I used to be afraid that God was going to make me a missionary and send me to Guam. Nothing against that country, but it felt a long way from home and not somewhere I wanted to go teach kids the Jonah story.
And I honestly thought that if I gave my all to God, that if I turned over my whole life, he would turn it upside down instantly. So I held back. I gave him chapters. I shared my relationships, my school life, my home life, but kept certain things for me, because he couldn’t be trusted. I didn’t want to do the stuff I knew he was going to make me do.
Have you ever felt like that? That if you said to God, “wherever, whatever and whenever,” your life would be just wrecked? I did, but in the Bible, Jesus doesn’t seem to ever do that. One of the verses that really convicts me is Matthew 4:19. Here is what it says:
"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."
Christ was talking to Simon and Peter when he said that. They were fishermen. That statement made all the sense in the world. But in my interpretation of God, that doesn’t work. Isn’t God supposed to shake our lives up and send us to do far away things in far away places? I mean Andrew and Simon were probably good at fishing, they understood it and maybe even liked it. So why would God ask them to do that? Shouldn’t they go to Guam?
I think the truth is that when we turn ourselves over to God, he doesn’t make us into someone else. He makes us into who we have always been. He amplifies the parts of us that are true. He purifies the dreams we’ve always had or the skills we’ve always used. He doesn’t turn poets into mathematicians or scientists into painters. If anything, I think he gives artists even more colors to create with, scientists even bigger labs to experiment in and so forth.
I’m a writer and when I gave my life to Christ, he didn’t ask me to stop writing. In many ways, he asked me to start writing.
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5 comments:
Sweet! I too get scared that Jesus is going to ring my doorbell one day and say, "Sell everything you own on eBay. Donate the proceeds to a good cause. And when you are done with all that go witness to homeless people." Trusting God with small things seems easy. With big things, no way. This year, He's shown me that He should be trusted with the big things. it's been a humbling experience. Thanks for the truth.
-Adam
thank goodness he has allowed you to keep writing, and He continues to use it to bring glory to Himself... may it remind us all to use the gifts and talents that he has bestowed on us to bring Him honor and worship. You realize, I'm sure, that these postings are obvious acts of worship that we get to participate in with you...
I just asked God yesterday to really reveal to me this year (like he hasn't been doing it all the other years)where I'm supposed to be and what I should be doing with my life. This is a good thought today. It's that question of, "if you could do anything what would it be?" I think I know the answer but I'm pretty scared and undisciplined to do it.
God is magnified in our weaknesses - if one is given the task of of doing something where he already excels, the temptation is to give the glory to MAN - and for MAN to accept. I knew a worldly, awesome musician who laid his craft before His Lord when he gave Him his life, and it was many, many years before he felt the Lord's liberty to take it up again - when he did, it was beautiful!
When God takes a man (or woman), turns his world upside down, puts him in a situation where his strengths won't serve him, where challenges exist where he needs a new skill set - and he gets on his knees and cries out to God for grace in every moment, then he will know his success is due to the Lord's leading and wisdom, and THAT relationship will be SWEET!
Maybe you will go to Guam someday -
~smile~
it's a great reminder that God can use us anywhere ^__^ and we allowed to be scared.
ps.Simon and Peter?
you mean Simon and Andrew like u wrote later on in the entry, right.
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