So, last week at Catalyst really got me thinking. Am I doing what God has called me to do? Am I using my gifts in the best ways to bring the kingdom here to earth? (Thanks Rob Bell...I will never think of the kingdom of heaven the same again!) Am I matching my skills and talents with my passions? Or, am I doing something I am good at, just because I am good at it?
I had an interesting trip - my spirit was alive, but the rest of me was flailing, trying to figure out how to survive each day with what I was provided and matching that with what I needed to be able to give. The speakers I heard revived my passion and zeal where it was lacking, and I was moved by many of them.
On a blog today that was defending the TNIV in such a great way, I read through this guy's backlog of blogs, and saw this in a post:
"No. There is nothing safe about being a Christian. Aslan is not a tame lion. And what He asks of Lucy is not what He asks of Edmund."
I've written before about God not being a safe God. But the second part of that comment...not asking the same of each person...that can be hard for me to take. When I was struggling last week with some things, I called a friend from GR, and we talked about it. And he reminded me that many people would not react the way I do to these situations - they would run and hide and hurt. I face the pain head-on, though it is not easy. And this reminded me that God does indeed give each person a different cross to bear, if you will. While that can be hard to swallow sometimes, it doesn't change how much he loves each of us, but it does remind us that our Creator knows us intimately better than anyone else, even ourselves, and only he knows what we can bear.
And to end this pensive post, here is my fun news for the week:
my brotally shirt is in the mail to me today. i cannot wait!!!!
-Melinda
I had an interesting trip - my spirit was alive, but the rest of me was flailing, trying to figure out how to survive each day with what I was provided and matching that with what I needed to be able to give. The speakers I heard revived my passion and zeal where it was lacking, and I was moved by many of them.
On a blog today that was defending the TNIV in such a great way, I read through this guy's backlog of blogs, and saw this in a post:
"No. There is nothing safe about being a Christian. Aslan is not a tame lion. And what He asks of Lucy is not what He asks of Edmund."
I've written before about God not being a safe God. But the second part of that comment...not asking the same of each person...that can be hard for me to take. When I was struggling last week with some things, I called a friend from GR, and we talked about it. And he reminded me that many people would not react the way I do to these situations - they would run and hide and hurt. I face the pain head-on, though it is not easy. And this reminded me that God does indeed give each person a different cross to bear, if you will. While that can be hard to swallow sometimes, it doesn't change how much he loves each of us, but it does remind us that our Creator knows us intimately better than anyone else, even ourselves, and only he knows what we can bear.
And to end this pensive post, here is my fun news for the week:
my brotally shirt is in the mail to me today. i cannot wait!!!!
-Melinda
posted by Melinda @ 8:48 AM
2 Comments:
At 11:58 AM,
anne said…
What a great reminder...I can remember the "not tame" part, but the part about different expectations from different people--so hard.
I was sort of talking about this with Andy on Friday night. Maxwell's whole numbering system. Some people are never going to be more than a 5 and some people are always going to be a 9. So interesting.
At 10:29 AM,
Melinda said…
Yeah, and it can be hard to swallow that maybe were just 5s or 3s. I liked how Stanley put it, that it used to annoy him to think of people like that.
But it is the truth - we will not all be 9 in the areas of leadership. But we all have something that we are a 9 at, we just need to find what that is.
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