80. to fly another day... getting past self
Posted by:
SeLahGirl on
July 21, 2008 at
2:19PM EST
So I went to an amazing conference with our youth group
recently, BIG STUF. I had heard people try to describe it, and they
always seemed to find themselves at a loss for words but it was always
described as a spiritual encounter that changes your life. I'd heard
similar descriptions of other events (having been involved with teens
and youth ministry for 20 years now)... but the people explaining it --
all had a similar look in the their eyes, a Light, as they recalled the
encounters from the past. It was evident that something was different
about this one. Not just a one time, or one person experience, but a
consistent STONE OF REMEMBRANCE for EVERY person that has attended it.
I'm not even going to try to describe it, you can check out their
website, but it really is something that you must experience. Just
arriving and setting foot on the conference grounds is like stepping
into a pool of anointing. Everything around you looks very normal and
the expected routine to the physical eye... but something in your
spirit begins to stir. It's like your spirit is breathing different
air, refreshing air, something it has craved and didn't know that it
had craved... and yes, it was life-changing, it was truly a spiritual
encounter. If you ever have the chance to go or to send a teen, you
should do it without hesitation.
So I was given a BIG STUF
devotion to read thru and to meditate on at one point of the week. It
was written from the perspective as though God were speaking and he was
describing what his church is not, and what it is. The line that jumped
out at me is something that seemed so normal, and I had heard a million
times, but this time I saw it in a new light, a deeper understanding...
"My church is excited about me and about each other," God.
We all work diligently to keep that excitement in our relationship with
God, but do we truly work to keep that same excitement in our
relationship with each other. We often over emphasize fellowship when
we hang out, but is the focus of that fellowship how much it pets our
SELF nature? We often rate those times according to how much fun we
had, or how loud and full of activity it was, or how creative the
program or the programmer was. That kind of excitement has a place, a
measure of necessity... but those times of fellowship should be more
about our excitement about each other. God is always first. I'm not
suggesting that we put people before him... I'm saying our love and
excitement for God FIRST is a given.
But the emphasis in Scripture is always LOVE GOD, LOVE PEOPLE.
We may be doing the first, but are we truly doing the second part of
that? Sincerely? Not as an afterthought or as a trickle-down theory,
thinking that as we love God and as we focus completely on OUR
RELATIONSHIP with him that that will automatically drop crumbs of
affection down on the people around us? Or are we truly making an
effort to love them and be excited about them just as much as Christ
has demonstrated such affection for us? That was his command after all,
that we be like him, that we tell the world about him, not just with
words but with action... demonstrating and owning God's love and
excitement over every person, every soul, inside the church and outside
the church. Here are the notes straight from my journal as I thought on
these things...
-----
Are we as people, truly
excited about God and each other? When we have opportunity to see one
another or serve one another does our heart race? Not thinking about
the attention we may get (thankful for the encouragement/affirmation
they freely hand to us as they serve the same God, humbled by it)...
but not motivated by the possibility of it?
Does our heart
race just to sit in the same room with the people of God and to hang
out, to talk, to work on projects together, to be bored together, WITH
EACH OTHER? Afterall, isn't that the heart of the Good News... that GOD
IS WITH US? If our desire is to be like him, are we full of excitement
at every opportunity to be with those that he has sacrificed all to be
with? Or are we basking in our comfort zone, mingling in fellowship to
feed our self, complaining about what is or what isn't -- simply
because our focus is how much fun we're having instead of being WITH
EACH OTHER as Christ is with us...
Are we excited about
each other so that we crave the company of each other, genuinely, so
that we crave our next meeting together with God and with those around
us that we call our family and our friends in Christ? Are we the center
of our focus or is God and Family the center? Is how much fun we're
having rooted in our love and excitement over God and people rather
than our love of self?
It is a dangerous day in these last days of the church...
1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers
of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents,
ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without
self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)
-----
As I sat there on the beach meditating on these things, the Lord
brought the gulls to my attention. They would soar thru the sky and
suddenly fall straight down to the ground. There was a slight rise that
blocked my view to the beach, so that I couldn't actually see them hit
the ground. Some might think that there was something wrong with them,
as though they were falling out of the sky after being shot or hit with
a rock or injured in some way. But they were actually, dropping to the
shoreline to feed, to hunt, to get to the source of food and
nourishment that kept them alive.
from my journal...
Gulls fall. It appears that they are wounded/weak, but they are merely
landing to be fed/watered. They choose to withhold their ability to fly
for a moment, because God has shown them a place of refreshing and
nourishment and strengthening. It appears a negative thing to see them
suddenly fall in mid-flight, why not SOAR all the time, push yourself,
demonstrate your ability, focus on fun and the high times?....
because it is Life, and they want to Live.
It is wisdom. Some times you have to give stuff up. Some times you have
to not SOAR even though you could, some times it is not the time for
SOARING, some times it is right to withhold what you could do, what you
want to do, what isn't really sin, what is good... some times it is the
moment, the timing, that makes some thing wrong. Some times good things
must be sacrificed or delayed, so that GOODNESS can prevail and fully
dominate. Dominion doesn't always mean being on top of the dog pile.
Sometimes it means resting in the middle or the bottom until everything
coming against you wears itself down, so that you can emerge strong
enough to carry those around you to the top with you.
There
will be times to fly -- to SOAR, but there will also be times to keep
your feet on the ground. Times that seem mundane, even boring and
pointless... times that you choose to walk in wisdom, to press on with
what you know is right, to take dominion over your feelings and your
selfish desires, and God will have a place prepared for you to land. It
may be a low spot, not elevated, off the radar, and out of the
spotlight all together. But it will be a place of preparation, of
strength, of training and equipping and empowering that will launch you
-- PROPEL YOU -- to fly another day, and not just to fly but to fly
higher... an appointed day, a right time, a perfect time.
God's timing is perfect, and when we choose to walk in it no matter how
difficult or challenging, it will always lead to those moments when we
get to fly.
Courage and boldness coupled with self-control and restraint,
that's a wise combination when you submit yourself to God <3
