Anyone who has known me for more than 3 days knows there are 3 things (well several but many can point out these three things) I love and am pretty opposed to living without.
1) I am pretty particular about my shampoo and the condition of my hair. I've never dyed it, I'm pretty opposed to drying it with a blow dryer (heat damages hair), straightening it (even though I love my hair straightend…heat damages hair, remember?),
2) Feather pillows…I have two and don't go anywhere…literally anywhere without one. I brought one on a 3-4 day vacation and stuffed it in my carry-on. Again…I don't go anywhere without it…
3) Finally but definately not least…my big soft blankets. I know I called them blankies above…but really I'm opposed to that term. They are blankets…not blankies…and just because I'm 23 and love my blankets, does not mean I have to talk baby talk and revert to baby language. I simply named the blog that after my brother recommending it…
So…as I was sitting in the car on the way back from a family friends house, I was talking to God about my upcoming trip…overseas…for 11 months….with only 2 bags….a total of 7,500 cubic units. I was thinking about how it was all going to fit. So, discussing with God about these things…I asked Him if it would be wrong to pack my feather pillow since I can't really pack a years worth of shampoo. Well let me say this, before I could even get to that thought and fully process it, here He goes pointing out that I've found my identity in my hair. Weird right? No, not really…I've been around this mountain for several years…
So back to the feather pillow and my soft blankets…all a sense of security. This year, I'm leaving it all behind. I'm going to serve, yes, to serve, but in the midst of genuine service, God must flow through you. This being said, if He is not your source for love, comfort, security, identity, and everything else we substitute through worldly things, this service is all in vain.
1 Corinthians 3:9-15, "For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you are God's building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder i have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire."
If we are relying on worldly things to get us from day to day…then how do we expect those we are serving to learn any different?
Just a thought…and a process…and a realization on just how much I cling to things when I need to be fully clinging on to God.
I'm moving forward…seeking His face…His security…my identity in Him…
Will you join me on this journey?
