Navel Gazing

It has been sinking into my awareness that much of current christian writing and teaching is about how we as believers should be responding to the stuff happening around us.  This is necessary and good, but...

The “but” is because our navel gazing, “how do you feel about this,” society is influencing the way we think.  The part we are missing is that we were created to be active in giving, loving, and worshipping, not just contemplating how we feel about life.

 So how do we respond to a life that seems less than ideal?  We typically:

·         Get angry at the people involved, then have to struggle to forgive them and repair broken relationships
·         Get angry with God, then deal with the confusion because God says He is good and He loves you
·         Become an activist, seeking to change the world, until you realize you can't and burn out
·         Become a fatalist, grudgingly "accepting" it all, until someone pushes your buttons and you explode

What we should be doing is celebrating. 

Celebrate bad stuff????  Joking right?  Nope.

Romans 8:28 is an abused passage, but the truth therein applies in every situation.  Everything that comes at you is good, including:

·         Grief: when people we love die or move away
·         Disappointment: when people you trust the most fail you
·         Loss: when you don't get your way, or when the system beats you
·         Failure: when you fall short
·         Broken relationships
·         Blazing success

Lets go back to basics.  What is God's plan for us?

·         Worship him
·         Love others
·         And so find complete satisfaction and fulfillment

Incidents in your life then, are intended by the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving God to make you better equipped to do these things.

So when I don’t like life, is it trusting and faithful for me to throw a sulk?

Our sin nature drives us to be self-oriented: we take, keep, hoard and manipulate.  God's nature, and what he created us to be, is the exact opposite: generous, sacrificing, loving, creative.  He steers the stuff around us to make us more like Him.  So yes, we should be celebrating His engagement in our lives and that He is forming us into a better condition.

There is a web-page that says "You have reached the end of the internet.  Now turn off your computer and go out and play."

So my basic point.  Life is not about you. God has only good things for you.  You have reached the limits of your introspection.  Now go out and put your energies into helping / loving others with all of your might. That is what is you were designed to do.  There we will find fulfillment.

What should we be doing and writing about then?  Action, doing, loving, giving.  We are indoctrinated to believe that we have made it when we can put our feet up and be entertained.  That’s just laziness.  Rather, we have made it when we find a way to serve that matches our strengths.

I sat in a conference this week and listened to a corporate president talk with excitement and passion about how proud he was of the people he works with and the fabulous infrastructure that they have built.  It was inspiring.  He showed 1000 photographs of how our industry has changed, and how it has changed the world.  The best part?  It was not about him.  This was shortly after another "motivational" speaker spent an hour telling us that if we believe in ourselves we can do anything, and using his past successes  as proof.  Trouble is that same person is in the press for his very public foibles and failures in life.  Who had the greater impact?

We put a lot of energy into chasing happiness, which is disturbingly delicate.  Anything that goes wrong leads to pain instead.  The better way is to seek joy.  Where is that?  In trusting God and serving him. 

Jesus went to the cross "for the joy that was before him" in agonizing torture and death.  Paul's most joyous texts were written in prison.  Why?  Because he was where God wanted him to be, and his audience couldn't get away from him.  Habakkuk celebrated impending starvation, because it meant God was cleaning up the city.

Remember the parable of a man who sold everything he had to buy a field.  He sold everything?  He must be nuts!  Was that a good deal?  Absolutely, because in the field was treasure.  He came out ahead.  Likewise, ditching stuff, "leisure," and self for real joy is an obvious choice when you think about it.

Who am I to rant like this?  Someone who is struggling to learn and live this.  I have a long way to go.

So let’s go, give and let Jesus change us.