Today we (by we I mean some of my teammates and one of my squad leaders, I cheered) got to play soccer with some of the youths (pronounced yutes) from the church. Now I'm not saying that us westerners didn't hold our own, we did, but there is a definte difference between holding your own and having an astute awareness and familiarity with what you are doing, that awareness and familiarity was apparent in our Serbian friends. Their fluidity and understanding of the game was inspiration for the following thought, soccer is a lot like God. Stick with me on this. The rest of the world depends on soccer as a pastime and turns to it usually every free second they have, the U.S. really only turns to it as something to do on weekends sometimes and only really when they can't find anything else to do. See the relation?
We (this includes me) have the tendency to try to do everything ourselves, to do everything by our own strength and power, only when we fail or fall flat on our face do we turn to God. God doesn't want to be our fall back plan, He wants to be the game plan, the one we rely on for…EVERYTHING. He wants to be our strength, our source of power, understanding and creativity. All of our abilities come from Him anyways. Me taking credit for making someone laugh or for telling a good story is like a candy wrapper taking the credit for the treat on the inside. Doesn't really work, and take a good look at what usually happens to the candy wrapper. We don't last very long, but God, His perfect and wonderful love, that endures and leaves a lasting impression, like the candy in the wrapper. Have you ever opened a wrapper and not found candy, pretty disappointing, the candy is what makes the wrapper have worth, not the other way around. We can go around saying "Wow, look at how great I am, look at what I did." But really it wouldn't be possible without the gifts that came from God anyways. God created us, showing off His creativity by displaying through us How diverse He is. My ability to make people laugh, to tell a good story, that's ALL Him. To give the glory back to Him just makes sense. To give Him the glory for what He accomplishes through us just seems right. Stay with me through this last analogy.
When we give the credit back to where the gift came from it's a lot like when we were kids and we do something great and we want to show it off so we call our parents over to see. "MOM!! DAD!! COME WATCH ME! COME LOOK AT WHAT I DID! COME SEE THIS!" Showing them with a big grin and full of excitement and joy, filled with a sense of accomplishment and confidence. They come and watch full of love and delight. Then you find out that you did something that they're good at or that they did once when they were kids and you feel that connection between you grow stronger, well it's a lot like that. God doesn't want to be the fall back plan, but the one you turn to for….EVERYTHING and the one that you say, "GOD! LOOK! LOOK WHAT YOU JUST DID THROUGH ME! WOW! I KNOW YOU SAW THAT!" Then the bond between us and our Heavenly Father grows stronger, because He delights in His children and enjoys blessing us.
To sum up, God is not a fall back plan to turn to only on weekends (like soccer to us in the U.S.) He's the candy in the wrapper (leaving a longer lasting impression that makes the wrapper worth while) and is the ultimate parent (I got these mad skills from you Dad!) and we should give Him all the credit and glory. Hope you enjoyed the tapestry of analogies, my crazy analogous skills (not spelling skills) brought to you by the creater of the universe, savior of souls and worker of miracles. Thank you for reading and I encourage you to keep your heart and mind open to the working of the Spirit, you never know what He'll use to speak to you, maybe a game of street soccer on a cold day in April or a long walk in the park. You never know, just keep you heart and mind open to His voice and guidance. Thanks for reading, I'm going to go to bed. I love you and miss you. Good night.
