence? The bible is full of those stories and I will let it answer that question for you. He wants to spend time with YOU! He wants you to rest in Him! In fact, that’s the number one thing He’s been trying to teach me (I’m a slow learner) this past year: Rest is Holy…do it!! OK, that’s another blog.
The best example I can come up with is the story of Christmas…(the way my dad has talked about it…)
Nowadays a majority of people focus primarily on presents when it comes to Christmas…how much money, time and effort do we spend on getting the right ones, desiring to get the best ones and parading around with it until it gets old? The problem is that it’s about PRESENCE, not PRESENTS…a mere typo that makes a HUGE difference. The God who knew us before He fashioned our hearts and put flesh on us gave us the most ridiculous present ever…Himself!!! He came into this world in the lowliest of conditions and gave us nothing at the time but His presence. Before He could walk He was a refugee in Egypt. When He came back, He had no friends his age because they were all slaughtered by a jealous king…who jealous enough of a baby that he slaughtered all the babies within a few years in the entire land…(don’t get too angry at him because we as a country allow millions of abortions a year without shedding a tear…when was the last time you cried out for those who didn’t have voices yet? yeah, me either and that is finally starting to break my heart…) At some point He lost his earthly father and he remained faithful in a relatively quiet life until God sent Him out at the age of 30 (the age for high priests to become high priests.) Those next years He was hungry, homeless, chased, nearly stoned, whipped, abandoned, and died on a cross for loving people. If you think it was our sins that held Him there, you are wrong! It was His love, not our sins that kept Him on the cross!!! He counted it as pure joy not because He enjoyed the price He had to pay but because He enjoyed the people He was paying the price for…you…me (who are we to tell Him that we aren’t worth it!!! He sets your value…you don’t!)
Anyway, He asks us to follow Him…to die to ourselves so that we may live…However, we’ve attempted very hard to make Christianity a powerless, presence-less religion because we want the fire insurance to keep us out of Hell and yet the control to make our own decisions here on earth. We enjoy traditions and rules as much as we despise them because ultimately that puts our fate back into our own hands…Regardless, He’s given us the ability to come into His presence (read much of Hebrews) and to live by it. There is a lifestyle that is possible where we live by every word that comes from the Fathers heart…but few live like that…I want to…
We have traded a fear of God for a fear of man and I dare say that there is a verse in 2 Tim. 3 that ruffles me up a bit….It says that in the last days…they will have a form of godliness but deny it’s power… Is that not what we have been striving for if we were truly honest?? His power is terrible (in the correct definition of the word) and mighty and boundless and that realistically scares the crap out of us because we can’t control it…we have to surrender to it if we acknowledge it to be true. Unfortunately, people will spend their entire lives avoiding to acknowledge it and they will still have to bow their knee and confess that Jesus is Lord…
For much of my life I have asked God to give me ears to hear Him…that if He was so active and real, that I wanted to hear what He had to say even if it were to devastate everything I’d set up and everything I hoped for…you know what…I’m finally starting to get whispers and glimpses of what He’s like and it’s starting to rock my world…You want some of that? Seek Him and you’ll find…Seek first the kingdom of God and all things will be added unto you…
You can be sustained by principles, but you start to thrive when you spend time in His presence…
The Key is this: SEEK HIS HEART NOT JUST HIS HAND…
