i guess you can call me someone whose always been part of the normal stages in adolenscense to early adult life...
complete high school, get a degree, get a job, then get married.
I have completed all of the above except for the last part... which i'm in the process of completing... it will be done in less than 2 months... (yipeeeee!)
you see, i'm a task oriented person... i have a list of things to do in life and i go and complete them (taking care of business...).
I can also be very practical and rely heavily on logic.... i don't like doing things twice and i guess completing an economics degree, i like to be efficient and have most amount of return on my investments, whether it's money, relationships, time, etc...
However, i can't stand it when things don't go my way... if i can't complete a task, if i have to do things twice, if i'm being inefficient and not logical.... i guess i strugle w/ control... and not being able to let go of certain things... (this is the reason for most of my disputes with people)
In the midst of all this... i guess that i've been also a person who sometimes made decisions w/o properly thinking it through and just went w/ my gut feelings (i guess a fancy Christian way of saying it is 'leading of the holy spirit'). I went to tyndale college after i graduated out of high school for 1 yr (private christian university = ridiculous tuition), I spent many of my summers working for MYW (completely voluntary, no wage), I've went on many short term missions trips costing thousands of dollars (Nashville, Camden, Portugal), and also last year I went on the oldest passenger ship in the world (built in 1914 i think) for 2 months volunteering in the kitchen.
I feel that most of the times, there is this battle going on inside me.... practical James vs. 'CRAZY' James... most of the times the practical one wins... but i realized that when i do let go of situations and things... i feel at peace... when i try to stop controlling my situations and future... i ease up and stop stressing....
my beautiful fiancee read this to me the other day and it really stuck w/ me... because i can see how common sense and practicaliy can obstruct our view of the path that has been paved by God.
This is from Oswald Chamber's devotional book 'My Utmost for His Highest'.
"Never let common sense obtrude and push the Son of God on one side. Common sense is a gift which God gave to human nature; but common sense is not the gift of His Son. Supernatural sense is the gift of His Son; never enthrone common sense. The Son detects the Father; common sense never yet detected the Father and never will. Our ordinary wits never worship God unless they are transfigured by the indwelling Son of God. We have to see that this mortal flesh is kept in perfect subjection to Him and that He works through it moment by moment. Are we living in such human dependence upon Jesus Christ that His life is being manifested moment by moment? "
I love it when he says, 'Are we living in such human dependence upon Jesus Christ that His life is being manifested moment by moment?'.... wow... we live in such a culture where we have everything by our finger tips. From food to clothes, we live in a society that have overflowing of goods. No wonder people don't believe in God, no wonder us Christians don't depend on God. We have everything.
If i'm hungry, i'll go and buy food, i have money cause i work, i can work cause i have education, i have education cause my parents paid for it and i went to school, i was able to go to school because i lived in a stable environment which helped me to focus on the things that i was doing.
pretty logical isn't it? but maybe not...
I have heard the voice of God couple times in my life (you might either think i'm crazy and hear things, i'm being overly spiritual, or i'm simply telling the event according to how i remembered).
When i was leaving the ship that i was on for 2 months, volunteering and meeting the volunteers... i was very emotional and overwhelmed because some of these people i've gotten to know really well and loved, i will probably never see them again.... in the midst of this i pulled out my bible to maybe read some scripture to calm myself down... i was looking for a verse that says 'delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart'... i knew that was in Psalms... but could not figure out which chapter. As i was fliping through the pages... i heard '37'.... i thought to myself what?... i never heard something so distinct in my life... and as i opened the chapter... lo & behold, there's the verse...
i started crying cause i was overwhelmed.. i was in awe and had all these mixed emotions... hapiness, confusion, comfort, can't really expalin it but... i knew that God spoke to me... wanted me to read the verse... that as i delight in Him... He too will delight in me and give me the desires of my heart... at that time... my desire was to see those people again, the people whom i lived with for 2 months... learning to serve God and eachother... and to praise the same God regardless of where we were from...
I could've reasoned with this experience... a logical thing would be to say that i only thought the things that i believed i heard, or maybe i was overwhelmed w/ emotions that i 'thought' i heard God speak.... regardless of all this... i know that i heard God. How and Why? i can't explain...
I believe that this is the beauty of God... He cannot be explained... there's no formula to God, we cannot describe Him or the experience we have with Him because it is simply too overwhelming and .... CRAZY. (I like the way Donald Miller of 'Blue Like Jazz' had explained God being like Jazz music. No formula, no charts, no structure, just beautiful music...)
This is the supernatural sense... i don't mean to down play common sense... obviously that was given to us for a reason... but when we're following Christ... where the life that i live is no longer i living it, but it is Christ who is living through me... common sense, praticality, and logic goes straight out the window... and there's this supernatural sense that reside in our lives, which we cannot explain most of the time...
I believe that alot of times we tend to use common sense and logic to justify our choices... to either carry something out or not carry it out. I believe that this happens most of the times because of fear... fear of failing from making the wrong choice.
But I believe that when we're living under God's will, when we're truly carrying the cross and following Jesus... there's nothing to fear. God tells us not to fear... many many times in the bible... and the only place we should place fear is on God.
We maybe called to make choices that are unreasonable and illogical... but i want us to be encouraged that God calls us to set aside our natural tendency to follow common sense, but truly place our dependence on Him who calls us to be supernatural beings where Christ is being manifested in our lives.
That is my prayer...
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2 comments:
Thoughts,
Was Jesus not afraid when he was in the garden the night before he was crucified.
Mark 14:34-36.
34"My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them. "Stay here and keep watch."
35Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. 36"Abba,[a] Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."
To me, Jesus seems very afraid. But in spite of his fear, he is willing to follow God to the cross. He is willing to be handed over to those who would harm him. He knows the cost, and he is prepared to pay the cost. Fear is not the enemy. Paralysis from fear is the enemy. To Jesus (it seems) that he knows what he must do, he has carefully planned it, and what he must do is terrifying. Yet he does it nevertheless.
Consider from Luke 4:
28"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'
Your post seems to describe a dependence on God that thrives on the unknown. Contrary to what you have posted I would imagine, that costs of discipleship can be calculated and are to be carefully analyzed prior to being engaged. My understanding is that we know what what our actions will cost us, and we are willing to undergo those costs.
For example: Little Jimmy knows that if he shares his lunch with the kid who doesn't have one, he will be hungry in the afternoon. Regardless of that hunger, Jimmy shares his lunch anyhow.
To me, this is very common sense. Common sense cannot be written off as means of following God. I knew when I started volunteering at the Good shepherd that I would be spending mornings in a shelter. That means sometimes being sworn at by people because I cannot find the right clothes. I did it knowing what I would endure, but gladly doing it, because it IS valuable. Maybe not by the standards of the world, but through kingdom eyes it is very valuable.
I find difficulty with this post because it takes a fatalist perspective. To follow Christ is a consuming endeavour. Though we do not control where we go, we are not passive, we must be active followers of Christ.
I agree with you when you say that it's not the fear that is evil, it's the paralys of fear... hence i emphasized it that the only place we should put fear is on God.
Jesus never carefully plan it out... God had given Jesus the plan and He simply carried it out in the midst of the fear.
I can't imagine how terrifying it could be to bear ALL the sins of this world and to die on the cross... but the important part is that Jesus was obedient in the midst of fear and unfairness (it is only to those who have the supernatural understanding of the holy spirit that what Jesus did makes sense. Not to those who only have common sense).
You tell people that God loved them SO much that He laid down His own life to save us... if you can understand this with common sense... EVERYONE would believe in Christ.
The luke passage... yes it does talk about weighing the cost of being a disciple... and Jesus uses that example to explain it. But before He uses the parable, he says
Luke 14:26
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. "
How does that make sense... in the light of common sense? hating our father, mother, wife and children? even our own life?
Luke 14:33
"any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple."
That right there, is the cost of discipleship... common sense works within the flesh... our natural instinct is to survive at all costs... however, with the holy spirit, we are taught to lay down ourselves and our very own lives for God and for others...
The cost of our discipleship is everything.... our family, our lives and our souls...
you talk about Jimmy and his lunch money... sure he has weighed the option of 'give up money and go hungry' vs. 'don't give up money and eat'.... but what about the option of, give up money and trust that food will be provided... somehow...
i think that alot of times... we lack faith in God... forgeting to trust that He will provide or He will be faithful... and how can we know how much faith we have in Him when we've never been tested...
did it make sense when God told Joshua and the israelites to circle around Jericho for 7 days and blow the trumpets and yell at the top of their lungs to over the city?
did it make sense when young David was chosen to fight against the giant Goliath?
did it make sense when God told Isaiah, a prophet, a politician to walk around naked for 2 years?
no it didn't... and there are many many more instances where God had call prophets, disciples, kings and queens to do things that just did not make sense... but the common theme is that they all obeyed...
As i mentioned before, i'm not saying that we should completely disregard common sense... we were born with it... however, once we have born in Christ... our first instinct shall be of something that is supernatural (by through the workings of the holy spirit) instead of our common sense.
I love this passage in Ezekiel,
Ezekiel 3:22-23
The hand of the Lord was upon me there, and he said to me, "Get up and go out to the plain, and there I will speak to you.
So I got up and went out to the plain. And the glory of the Lord was standing there, like the glory I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell facedown.
Ezekiel could've not gone.. and ask God to show His glory right then and there... but w/o a question, Ezekiel got up and went to the plain.
In proverbs it says:
Pr 28:26
He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe.
and according to God, wisdome is:
Pr 9:10
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
I guess that, there will be times where we're call to do things that we understand or not understand... what I'm trying to say is that following God takes love, faith and wisdom... and this wisdom consists of fear of the Lord and the understanding that comes from the holy spirit rather than our common sense.
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