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.

Election Deliverance: Be Strong and Take Heart

I don't have magic words to say to take away the fear that this election has instilled.  I don't have explanations and I don't have a great understanding of how we've gotten to this point.  But I do know that this fear only leads to despair, and we can't let that happen.

Take hope, my friends, because our foundation is not in the President of the United States, but in the Creator of the Universe.  What good does fear and despair do now?  Can we change the results by being saddened?  We are only in this world, we are not of it.

Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death.  But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.  He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

-2 Corinthians 1:9-11

This entire election season has been a mess, and regardless of which candidate won there would be fear this morning, even from many of the same people who are afraid now.  Some feel that the results of last night are the death sentence that we can relate to this passage with, while others feel that this entire election was the death sentence.  Regardless of what camp you're in, regardless of who you voted for, we must draw our hope from the God who raises the dead and delivers us from evil.  Even if you are among those who are fully contented by this election, Donald Trump is not our savior, Christ is, and therefore we must still recognize that only He is in control.

Despairing in this election, losing hope, puts politics in a place that only God should hold.  It makes an idol of government.  Don't lose hope in God's deliverance.  Don't lose hope that God can and will work through all situations, good and bad.  Be disappointed, be saddened, but do not fear and do not lose hope.  Look to the Lord of all Creation for hope and know that through prayer and conversation with Him we can learn the hope He has given us, and trust His power and His will.

"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."

-Luke 22:42 

 

Finding Perfect Peace

I started praying about peace in March, after taking a grueling midterm by which I felt trampled.  I've gotten significantly better at not finding my identity in test scores and grades since the start of this blog in middle school, but I am not perfect.  This class was a night class, meaning that we met only once a week on Monday evenings. 

The Thursday after taking the midterm I was walking around the quad, killing some time between lunch and my biology lab, praying about this exam.  I was so panicked, so frustrated, that this would be the black mark on my transcript, and I felt God asking me "So what?  So what if you didn't do well?" and I felt this peace fall over me as I realized that the score I received on that midterm really did not matter.  It did not matter in the sense that it does not define me or change me in God's eyes, and it did not matter in the sense that it would not impact my future unless it was part of God's plan.  If God wants me to be somewhere in the future, a poor midterm grade will not stop Him from bringing me there.

From there on out I saw signs of God's sovereignty and felt His perfect peace countless times, and so when I began a short devotional study that encouraged its readers to choose one word to focus on for a year, God gave me the word "Peace".  At first I thought this was great, I would no longer be filled with anxiety and stress on a regular basis, and I would find my rest in the Lord.  Then I realized that when God wants to change you, it isn't that easy.  It's easy to ask Him to take away worry and replace it with peace, but it isn't easy to find peace in conflict with those around me, or to have peaceful thoughts towards a driver who cuts me off. 

I remember a Bible study, several years ago, in which one of the leaders told my peers and I that she had been praying for more patience.  She shared that she expected God to give her greater patience, but instead God gave her a greater number of frustrating situations.  At first she fell into the frustrations and continuously lost her patience, then she realized that God was giving her these situations to practice being calm and patient.  Prayer and developing as a Christian is not a genie-in-a-bottle-your-wish-is-my-command relationship with God, it's one of continual development, guiding, molding, and shaping.

When I consciously began focusing on peace about a week and a half ago, I expected God to take away my stresses and show me how to find peace in Him, but He is showing me all kinds of ways to express peace, and bringing me into all kinds of situations in which I need to find peace.  Asking God to grow me isn't an easy process, but I am sure that it is worth it.  I had been focusing on Philippians 4:7, "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus," but I needed to look to the verse before it, Philippians 4:6 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."  God provides, but I must turn to Him and do my part as well. 

Peace is not just a feeling, but a way of living, and God is teaching me that through hands-on experiences.  I don't always succeed in these tests, in fact I hardly have thus far.  I don't realize that He's trying to mold me until after the fact, but I will grow, and He will lead me.  Is God calling you to grow in some area?  Choosing a fruit of the spirit to focus on is a great way to start: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).  It won't always be easy, but it will be worth it.

The Worst Way to Get in Shape

Whenever I'm stressed out, worried, or angry, the muscles in my stomach tighten. I'll walk around for days, sometimes even weeks, with my stomach muscles clenched. You can imagine how this ends up hurting after a while, though I suppose that it is actually really good for my muscles.

The point here is that my internal emotions venture outside of my head and into the physical part of me, even if it's only a little thing causing me to worry. I obsess over even the smallest issue until it's come to a conclusion. And I know that it goes too far when I have to literally try to loosen my muscles.

It's in those moments when I'm trying to force my muscles to let go that I hear God, as odd as it sounds. God tells me that it's okay to worry about things, but not to let them take control of my life. I can't constantly think about issues. Matthew 6:27 says "Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" So as I struggle to loosen the muscles in my stomach, I tell myself that whatever I'm worried about won't last forever, and worrying about it won't do any good, anyway.

I don't know why I worry about things so much, whether it's a personality trait, or something that must be fixed, but either way it isn't good. And though it helps to work my stomach muscles, I'm sure there are much more conventional ways to get in shape than constantly obsessing over issues.