Thursday, October 25, 2012

Being Great in the Small Things


My daughter recently told me she wanted to be something great when she was older. She's 11 now. My advice to her was right on, but I have to admit it is something that I struggle with to this day. So since I struggle to take my own advice I thought you might struggle with it as well. You see I want to be great too....and I am a grown up.

My advice on being great is simple. It is to do the little things well. It is to make every decision count no matter how small. Make every day intentional. Use the time God has given you on the earth to do all things well--even the insignificant. Sounds great...right?

In my prayer time this morning I was telling God how I just had had no time lately and felt overwhelmed with time constraint when before my eyes flashed the Facebook logo, the Twitter logo, my new Google Plus account and that all consuming Pinterest site that has my attention to see what Holiday decor I need to be planning. I had to repent. I had to confess that, in fact, I have more time than I would like to admit, but how I spend it might not be as God honoring as I would hope. I am missing the small things by doing my own things. The decision to stay on social media takes time from other areas of my life. 

What would my day look like if I woke and thought "What does God want to use me to do today?" What if the answer was to stay home and catch up on my laundry because God knows that tomorrow I will get a call from a friend in crisis and my whole day will be spent there? What if God knows my husband really needs the laundry done because he is stressed at work and it makes him feel good to see all of his t-shirts in his drawer when he gets home? I don't know about you, but my "God complex" makes me only want to do the great things. I don't want to do the mundane. I want to sit the bench and wait on God to call me in for something great! Maybe God is waiting for me to get off of Facebook and seek out His plan for my day. With so many distractions in our world finding time to "fit God in" is becoming harder and harder. 

I find it interesting that after Saul met Jesus on the Road to Damascus that he jumped in with both feet preaching in the local Synagogues where he was promptly run out of town. Paul was use to going big or going home. God sent him home and Paul spent nearly ten years in virtual isolation. I wonder if Paul's ego was still like his former Saul-self? I wonder if in benching Paul for a decade God was trying to teach him not only the scriptures, but a great personal lesson as well? Did the church shrink in those ten years? Nope. It had great growth. Did God NEED Paul? Nope. God could get it done on his own. Could God use a man like Paul? Absolutely. But Paul learned that God will get His plan done with or without Paul. God needed obedience and a humble willing heart. He needed him to go to these places to preach, but also build congregations which meant doing some of the mundane. Paul didn't take money for his time planting churches so he made tents to earn a living. Paul's line in Philippians about "doing all things through Christ who strengthens me" has nothing to do with football (although that is where I see it most these days). It has to do with surviving on little or much. It is about contentment. Am I content in the mundane or am I just a glory hog? Am I still my 11 year old self that wants to be great?

I don't want to go to a desert or be banished to learn these lessons. I want to learn from Paul. I am to do the planting or the watering and let God do the growing. Obedience in the small things of life and doing those well may lead to big things or maybe not, but the goal is God's glory...not mine. BUT out of God's glory comes my fulfillment. Being used by God under His terms is the greatest job on earth. Don't get caught up in comparing with others, just keep your head down in doing what God called YOU to do today. If it is laundry, then get out the Tide. 


Monday, October 22, 2012

Cleaning Out The Closet: Part 2


How to begin when my emotional closet is so full? One thing at a time is how we start with our physical closets. It takes time and intentionality to clean out our literal closets. The same goes for our emotional closets as well.

First of all, we have to open the closets in our life. We have to be courageous enough to look under our emotional bed and face the clutter that is there. Some have locked that closet and thrown away the key. For many the resentment of someone or the righteous anger is so ingrained in us to throw it out would be to lose a part of who we are. 


For example, I know a man whose wife cheated on him with his best friend. This best friend turned on my friend and began to spread terrible rumors and untruths. He was sly though and the wife never saw that side of her new love. My friend was bitter. He was wounded so deeply that he could not let this injustice go. He could admit that he had not been a perfect husband, but he endured many lies and hateful words throughout this ordeal that kept him reeling. He put that self righteous anger in the closet. He had been done wrong on so many levels. He never got an apology from either of the offending parties. It was a dark and lonely time. The years went on and from time to time he would get this injustice out and she would feel all over again the righteous indignation that he felt in the beginning. It felt good to be right. But what he could not see is that every time he mulled that over he was also becoming bitter. This event in his life, because he didn't let it go and put it in the closet, was spawning other clutter that was even tougher to let go of.  So now, when he goes to the emotional closet to do some purging it feels overwhelming so he closes the door and walks away. And the feelings of hurt and bitterness and anger and righteousness stay with him.


Why? What's the solution? No doubt this man was wronged and wounded by her closest friend and lover. But how could he have avoided the clutter nearly ten years later?


It starts with remembering who we are. We are sinners. In situations like I described above where the sin is open and "big" it is easy to point fingers, but at the foot of the cross all sin is equal. If it was not so then we could all walk around with measuring sticks. I could feel good about myself because my sin is not as bad as yours. I may gossip from time to time, but I would NEVER cheat on my husband. But my gossip can be just as wounding as a cheating spouse. My gossip is a betrayal just like cheating. God judges it all the same. Sin is sin.


Romans 2:1 says "You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things." ----OUCH!


Coming face to face with who WE are as a sinner in our own life shaves away at the self righteousness we can feel when we are "done wrong". Sometimes (okay...a lot of times) I am way more interested in sifting through your closet and looking at your sins than doing my own cleaning out. 


Back to my friend. When we look at ourselves honestly in light of the cross what leg do we have to stand on to not forgive someone else? Satan loves an unforgiving spirit that is stored away in our emotional closet because then he can create bitterness so much easier. Each of those stands in the way of a true view of the Cross. 


Confess and deal with your own sin and responsibility in your relationships. Grieve the losses and the wounds both that you caused and that were done to you. Spend time with Jesus hashing it out and be honest. He will take even your feeble attempts and make good with them.