This week I've been utterly overwhelmed with all of the different roles I am playing this semester. I have my role as a student, as an RA, as an employee (in two separate positions), as prospective law student, as a friend, as a daughter, as a sister, as a girlfriend, and as a human being just trying to stay healthy. To top it off, I discovered a crack in my windshield this morning that probably will need to be fixed before driving home for Spring Break at the end of this week. I was gifted an awesome planner for Christmas that I've been using to schedule myself and prioritize projects. At the beginning of the week I sat down to try and organize myself in this planner, scheduling out my days half hour by half hour, and I discovered that 24 hours in a day just simply is not enough.
I'm sure that most people can relate to the chaos of trying to fill more roles in life than you can count, regardless of your stage of life. When something needs to go, though, what is the first thing? I'll tell you that this week, for me, it was spending time with God. Thank goodness that He's shouting loud enough for me to pause and pay attention to Him today, only halfway through the week, before my head explodes.
As I sit in our local coffee shop I am reminded that of all my roles only one really matters: my role as a follower of Christ. If I'm seeking Him, everything else will work out. I took a moment this morning to pause and listen to Him, looking through the red text in the New Testament, and was drawn to a fairly popular passage in Mark. Jesus has just been asked which of the commandments is the most important and this is His answer: "Love the lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these" (Mark 12:30-31).
This reminds me that nothing is as important as loving God and loving His people. I shouldn't be fulfilling these roles that I am overwhelmed by this week simply because they're items on my to-do list, but because God has called me to each of them in this moment of life. Every item that I check off should be to God's glory, even the most tedious task stops feeling stressful when its done to fulfill God's command to love Him and His people. The papers I write this week are for God's glory so that I can learn about this world that He's created, the copy and paste data entry that I do this week is for God's glory so that I can share the load with coworkers and earn money to use to further His kingdom. The conversations I have are to connect and love the people God has guided me to know.
Today Christ re-centered me on Him, and I challenge you to let Him do the same for you. I guarantee that even the longest of to-do lists will seem less stressful when you are reminded of your call to life. Your purpose here is to love God and love His people - do everything with that in your heart, and trust that God will help you find the time to do what needs to be done.
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
The Love Letter
Today, for better or worse, is Valentine's Day, a day that encourages us to appreciate and love the people in our lives, but for many it is difficult to not be cynical today. Whether its because there's a relationship in your life that isn't what you want it to be, there isn't a relationship that you were hoping for, or simply because you think today is a "Hallmark holiday," today is an easy day for many to feel more estranged from those around them than ever. As I work on a Bible assignment for my Biblical Ideas class, though, I am reminded of why today is even possible.
"We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). No matter your thoughts on Valentine's Day or the status of any of the relationships in your life, you are loved today and that love should inspire you to love those around you. It's okay if you just don't feel it right now, but remind yourself that there is a God who loves you so much that He created you with a purpose. You are not here by accident, you are not here to slide by in life. God created you to be who you are and is shaping you to be who you are becoming to fulfill a purpose in this world.
Read Psalm 90 if you need a reminder of this. At first it may make you feel small, as the Psalmist puts God's greatness and infinitude side by side with our small and short lifespans, but rejoice in this: God, who is so great, who has been God "Before the mountains were born or [He] brought forth the whole world" (Psalm 90:2), created you intentionally. You are not an accident, and despite our lifespans being like new grass that "in the morning springs up new, but by evening it is dry and withered" (Psalm 90:6), God created you intentionally. If He did not have a purpose for you, He would not have bothered to bring you forth into this world. You are important.
The Lord, your God, came to this earth as Jesus Christ and gave His life so that you may have life eternal with Him. That is true and absolute love. He lived a perfect life and then took the punishment that you and I deserved out of pure love. You are important and you are loved.
If today you are not feeling love in the air, take a look at some of the other Psalms. Psalm 139, Psalm 23, and Psalm 24 in particular may be good reminders of how deeply the Lord cares for you. Then I encourage you to read 1 John 4:7-21 to see how this love of God should inspire us to live today and every day. Today, love those around you not because it's Valentine's Day or out of any obligation - love because God loved you first. Love because His love radiates through you. Love because His love is the only one that you'll ever need, and the only one that'll never fail.
"We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). No matter your thoughts on Valentine's Day or the status of any of the relationships in your life, you are loved today and that love should inspire you to love those around you. It's okay if you just don't feel it right now, but remind yourself that there is a God who loves you so much that He created you with a purpose. You are not here by accident, you are not here to slide by in life. God created you to be who you are and is shaping you to be who you are becoming to fulfill a purpose in this world.
Read Psalm 90 if you need a reminder of this. At first it may make you feel small, as the Psalmist puts God's greatness and infinitude side by side with our small and short lifespans, but rejoice in this: God, who is so great, who has been God "Before the mountains were born or [He] brought forth the whole world" (Psalm 90:2), created you intentionally. You are not an accident, and despite our lifespans being like new grass that "in the morning springs up new, but by evening it is dry and withered" (Psalm 90:6), God created you intentionally. If He did not have a purpose for you, He would not have bothered to bring you forth into this world. You are important.
The Lord, your God, came to this earth as Jesus Christ and gave His life so that you may have life eternal with Him. That is true and absolute love. He lived a perfect life and then took the punishment that you and I deserved out of pure love. You are important and you are loved.
If today you are not feeling love in the air, take a look at some of the other Psalms. Psalm 139, Psalm 23, and Psalm 24 in particular may be good reminders of how deeply the Lord cares for you. Then I encourage you to read 1 John 4:7-21 to see how this love of God should inspire us to live today and every day. Today, love those around you not because it's Valentine's Day or out of any obligation - love because God loved you first. Love because His love radiates through you. Love because His love is the only one that you'll ever need, and the only one that'll never fail.
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
The Sinful and The Saved
My boyfriend and I began on the endeavor of reading the Bible in its entirety in a year on August 1, and we chose a reading plan that spread out the Old and New Testaments, as well as Psalms. One of the passages for the first day was Matthew 1.
In the past, I have skimmed over the first chapter of Matthew, assuming that there wasn't much wisdom to be gleaned from this particular section, as it is mostly a list of names. Newly inspired to read every individual word that God has given us in the Bible, I read it word for word this time and discovered something that I had never noticed before. The second part of verse six reads "David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife," (Matthew 1:6).
The lineage of Jesus not only includes several adulterers, but it makes direct reference to the adultery that had taken place at the beginning of David and Bathsheba's relationship by saying that Bathsheba (the mother of Solomon) "had been Uriah's wife." David and Bathsheba's sin is described in 2 Solomon, chapter 11, in which David and Bathsheba commit adultery together while her husband is away at war. When she conceives of a child, David devises a plan to have Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, sleep with her so that nobody will know of their sin. When Uriah refuses to do so David has him put on the front lines of the war to be killed so that David may marry Bathsheba.
David and Bathsheba experience the grace and forgiveness of God in 2 Solomon 12:24-25 with the birth of their son, Solomon, whom God loved. The birth of Solomon shows that God's purposes will prevail, even in our sin, and that we are never too far from God to receive His grace.
The inclusion of this relationship in the genealogy of Jesus Christ shows us that God is bigger than anything we can every do wrong. He is not ashamed of us, He loves us and will use us if we ask Him and are willing, even in our deepest sins. God does not expect us to be perfect, He is fully aware that we are not capable of living sinless lives, and that does not prevent Him from using us, even in our moments of sin. David and Bathsheba's originally sinful relation is in the direct line of Jesus Christ, the Savior from sin.
In the past, I have skimmed over the first chapter of Matthew, assuming that there wasn't much wisdom to be gleaned from this particular section, as it is mostly a list of names. Newly inspired to read every individual word that God has given us in the Bible, I read it word for word this time and discovered something that I had never noticed before. The second part of verse six reads "David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife," (Matthew 1:6).
The lineage of Jesus not only includes several adulterers, but it makes direct reference to the adultery that had taken place at the beginning of David and Bathsheba's relationship by saying that Bathsheba (the mother of Solomon) "had been Uriah's wife." David and Bathsheba's sin is described in 2 Solomon, chapter 11, in which David and Bathsheba commit adultery together while her husband is away at war. When she conceives of a child, David devises a plan to have Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, sleep with her so that nobody will know of their sin. When Uriah refuses to do so David has him put on the front lines of the war to be killed so that David may marry Bathsheba.
David and Bathsheba experience the grace and forgiveness of God in 2 Solomon 12:24-25 with the birth of their son, Solomon, whom God loved. The birth of Solomon shows that God's purposes will prevail, even in our sin, and that we are never too far from God to receive His grace.
The inclusion of this relationship in the genealogy of Jesus Christ shows us that God is bigger than anything we can every do wrong. He is not ashamed of us, He loves us and will use us if we ask Him and are willing, even in our deepest sins. God does not expect us to be perfect, He is fully aware that we are not capable of living sinless lives, and that does not prevent Him from using us, even in our moments of sin. David and Bathsheba's originally sinful relation is in the direct line of Jesus Christ, the Savior from sin.
We are sinful and we are saved, and God can use every part of our story for His glory.
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Put it in its Place
This semester I have had a constant whisper from that still small voice: "Put it in its place."
Worrying about school? About work? About money? About illness? About politics? About time?
Put it in its place.
God did not create us to live anxious, worry filled lives. He created us to live lives full in Him. God didn't declare "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3) for His benefit, but for our benefit.
When you worry, are you elevating the subject of your anxiety to a place that it doesn't deserve to hold? There is a place in our lives for worry, for work, for studying, for money, for political analysis. There is a place for most of what we fill our lives with, but where it becomes harmful is when we make it more important than it is. Put it in its place.
For me, this semester, it's one of my classes. It's a business simulation that runs on a weekly schedule, where competition results come out on Sunday night at 9PM and then we spend the rest of the week analyzing what happened in the simulation and making decisions for the next week. It is one of those things that could truly never be done. No matter how much time I put in from week to week, there is always more analysis that I could be doing, more calculations that I could make. When I get caught up in the simulation I can easily spend several hours doing nothing but staring at the computer screen and moving numbers around. Do I get any fulfillment from this? No. Does it make me a better person? No. Does extensive analysis help me to learn the class objectives better? No. Could my team do better if I were to do nothing but look at these simulation results? Maybe.
It's in these times when I am so caught up in this simulation or other classwork that God tells me to step back and put this class in its place. I wasn't created for this class. This class does have a purpose, but elevating it to a level outside of its rightful place in my life does nothing beneficial to my learning or to my character development.
For the first eight weeks of this class my team consistently was not seeing results that matched up with the amount of time and effort we were putting into the simulation. I felt beaten down and exhausted by this class, and by the time week eight rolled around I was ready to quit, feeling pretty bad about myself and my abilities. Together with my team and professor I put a final push into week eight, exerting more time and energy on this simulation than any week before, vowing that I would do nothing but the bare minimum from there on out if the week eight results weren't better.
Week Eight was a roaring success. The results came out Sunday at 9PM, as per usual, and I was overjoyed. A funny thing happened as the week went on, though. After the initial excitement, this success didn't fulfill me, and much like our prior failures didn't define me, this success didn't either. I laughed at God when I realized that even though I had been trying to listen to Him all semester and put this class in its place, I really had believed that everything in my life would align and go well once this class went well. But that wasn't true, and even with this personal "win" I still had to put the class in its place.
The only thing that defines us is Christ's love for us, not anything that we can do or say in this life. When facets of life begin to take over, don't let them. Keep them where they belong, and keep your eye on the prize (or, rather, gift): eternal life with our Savior. Worry as necessary, work as necessary, study as necessary, but don't let any of those things take over. Put it in its place.
Worrying about school? About work? About money? About illness? About politics? About time?
Put it in its place.
God did not create us to live anxious, worry filled lives. He created us to live lives full in Him. God didn't declare "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3) for His benefit, but for our benefit.
When you worry, are you elevating the subject of your anxiety to a place that it doesn't deserve to hold? There is a place in our lives for worry, for work, for studying, for money, for political analysis. There is a place for most of what we fill our lives with, but where it becomes harmful is when we make it more important than it is. Put it in its place.
For me, this semester, it's one of my classes. It's a business simulation that runs on a weekly schedule, where competition results come out on Sunday night at 9PM and then we spend the rest of the week analyzing what happened in the simulation and making decisions for the next week. It is one of those things that could truly never be done. No matter how much time I put in from week to week, there is always more analysis that I could be doing, more calculations that I could make. When I get caught up in the simulation I can easily spend several hours doing nothing but staring at the computer screen and moving numbers around. Do I get any fulfillment from this? No. Does it make me a better person? No. Does extensive analysis help me to learn the class objectives better? No. Could my team do better if I were to do nothing but look at these simulation results? Maybe.
It's in these times when I am so caught up in this simulation or other classwork that God tells me to step back and put this class in its place. I wasn't created for this class. This class does have a purpose, but elevating it to a level outside of its rightful place in my life does nothing beneficial to my learning or to my character development.
For the first eight weeks of this class my team consistently was not seeing results that matched up with the amount of time and effort we were putting into the simulation. I felt beaten down and exhausted by this class, and by the time week eight rolled around I was ready to quit, feeling pretty bad about myself and my abilities. Together with my team and professor I put a final push into week eight, exerting more time and energy on this simulation than any week before, vowing that I would do nothing but the bare minimum from there on out if the week eight results weren't better.
Week Eight was a roaring success. The results came out Sunday at 9PM, as per usual, and I was overjoyed. A funny thing happened as the week went on, though. After the initial excitement, this success didn't fulfill me, and much like our prior failures didn't define me, this success didn't either. I laughed at God when I realized that even though I had been trying to listen to Him all semester and put this class in its place, I really had believed that everything in my life would align and go well once this class went well. But that wasn't true, and even with this personal "win" I still had to put the class in its place.
The only thing that defines us is Christ's love for us, not anything that we can do or say in this life. When facets of life begin to take over, don't let them. Keep them where they belong, and keep your eye on the prize (or, rather, gift): eternal life with our Savior. Worry as necessary, work as necessary, study as necessary, but don't let any of those things take over. Put it in its place.
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