It is God's will that my heart should hurt. The life a follower of Christ is called to is not an easy one. Being wholly dependent on someone is not easy and can be heart-wrenching at times, but can also be the most fulfilling thing one can experience. God desires us fully and with undivided attention. Practically, this leads us to being scared, being vulnerable, being wrong, being a lot of other things that are not fun. If we are open and dependent on Christ, He will make us into who He most wants us to be. Most often, this means we're more caring towards our friends and other people. Maybe I'm a masochist, but I would rather my heart hurt for the ones I love than have half a friendship. We cannot do anything halfway. Revelation 3 confirms this. But the thing is, we will never experience the unmatched Joy communion with God brings unless we totally open ourselves and give up everything. But note the phrase "unmatched Joy." Though we will never repay God for what He's done, He still give us Salvation. By that logic, God will also grant us the greater gift of eternal Joy in exchange for the pittance of our existence. But let's ignore that for a second.
" 1And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." 1 Corinthians 2: 1-5
With all of the events that have happened in my life recently, I take this Scripture to heart. If Paul, the guy who wrote a giant chunk of what God considers His perfect message to all of the Church, says that he doesn't know anything, save for one thing, what are we doing theorizing and fretting over anything at all?
I have resolved within myself that I do not need anything at all, I do not care about whatever circumstances I find myself in, I do not care who I am or how I feel as long as I understand what Jesus did and still does for me. If I understand that, then I will serve Him with my whole heart and that is the only thing of importance. I will give up everything I have and will ever have, be the things good or bad or neutral if I can follow God more closely. I once told my motto "love, then everything else will follow" to one of my friends who promptly disagreed with me, saying it wasn't so simple as that, but if it's real Biblical Love and not the emotion of affection and butterflies in your stomach, then that conquers everything else. God is Love, Love then is all you need. Love is preeminent. Our Joy is found in our identity in Christ and that alone. My Joy here recently has come only from really understanding what God has done for me.
Give up everything. Resolve to know nothing, save for Christ's crucifixion. Trust in and believe on Jesus. Amen.
love,
Colton
Monday, July 25, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Thoughts on Overthinking
Well, since I have a blog and I just recently got back from Honduras, I figured I would blog about my visit there. Before we left, I had a couple of people tell me that I would get something out of this trip. Until this very moment, I hadn't realized what it was that I really got. I got no spectacular revelation on this trip, no slobbery, snot-soaked crying session, nothing noteworthy aside from one noteworthy thing I got the chance to be a part of. There was a man at a church we were at who complained of pain in his joints and said he was blind in his left eye. I was one of a couple of people to pray for him and when he opened his eyes, crying, I grabbed a translator who related that his vision was now perfect. I then cried a bit while hugging him and went to sit down after that. What I just now figured out that I got was faith.
That was the first time I'd ever laid hands on someone in prayer and seen them immediately healed and it set me back a little bit. Since then, my confidence and faith in God and what He wants to do has pretty well increased. I think that one of the keys to having faith is to not overthink things. I don't know how many times I've said to myself and others "stop worrying, just love Jesus." We know what faith is, we know how to have it, but we still find ourselves faithless more often than confident in what Jesus can do. It's easy to begin to think "oh, well, what if he's not healed?" or "what if I look like a weirdo going to pray for this guy?" Honestly, it doesn't matter. God, being sovereign and Holy has control and will not let His name be sullied. Jordan Evans and I had a long conversation the other morning where we talked about faith and how the American Church is pretty faithless. Again, the thing is, faith is really simple. You just believe.
Now that sounds all good and well and it sounds like it would make a nice greeting card, but it really is that simple. We overthink everything. One thing I've found out is that overthinking leads to inaction. I feel like I've said that before, but it bears repeating. Now one must take caution because too little thought leads to stupid decisions. A few incidents come to mind with this, but that isn't the focus of this blog. Stop thinking too much and just act. A lot of people don't have any problem overthinking and acting, I commend them for that, it's something I wish I could do with greater ease. I tend to think of every reason why something won't work out or will go bad and then I get so flustered with it that I don't do anything about the present situation.
I've noticed that I've begun a habit of getting my momentum rolling when writing a blog, then abruptly stopping and stating my point bluntly. Not sure if this is a good thing, but it is what it is.
Have faith. Don't overthink it. Go now therefore and act.
Love,
Colton
P.S. Honduras was awesome. I've caught the mission trip bug and I'm definitely going next year wherever we go.
That was the first time I'd ever laid hands on someone in prayer and seen them immediately healed and it set me back a little bit. Since then, my confidence and faith in God and what He wants to do has pretty well increased. I think that one of the keys to having faith is to not overthink things. I don't know how many times I've said to myself and others "stop worrying, just love Jesus." We know what faith is, we know how to have it, but we still find ourselves faithless more often than confident in what Jesus can do. It's easy to begin to think "oh, well, what if he's not healed?" or "what if I look like a weirdo going to pray for this guy?" Honestly, it doesn't matter. God, being sovereign and Holy has control and will not let His name be sullied. Jordan Evans and I had a long conversation the other morning where we talked about faith and how the American Church is pretty faithless. Again, the thing is, faith is really simple. You just believe.
Now that sounds all good and well and it sounds like it would make a nice greeting card, but it really is that simple. We overthink everything. One thing I've found out is that overthinking leads to inaction. I feel like I've said that before, but it bears repeating. Now one must take caution because too little thought leads to stupid decisions. A few incidents come to mind with this, but that isn't the focus of this blog. Stop thinking too much and just act. A lot of people don't have any problem overthinking and acting, I commend them for that, it's something I wish I could do with greater ease. I tend to think of every reason why something won't work out or will go bad and then I get so flustered with it that I don't do anything about the present situation.
I've noticed that I've begun a habit of getting my momentum rolling when writing a blog, then abruptly stopping and stating my point bluntly. Not sure if this is a good thing, but it is what it is.
Have faith. Don't overthink it. Go now therefore and act.
Love,
Colton
P.S. Honduras was awesome. I've caught the mission trip bug and I'm definitely going next year wherever we go.
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